Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome 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 Ovationcom. And today we have a podcast that is over one year in the making. I think, Brandy, we may have a record here, but Brandy Blackwell, VP head of marketing for Another Broken Egg Cafe, Welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:35

Thank you, thanks for having me, and the only reason is I've been busy. It's not because I was ducking you, I promise.

Speaker 1: 0:42

Well, let's talk about that. Talk to us about another Broken Egg Cafe. Talk to us about what you're doing there and what things. Let's start with that, because I got some good questions for you.

Speaker 2: 0:52

Okay, yeah, thanks for having me on, and it's great to be here. So, I've been with another Broken Egg now for just over two years, years and a couple of months. I've done a lot with the brand but really I'm excited to see the growth within the brand. We just crossed 100 units, so we have 100 actually in one cafe and we are in 16 states. So huge milestone for the brand and all things you know marketing and culinary and beverage innovation, which you could ask for.

Speaker 1: 1:20

That is so cool to see that growth and crossing that triple digit. That's a huge benchmark and that's something so few brands do, and you've always. You've had a great career in the restaurant industry. What are some mistakes that brands make that prevent them from getting to that hundred units? And obviously this is kind of coming from your perspective, where most of the brands that you've worked at are over that 100 units.

Speaker 2: 1:45

Yeah, I think you know back kind of in my track record here. I started at a smaller brand that was, you know, 35, 40 units, which was Tijuana Flats, out of Florida, and you know took that brand into the over the 100 unit mark, which is definitely came with its challenges, of course, and then went to some you know bigger brands like the Callister's Deli and then Duncan and Jimmy John's, before coming to another Brooklyn A. So it's nice to be back in a place where I'm wearing a lot of hats and able to see all sides of the business and be involved in all aspects of the business. So I'm really enjoying that. But I think you know I wouldn't say that I could say a lot about mistakes. What I would say is that not every area that you expand into is going to be a perfect fit.

Speaker 2: 2:34

Real estate's very important and I can, working closely with our chief development officer and our development teams, some of my past roles.

Speaker 2: 2:42

We're just trying to be close to understanding why certain cafes or certain restaurants perform better than others. Real estate obviously plays into that and that's not always something that you know. You realize until after the fact. So if you're choosing good real estate and really connecting with the community in certain areas. But just getting over that 100 mark and you have to be open and you have to realize like everything's not gonna be perfect and butterflies and you're gonna have to take some, but the good comes to the bad and there's a lot of change and being open to change has been something that I think is helped me in my career. Just understand that the more I tried to script everything or plan how everything was gonna go, the less I had control over what was going to happen. So that I think is kind of a bigger theory and you know, kind of what I live by is just being open to a change and being willing to accept change, whether that be good or bad.

Speaker 1: 3:40

And I think that's so powerful because you can't control every variable right, but what you can do is do the best you can for planning and just have the right principles and the right foundation in place. And I think it's so interesting for Randy that here you are. And, by the way, just for those of you who may have missed the intro, let me state that again, this is the VP head of marketing, not the VP head of real estate. All right, and so I think it's really key, because before the pandemic it was location, location, location, right, and then during the pandemic people were kind of like doesn't really matter. But nowadays you know it really still is, and it's actually more than that it's location, location, location.

Speaker 1: 4:22

And, if I may add a fourth than that, it's location, location, location. And, if I may add a fourth, it's location. And here's why I add the fourth, location, because your digital presence and how you show up for people on their phones, their virtual real estate, is so important. And during the pandemic I think there was so much emphasis put on that that people started drifting away from the core. And to your point, brandy, you've got to be able to have a good location, good parking, good visibility, good freeway access and all of those things combined to create something really key. But location is still important. You can't choose some class C location and hope you're going to get class A revenue. People are out and about.

Speaker 2: 5:08

Five competitors pop up on the drive between you and your location and I think where the unique thing that I've experienced here in my current role is different than previous roles because I've been in QSR and past casual previously, so full serve really is unique in that you know the dining experience is so critical and being top of mind as a dine-in place and that can be occasion-driven. It's not as every day go past a Dunkin' where I proudly used to work and just a different meat steak and a different driver for a dining occasion. So just kind of thinking about that location does play a big part of that. And staying top of mind when you're able to have drive-by traffic every day and somebody thinks you know connects you with a positive experience and ambiance. I know ambiance drives a lot of my dining decisions and there's obviously other factors, but certainly convenience and my experience is going to drive a dining experience more so than, say, if I was, you know, in a rush going through a duck and line to get my coffee on the way to the office.

Speaker 1: 6:17

Yeah, Amen. Now all of this really boils down to. What we're talking about is making it easy for the guest and creating that great guest experience. So what do you think is the most important aspect of guest experience nowadays?

