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
Tech, Guest Experience, and Growth with Ming-Tai Huh
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In this episode of Give an Ovation, we welcome Ming-Tai Huh, Head of Food and Beverage at Square and a restaurateur with over a decade of experience through Cambridge Street Hospitality Group. Ming brings a unique perspective, blending his deep industry knowledge with cutting-edge restaurant technology to help operators thrive in an ever-evolving market.
Zack and Ming discuss:
- The intersection of hospitality and technology—how to use tech without losing the human touch
- Key lessons from the restaurant world that translate into successful tech leadership
- How to approach restaurant technology with a problem-first mindset rather than a solution-first approach
- The importance of feedback loops in creating an exceptional guest experience
- Strategies to balance expansion and maintaining quality across multiple locations
Tune in to hear Ming’s insights on how restaurants can leverage technology while staying true to their hospitality roots and delivering unforgettable guest experiences.
Thanks, Ming!
Enhancing the Restaurant Guest Experience
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 I have a good friend of mine who is someone that I have hung out with what feels like thousands of trade shows Ming Tai he , who is the head of food and beverage at Square . Not only that , he's not just like a tech bro . This guy has owned restaurants since 2011 with Cambridge Street Hospitality Group . Owned restaurants since 2011 with Cambridge Street Hospitality Group Some amazing concepts we're talking like not just like your run-of-the-mill franchise . We're talking about chef curated , beautiful menus , great interiors , great experiences , and so it's really cool , ming , that you're on both sides of this and excited that you took some time out of like your 14 day jobs to come onto the podcast .
Speaker 2Well , that's for sure , pretty busy these days , but I think you hit something . Really important is that I started in the restaurant industry as an operator before I got into the restaurant tech space and a lot of the work that I do really is customer centric , in the sense of how can we help restaurants be better performing , more profitable , and how do you do that with technology . That's sort of like been the basis and I'm really excited for what I'm doing with Square and with its thousands of millions of merchants and so really excited to talk with you .
Speaker 1Well , I'm excited about that and first of all , I would love to hear what are some of the lessons that have translated from hospitality into technology .
Speaker 2Yeah , a great point I'll kind of dive right into . Like how do you manage a team and be a great leader ? That's what's really important in a restaurant . You have a team all rowing in the same direction and it just happens to be about delivering . Make sure the duck confit and the cocktails taste great in the restaurant space and you can tell when you have one server having a bad day . One line cook having a bad day affects the whole line , affects the mood of all the other servers and ultimately turns into a poor guest experience . And it can translate directly into running tech teams making sure everybody is running in the same direction , has aligned on the strategy , understands what we're trying to accomplish . So honestly working with people which is very much the core what the restaurant industry is about translates directly to running teams in the technology space .
Speaker 1Yeah , because I think that one of the things I always tell my team and this is just on like our slide every year when we talk about our mission is that we are not a technology company selling into the hospitality industry . We are a hospitality company selling a technology . And what would a hospitality company do ? How would we treat this person if they were ordering a large catering order from us or if they were coming in for dinner with their friends ? Like , what would we do ? What's the right thing to do ? How do we want them to feel ?
Speaker 1And that affects how we onboard , that affects how we connect with our customers , and I've heard this several times from you and you alluded to it when we just kicked off . But you believe that technology plays an important role in the restaurant , but it isn't just about getting the technology and a lot of people will go to a trade show . They'll walk up and down the aisle and it's kind of like going to the grocery store hungry , where it's like sure , yeah , that looks good and they'll get technology without kind of the overarching strategy . What recommendations do you have for restaurant owners when it comes to thinking about technology in their restaurant ?
Speaker 2Yeah , well , I think one way to maybe put it simply is don't go searching for solutions . Really think about the problems that you have and start with that , because you can walk up to any booth and say like , oh , this looks fancy , this is great , let me try it out . And then you're then using that to go find problems that may or may not exist in your restaurant or may not exist in your restaurant , and so I think this is what's really important is like really understanding your business really well . What are the areas of opportunity ? Is it labor ? Is it food costs ? You know the traditional kind of things . Is it repeat guests ? Is it staff retention ? I mean , there's numerous number of them . Stack rank those which are the ones that are hurting you most , and then start from there and then ask a lot of questions as to okay , hey , this is the problem I have , can you help me solve it ? Versus okay , feature X , feature Y , feature Z oh , that looks great , but ultimately it doesn't actually solve the need .
