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
How Original ChopShop Keeps Guests Coming Back with Jason Morgan
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In this episode of Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast, host Zack Oates sits down with Jason Morgan, CEO of Original ChopShop, a rapidly expanding fast-casual restaurant known for its "better-for-you" menu. Jason shares insights on how his team, with experience from Zoe’s Kitchen, scaled Original Chop Shop from three to nearly 30 units. Key strategies include prioritizing technology by hiring an in-house IT expert early on, fostering a culture of continuous learning and career growth for employees, and maintaining a strong focus on guest experience.
Thanks, Jason!
Creating Five-Star Guest Experiences
Speaker 1Welcome to another edition of Give and 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 Jason Morgan , who has had just an incredible career in hospitality and he's currently the CEO of Original Chop Shop , a better-for-you , fast casual restaurant concept . Jason , welcome to the podcast . How are you ? I'm great Thanks for having me .
Speaker 1It's always a pleasure to hang out with you . We have the privilege of sort of having dinner together , as you were being honored as one of the fastest growing , one of the top fast casual brands in the country , and well-deserved honor . But it was cool to be there with you and have you accept that . So talk to me a little bit about how have you been able to grow ? I mean , you've got such a great experience in the hospitality industry . What are the main principles that you've put into Original Chop Shop to help it become such a great growing brand ?
Speaker 2Yeah , so a couple of things . That's a very open-ended question , but , look , a lot of the team was with a brand prior to this called Zoe's Kitchen and we grew that brand really rapidly from 20 stores to 150 stores and we all felt like we had a playbook of how to do it and we knew the things we did really well . We knew the things that we did really poorly and our goal here was let's take something and try to do everything right the first time , uh , and so we we've done that . We bought this brand in 2016 . Uh , we had three units they were all based in in phoenix , in the area there , and we've run it from three to 23 . We've got three more opening in the next 30 days and a couple more to start next year . So we'll we'll get close to 30 by the end of next year .
Speaker 2But but a couple of things sort of how we've done it is , believe it or not , the fourth person that I hired on the team was an IT person , and that is sort of uncommon in small restaurants . You don't normally see that . You see outsourcing in that role . But we wanted to bring somebody in-house . We wanted to put systems and process and all the tech in place so that we could scale and scale profitably and scale in a smart way . And so I'm a finance guy by trade . I'm not one of your typical restaurateur that comes up from the creative side of the business . My whole career is strategy , finance and sort of building businesses and building it out . So a lot of it was foundational based .
Speaker 2To start with , we knew we had a great brand . We knew we had a brand that was on trend . We knew we had a brand that could grow . We knew we had a brand that people liked and it was just a matter of how do we take that , how we put something systematic in place and then be able to grow it . And then the second thing we really have focused on is people and then be able to grow it . And then the second thing we really have focused on is people , and it's like everyone says the same things .
Speaker 2You probably you know you'll do tons of these podcasts and people always say we're focused on people , and one of the key things that we've done is I believe that people leave companies when they stop growing and they stop learning .
Speaker 2That's how , when I've left jobs for the most part , that's the reason I left it wasn't because of money , and it wasn't because of other things , it was because I felt stagnant , and so what we've done here is we've tried to find a way that our team is continually learning , and whether that's through training , whether that's through additional responsibilities , but we've given people a career path of how to get from point A to point B , and we're seeing people stick around . Our average GM tenure is almost four years . Oh wow , our average . If you take the top one-third of the people that are hourly in our shops , the average tenure is about two and a half years , and so we feel like we found this sort of magic formula of how to keep people on the team and that goes a long way in terms of growth and keeping culture and opening new shops , and so those are technology and people are probably the two big pieces of how we've tried to grow this , and obviously the technology and the people all combine to the guest right .
Speaker 1That's correct , and so I'd love to hear what do you think is the most important aspect of guest experience nowadays ?
Speaker 2That's a great question . So I think the guest wants to be seen and the guest wants to be heard , and that's one of the great things about Ovation is that you get a little bit of that feedback coming back to us here in the office . Our brand is all about providing a convenient , fast experience in a very hospitable format , and so we have focused on how do we do that , how do we greet people , how do we engage with people , engage in the shop , engage on social media , and so there's a lot of strategies around that as well .
