Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to a live version of Give an Ovation. We are here in 3D. This is not a Zoom virtual background. I'm here with Oliver Barwin, ceo of Bushfire Kitchen. How are you Good? Thanks for having me Super excited to talk. Tell me about the start of all this. How did you get into hospitality?

Speaker 2: 0:19

Yeah, so my prior life, prior to Rationals, was actually in New York. I'm working investment banking on Wall Street. Our family has been in the consumer space for my entire life. So back in 2020, I decided to make the switch to take over the business. My father was running at the time and we really took the opportunity to take this business to the next level, so brought in institutional capital to kind of help us expedite that growth and you know, under my leadership we essentially would end up well tripling, but in the next 12 months from where we started and then sky's the limit beyond that and tell me about the name.

Speaker 1: 0:55

Where'd the name come from?

Speaker 2: 0:56

bushfire kitchen. You know our family's originally australian, oh really, yeah, so some of the bushfire menu was developed, you know, based on some of the concepts that we really loved in Australia growing up. Yeah, and you know bushfire was actually an Australian name for brushfire, so that's why a lot of people get those two mixed up with us. And, yeah, it was kind of a genesis to our Australian roots and some of the menu was influenced by that kind of culture.

Speaker 1: 1:23

So what was it that made you go from the finance, banking side to food? I mean, like it seems like those are two just polar opposites. One is just give me spreadsheets, give me the numbers. The other one is like let's you know, it's people, it's connection, it's all about the hospitality. How do you make that switch?

Speaker 2: 1:40

Yeah, so you know. Unfortunately, my father was sick at the time, so he was kind of the point where they needed someone to step in. I joined february 2020, which is a very interesting time. No, join the industry. So it was the week prior to our governor shutting down restaurants in california. Oh, that was my entourage, so it was really unique time to join.

Speaker 1: 2:01

So march 1st of 2020. Were you just like oh, what did I do?

Speaker 2: 2:05

oh, yeah, it was, you know, but ultimately our you know our belief, both family and businesses family comes first. Yeah, that's part of our mission, our statement, our values. So we practiced that, so we kind of have to made it happen. Really, you know, covet, obviously everyone, those first six to 12 months was really rocky and scary, but ultimately, with crisis brings opportunity and that's what we took. I found that opportunity to re-look at our business from a fresh pair of eyes and really make change and be able to drive the business forward and reach new heights.

Speaker 1: 2:38

So you get through COVID, which sometime happened over the next three years. Right, you get through COVID. And what was it that got you to say, yeah, let's go into growth mode now. Let's like, keep going.

Speaker 2: 2:51

So our brand you know we've been successful just through good food and word of mouth, no marketing. It was just clean the basics food, hospitality. If you had those two things right, you could have something special. So I really believe in the brand. I think we were always out of the times in terms of kind of our menu, culinary forward approach and really providing a better for you product. So that's what it started with and then ultimately coming with a fresh pair of eyes and really looking at the systems, the tech stack, the infrastructure to support that growth was really important and that's what we built. We pretty much started the whole tech. When I joined, we ripped everything out and started from scratch.

Speaker 1: 3:30

How has the technology changed from when you started to?

Speaker 2: 3:34

now 100%. When I joined, we don't have a single thing left. No, so it was a full rebuild and we built it with the vision to be able to scale, even though at the time it was only three or four units. When I initially joined, we had much bigger plan for the future when it was about building a tech stack that was integrated systems could talk to one another, like hit scale. That's what we did. So ovations one of obviously our key partners. We use toast for pos, online ordering, 3 3PD integrations, email marketing, so it's been a huge player for us. And then we use a program called Chubby, which is a data warehouse analytic tool which essentially allows us to kind of take all of our data and put it to one place, recut it and make sense of it and provide not only from finance side but also our operators in real-time insights into their performance, not only on a P&L but also operational KPIs, guest feedback, kind of full view view lens of the business when you look at your tech vendors.

Speaker 1: 4:35

What was the hardest thing to replace and what was the easiest thing to do?