Speaker 1Yeah , and I think that the exact right way to do it is like go with a grocery list , right ? Hey , I want to have a Thai chicken tomorrow night , so let's go to the grocery store and maybe there's a new way to make Thai chicken that you didn't know about , that you learn about there , great . But if you go there with a focus , if you go to a trade show with a grocery list , so to speak , of the main problems that you're trying to solve and prioritize them , you'll have a much more effective time at trade shows , them , you'll have a much more effective time at trade shows and or just talking to vendors in general . I think that's a great rule of thumb and I love how , especially coming from your background I should say background , but I mean like you're still involved in the restaurants , like just to be clear , right .
Speaker 2Yeah , I mean , look , absolutely so I'm a general partner of the restaurant group . I don't have a day to day role and I know some operators may say like , oh well , you're not really in the industry but I definitely have many jobs . But I have a wonderful team , great chef partner that I've been working with basically since day one and I really trust the team to really make great decisions . But , yeah , like every Saturday , I'm spending two hours with the management team . Then during the week , you know , time with the ownership and the partnership team , mainly focused on expansion , dealing with landlords , quite like the bigger kind of pieces of the puzzle and , well you know , obviously focusing on my day to day job with Square .
Speaker 1Yeah , I think that being able to balance both is great , because sometimes if you get hyper focused on one thing , you lose the creative juices of having a couple of different problems to be solving , and I think one of the biggest problems that people are working to solve in the restaurant industry right now is the guest experience . What do you feel like is the most important aspect of guest experience nowadays ?
Speaker 2Yeah , this is my favorite right , and I would say because that's where I started . My start for restaurants doesn't begin with my family on the restaurant and washing dishes when I was 12 . So which I've heard that story for sure , but that's not my story . My story was I was a guest and I had a wonderful experience of a restaurant no longer in existence it closed called Craigia Main here in Boston , in the Cambridge area , actually three blocks from my house . So I think you're getting the picture .
Speaker 2I was there a lot , and I had one of those experiences where a restaurant adopts a guest and kind of treats them like part of the family and that really made me feel like this is amazing experience in the community . I love it . I love to be part of something like this one day , and so that's where I actually spend a lot of my time thinking with sort of like the CMO hat of the restaurant is how do I make sure my guest experience is phenomenal , wonderful , and we have quick service restaurants and full service restaurants in the hospitality group , so there are multiple ways to provide that great experience , whether it's a server at the table or even that's what start from the beginning being greeted at the host stand . And then the QSR experience , where a lot of people kind of just want great food and want to get in , get out , and then how do you make that a magical or at least a great experience that's consistent ? Continually looking at these and understanding okay , how can we make it better ? Is a big part of great making great guest experiences
Restaurant Guest Feedback and Experience
Speaker 2.
Speaker 2I think one thing that people maybe overlook is asking guests . Sometimes you don't want to bother people , but actually like asking people how was it ? What can we do better ? Was this great ? Did you get what you paid for ? Yeah , there are ways that you can really sort of get at a core , maybe like challenge or understanding that you're trying to understand about your business . Especially in the early days , if you're trying something out , it's really important , just like building software , just like get that feedback and then make changes that are for the better .
Speaker 1I love that . I think that's such a great segue into the next question . But just to double click on that , one of the things that we found is that people are willing to give you feedback . What they don't want to do , because people are like , oh , no one's going to give me feedback . It's like , yeah , nobody wants to fill out your 20 question survey right Now .
Speaker 1People do want to tell you , especially if they got delivery and they ordered five burgers and only four show up . And now one of their kids is like really pissed off . And that is something that , yes , they definitely want to give you feedback . And what we found is that a lot of people don't skew towards leaving negative reviews . They just won't come back , and the reason that they don't want to leave you a negative review is because they don't want to hurt your business , because they're like , whatever , I don't care enough to give that feedback to like , go through all the effort , all the hoops to leave a review or to take your 20 question survey , but if you make it easy for them , they'll tell you .
Speaker 2And then the key is , if you ask , listen right , like do something about it . And I think that's really important . Yeah , I would say , for instance and hopefully this doesn't like get abused , but like if a guest ever has an issue with our restaurant , especially if it's unsatisfactory , like , oh , I didn't like your dish . And in the world of delivery right , where we can't just make , make it right immediately , because that's what we would do in a full service restaurant . We'd take the plate away , right . They would say , ok , we'll remake this or we will give you something different . I meet your needs .
