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
Real Connections, Real Results with Yasaman Stewart
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Yasaman Stewart, Senior Director of Marketing at Brix Holdings, joins Zack to share how consistency, energy, and real connection drive powerful guest experiences. Drawing from her deep operations and marketing background, Yasaman explains how brands can inspire their teams, build authentic connections, and turn recognition into loyalty.
Zack and Yasaman discuss:
- Why consistency in execution builds brand trust
- How operational passion elevates marketing efforts
- Creating emotional guest connections through genuine service
- Tailoring the guest experience while staying consistent
- Leveraging feedback and rewards to drive team motivation
Tune in to hear how Yasaman’s people-first approach is creating contagious excitement across brands.
Thanks, Yasaman!
Learn more:
https://ovationup.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasamanstewart/
Welcome to Give an Ovation
Speaker 1Welcome to Give an Ovation , the restaurant guest experience podcast . I'm your host , zach Oates , and each week I chat with industry experts to uncover real strategies and actionable tactics you can use to create a five-star guest experience . This podcast is powered by Ovation , the feedback and operations platform built for multi-unit restaurants . It gives you the insights you need without the annoying guest questions . Learn more at OvationUpcom . Today I'm excited because we have someone who and I'm excited every week we do this , but especially today because Yasmin Stewart is not only an amazing industry veteran and great human , but she's also just so smart and she gets marketing and I'm excited to have you on to talk about the guest experience . She is the senior director of marketing at Bricks Holdings , where she is at the helm of marketing for Friendly's , and now she's working with Clean Juice as well . It's pretty fun , yasmin , that you can with Bricks . You don't have to just focus on one brand . There's a family of brands there .
Speaker 2And it's never a dull moment , and every brand has its own personality . It's like literally working with another office mate . It's its own personality and you have to shift that personality .
Speaker 1So it's never a dull moment , that is awesome Now , okay , so you've had quite the career , though , in hospitality . Bricks is not your first foray into food , and as you're looking at the brands that you've worked at , what would you say are some of the mistakes that you've seen some of these brands make that you're like , oh man , I just wish that brands would do X , y Z better before I got there .
Consistency: Key to Brand Success
Speaker 2Consistency . I think consistency is 100% , and the only reason I say that is because the brands I did work for that had consistency had a much more successful rate than those that didn't have that consistency , those that didn't step over the opportunity , step over the dollars to pick up dimes . Those are the ones who had the success . And I was with Outback Steakhouse for 16 plus years . I was in operations and so I saw the operational side of everything and then went into marketing because I was annoyed with marketing and I wanted to get into marketing to understand why does that annoy me and how can I change this ? Bringing me to marketing , and I put that operational . And so it has to be consistency both in messaging and execution , and I wish every brand had that , but you can't in such a fast paced world , so sometimes you have to adjust .
Speaker 1And I love that you're focused on a marketer that comes from operations , because you understand the importance of nailing it with the messaging to the experience , to the post experience . For example , I'm looking at the poster behind you of the Jonas Brothers and you could have all the marketing pizzazz in the world and you could do all the marketing stuff , but if the window clings don't get up , if the table toppers don't get put on , if the sundae isn't made correctly , then all of that marketing effort goes to waste . That you're doing it from a national scale .
Speaker 2And there's one more piece on top of that . Those are logistics . Those are the things that could be done . Done the excitement and the passion that you give the team also is what's incredibly important . They could put that poster up , but they gotta be excited . They get to be singing to Jonas Brothers . If you don't have that excitement of the team member of that fountain server or whoever , if you don't have that excitement that is going to resonate to the guests , why would the guests be excited if your server's not excited ?
Speaker 2And so I can put a button on them all day long and they'll be like , okay , this is my button , hi , welcome to Friendly's . Get a Jonas Brothers Sunday . But when that girl is just going , oh my God , did you see that Joe's three headed monster , and they get excited . And they're like , oh my God , I'll get excited too . It's contagious . And I just think that if you don't have that energy or the team member , what's the point of executing any of it and , by the way , I love that contagious can now be a good word again .
Speaker 1We are five years past the start of COVID .
Speaker 2You couldn't say that . You couldn't say that , could you yeah ?
Speaker 1that word was pretty much persona non grata for the last five years . I love that . Yeah , it's contagiously happy . Right
The Power of Genuine Connection
Speaker 1there you go , I love that Contagiously happy .
Speaker 2I love that .
