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 OvationUpcom. And today I'm so excited.

Speaker 1: 0:26

This guy that you're about to listen to he not only is awesome, but he has a company with a mission to make people feel awesome. His name is Amir Mustafavi. Amir is the founder and CEO of Southblock, such a cool brand. He's been doing it now for almost 14 years, based in the DC area, and then a couple of years ago or was it last year joined up with the Savory Fund. So now he's part of the Savory Clan this year, this year Okay, time flies, amir, but I'm so excited to have you on because every interaction I've had with you, you just ooze authenticity and you're just one of these people where it's like you're doing cool stuff for the right reasons, and to have that both for the right reasons and it being cool stuff is just hard to nail, and so I'm excited to get a spoonful from your ocean of wisdom, amir, on this short podcast. But first of all, how are you man?

Speaker 2: 1:24

Good. Thank you, man. Thanks for that intro. Now I feel like I got to live up to some awesomeness here. But right back at you, like first time I met you, like the hat, even the hat you're wearing now, like the shirt, it's all good vibes, it's all good energy. I love it. I love it. I got to take some notes from you. I'm doing good. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1: 1:42

As we're looking at South Block, as we're thinking about it. For those who aren't familiar, do you want to give a quick overview of South Block? And then I'd love to hear how did you start it? Because I know that this isn't your first foray into bowls and healthy foods, and so I would love to hear what did you learn that you put into South Block too? Can you answer those 15 questions in one? Let's see.

Speaker 2: 2:03

Do I have more than 30 seconds? Yeah, so South Block. So I started South Block in 2011. We're based out of the DMV, the Washington DC area, the DC, virginia, maryland locations. We're 17 locations open today, with three in development, and we sell smoothies, juices, acai bowls. I've been in this business in total for 20 years.

Speaker 2: 2:26

I opened my first juice bar 20 years ago at GW University in the gym on campus, and I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I got married that same year. I quit my job at one of the big consulting firms and decided to go make smoothies at a college campus, and I had no food service experience, except for two weeks at a sandwich shop at Virginia Tech, where I went to school, and I quit after two weeks because my manager was a jerk. So all I knew is that if you're a jerk, your employees will quit. So that was my rule number one, and from there I just kept figuring stuff out.

Speaker 2: 3:05

I had a passion for smoothies. Well, I would say more. I had a passion for fruits and vegetables, but more so for fruits. I was really into fruits my whole life, growing up. I just loved the flavors, the colors, the smells, coming from my dad who would bring fruit to us. He didn't go to the grocery store for anything except fruit. He would just come home with bags of fruit. He didn't go to the grocery store for anything except fruit. He would just come home with bags of fruit and sit on the floor and just eat it. I always have good memories of that and when I was looking to do something for myself, I was just drawn to that world of those vibes and those flavors, so learned at GW University.

Speaker 2: 3:38

I always tell people that's where I got my master's in business at GW not for real, but just from learning at that first juice bar that was called Campus Fresh, and things that I learned was just creating awesome quality recipes that we still carry over today and connection with community. We were very involved in campus life and student body and a lot of fundraisers and a lot of events and the grassroots marketing efforts that I took with me to South Block, which became the meaning of South Block, is building community on every block we go into. So we're very passionate about getting involved and getting people to know that we exist and trying to make that block a little bit better than it was before we got there. So that's what I did on the South Block in Clarendon where we first opened our business.

Speaker 2: 4:26

We were on the South Block at this big new tower that nobody came to that side of the building. It was dead on that side. So I knew we had to have an awesome product and have an awesome connection with the community to drive people to that part of the block. So that's where South Block came from and that's where everywhere we go now that follows us, that same idea of building a better community on that block. So that's who we are.

Speaker 1: 4:51

Man, and I love that you really kind of put the story of the mission in the name. But I think that just rings so true, especially because at Ovation we're a company of celebration, we love finding those people who love good experiences and getting them to tout that right. And so our whole thing was like Ovation and that's part of who we are and our character and our values, and I love that. Yours is like it's the story of it, right, ours is like the thing itself, ovation, but yours is the story that makes it so tangible, because stories are sticky like that and I think it's so smart of you to do that.

