Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast with Zack Oates
Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast is your backstage pass to the minds of hospitality leaders, innovators, and operators who are redefining what it means to serve. Hosted by Zack Oates, founder of Ovation, each episode dives into real-world tactics and inspiring stories from restaurant pros who know how to create five-star guest experiences—both in-store and off-premise.
From fast casual to fine dining, catering to curbside, learn how to drive loyalty, empower your staff, and deliver hospitality that hits home. Whether you're a restaurant owner, operator, marketer, or tech partner, this podcast will leave you with practical insights and plenty of reasons to celebrate and Give an Ovation.
Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast with Zack Oates
Mastering the Art of Hospitality With David Doty
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Uncover the secrets behind the scenes of the restaurant world with David Doty, the financier turned hospitality expert. Our conversation peels back the curtain on the meticulous craft of curating a five-star guest experience, revealing the heart and soul that transform a meal into an enduring memory. David imparts his unique perspective on steering iconic establishments to new heights.
On this episode you'll learn from David about:
- Turning customer interactions into loyalty
- Personalized service
- Empowering staff
- More!
Thanks, David!
Five-Star Guest Experience in Restaurants
Speaker 1Welcome to another edition of Give an Ovation , the Restaurant Guest Experience podcast , where I talk to industry experts to get their strategies and tactics you can use to create a five-star guest experience . This podcast is sponsored by Ovation , a two-question real-time guest feedback platform that helps restaurants measure and improve their guest experience . Learn more at ovationupcom . And today I'm so excited , as I am most days , but today especially because not only do we have on someone that's a personal friend , but someone whose restaurants I have frequented on numerous occasions , and I actually didn't even know . One of my favorite donuts in the world my favorite glazed donut in the world , hands down is at one of his spots , and I didn't even know it was his spot until I walked in on a Saturday to order and boom , there's David .
Speaker 1David Dottie , welcome to the podcast . How are you , man ? Hey , very good , thanks for having me . Zach and David , you've got quite the background . You are a , as I would consider , a recovering finance guy . You did stint at JP Morgan , goldman Sachs , you did your JDMBA and then , as most people that have that background do , you got into restaurants .
Speaker 2What ? Yeah , yeah , yeah . I grew up with a very blue collar background , and so it didn't take me too long being in New York on Wall Street to come to this realization that I was just a little bit out of place . I don't know if you've ever felt that way with something you've done , where it didn't feel quite like home . But we bought our first business while I was getting my graduate degrees and I just loved getting to know the industry , the vendors , what margins we should be expecting , what do I look for when I'm hiring people ? All these different things .
Speaker 2I started to develop just a passion for how do I do each one of these aspects better and better ? And so another opportunity came up to do some finance after school , to go work in a Treasury department , and I took that , but it didn't take me very long to be like I have to go back to the restaurant . So you know , like I tell a lot of our managers , a lot of people are passing through this industry . You know high school , college or just looking for a part-time job , but for some of us it's careers , and that's how I feel . This industry is my career and it may not be as a . It's not white collar . It's as my wife says . I'm more of a light blue collar guy now , but it fits me and I love it . That's a lot .
Speaker 1So you , I can't even keep up with what brands you have and what you're doing , just because it's an umbrella of Kensington acid management , right , and what do you have under that umbrella , correct ?
Speaker 2Yeah , so we are owners of Magleby's Restaurant in Catering out of Springville , utah . Lehigh Bakery on Lehigh Main Street . We have a couple other locations opening up in the next 12 months . We have partnerships in Summit Pizza and in Edna's Marketing Grill in Lehigh . Those are our primary businesses .
Speaker 1It's so funny because you look at every single one of those restaurants and the only one that I knew that you would open before I went there was Edna's . But every other restaurant that you're in it's phenomenal , and each one which is so interesting does something so unique . Lehigh Bakery they have these square donuts that are just iconic . Magleby's has breadsticks and chocolate cake . Summit Pizza it's got the doodles . Every single spot has something that's unique . Talk to me about that . I didn't know . You did a LinkedIn post about this recently . Talk to me about having that iconic staple .
Speaker 2Right , and so I think the staple is something that definitely sticks out in a customer's mind , and so when we're looking at some of these different brands to buy and typically it's from a founding family , because keep in mind .
Speaker 1by the way , for the listeners who don't know , you didn't start any of these brands .
Speaker 2No , these are I mean Lehigh Bakery , 54 years old , magleby's 42, . Summit Pizza is a 35 year old brand . So the founders that started these deserve the credit of the long hours in getting these things up and running and building that brand and that reputation and that commitment to quality . So that's something that we're looking for . But when they have a signature product or two that's been embedded into the lives of people , that's been at their wedding , it's their staple on a Friday night , it's what they cater to their office for donuts in the morning . It makes taking over a brand so much easier . But one thing we have to be careful of , too , is what we have these iconic products that are just embedded into their lives is still being relentless in the pursuit of keeping up that quality and that commitment to it , but finding new things and finding new ways to stretch these brands further and leverage the expertise that they have .