Speaker 1Contagiously happy . Yes , there you go . I love that Contagiously happy . I love that Contagiously happy . Yes , awesome . And obviously I love when talking to operators who understand marketing , because they get that , no matter what it is . It's about the guest experience , and so what do you think is some of the most important aspects of guest experience nowadays ?
Speaker 2Genuine connection . I had mentioned that on one of the panels that we had talked to . It's a genuine connection that when they're getting a response , when they're being heard , that's all they really want to do is be heard . We're in the world of social media and email , heavy With the guest experience .
Speaker 2They can go on and they can be tough on social media you suck you this , but then when you see them face to face , you're like you wrote that you have that courage , you have that keyboard courage . It's that experience and that consistency , but a genuine connection to be like , okay , I'm listening , yasmin's listening , can I solve it ? Probably not , but they're a little bit more . As long as they're being heard and acknowledged , then it's okay . If you can't get the results and the solution immediately , they understand that you're human . I think that's incredibly important , plus being heard . I am the worst person when I email somebody or I even call somebody . If you don't call or text me back , that kills me . I'll response . Just a response is what you need and that's important .
Speaker 1I love that because that connection it just helps people understand that they're cared about . I define hospitality as proving to the guest you care , yes , right . And if you prove to the guest that you care , what happens is connection means they care about you because they know that you care about them . And I think about that even in our lives . No-transcript need to meet the guests where they're at and communicate that we care about them in the way that they want to . And there may be someone who's Gen Z who wants a text message . There may be someone who's older who wants that manager to come up and genuinely ask them how everything was . But we got to make sure that we meet the guests where we're at so that they know that we , as a brand , care about them . And for those who say we can't scale that , you will never be able to build a brand bigger than a couple locations if you don't believe that .
Speaker 2It's super that you even said that about the different like with your two kiddos . I take you always take your past experience of when did I actually learn to do that ? And it's you literally 16 years of bartending . It was 16 years of being behind the bar and being like , okay , this guy wants to be talked to like this , this person wants to be talked , this couple wants to be like this . And you have to tweak your personality and your delivery to each person and that , in its own , is consistent experience , because just because you have to tweak your voice in the way you present and you go forward doesn't necessarily mean that you are changing the consistency of what you're delivering . It's just the way you're delivering it .
Speaker 1Yes , I think that's such a good thing because I think about my wife . She was a server for a long time at a steakhouse and she's like some people would come in there and it was just like a husband and wife and you could tell they didn't really talk a lot to each other and they kind of wanted to be entertained by the server . There are other people on business meetings that they just like just bring me my food . There's other people who are just like so
Implementing Franchise Reward Systems
Speaker 1in love that they just in their own little world and you do . You have to tailor the experience for them and make sure , again , you're meeting them where they're at Now . I know that that's a good strategy and , thinking about it , what about some tactics ? What are some things that you've used to improve the guest experience in your brands ?
Speaker 2So being in a franchise system , that's very different . That's the next thing . That is , when you're in a franchise system and your locations are owned by people that have an investment in it dollar investment it's very different . So you have to motivate them and so one of the things that we implemented that I feel like it really worked . At first I was like , eh , maybe not , but when we noticed there was a reward behind it , we do like a ranking reward . Number one how their response times , how they even the response rates based off of that measurement , their Google measurements there .
Speaker 2Are they abiding by the POP ? Are they doing that ? It's just the delivery and then rewarding them and their team at the end of that quarter with dollars to help them either a celebrate or put back into their business that we help them with for the local store marketing or whatnot maybe billboards , maybe a vet setup something that they normally don't think about , but it's almost a gift to say congrats . And when we did that , you saw the scores go up . You even may have seen it on the ovation side . It's just they start going up because they know that there is a reward and from that reward they're seeing their sales and their dollars are coming back , and so they're like well , if that's our reward too . So not only are you doing that ranking rewards program , and then at the end of the year they become the best friendlies , the best in class friendlies . So Hocasin , delaware , became the best in class friendlies , and they got t-shirts that said best friendlies in the United States , and so they got to have that noise .
Speaker 1Oh , that's cool . Wear the shirts in the restaurant .
Speaker 2Customers see that and it goes back again to the fact that the customers are seeing that and they're excited because the team just got excited . It's a rippling effect and I think that that tactic helped a lot .
Speaker 1So rewards like what are we talking about ? Is it like a free ice cream sundae ? Is it like a free , all expense paid trip to Ireland ?