Speaker 2: 5:27

Yeah Well, thank you. And I thought of all these different names and a lot of them were at the time like more generic, like Arlington Smoothie and things like that. At the end of the day, I wanted South Block to be different than a typical like juice or smoothie shop and I wanted it to represent more of this idea of what we were trying to do with our purpose in being in business so obviously having best in class, quality products number one but standing out because of our commitment to company culture and to people, and I wanted the name to reflect that.

Speaker 1: 6:02

I love that and I think that when you look at the company culture and the company and the people that you're bringing in and keeping in, a lot of it is, around the end of the day, the guest experience right. It's like how are we creating the right vibe for our guests? And so what do you think is the most important aspect of guest experience nowadays?

Speaker 2: 6:20

So guest experience for us. You'll love this. It has been my number one indicator on our KPI reports for years. I created this game for my business as we started scaling. It's literally called we call it the game and it's basically a KPI report that shows your traditional things like your COGS and your labor, your revenue, but it has our guest experience score on there and that has always been my baby, my number one indicator of how we are doing as a business.

Speaker 2: 6:55

Because I felt like that if you focus too much on your stores with, you got to get your labor down, you got to get your cogs down. Whatever you tell your store leaders to focus on is where their energy is going to go. So if you're telling them you've got to get your labor down, all they're thinking is I got to cut shifts and then you're creating a worse guest experience because you don't have enough people to properly serve your guests that are coming through your door. So I didn't want to create those bad habits by focusing on so much attention on the cogs and labor and I've always put it like we're going to give you systems to control your cogs and labor. We're going to set you up for success there If you guys are starting with guest experience, making sure you're nailing that, the rest is going to fall in line. The numbers are going to fall in line, the revenue is going to drive upward and it's going to create more profit for the business. But it starts with guest experience.

Speaker 2: 7:50

I've also seen guest experience be an indicator it's almost a crystal ball into what could potentially negatively impact your numbers. If you're really tracking your guest experience feedback that you're getting, you can start seeing those trends of what are some things that we need to solve for today that could negatively impact our numbers tomorrow. So we're tracking all of that and we're saying, okay, here's an opportunity. We're seeing that wait times are what people are complaining about consistently. Yeah, it's important too. You don't take one negative feedback and change everything in your company because of it. But if you're seeing trends now, you're saying, okay, we need to look at this and is there a better way to solve for this? Faster ticket times, modifiers being missed, but we got to focus more on order accuracy and then, if you can catch it quick enough, you're catching it to where it's not negatively impacting your business and your sales.

Speaker 1: 8:46

That is so powerful? Because I think your whole point of you want to listen to your guests but don't make abrupt decisions based on a couple of people, right, Because I've seen people be like CEOs bring in a negative review and they go to their team like we need to fix this thing and it's like all right, Steve, it's not broken, it's just someone is complaining on Yelp, right. But to your point, we need to be open to the fact that it might be broken, right. And if we can do that and have that humility to listen and to hear those trends that need to be fixed, that's where you get superpower of great. Let's address it in the moment with the individual, but let's only take action on the stuff that needs to be fixed, because otherwise you're running around just fixing stuff that isn't broken.

Speaker 2: 9:41

But you'd be doing. You'd be wasting a lot of time doing that, you're right, and you also be driving your team crazy, negatively impacting your culture. So, yeah, you're absolutely right. You got to identify the trends and just constantly be solution-minded. You know, I think in general in business, that's so important looking for areas of improvement all the time, no matter if you've been doing this for one year or 20 years, like I. Have Always ways to improve, and this is constantly evolving too. There are way different tools in place today than there were when I started, so you just got to keep up with it.

Speaker 1: 10:17

So let's talk about that, about some of the tactics that you're using today, and it could be anything from tech to different ideas that you've had over the years. What are some tactics that you've used to improve the guest experience over the years?

Speaker 2: 10:30

Yeah. So I think the main thing for us, we've been using a lot of the same recipes that I started off doing. One of the main ones is acai bowls. That makes up more than 50% of our sales today. It wasn't always like that.

