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
Personalized Experiences: Insights from Jason Ganahl of GQue Championship Barbecue
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Ever wondered what goes into creating a dining experience so memorable that guests can't stop talking about it? Join us as we sit down with Jason Ganahl, the genius behind GQue Championship Barbecue, Denver’s first and only championship barbecue restaurant. Jason spills the beans on the art of personalized service, maintaining a consistent restaurant presence, and the transformative power of creating unforgettable moments for guests.
We also uncover the magic behind Ovation's feedback platform that has led Jason to a hundred percent response rate on customer feedback, boosting guest satisfaction and sparking raving fans.
Thanks, Jason!
Creating Memorable Guest Experiences
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 , an operations and guest recovery platform for multi-unit restaurants that gives all the answers without annoying guests with all the questions . Learn more at OvationUpcom . And today we have a long-time listener , first-time caller , Jason Ganahl , who has been in the Ovation Nation family for , I mean , it's been at least a couple of years now , right , Jason ?
Speaker 1Yeah , it's been a while , thanks for having me on .
Speaker 2Zach , thanks for having me on and thank you for calling me an industry expert . I love that , yes .
Speaker 1Are you kidding me , man ? You're , you're crushing it . You're doing some awesome stuff and , for those who might not know , jason , he is the maestro of meat over at GQ championship barbecue , denver's first and only championship barbecue restaurant uh , serving up great food . And while I haven't been there which I plan on going later on this year there's a conference finally in Denver , and so I'm excited to give that a shot . But , based on your online reviews and what your guests are saying about you , you guys are fire . You are putting the fire in that pit and , jason , I gotta tell you , man , how do you do it ? How do you build a championship restaurant with such an intense love group ?
Speaker 2Zach , first of all , thank you for the nice words , the great introduction , and I look forward to hosting . Please , when you do come in , text me , let me know because I want to sit down with you when you come in and we'll eat , we'll hang out , bring some buddies in and we'll have a good old time . When you guys come out , let's do it . I wish I knew . I honestly don't know how we do it . If I did know , I would put it in a little pill and I'd walk around and I'd give it to every single one of our team members to take every single day .
Speaker 2I think there's some things that are just general best practices that I think now when you go out , when you think of customer service , even when you have to call your cable company , your phone company , that word service is missing in the term customer service . I think the bar is pretty low out there when you go to different places . So if we can look at people , if we can acknowledge people , if we can smile when they come in , if we can thank them , if we can personalize the transaction and that's what your platform does so well it allows us to personalize it versus making it a transactional experience . It's just an exchange for money for food . It's like , no , we want to get to know people , we ask them questions , we talk to them and , granted , that's not what everybody wants . Some people come in and they just want to eat and go , but anything we can do to personalize the experience of eating in one of our restaurants is what we strive to do .
Speaker 1And one of the things that's so impressive if you're listening to this podcast , jason . I mean you're there , man . Look at your background . You're not sitting in some ivory tower office . I mean it looks like you're in the manager's office in the back of one of your restaurants .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's exactly where I am . When we joke around like our corporate office , we have north , south and central , and that's whichever location we're at .
Speaker 2So we just like to hunker down at a table in our restaurants . We love being in our restaurants . I mean the people that come into our restaurants eat . So many of them are my friends that I've met over the years . So I like seeing them . I like seeing them , I like being around . I just like to always have a pulse on what's going on in our restaurants , and it's not just me , it's also the people that are on our quote . Unquote . I call it corporate leadership team , but it's not really a corporate leadership team , it's just more of a shared service amongst our existing restaurant team .
Speaker 1Yeah , I mean like look , Jason , who needs windows ? Right , who needs windows ? Is there a window in your office there ?
Speaker 2There is not . This is the bunker . There we go . This is the bunker right here . We lock them in . We lock them in so they can't get out .