Speaker 2No , it's marketing dollars back to them to do what they need to do to execute more programs . So it's not just here's an ice cream or a t-shirt , it's a the recognition that they're the best friendlies , but it's also a return of their dollars that we can say let's help you further your business even more with that , and so it's almost like a kickback , a rebate , a rebate kind of program , like thing Got it .
Speaker 1Do you help them to spend that money , or like , do you actually just like give them ?
Speaker 2that money . We just don't give it to them and go . We have a fantastic local store marketing manager .
Speaker 1So you invest more into their local store marketing and give them the support to do that if they win these rewards .
Speaker 2Above and beyond what we do , and we already give bets in our honor and we give them bets in class . We give them even more of a hyper focus with it as well .
Speaker 1That's really cool . I love that because it's a virtuous cycle of not only do they have the good feeling of like we won something , we got this award , but they also are going to drive more sales .
Speaker 2I love that idea Because they see it and it's not just like , oh , we're going to win it , this is great , we got the T-shirt . They see the sales coming , they see all their hard work and it becomes a consistent habit . You're making habits .
Speaker 1I love that , and you do that on a quarterly basis .
Speaker 2We do that on a period . Yeah , quarterly basis is what we do . We don't do it every quarter . We do it basically the two major quarters in the middle , but we still track them on a quarterly basis . So just because you're not getting that rebate reward , you're being recognized no matter what in that quarter .
Speaker 1And a lot of times , just as a guest who has a bad experience doesn't always need to get a full refund and a $20 gift card , sometimes they just want to feel heard . So too with our team . Sometimes they just want to be recognized , and if you could recognize a team and give them that juice to feel like , hey , yeah , that was really cool . It works and , by the way , didn't mean to make the pun about clean juice there , but oh , I'm getting used to it , don't worry about it .
Speaker 1So , Yasmin , who is someone in the industry that we should be following ? Who's
Industry Recognition and Closing Thoughts
Speaker 1someone who deserves an ovation ?
Speaker 2Okay , I think I mean if you're not following them already , then you're silly . I think Brazen Canes is kicking butt and taking names . I think they are . I mean , if you're not already following them , you're nuts . And that's only because they only have a couple of products . They're really good at doing that product and he's even said it . Todd Brazen said it . Be really good at that . But then it's the partnerships . You can't go on Barstool , you can't go on Post Malone and not see these partnerships come into life . And then also their excitement with their team members and celebrating those team members and the customers that come with that . I think that what they're doing is fantastic at what they're besides us , we're awesome .
Speaker 2Don't even follow us . We're doing amazing .
Speaker 1Oh , of course . Yes , totally agree . I think that they do a good product . Well , actually , they do like three good products , right , and that's really . All they need is three good products and some friendliness , and I think that's awesome . Last question here , yasmin , is I can't leave without just asking you how has Ovation been helpful for you ?
Speaker 2Oh , are you kidding me ? It's listening to the voice of the customer . It's understanding . I come from an environment where it was very , very research and development and customer insights and research and guest intercepts everything we live in now a world post-COVID that it's fast , fast , fast , fast , fast . How do we collect that information and real-time information and guest experience and data ? And I feel like Ovation has gotten to the point where I can read through and hear what they're saying . What are they saying ? What are their feedbacks . It is my own quick way of getting that insight that I need to be able to do more or update what I need to do , and that is 100% where Ovation comes in , for that . You're my mini little research firm , is what you really are . And , just like I said , see where we can even help operations execute better . Did this even work ? How did we do , demographically , just all of that ? It is an analytical tool that I absolutely love with Ovation .
Speaker 1Awesome . Well , I sure do appreciate that and appreciate all that you do for the industry and supporting and the ideas that you bring to the table . Where can people go to find and follow you and Bricks ?
Speaker 2Friendly's and Bricks . We do have of our brands . We have our own Instagrams and Facebook pages with Friendly's Ice Cream , clean Juice , so all of our handles are there as well , so you can follow us everywhere where we like to be very social and out there .
Speaker 1And you do a great job with that too . You could definitely follow Yasmin on , yasmin Stewart on LinkedIn and Yasmin for this being the cleanest and friendliest podcast ever . Today's Ovation goes to you . Thank you for joining us and giving Ovation .
Speaker 2Couldn't do it without you guys . Thank you so much , Zach .
Speaker 1Thanks 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 .