Speaker 1Yeah , I love that to hold true to what you have , first of all , I guess , taking a step back , creating something unique , creating something that can be iconic , that is so beloved , and then growing from there . But you go into Lehigh Bakery and there are just so many options , so many good things that you do , but you also care a lot about quality . And even if something is really good like , for example , there was a what was it called the Buttercream Bar , the Buttermilk Bar we had the Buttermilk Bar and I remember I talked to you about this because my wife and I love the Buttermilk Bar but we went in there one day and there were no Buttermilk Bars and then we went in there a couple of weeks later they weren't there . Weren't there , and tell me about why did they get taken off the menu ?
Speaker 2Yeah , I mean we . I mean I think it was a little bit of a tremor that came from COVID . There were certain ingredients that we couldn't get or the consistency had changed right , and so we started making them and we just , the way that they were absorbing the oil when we were cooking them , made them too greasy . And a customer , a couple of customers , provided that feedback and I was like they're exactly right . So , rather than putting out an inferior product , I said I'm pulling it off until we can figure it out and get it exactly the right way . And it's funny that you you bring this up .
Speaker 2I was at a planning commission meeting for a location we're opening next year . I'm talking about , you know , I'm talking about you know , the design , the plan , the concept and the drive through and all that stuff . And then a guy raises his hand from the parks department he's not really involved in me he said when are you bringing back the buttermilk bar ? And it just made me laugh that for some people this is so important to them or to their family or their spouse or whoever you know , our number 10 seller on the menu is that important that a guy disrupted a council meeting about adhering to code to make sure that he knew when the buttermilk bar was coming back . So I had to tell him . It is back now and told him the story .
Speaker 2But yeah , I mean for me the quality , the quality of every product . I continue to reinforce it with our team over and over and over again . I did yesterday with a cake decorator . The cake is not to the standard we expect . We throw it away . I'd rather not sell it than sell a bad product . And so it's that reputation that's the foundation of everything for us , and I mean that bleeds into ovation too , right ? You know , when I was at the pizza expo and met you , there were how many people came up to me and said if you don't like this product , I will pay . Every penny you pay to Ovation I will pay you . That's how much . I guarantee that you will love this product . And so you know this is . It has helped provide us some additional insights , even more so from our customers , to continue to refine and perfect our products and our service offering . Because we are that committed to quality , I want every piece of feedback we can get to make us stronger and stronger and stronger .
Speaker 1Now , in terms of the guest experience , all of this , all of this obviously is about the guest experience . Dude , what do you think is the most important aspect of guest experience nowadays ?
Speaker 2Yeah , it's the human to human interaction . There's lots of things we can do digitally to interact with our customers but at the end of the day , when I think about just blanket customer experience , it's when that customer walks up to the front case of the bakery with their child and they're picking out their box of donuts that they're taking to the soccer game . So it's that human to human interaction that happens . It's talking to the child who this is like this is their big thing for the week . They're coming in and getting a donut . This is like the highlight of their week . We're giving them a donut hole , we're asking them about the Paw Patrol shirt they're wearing and we're taking that moment to actually connect on a human level with our customers . We're not just passing them through as fast as we can when we do the inline , and we're gonna give them a maddox experience at the counter , and so you know that when we're hiring people , that's what we're hoping . We're hoping that's part of their DNA that they're gonna do
Memorable Customer Experience in Restaurants
Speaker 2that .
Speaker 2But that's what I do on Saturday mornings when I work . The counter is I try to make every customer feel seen , because it really and this really try to make sure . I try to make sure that that's the tone I set when I'm there is helping people feel pretty . I just like do you want to come on a tour for the big in the bakery ? So I walked him around a new building with his mom and she's like that was the most amazing thing anyone has ever done for me at Any restaurant ever and I'm like it took me five minutes with that customer and that kid is gonna remember that for the rest of their lives . So we're constantly making these little deposits of lifelong customers every day and driving that brand experience . And that's how , if you do that over two , three , five , ten , fifty years , you'll just be completely unstoppable with the most loyal fans you can have .
Speaker 1I love that and that human to human . I think we often forget . I hear people say all the time we're not serving , we're not serving customers , we're serving guests . Right , but I think it even goes beyond that we're not serving guests , we're serving humans . We're serving humans who want to be seen and known and understood just like any other human . And just because the stakes might be actual stakes and not , you know , like super high emotional stakes , doesn't mean that it there were still like human right , short volume increases , decreases .
Speaker 1But the same things that make us love a brand , that make us Connect with a person , are the same things in a restaurant , like we need to stop thinking about them as as customers or even as guests , like they're just humans there to have a good experience and and we're part of that part of their day . And for some people it's gonna be more important than others . For some people it's like , okay , I gotta go get some doughnuts . For other people it's like , oh my gosh , I'm getting a doughnut , like , but but we got to be there and and meet them and show up for them . I think that's so important .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 2So I mean we try to build in a little bit of excess capacity at the bakery and to our other restaurants so that our Employees know we're not just pushing things through a manufacturing process .