Speaker 1I know that office all too well . I remember those offices from working in the restaurants . So let's talk about the guest experience , though . What do you think is the most important aspect of guest experience nowadays ?
Speaker 2Well , I think that it needs to be memorable . It has to be something that sticks out . I think anybody can go anywhere and just get food , but if you can do something that transforms it to something that's memorable for them , then that's going to make them want to go out and tell somebody about the experience and that's ultimately the best thing you can achieve from a guest that comes in the restaurant If they're out there . Still the best form of advertising out there . So any chance we get to create an experience that's going to generate that in somebody is powerful .
Speaker 1And you're great at . I tell people all the time ovation is a tool , right , it's not a replacement for people or for hospitality , it's a tool to make that better . So it's like I can't take a restaurant that doesn't care about the guest experience and like , magically make them care . But people like you who do care know how to leverage technology to create more hospitality , and one of the things that you and your team do is you have a hundred percent response rate on feedback and what that does is that creates raving fans . It creates people who like , oh my gosh , like not only do they care enough to ask , but they cared enough to respond to me , and that creates a magic moment that , to to your point , goes beyond the food of being memorable and creates this interaction , this connection that lasts forever .
Speaker 2Yeah , and I never understood . So I opened GQ eight years ago . When I first got in I tried to network with as many as restaurant owners as possible in the area and a lot of them would badmouth places Like at the time Yelp was really popular . I know Yelp has kind of lost some of its steam and Google has really emerged over the last couple of years , but a lot of them would badmouth review platforms like Yelp and they wouldn't respond back to the customers and I never understood that . Not all of them , but a majority of people would .
Speaker 2I want to find out when people have a bad experience so I can make it right People . I'm a consumer too . When I go out there and I work really hard for the money that I make that when I go out there I expect something to be what I buy and if it's not , I'd like to get it made right . So I want people to tell me when we don't make , when we don't meet their expectations , so we can make it right for them .
Speaker 2We try to encourage and that's one of the things I love about Ovation is it makes it easy and catches a lot of people on the back end that they don't expect . They get that text message saying , hey , how was everything ? Especially on a to-go order where , unless they pick up the phone and call in which hardly anybody does nowadays we get a chance to fix our errors , we get a chance to make it right . So they ultimately come right back in . And I have found over the years that if you take a guest that has a bad experience and you make it right , they're going to be one of those ambassadors that are out there singing your praises and talking to other people and giving you that word of mouth business , more so than somebody who just comes in and gets their expectation met . So any opportunity we get to turn a bad experience into a positive one , we lean into that and try to make it as easy as possible for people to give us that feedback .
Speaker 1And what we found ? The data shows that a guest who has a negative experience and proper service recovery is going to be 32 times more valuable than the average guest .
Speaker 3See there , you go dropping data 32% .
Speaker 2I'm going to write that down and take that to her 32 times 32 times . It's crazy . I'm going to send myself that note .
Speaker 1You're intercepting the negative reviews , You're getting more positive reviews . That guest who you're recovering , they will spend more money on subsequent visits . They come in four times more often . I mean it becomes this compounding effect where that becomes your biggest opportunity . And I always tell people you don't need to manufacture mistakes , that will happen all on its own . It's about the safety net , right .
Speaker 2Yeah , we're pretty good at that . We don't need any help doing that .
Speaker 1Yeah right , so let's talk about some tactics . What are some tactics that you've used to improve the guest experience ?
Speaker 2Well ovation . Obviously I love our loyalty program . Our director of marketing has put a ton of time in getting that set up . We use Patronix yeah , we're big fans of that Personalizing the guest experience whenever possible . So we like to get people's names when they come in . So they're not a number , it's not like number 11 . It's like no , this is Steve at table 11 . So we can drop off their food . It's on the ticket , we can call them by their name and if our team members are doing a really good job , when they walk out the door we can say bye , thank you , steve . So they can hear their name three times by us when they , when they come in the restaurant .
