Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to another edition of Give an Ovation, the restaurant guest experience podcast. I'm your host, zach Oates, and each week I chat with industry experts to uncover their strategies and tactics to help you 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 all the insights you need, with none of the annoying surveys for your guests. Learn more at OvationUpcom. And today we have a friend of mine. We've been working together for quite some time now. He's got an amazing brand, an amazing story Pete Mora, the founder of the award-winning and mouth-watering Fajita Pete's. Pete. Welcome to the show man. How are you Very good? Thank you for having me. It's an honor to meet you. I've been following your brand digitally, and it's really cool to see how much people love what you're doing. They love the style. Tell me about it, though, because it's not your typical what you think of as like your typical taco shop. It's not a regular Mexican restaurant?

Speaker 2: 1:00

No, definitely not. I think it's a hybrid. It all stemmed from my very first restaurant that had 60 tables, full service, typical mom and pop. Neighborhood Tex-Mex joint right Opened that right when I was out of college and I did that for six years.

Speaker 2: 1:17

While I was there I learned a lot of the stuff in the restaurant business that I love and a lot of the stuff that makes it difficult as well in the restaurant business that I love, and a lot of the stuff that makes it difficult as well. Luckily, I was 23 and I knew absolutely everything, as every 23-year-old does. So we battled through it, learned how to develop catering business, and that's where the idea for Fajita Pizza came in. Once I started catering I said, man, I'm selling more before I open the restaurant than my lunch shift and I don't have to worry about 6,300 square feet and 20 some odd employees per shift. So that kind of got my gears turning and I developed the idea of Fajita Pete's, which is basically pickup, delivery and catering, and it's a very simple menu which led to a simple equipment package which led to my first shop being 1,200 square feet and high ticket average. So that's kind of how it all started.

Speaker 1: 2:09

It's sent from full service to this quick QSR type model, if you were to go back and kind of do it over again, what would you change about the first location?

Speaker 2: 2:20

I would have gone to law school. Oh no, the first location was available, which is the first thing, right? Oh, interesting. You're 23 years old, you don't have a lot of stuff going on. I had the support of my family, which was energy, very little capital, so we had to go find an abandoned restaurant that had a lease available and talk ourselves into a lease.

Speaker 2: 2:43

So that was kind of the first step and the idea was restaurants. Let you know really quick if you're going to make it or not. So my mother said we didn't come all the way from Columbia to fill out applications. So go figure out if you're going to make it in this world and if you don't, you're 23, you're out of college, you'll be fine. So it was a combination of the grit of wanting to get into your own business, the passion I'd created in the restaurant and service industry, waiting tables through college, and then just the availability of the spot. I mean, the first eight months was just repainting the place, making all the tables in our garage with my father and figuring out where to get used table legs to get started, and it's a typical walked up hill both ways in the freezing snow of Houston, texas, right. So it's a typical story, but that was kind of the origin of it. Is that the availability and figuring out what to do with the opportunities available. And that's kind of how Fajita Pizza came about too.

Speaker 1: 3:42

So you still have catering as a big part of what you do, right? What percentage of your revenue is catering versus?

Speaker 2: 3:49

About 30% brand wide is catering, wow, which is huge. You know it sets up your P&L really well. Most of the orders are at least 24 hours in advance, so it's a really nice part of the model. The hard part is getting it. Catering is a relationship business, so the runway there is a little longer, so you need the interaction with the guests from your what we call retail or nighttime business or lunchtime business, and then that's kind of how you develop the catering. Now with third-party vendors it's a little easier to get into offices than it used to be back in the day when I started, but it's definitely rewarding once you get that catering to the right levels, and what tips would you have of people who are?

Speaker 1: 4:29

because obviously, catering right now is something that everyone's talking about, everyone's thinking about. How do you look at catering?