Speaker 2: 4:39

POS is tough switching costs we rolled out. There were no KDSs when I joined. That was something that we really felt was important to the brand. What were they doing? Old school tickets? No, yeah, like you know, we'll page long expo tickets all kitchen printers yeah but yeah, it was old school with pens.

Speaker 2: 4:56

so yeah, we were on clover at the time, which I remember we'd. I'd get probably five calls a day with some issue, some tech issue, no way, and we just realized it's time to rip it all out, start from scratch. You put in KDS. We just had a hole-in-one solution that can integrate with a bunch of other great software providers and have everything in one place.

Speaker 3: 5:18

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:18

And that was just key for us and it made. Once we got that it was a lot of work to get it rolled out. Once we got that it was a lot of work to get it rolled out, but once it's going, so the paying was worth it. It runs smooth. You know now I don't get a single call.

Speaker 1: 5:28

Okay, that's awesome. What were some of the easier things to get going?

Speaker 2: 5:32

Give you guys credit. Ovation was an easy one. Prior to that, we were using just Toast's, I guess, feedback solution, which is really simple, just thumbs up, thumbs down but really wasn't giving us actual insights into our performance. I was a big believer in text. First. We looked at a lot of the other solutions that are mostly email driven and in the new age we felt like texting was the place we wanted to be aligned with and we felt like open rates and the amount of feedback you get through that is significantly better than email. So that was a big part of it and the rollout, you know, was seamless and we still. We use it today in every one of our stores and we integrate all of that data. We get back with our data warehouse Chubby to be able to get you know real time insights into what's going on.

Speaker 1: 6:15

That is amazing that you're actually like using that data and aggregating that data, because I think a lot of times we love to partner with people, we have an API. We want people to pull that data into other sources. A lot of people just don't do that. Or a lot of people, like we pull in a lot of data, some other vendors don't want to share that data, and so Our philosophy is it's not our data, it's not me sharing that data with someone else. This is your data, it's your guess, and I think that that's an important factor to make sure that when you're working with vendors understand what is their data philosophy and how do they connect with you. But all of this at the end, like the data is great, the finance is great, but, like, at the end of the day, it's about the guest experience, right? So I'd love to understand what do you think are some of the most important aspects of guest experience nowadays?

Speaker 2: 7:04

Yeah. So I think there's multifacets. The restaurant industry has changed so much with on-premise, off-premise. It really depends what you're looking at. But I think the start is just the guest experience, right. Yeah, walking in, the little things, it's what do you see? Is the restaurant clean? Do I walk in? Do they welcome me? It's the little things. Do I get table touched? Do they check on me? So it's really the cultural little things that it takes time to build and create a welcoming atmosphere, to give a reason to come back. You can have the best food in the world, but if you don't have the service and hospitality it's for nothing.

Speaker 2: 7:33

Yeah, so that's really been important to us and Ovation allows us to kind of measure some of that. So, for example, ovation, we're able to tag all of our review source to a source, right. So table tents, for example. So every one of our restaurants, every single table, has a QR code to scan, leave feedback and then we can tie that back to the source. So what we do with our GMs is we actually give them goals. So let's get 20 table tents reviews a week to really push them to table touch and really interact with the guests and kind of try to gather feedback and gather information and kind of ensure that our actions align with what we're kind of seeing on the back end.

Speaker 1: 8:13

Interesting. So do your GMs like have a script, Like will they go up and actually like say oh, hey, yeah, I mean we table touching is part of the industry, right.

Speaker 2: 8:22

So we want to make sure that everything's right and kind of treat the guests perfectly and make sure they have a great experience. And then, if they do have a great experience, it's just saying that. One extra question, you know, if you have a second, could you take a time to get like your card and leave us a review? Yeah, and mostly guests that are good experience, they're more than happy to do that. And and obviously we've seen a really nice increase in our public reviews. So Yelp and Google Scores since we went on elevation we've seen those go up Because obviously those five-star ones we're directing straight to there and it's made a huge impact to the business.