Speaker 1And I think that's so right and you obviously have done such an incredible job , I mean just in the last 30 days . If I look at your response rates on Ovation and your scores , not only your score is high , but anyone who has an issue . You respond to them and you respond to them quickly . Respond to them quickly and it shows I mean in the last 30 days you've saved almost 700 customers who didn't have a perfect experience . You responded and brought them back and that's really powerful . I mean that shows that you care , because I tell people all the time , ovation is like a hammer and you can use the handle to nail in the nail or you could use the head of the hammer , right , and it's like you're doing such a great job of using the platform because you care and you obviously have put people in place that care .
Speaker 2And what's interesting is that a lot of the times the guests believe that it's an AI or a bot responding to them . They're shocked that it's actually a person . They're shocked they're actually having a conversation . And I think the majority of people don't expect to ever hear back , even though they've , and maybe that's just because they've left messages and left reviews and other platforms or other venues and they didn't get that response back .
Speaker 2And so you know the first thing for us just responding alone puts a big positive check mark by Chop Shop's name and then when we resolve a problem or recover or find a way to get that guest back in or happy about their experience , it goes a long way .
Speaker 1Yeah , I think that's so powerful . And where your brand is at , you know you guys are 9% higher than the average restaurant on Ovation in terms of your satisfaction , because people you know you've created the systems and the processes that really show that's creating a great guest experience . And so to see what you're saying about guest experience and then to see the data in the back end is really powerful . And so what are some tactics , any tactic you can share that you've used to improve the guest experience ?
Speaker 2Oh man that's a good question
Improving Guest Experience With Kiosks
Speaker 2. So we have recently put in kiosks and you would think that that sort of goes against the hospitality and what we're trying to do . But remember , our guests wants a fast , convenient experience and our menu is gigantic . A lot of brands these days are singularly focused on pizza or burgers or hot chicken . We have 45 to 50 different items on the menu sandwiches , salads , protein bowls , assay bowls , juices , shakes , parfaits .
Speaker 2It's a wide menu and what we heard from our guests with the kiosk is that they love seeing the pictures of the food so that they know what they're getting . We also have seen them be able to customize their orders even more than they were customizing at the register , and so we've seen average check go up almost 10% on the kiosk orders versus the regular register orders , and the guest likes to be in and out , so they like to control their time and the experience , and so for the most part , the kiosk have been a more surprising positive than I thought they would have been Now for us . They do help with labor and they help take a couple hours out of the shop from a profitability standpoint , but the guests have really loved them so far .
Speaker 1That's awesome . I think the kiosks are definitely something that , as we're looking at brands who are putting in kiosks , I think there's a right way and there's a wrong way to do kiosks . And , coming from the feedback of the guests , we've seen brands that do it the right way , where people love it and they're grateful for it and they're grateful that there's a way to get the line they want to see the meal Average check size we're seeing anywhere from 9% to 11% increase . But there's a certain element of hospitality that still needs to be implemented with kiosks and that learning curve , especially bringing someone out to the front to help walk them through . It does wonders .
Speaker 1Right , and you don't need a lot of people out there . I mean , look at the airlines , need a lot of people out there . I mean , look at the airlines , they have a couple of floating people , but it's just to go around and they have their head on a swivel to see who's having a problem . Hey , can I help you with that Great Boom , boom , boom , boom . And that's , I think , the right way to do it , not just putting everyone in the kitchen and just having the kiosks out there . You lose some of the soul of the restaurant when you do that right , so we're still running a register as well .
Speaker 2So we're keeping a register open . So if someone comes in and they don't want to use the kiosk , we have a real-life person they can talk to and we actually put the kiosk actually on the front counter and so whether a person's out in the restaurant , you know , interacting , or leaning over the counter interacting , we've got the ability to talk to that guest right there , right then at the kiosk . So we haven't lost the hospitality feature of our business .
Speaker 1And I think that's so key because , even you know , I actually did my time at PwC , as we were talking about before , so I'm a former finance guy as well , and so how interesting . Here's two finance guys talking about hospitality . Right , I mean , we're one half step below a lawyer , but that's what this business is about , and I think that the fact that you've been thinking about hospitality from the very beginning means you use the right bricks to build the foundation and everything else can stay on top of that .
Speaker 2That's correct . It's a lot about execution , right . I tell people I don't like going to industry conferences because I come home and everyone has talked about the same seven initiatives that they're working on and I don't feel . I don't feel like we're doing anything that different until we get back here and it's really start thinking about everybody . Yes , everybody's focused on the same seven things , but but people are executing it better than others , and so that's where we focus on how do we just have great execution ? And that's where the finance and accounting and the exactness , I think of that sort of plays a role into what we do in our company here .