Speaker 1: 10:43

Is that your trick, amir, for staying so young? Because, to the audience listening, if you're not looking, this guy told me his age before we started and I thought he was totally lying to me. I thought he's like 15, 20 years younger. So is it the acai bowls? Is that what I need to do? Just eat more acai to look like you.

Speaker 2: 11:05

Amir, I guess it's acai, it's juice, I don't know, it's all that stuff. But um, yeah, I'm so, I'm turning 50 this summer. I started, uh, like I said, 20 years ago, so I've been at it a long time. But yeah, the acai bowl is one of those things like that. I just the moment I tasted it, I fell in love with it and and there's a cool story there of how I was introduced to acai.

Speaker 2: 11:20

So I was at my campus juice bar, gw and this I describe him as a surfer dude came into my shop with like a little cooler and he's like hey, bro, do you mind if I make you something? And I was like, okay, sure, like what do you got? He goes oh, this is called acai. I've never heard of it before. Like nobody's really heard of it. 20 years ago, right. So he jumped behind my counter and started making me this thing 20 years ago. So he jumped behind my counter and started making me this thing and then, once it was done, he asked me to taste it and I took a bite of it. I was like, wow, this is amazing For me. It was like the best thing I'd ever tasted in my life. I was like how do I get this? So I started importing acai overnight on dry ice and put a bowl on my menu and we probably sold like five a day because nobody had heard of it but anyone who would listen to me or taste it. I tried to get them to try it because I just loved it so much. So eventually it became.

Speaker 2: 12:13

When I started South Block in 2011, I decided to make half my menu acai bowls and just like totally lean into that. That's going to be what we're known for. And so back to your question. You're probably wondering why I went back 20 years to answer it. It's because we have not taken any shortcuts on the quality of that acai bowl. I still make it the same way that I did from learning from that surfer dude. It's the authentic way, and there's so many shortcuts in making it. Today, the biggest one is using scoopable sorbet, and for me, I can't stand when I see acai being scooped out of a tub. It's just not authentic. It's loaded with all these gums and sugars and it doesn't taste real to me. So we make it the real Brazilian, authentic way that I was taught, and a lot of people don't make it that way because it's a longer process.

Speaker 2: 13:05

So for us, like wait times, became an issue with our guest feedback. It was taking a long time, especially if you're getting busier, which was great and we were selling more acai but we were taking long to make it. So ticket times, wait times, so working a lot on our system to produce the acai. So it's almost like an assembly line system now Still takes longer than scooping something out of a tub, but we've got the system down pretty good now and we're constantly looking for ways to improve that.

Speaker 2: 13:37

Another way we've addressed that guest feedback is now, with the advancement of technology is getting people in the habit of pre-ordering through online or app. We have over 50% off-premise sales and 76% through digital, including our kiosk. So we're only seeing about 24% come to our register and order at their register and it's just a better flow, like if you can order on the app before you come to the store. You roll in, your order's ready and you roll out. It's frictionless. So really leaning into technology and communicating that to our guests is a way to like hey, get your order in, we'll have it ready for you. And, by the way, now we don't have to like sell out and take shortcuts. You're still getting the best quality product.

Speaker 1: 14:24

I love that man. I mean taking feedback and really operationalizing. It is just so powerful and it's not easy to do because you got a thousand things hitting you. But I think when you have the focus of the guest experience right, Everything flows into and from the guest experience. It forces you to make those decisions and to say, no, this is a better guest experience, to have the product right and let's figure out the wait time situation, as opposed to just saying, well, let's make a worse product to create a better guest experience. You're just trading one side for the other.

Speaker 2: 15:01

Yeah, and I'm super stubborn about that. I'm like we are not going to sacrifice the quality of the product to solve that problem. We're going to figure out other ways to solve that problem and I think we've done it and I think customers appreciate and some customers also are willing to wait a little bit longer because of that. So, yeah, I mean it really like. To me that's a big part of guest experience is making sure that when they do get their product it's a great quality product and your accuracy is on point. Like a lot of people they care more about. Was an item, was a topping missing from their bowl? Was it a good quality bowl? Then did I have to wait a little bit longer? They just want it right and they want it good. That's what our goal is.