Speaker 2I think that's , I think that's a really good thing . And then I mean walking around . You know , I try to be a face of a brand , like you look at , like I mean , you know , like Dave Thomas at Wendy's . I'm just trying to think of some brands that are as you scale , it gets harder and harder to personalize it . It becomes more transactional . But I love the personal feel you get when you go into a place . That's why I love dining at independent restaurants , because the owner's usually in there they care so much . They love talking about how they open up their restaurant , and so I try to always make myself available and walk around to tables and I used to write weekly emails to everybody in our email database and so people you know we give a relationship , so we talk to them , do classes a lot . That's great .
Speaker 2A happy hour we try to drive value . We dollar beer Zach . I mean I think it's the best happy hour in all of Denver . You can come in from two to five and get dollar beers and one of the things that I think is so undervalued . When you go into restaurants and I really try to reinforce this a lot but just smile before you even talk to somebody or when they're coming in and before you even say like how can I help , you Just smile at them first . That should be like just the very first thing you can do and you just think about doing that , calling people by their name we talked about that . Touching tables . It's the little things , but it's difficult to do it . Consistency and , more importantly , to get other people to buy in , to want to do that also too .
Speaker 1Because one of the things we always talk about on this podcast is that the little things matter because they're the little things . You could fake the big things . You can't fake the little things , and so a large collection of small things is so much more important than one big thing . And yeah , yeah , and it's hard to and people I mean .
Speaker 2And the hiring is so important too . You know you , naturally . I mean I love hiring people . That's just that they're smilers . I mean they can learn how to take an order , they can learn how to answer the phone , they can learn how to keep things in . But it's a lot harder to get somebody who's not a smiler to smile . And it's just so refreshing to to , to embrace somebody or to meet somebody and they're just smiling at you . It just makes you want to continue to engage in a conversation with somebody like that than somebody who's just so serious and deadpan . And you come to restaurants to relax , to enjoy yourself and also smile at it . Make it a good experience for people when they're in there . Have fun . Don't take it too seriously . We all make mistakes . People are going to make mistakes . Don't get angry , don't get mad at each other . Forgive them and move on .
Speaker 1Amen , I love that and you know I always . I know I didn't . I didn't tell you I was going to ask this question , but given that you know you're doing great things on ovation , I'd love to just hear , like , your thoughts on ovation . Like what , what do you ? What do you , what do you think about ovation ?
Speaker 2Well , I think I touched on a lot of it . Again , it's it's a it's another vehicle for us . We have a couple of different vehicles for feedback , but it's another vehicle for us to get that feedback and it's one of our best ones and it's a leading indicator , like I know , like I love . I was telling you this at NRA and it was great seeing you there . But I get that weekly email . It summarizes everything and I know if we can keep that four seven , four , seven that's what we shoot for as a brand , but we can get that four seven score on ovation . That's a leading indicator of how things are going to be coming in the future , because we know guests are having good experiences when they come in . So I love that for that and that's one of our strongest leading indicators of man .
Speaker 2If we can stack several weeks in a row of four , seven or higher , we know our sales are going to be great right after that . And it just allows us to fix things real quick , like real time . We can get ping , ping , ping , a couple of really quick comments about , like , let's say , ribs , all within an hour . Man , we got to fix ribs and it's a big learning opportunity for whoever those ribs are coming in front , that , for whatever reason , those are going in the box and they're going out . They don't belong to gut , they shouldn't be going out . So it's an opportunity to train up , so I like about it .
Speaker 1Well , I appreciate
Building Relationships in the Restaurant Industry
Speaker 1it . What would you say to someone who's thinking about trying out Ovation ?