Speaker 2: 6:29

Oh gosh, I think that you know it was Andy Redden, who's a friend of mine.

Speaker 1: 6:35

We just published his podcast tomorrow.

Speaker 2: 6:37

I actually don't already listen to it because, um, I have a lot of respect for him and so whenever he pops up on anything, I read what he says and I listen to what he says and, candidly, he is very progressive also in his approach to things, which so that's that's. You know, as a marketer, I have a lot of, you know, respect for him. But consistency is critical and you know, with turnover, with challenges in labor and all sorts of other challenges from a marketer's aspects, understanding all of those. Again, I kind of lean in a lot on ops and tech and real estate. I find all of the other fields fascinating too. So maybe that's a career change at some point.

Speaker 2: 7:19

But I think it's critical to understand other sides of the business.

Speaker 2: 7:21

So, for example, why would I spend a bunch of marketing dollars to support an initiative when fundamentally there might be some challenges with consistency or operations?

Speaker 2: 7:29

And we know it happens, it happens all the time and so it kind of checks and balances for making sure that operations and staffing are in a solid place in a certain cafe before we're investing money is really important.

Speaker 2: 7:42

But a consistent experience and placing value on the experience from the touch point you know, walking in the door and somebody smiles at you, that's a big one. Just a smile makes such a difference in your impression of that restaurant and kind of sets the tone. Your greed sets the tone. So to sitting down to having somebody really spend time on a menu or spend time, you know, your front of house team spending time kind of explaining what if you haven't been there with what's on the menu, how to you know what our best sellers are, what they love about working there, I think that all speaks volumes and it kind of goes unnoticed sometimes unless you don't have it happen. No-transcript the table, so it's less weight, so all of those things are important. But I think just because it's an experience from start to finish is really kind of puts it in best form that I can say it.

Speaker 1: 8:42

I love that you're talking about this in terms of there's basically it's like there's a hundred things that go into creating this great guest experience, right, and you got to hit every single one of them and you got to be able to track how they're doing and train how train people on doing it. Because with the peak end theory, I mean, you know, I'll go to a restaurant and if my server isn't very good, is my impression? Oh, my server, zach, was really rude. No, my impression is, oh, I don't like that restaurant Service is bad, right, and when you have every server as your ambassador, your brand ambassador, and they are not just an extension, but they really are the brand.

Speaker 1: 9:22

I spoke at Shaq's Big Chicken Conference and one of the big things, shaquille O'Neal showed up and he was talking to everyone and he and I we had a chance to meet and one of the things he was saying was or one of the things that his agent was saying, is this brand, like your people, that your workers are an extension of Shaquille O'Neal, right, and so if someone does something rude, it feels like Shaq is doing something rude, but that's the way it is for every brand. It's just we don't always have the personification of a you know NBA legend.

Speaker 2: 9:53

Well, exactly, and it's like and think about your. You know, I think about my marketing team. You know, they shine, they're smart, they're talented. It makes me look smart and talented, whether I am or not.

Speaker 2: 10:04

You know it really does, and so why wouldn't you apply that same principle to you know, and we used to joke at one of my previous companies like we hire for art and hustle, we can teach the rest. And they said, what do you do different hiring and some of our leadership team at Tencent, we just hire happy people. You know, that's it. I mean, that's simple. But if you really kind of kind of put it, you know in the rudimentary, you know level, and said that is what it is is finding people who who have a smile on their face and every day they might not, but you know most of the days they do and and then you know, want to be there and that's, it's kind of it's very basic. From there, you know, anything else really can be taught in our business. It's not, it's not rocket science.

Speaker 1: 10:45

Yeah, and I know we've we've kind of been hitting on this question for the last few minutes, but any, any tactics that you've used to improve the guest experience.

Speaker 2: 10:53

Yeah, we actually hired a dozen. So we have a teammate in the support center that has been with our company for like 10 plus years and she was on the road doing a bunch of our openings and in the training department and wore her hat and she basically transitioned to a role senior manager of guest analytics and satisfaction. And we created this role uniquely to really bridge the gap between, you know, sports center but also kind of operations, and these numbers that we see on the back end, these sentiment scores, and you know our BSAs, our brand standards assessment and really act on those. So we'd see a star rating and that's 4.1 and we want it to be over 4.5, but we don't understand why. And so she's really solely dedicated now in the past year to monitoring those KPIs and those key metrics from guests. You know how the guests are feeling and their sentiment and then tying it to good and bad.