Speaker 1: 15:41

Well, and you know, what's actually interesting is, research has found that if you are going above and beyond, and let's say that your typical wait time is seven minutes and you're getting things out and you're doing it in two minutes, right, for a couple of days, it actually is a negative net experience. Why? Because it resets the expectation of the guest. But what we find is that the most important thing in this industry is not how much you're charging, but it's are you consistent in the experience that you're delivering? Because, yeah, guest is willing to pay more for an experience and it's shown over and over and over again. Just look at door dash everyone has bumped up the prices and there's a tip and there's a delivery fee and there's door-to-door stuff, and so people end up paying twice as much for the same food for the convenience of having it at home. As long as that's a consistent experience, people are willing to pay more.

Speaker 2: 16:40

And so.

Speaker 1: 16:40

I think it's less about charging less and more about nailing the experience. Now. I know you're like everyone in this industry, and so I know this is a tough question for you, but who is someone that you think deserves an ovation in the restaurant industry? Who's someone that we should be following?

Speaker 2: 16:56

Oh, man, well, I love everyone at the Savory brand, all the brands there, F-A-Z-ing, all the founders there.

Speaker 1: 17:02

I just had Mo Bettis today for lunch. It's fire.

Speaker 2: 17:06

Yeah, all the founders there are awesome, so definitely ovation to all of them. But if I'm going outside of the Savory Fund, I mean there's so many great DMV brands too. Everyone knows Kava now, but they started out of the DMV. I definitely give them an ovation. And Brett Shulman he's been CEO, one of the founders of Kava. He's been a great friend and mentor whenever I needed it. So definitely Kava out of the DMV. And I'll also say, like a smaller level, like there's so much support for DMV brands and we're all close with each other. One of my favorites today that you guys have probably heard about if not, you're going to hear about them is called Call your Mother, a bagel shop out of the DMV. That just amazing quality product but also just great vibes that we love. So I'll give them an ovation as well.

Speaker 1: 17:55

There we go, dude. Their website looks super cool Bagels, coffee and vibes Callyourmotherdelicom. Yeah, definitely go check them out and obviously their founder.

Speaker 2: 18:05

I'll give him a shout, Andrew Danaana, he would love your hat too.

Speaker 1: 18:08

That's his vibe right there yeah, I know I'm looking at these colors. I'm like I'm ready to get some of this merch and I like this, our neighbor, what's the city?

Speaker 2: 18:16

and a lot of our locations we'd like open next to each other. Yeah sorry, you were gonna say their tagline yeah, their tagline is a jew-ish deli.

Speaker 1: 18:24

I love that. Okay. Well, amir, how do people find and follow you? Or South Block?

Speaker 2: 18:30

Best way is Instagram, so we're on Instagram at South Block. Website is southblockcom. Yeah, that's the best way. Follow us along for our journey. We're excited. Next year we're going to go into new markets outside of the DMV, so follow along for that. That's going to be a challenge for us that we're excited about and we're excited to keep spreading those vibes to new blocks and new communities and providing, hopefully, awesome experiences and also great work opportunities for people. That's something we pride ourselves on is being a great place to work and if you want to grow a career, I think it's for me. I would be not nearly as passionate as I am today about selling smoothies if we didn't make it about the people, and I love the fact that we can create a great career path for people who are working at a juice bar. I just think that's awesome and I think we've done that. We've really focused on leadership development, people development as part of our brand culture. So, yeah, I'd love for you guys to follow along If we come to one of your blocks, check us out.

Speaker 1: 19:36

Awesome. Well, Amir, hopefully you got the American Fork, Lehigh Utah block ready to go. We'd love to host you out here with the South Block location. But well, Amir, thanks for coming on today and for serving up the fountain of youth in a bowl. Today's ovation goes to you. Thank you for joining us. I'm giving ovation, Amir.

Speaker 2: 19:56

Thanks so much for having me Appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 19:59

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.