Speaker 2I mean it's a no-brainer . Have them call me , I'll talk to him for five minutes . I mean 10 minutes . It's an absolute . Put me on your sales team , I'll make some calls for you . It's an absolute no-brainer . I don't know if you know this many years and I love what he's doing with all of his content . I love , you know , seeing the different people he has on and picking up a tip here or there . But I think he had you on one of his programs and you were talking about what it does and and how it works and I reached out to him and then he put me in touch , I think with you directly , and then that was a couple of years ago , and then we got on board . We did that one call and then we got on board right away and have not looked back and I'm working really hard to get some more units for you so you can get some more revenue for you .
Speaker 1Well you're , you're crushing it . It's inspiring to see what you're doing and I appreciate your feedback . I know there's really important pieces of ovation that we built because of the feedback that you gave us and like the ability to customize the survey text that goes out requesting feedback . You know you were like , hey , let's test this out . We built it out for you and it's been a game changer for us . So I appreciate the partnership back and forth on helping Ovation get better Because you know , go figure , we're a feedback company that appreciates feedback .
Speaker 2Awesome .
Speaker 1Love it . So I know that we both know a lot of people , but who is someone in the restaurant industry that you think deserves an ovation ?
Speaker 2Well , I'm in the barbecue niche so one of the things I've noticed is barbecue's hard as you scale it . It's really hard to keep it consistently good every single time . I think the group in Kansas City , joe's barbecue they do a really good job with their volume and their consistency . Looks like mission . I mean they they're not slowing down at all . They they just entered out here in Colorado and I've ate there a couple of times and it's fantastic . They do a good job . Uh , jack stacks also in Kansas city . They they produce massive amounts of barbecue on a on a high scale . That's very consistent and very tasty and I've not ate at City Barbecue yet , but I'm really excited to eventually eat at City because they're also producing barbecue on a big scale . That's delicious also .
Speaker 1Well , I will say there's a few things in common about most of those brands you mentioned , and you're in good company . Let's put it that way .
Speaker 2Cool , maybe we can be big like them one day . We'll see .
Speaker 1I know .
Speaker 2Some of the volumes you're talking about it is insane .
Speaker 1I mean some of these places that we work with , we're going and they're doing in a day what the average restaurant is doing in a month with online orders , like just insane volumes . And it's so impressive to see how they can scale that , because it's like they've put literally 20 , the volume of 20 restaurants into one building . It's crazy to see . It's absurd . So obviously people are listening to this and , like man , jason's the man . I love what he's saying . I love the concept of GQ . Where can they go to learn more ? Follow your musings , follow GQ .
Speaker 2Zach , first of all , I love your positivity . That's quite presumptuous of you thinking they're saying Jason's the man or they're thinking this guy is a clown . One or the other . Either way is fine , because I've been called way worse than a clown . So that's okay .
Speaker 2I'm on Instagram . I don't do a whole lot of social media anymore , but I always respond and I usually always see anything that's at GQ , gq Barbecue on Instagram . We're on all the outlets Facebook , youtube . We got a YouTube channel . It's got over 100,000 subscribers . It's got like I don't even I haven't looked 13 , 14 million views on there . So YouTube , instagram , I think , twitter , tiktok , you name it we're on there and we've got a social media team that cranks out a lot of really good content . But anything that is sent to me they'll forward on to me .
Speaker 2But , zach , thank you for all you do . Thank you for your platform's great , thank you for helping the restaurants . Thank you for doing this podcast so that other people can maybe see this Anybody who sees this . If you see me , I know Zach mentioned there's a conference coming up . Were you talking about the fast , casual one ? Yeah , if anybody watches this , I'm going to go to that too . Please come up and say hi reference this video . I look forward to meeting people as I get more involved in more of those things that you do and those places that you attend .
Speaker 1Yeah , a special promotion . If you mentioned this video , you will get dollar beers from two to five . Love it , yes ? Well , jason , for reminding us the magic of a memorable experience
Expressing Gratitude and Feedback
Speaker 1. Today's Ovation goes to you . Thank you for joining us on Give an Ovation .
Speaker 2Awesome . Thanks , Zach . Have a great day . Bye-bye .
Speaker 3Thanks 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 .