Speaker 2Right , you can think about sometimes , think about it that way kitchen manufacturers meals , we serve it at them , we throughput them to get table turns people can think about that way . I try to build in some extra capacity so that our team members Feel like they have the ability to dedicate time To the customer and give them that truly first-class experience that they're gonna go and share with their friends . Because in terms of our marketing budget it's next to zero . We don't spend much money on marketing . What we spend money on is the people in there that give the first class experience to all of our customers as much as we can that become raving fans and come back . So we're kind of in this environment right now where restaurant sales are teetering a little bit and the only way I can attribute our sales being up 35% this year is not because of tons of marketing or discounts and driving volume in other ways . It's truly the person-to-person interaction that happens every single day .
Speaker 1I love that . In addition to having a little bit of overcapacity , I think giving your employees the room to make that connection , I think is so critical . Any other tactics that you've used to improve the guest experience ? Because that one's fire .
Speaker 2I'd say , zach , that's the primary one the focus on each person as they come in the door . We've been able to be responsive now with Ovation in terms of getting feedback , responding and doing that . Offering online ordering through our POS partner at Toast has been a new thing that's helped us . So there's little tactics that we do to make ourselves more convenient for our customer , but when it comes down to touch the customer and have them in front of us , we really try to execute there as much as we can .
Speaker 1I love that . Any last piece of advice that you would give our listeners in terms of they're opening up a restaurant ? Maybe they're , Because there's two types of people . There's those who love food and put up with the business and there's people like you who love the business and it happens to be food . Anyone that you would , Any advice you'd give to the other group , the people who got into it for the love of the food and maybe they struggle with the business aspect of things .
Speaker 2I mean , I think all of us have to be humble and know our strengths . I was talking to my team about that this morning . I have just certain strengths and things that I love to do and I just hire people that love the other aspects of the business and make sure that they operate a lot better . I'm big on guest experience . I'm big on focusing on the person . I'm sometimes a little softy when it comes to making sure operations are carried out exactly the way they need to , as anybody that's operating , just being humble enough to realize that you're not the best at everything and hiring people that have those offsetting capabilities .
Speaker 1I think that's a fantastic piece of advice . Then , who's someone in the restaurant industry who deserves an ovation ? Who's someone that we should be ?
Speaker 2following . I think about this a lot . Who are the people that I look up to and look at ? I've read a lot of books and I follow a lot of media . Being in full service at Maggubies , you have to look up to Danny Meyer and what he did . Oh yeah , danny Meyer's done it with Union Square Hospitality Group and with Shake Shack , besides being an incredible chef , an amazing restaurant tour . In each of one of our industries , I think there's people that are just fantastic , people that I've been looking at more recently outside the industry . Sometimes I think we can gain a lot from looking outside the industry . Do you know who Jesse Cole is ? No , jesse Cole is the owner of the Savannah Bananas .
Speaker 1Oh , yes , yes , yes .
Speaker 2Jesse and what he has done with that brand and creating an amazing customer experience . I mean , it's just through the roof , it doesn't just happen when you walk into the baseball park . We actually got 80 tickets to come into Salt Lake next year . We got 80 tickets we're going to take our teams at the bakery there to have just a fun day . But the things that they do to interact and engage with people online , with their social media , inside the ballpark their brand has just expanded so much by making it fun and engaging . So a little bit of that magic dust I'm hoping to extract to be able to sprinkle into what we do . Yeah , jesse Cole is just . I think he should be an inspiration for a lot of people . Even if you don't do sports , there's lessons to be taken and extracted to be able to sprinkle into any business .
Speaker 1Absolutely . And , david , where can we go to learn more about you and your brands ?
Speaker 2Yeah , I mean so . I post I don't know a couple of times a month on LinkedIn , try to provide something a little bit more insightful about something we're going through . So LinkedIn I post just under me . Personally , I'd like to post more often , to be honest , but I don't have that many good thoughts . So when I try to put something out there , it's a little bit more , a little bit more timely or insightful or something major that we're doing . So probably in in by next week we're doing our grand opening at the Lehigh Bake . We've just rebuilt the entire building to have more capacity . We've grown so much , so we'll probably be posting about that soon . But LinkedIn is the best place .
Speaker 1Awesome . Well , david , for making light blue
Ovation Sponsorship and Feedback Discussion
Speaker 1looks so good . Today's Ovation goes to you . Thank you for joining us and giving Ovation my man . All right , thank you , zach . Thanks for joining us today . If you liked this episode , leave us a review on Apple podcasts or your favorite place to listen . We're all about feedback here . Again , this episode was sponsored by Ovation , a two question SMS based actionable guest feedback platform built for multi unit restaurants . If you'd like to learn how we can help you measure and create a better guest experience , visit us at ovationupcom .