Speaker 2In the world of delivery , now take out . Our policy is like we will give that person their money back immediately . Potentially , if they were the only person to complain about that one thing that day and we batched it and we know that potentially it's fine , it wasn't fine for them , we give them their money back . Yeah , I love that . And it's like back to the early side , which is we want them to feel like we're people First of all it's a people business and are incentivized to come back again and try again .
Speaker 1And I think that one of the things that we found is that if you tie that feedback to something like their mobile number , well then you can track to see is this someone who's going to be a consistent complainer ? Are they going to come in every week and complain about something to try to get something for free ? You discover that really quickly phone number . Then you don't have to be as concerned about being hospitable and about giving them a big refund with an apology and maybe even a $5 off coupon for the next order . The first time , the second time maybe you could be a little more skeptical . The third time , apologize , but you don't have to keep giving them stuff , and I think that's really the key is like hospitality does not mean letting someone abuse generosity , right .
Speaker 2Yeah , look , I think we're one of the most accessible businesses in hospitality that you get , and so , like there's going to be a few bad apples here and there , but that shouldn't really spoil the majority of experiences where people are looking to be satisfied , satiated and even loud , depending on , maybe , the level of experience . Yeah , and I think what we're talking about here is like the touch points is really important , and I think the touch points I think maybe what we can dig in further is either they're changing where , when I started this business , no one got text messages from restaurants . Yeah , well , one , like not many people had smart phones , but nowadays , like it's , I don't want you calling me . Why would you call me ? I don't even pick up numbers who don't have my phone numbers . You can't call me . Yeah , why would you call me ? I don't even pick up numbers who don't have my phone numbers . You can't call me .
Speaker 2And then your address . It's kind of like I don't know if I'm going to read it . There's a lot of things in my inbox that I ignore . I got a text message that is like highly relevant , like hey , you were just here , you had this . How was it ? I make a decision , yes or no , do I want to answer this , but maybe I do . That's like you know , I didn't like that . Let me tell you why I didn't like it . Click , click , click , click , click , click , click , click done . That's so helpful for a restaurant to be able to get that feedback in that moment , and it wasn't really that much weight , yeah no-transcript .
Speaker 1Would rather have a business text them than reach out to them in any other way , because that's where people they're on their phones . But emails , yeah , to your point . There's like a few days go by until it's sent , a few days until I see it , a few days to reply , a few days to see it , and now all of a sudden you're a week and a half down the road and this frustration of a $12 pizza and soda , all of a sudden you're like I don't care , I'm just not going back , right . But as things are tangible and they just had an emotional experience , if you can connect with them in that moment , boom , like you got someone for life there .
Speaker 2Yeah , look , the medium is just different . Like when people get emails from us , they expect us to talk about three pages of a new wine and a new dish in the country we visited to source the information for it . Like , it's like a different medium , right ? Whereas the text message is like hey , I was up comes down .
Speaker 1Yeah , totally Well . I mean , I know we're approaching time here . Who is someone in the restaurant industry that deserves an ovation ? Who's someone that we should be following ?
Speaker 2Who do I love ? I mean Eli Sussman , chef like , I love his feed on Instagram because it's just so funny , because it's true it's definitely an industry . And then look , another that I thought about , which is a thread that I enjoy on Instagram , is Preston Lee 30% rule . I'm not really sure how deeply founded the work is , but I just love his approach to hey , there are like things that you actually need to do as a restaurant that are kind of no brainers and you got to do those things and I think that's really important for the industry at large . It's like , hey , there are basics in the industry . You're never going to get to 10 percent margin unless you do those things and so focus on not making own goals and mistakes that really can hurt you in the business .
Speaker 1Love that , and where can people go to find and follow you ?
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , absolutely . Linkedin is probably where I post the most , especially about the industry and what we're up to , and then obviously follow Square on LinkedIn and Instagram . We feature both Square products , but then also our sellers , our restaurants that are doing amazing things in the market , especially amazing wonderful things for places that are under some challenge , like LA , for instance . We have a lot of great customers there that were affected , and then those that are under some challenge , like LA , for instance . We have a lot of great customers there that were affected , and then those are trying to support others in their community , really trying to really speak and blow that out in a way that people can get the help that they need .
Speaker 1I love that Well Ming for showing us that at times it is hip to be square . Today's ovation goes to you . Thank you for joining us on Give an Ovation Awesome . Today's Ovation goes to you , thank you for joining us on Give an Ovation .
Speaker 2Awesome Thanks for having me . Really appreciate it . Let's do it again .
Speaker 1Absolutely . 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 .