Speaker 2: 11:59

You know things that happen in from the either operational side or you know, giving kudos to the positive scores and really helping to actually take action on anything that comes through that looks like, oh, that might be a red flag or you might see some reoccurring themes. So she's closely looking at that and it really does allow us not to say we keep seeing that same trend and not doing anything about it. So that's one piece. Of course, we use tools to track those, and then obviously there's surveys and some other digital feedback tools that we use. And then, but the question you know you can see that all day long, but if you don't do anything about it or really kind of dive into the why behind it, it is just a number that continues to denigrate you and be a drag on the system.

Speaker 1: 12:46

Amen, I. It's like I tell people all the time we are there to help you, to know basically what buttons to push to help improve things Like where's the mole that you need to whack. And if you're not sitting there at the game, though, doing the whack-a-mole, it doesn't do anything. You know, a tool is just a tool on the shelf, but in the hands of someone that cares, you're building houses, you're building empires, and I think that that's something that's so important to remember is the tools that we have are only as good as the action that we give to them, and I think that's smart to measure, smarter to do something about it.

Speaker 2: 13:27

Yeah, and it's a franchisee and we share this information in a way that they're receptive to it.

Speaker 2: 13:32

You know, it's not a look, what you've done, it's, it's how can we help you, or here's a tool to help you, because we've noticed this and and to really work with them over time to improve that. I mean, we have new franchisees, we have people who are, you know, not as close to the business maybe, or even just don't know how to go about fixing something like that, and we we've, through time, have maybe had those experiences at our company cafes or elsewhere with other operators or owners and being able to just be a hand. But what you don't know, you don't know. So tools like what you have too, it's like you put something there that's easy to understand. Everybody starts using the same language, the same metrics, and then you can find outliers and issues more quickly and then also action on them more quickly. So that's something that's really recent for us as far as really diving into that and instead of just saying, oh bad, copper score today like we have ways to help you know, support team members and cafes, fix some of those issues.

Speaker 1: 14:31

Love that. Now you obviously have a great Rolodex of people that you've known throughout your career. You've met a lot of people, been in a lot of high areas. Who is someone that you think deserves an ovation in the restaurant industry? Who's someone that we should be following?

Speaker 2: 14:48

Is it the person or is this a brand or?

Speaker 1: 14:51

Let's give a person, unless you have a brand that you really like to follow then open for that as well.

Speaker 2: 14:59

I like, though, I always give like kudos to some of the women that I love. Like I, I give a shout out to karen, stuff. She's like an operator and just a badass and I I don't know. I just I've had like a girl crush on her for a long time and then I I love don fox too. I think he's like incredible. He's one of my my my icons. So I also love like viral subs from OG days, so big fan of those.

Speaker 1: 15:18

Well, and Karen, she is such a rock star, I mean she just she actually just invested in Ovation and took a role in our advisory board.

Speaker 2: 15:28

So that's pretty cool. You didn't even tell me to do this.

Speaker 1: 15:35

You can put me in 20 or anything for this one. She is just so smart and she's absolutely 100 follow. If she's going to be speaking at a conference, go to it. Uh, listen to her. She is just a ocean of wisdom and in just a very fun package, because she is just a ball of energy and, uh, I've had so much fun hanging out with her and getting to know her. So she's, so, she's, so she just likes so cool too. And yeah, so it was Don.

Speaker 2: 15:59

Fox and I said I was speaking on a panel and Don Fox was on the same track, like her time on a different panel, and I was like, well, no one's going to come to mine. I think they did that on purpose, cause I don't want to go to my own, and anyways, it was just kind of a running joke. I was like, is that intentional that they thought you know it's okay, I might as well just let her go.

Speaker 1: 16:20

That is so funny, well, awesome. Well, where can people go, brandy, if they want to learn more about you or another broken egg, or if they want to follow your musings?

Speaker 2: 16:29

Oh gosh, I'm on LinkedIn, I'm usings. Oh gosh, I'm on linkedin. I'm all over linkedin. And then another broken egg cafe is everywhere too linkedin, instagram, facebook and newly um tiktok. So, oh, I just had to like really kind of get with the program. They are slow and it's slow for me, but it's, it's happening. So I myself here.

Speaker 1: 16:48

But you know, it's just one, one more thing that you know in the arsenal of toys to play with yeah, I see I'm I'm so old, I'm like, I'm like, uh, people my age, we do watch tiktok videos, but three days later, when they hit instagram, that's when we watch our tiktoks anyway okay, you know you can't be cutting out everything, yeah right, there we go, brandy, for giving us the secrets to cross into triple digits, today's Ovation goes to you. Thank you so much for joining us on Give and Ovation.

Speaker 2: 17:20

Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1: 17:21

Thanks for joining us today. If you like 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.