Speaker 1Because at the end of the day , we talk about this all the time on this podcast , but it starts with convenience that's going to get somebody in . But then you have to go from convenience to consistency . Right , and nailing it every time is consistency . But then the third con is about connection , and that's about that especially that safety net , for when something isn't consistent , you can have that safety net to springboard them back up and to build that relationship with them . And I think that's really key , because you've got to be operationally focused to get every little detail in there . But you also got to have that connection with the guest . You got to make them feel heard and seen like you said Exactly .
Speaker 2And look , I would argue that a lot of restaurants don't have that connection , their product doesn't live to that connection , their product doesn't live to that connection , their staffing doesn't live to that connection . And I think that's a big competitive advantage for our brand is that we are built in a way that we have an emotional connection with that guest and then we do things to further that connection .
Speaker 1Yeah , and I'd love to hear what I got . You is like how has Ovation helped you ? I mean , I know you've been with Ovation now for coming up on A year , year or so , more than that .
Speaker 2No , it's eight months or so , I think . Oh , eight months , okay , awesome .
Speaker 1So , yeah , I'd love to hear , get your feedback . Like you know , how has Ovation been helpful for you ?
Speaker 2Yeah , so I think I think I told you the stat when I saw you in Chicago In our first three months of Ovation we had 18,000 responses , so 6,000 a month . That 18,000 surpassed all the Google reviews that I'd gotten since the exception of the business 10 years before , and so that just sort of blew my mind of like holy crap , we've gotten so much more feedback , and feedback that we can respond to and feedback that we can take and understand our business , and so one of the things that we're heavily focused on is you know , what are the key complaints , what are the key things we're missing and how do we implement new procedures to fix those things ?
Speaker 1And so there are definitely .
Speaker 2You know , it's all the things that you would expect . It's missing dressings , it's missing cookies , it's you know the food wasn't didn't taste as good as it normally does , kind of things , but we are very focused on getting those three or four items and trying to do better . What we also have seen is we've come up . There have been several things that I don't think we realized were problems that we're now hearing are , you know , are problems , and so one of the things that we changed was we use Olo for our first party delivery and all of our online ordering and what we're hearing is that the promised time was way off from the time the food was coming and it's probably been happening for five plus years and it never had bubbled up to the top .
Speaker 2But it bubbled up pretty quickly with the ovation reviews and so we were able to take that , make some changes in the algorithm and in the backend of OLO and adjust that , and we've seen much fewer complaints with regards to that .
Speaker 1And obviously , with such a great background in this industry , you know a lot of people , but I'd love to hear who is someone that you would give an ovation to , who's someone that we should be following ?
Speaker 2Well , look , I'll tell you , Chipotle has done an amazing job . Their numbers are astounding . Every quarter they report is just like mind-blowing . That that's 12% same-store sales , with how many stores they have and how many you know how , how just it's crazy what they're doing . And then Wingstop's the same way . Wingstop's numbers are just almost unbelievable and it's very interesting . In the last two years , in sort of our space , there seems to be a lot of haves and have nots in terms of who's winning and who's losing . There doesn't seem to be a lot of people in the middle . You're either doing really well or you're doing really badly , and so you know the bad groups are filing bankruptcies and you're seeing those more and more often , and there's very , just very few people that are winning on the top and I throw Texas Roadhouse into that list as well . People that are winning . They just have found a way to provide value and provide a quality experience .
Speaker 1Because the rolls man , that's what it is the rolls .
Speaker 2My daughter is about to be 16 and she and her friends will just go there to get the rolls . Oh yeah , it's like what is it ?
Speaker 1Can I get an appetizer and like six baskets of rolls ? Yeah , that's correct . Yeah , that's correct . Yeah , that's correct . Love that man . Well , jason , where can people go to learn more ? Where can they go to follow you or the Original Chop Shop ?
Speaker 2Yeah , so we're just wwworiginalchopshopcom on the web . We have Instagram , we have Facebook , we have TikTok , and so you can find us any of those places .
Speaker 1Okay , awesome . Well , Jason , for showing us that you can do things right the first time today's ovation goes to you . Thank you so much for joining us on Give an Ovation Great Thank you . 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 .