Speaker 2: 8:53

Beyond just in-store hospitality, it's all about creating an easy, seamless experience for the guests.

Speaker 2: 8:58

So we look at throughput.

Speaker 2: 9:00

It's you know once you walk in the door, how quick because we're fast cows, right. So how quickly can I order, sit down and get my food? So and that starts with the general menu the restaurant design making sure that our soda machine is after where you pay, so that there's no bottlenecks so we look at the whole guest experience as they walk into the door is really important to us. And then also from an online perspective, having really great online ordering solution is critical, and we think Toast does a really good job of that. And then, beyond that, we're using what's called SmartQuote in Toast, which is essentially an AI-powered order coach tool which essentially takes into account the kitchen's capacity and how busy they are at the time of that order to provide a more accurate order ready time for the guest, and that's something we measure in terms of our percent kitchen's capacity and how busy they are at the time of that order to provide a more accurate order ready time for the guest, and that's something we measure in terms of our percent. On time relates.

Speaker 1: 9:46

Yeah, because that's one of the things is, a lot of times, as we kind of look at the back end system and as we're looking at who is responding and what's the feedback, one of the big things that we hear is service was slow. And people will often push back and they'll be like, well, our service wasn't slow and I'm like, okay, but your guests thought that it was, and so we try to understand why did they think it is? And as we dive into that data, one of the most common complaints about order was slow is because the order wasn't ready when someone went to go pick it up. And if I go to the store and I order ahead and I get there at the order ready time and the food hasn't even started to get cooked, I'm like, why did I order ahead? I could have just showed up and just ordered with everybody else, but instead I took the time to order ahead and it creates a really negative guest experience.

Speaker 1: 10:37

And so we always recommend being, especially if you have something like what do you call it? What was the toast feature? Smart quote, smart quote, that's awesome. If you don't have that, give a little extra buffer, right? Because especially if your online ordering system allows you to say during, like the lunch or dinner rush, give yourself a little more time, because that creates such a negative experience and very consistently will get you negative reviews.

Speaker 2: 11:06

We also we're using KDS in all of our restaurants, so we also text the guests when their order is actually ready with instructions on where to go, and then we also sometimes put an ovation link to leave feedback. So they have it all in one place. Order's ready, now they go. How was it? Here's the link Leave us some feedback.

Speaker 1: 11:23

I love that you send that link with it, because then if they get their food and there's something wrong right there, they forgot to do it. Because we try to basically mimic a table touch which is 20, 25 minutes and then say, hey, how was everything? But if there's something missing, they want to tell somebody about it, right then. And so I think that's really cool. I like that. Any tactics that you've seen to be really effective to improve the guest experience.

Speaker 2: 11:45

Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of it is, yeah, as I said, like systems, throughput, speed of service, communication to the guests and just really setting up a great experience from start to finish of the order and then you know, then, what we do is we're really focused on when we get something wrong. We can't be 100%, no one can be 100%. When we get something wrong, we make sure to make it right and quickly. So we actually measure, through Ovation, our response time to guest complaints and make sure that we resolve everything within ideally 12 hours.

Speaker 1: 12:17

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:17

And giving them promos gift cards or promo codes to be able to come back and try us again and give us another chance. Because once those guests, if they don't have a good experience, the likelihood of them coming back is very, very low. Yeah, but if they give you that opportunity or that feedback, you have to take it.

Speaker 1: 12:32

And I think that that apology is something that's so powerful because data shows that a guest who had a negative experience in proper service recovery is actually worth 24 times more than your average guest, and so to have that ability to create raving fans from mistakes is huge, because you could do the same thing right. For example, there's a pizza place by me and I went there for years and one day I went in there and the ranch dressing or the creamy Italian dressing, which I really liked, was so runny. It was just kind of like gross. It was like really watery.

Speaker 1: 13:06

I literally didn't go back there for two years. I've been going there for seven years and they had nailed it every time, but what happened was I didn't have a way to share with anyone. To me it was like, well, maybe they changed the recipe. I didn't talk to anyone there because I was in a meeting in a rush and it wasn't like I was offended or mad, it was just that when I thought about that restaurant, I thought about, like that runny dressing, and then I was like, well, maybe I'll try something else.

Speaker 1: 13:30

A lot of other places have opened up. So it took me two years to get around to getting that restaurant back in my rotation because of one tiny little mistake. And guess what happened when I went back there two years later? It must've just been an off day, because the dressing was exactly how it was before. But I think that, like having that low effort way of a guest just to reach out and had they been able to say, we're so sorry, we had a new person making it that's not what we're trying to do. I would have never had a break from that restaurant and they would have had my business for another two years. Now, luckily, they're great, they're awesome. I'm back with them. I go there a couple of times a year. But yeah, like that is so important to make sure that you're not only hearing what's going on, that you're staying that consistent, but that you apologize when things don't go right.

Speaker 2: 14:21

And our guests. They've said it. They couldn't believe that someone actually reached out to make it right. That's a foreign concept to a lot of guests. They're not used to restaurants really texting them and going above and beyond to get to the bottom of what the issue was and making sure it's resolved and they feel good about it, which is great, though, because the bar is set really low in the hospitality industry.

Speaker 1: 14:41

Ironically, right, because you think it's hospitality, but at the end of the day, when you have 120% employee turnover and 80% manager turnover, it's just hard to get people that really buy in in the moment. Right, and so the tech is there to not to replace them, but to enhance what they, and that's how we look at it.

Speaker 2: 15:00

Yeah, giving our operators the tools, the research and the data to be able to do their jobs, and then have the insights to understand where are we doing well or do we do better? Okay, and then have the insights to understand where are we doing well? Where do we?

Speaker 1: 15:11

do better. Okay, let's say you are starting a new restaurant today. Right, brand new Bushfire just got sold for a billion dollars, and what do you do next? What do you feel like is the concept that would do well in today's environment?

Speaker 2: 15:26

We are big believers in better for your products. You see, there's an overall push to make america healthy and I think there's also this situation we're in with the economy that you know there is lower consumer confidence and relations high and people want value offerings. So I think you know we'd I'd probably potentially look at, you know, a healthy kind of fast, casual concept at a lower price point. That's really smaller menu, easy to execute, easy to scale, but still providing the same flavor, quality and healthy food to communities kind of across the nation. That's really what. But similar to bushfire, we've been able to be successful in very different demographics markets and we can be successful in the coastal California as well as Inland Empire, which is not many brands that have been able to do both.

Speaker 2: 16:15

So we're really about any brand I do in the future would be about being able to have a broad reach. We have something for everyone and really be able to provide a very value offering to the guests. They feel like they're getting bang for their buck. Eat healthy, quick, easy. Okay, you know a lot of people in the industry. Who is someone? Yeah, so they feel like that they're getting bang for their buck.

Speaker 1: 16:32

Eat healthy, quick, easy. Okay, you know a lot of people in the industry. Who is someone that deserves an ovation, who's someone that we all should be following.

Speaker 2: 16:38

I think, jim Bayless. He spoke today at our conference. I think he's a great, great operator, great investor.

Speaker 1: 16:43

Speaking of a billion. He is no longer with Sizzling Platter, but he's the one who helped grow them to the point that they were able to sell for a billion dollars, which, anytime you create something that sells for something with a B in it, that's impressive.

Speaker 2: 16:56

Yeah, and he's been a great mentor to me, was very involved in Bushfire and our growth and, yeah, I have a lot of respect for Jim. I think a lot of people could learn a lot of things from him.

Speaker 1: 17:06

Yeah, jim Bayless man 100% great shout out. Jim Bayless man 100% great shout out. And how do people find and follow you and Bushfire Instagram is the best way.

Speaker 2: 17:13

We're at Bushfire Kitchen, our website bushfirekitchencom, and then, you know, for business and growth news, we're on LinkedIn. That's the best way. Keep on top of us.

Speaker 1: 17:21

Awesome Well for giving us a little bit of the down under up north today's ovation goes us today.

Speaker 3: 17:29

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.