Speaker 2: 4:36

When people walk into Fajita Pete's they say, where's the rest of your restaurant? You know that's the typical thing. I say, okay, let me tell you if you've never been here. I've been waiting for you for 17 years. But we're a catering company that happens to do some dining and some delivery. I think you have to lead with that and that was a big shift. Coming from the full service restaurant, people saw me at a restaurant that did some catering and then, once I packaged it into the small square footage and kind of looked like a to-go shop, people said, oh, that's a catering company that does some delivery and something changed in the guest's mind and then catering just shot up after that. I guess With my footprint, I have the luxury of being able to go catering first and work off of that.

Speaker 1: 5:17

I think that's so awesome, because there's actually a restaurant here in Utah and they're only open like a few hours a week but they're a catering company and they do these giant catering orders. They have one location, but I mean you are in line from 11 AM until they close at like 3 PM. I have never been there without a line, but it's a catering company and everyone knows them as the catering company, and so I think that's a really interesting tactic. When you do your lunch orders and stuff like that, do you put in any flyers or notices about catering, or how else do you get people to know about catering?

Speaker 2: 5:55

We've developed over the years. I mean, first it was walking into offices and getting kicked out by security. You walk in and you give out little coins that said, hey, free appetizer after you eat a pizza, and stuff like that. Now it's evolved to yes, definitely every catering needs to have a box with your logo on it when you walk up the elevator, because everybody in the elevator is going to tell you oh, I'm going to follow you, where are you going, right? So then you have to have a card to give them. Yeah, you have to have a card to give them, right then with say hey, you don't have to follow me, just don't be weird, just go to my restaurant for a free lunch and get to know what we're all about.

Speaker 1: 6:27

Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 2: 6:28

You have to work all those angles and on our website, our marketing team has done a great job of capturing data, retargeting people that abandon our carts, so a lot of people just price shop. We get a notification when you're shopping on my site. If you leave, say hey, there was a partial order, somebody looked at this, this, this. So we reply hey, if there's something that wasn't clear on our website, we'd love to serve you. Please let us know if you have additional questions. So little ways to now.

Speaker 2: 6:54

With technology, it's a lot easier to re-engage with people, create that repeat customer. You have 30, 60 day dormant customer campaigns. You have a lot of ways to do outreach to people now that you didn't in the past. Because we're busy I mean, we're running restaurants and I think really the most important thing why I started my story with the full service and why I like Ovation is you have to give a damn. You have to. When you get back from your catering, maybe at 3 pm, once the lunch rush is over, you say hey, debbie, thank you so much for trusting us with your lunch today. I just want to check that everything was amazing. Please let us know if you have any comments or when we can be of service in the near future. That's it. That little email is so important.

Speaker 1: 7:36

I love that and I love the whole concept of hospitality, especially when you can't see the whites of their eyes, where you can't watch them eat your food. It's so important to do that and, by the way, your website not only has a lot of stuff on there when it comes to catering, but you. The things that we found is that it's not only about getting people to eat your food at the catering event, but getting them to place an order with you, and so one of the things that we found to be really successful is we set up a QR code and it's basically like our third party conversion flow, so it was catering provided by. How was your experience to question? Or how do you enjoy the food?

Speaker 1: 8:22

Two questions to get $5 off your next order with us, and what's cool about that is then you're not only getting people to eat your food, but then you're giving them a coupon to come in and order themselves, and collecting more of that customer data of the people who are trying your food is just magical. Now, one of the things that we were talking about before we hit record was you have a little bit of a dining room, but there's only like a few seats. Tell me how you utilize that, because I think that's really smart.

Speaker 2: 8:53

Yeah, most stores have two to four tables, and the way I like to use that is, first of all, some people that work around your stores just want to get away from the office for 30 minutes, come in and eat, and that's an opportunity right there to say hey, where do you work? If you can get to your office, so can I? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We cater here, you go. Right, great service. That's our very limited chance at hospitality.

Speaker 2: 9:17

Another way is you have people say hey, before I quote you, if you don't like the food, what's the point? Come on in to the shop, I'll treat you to fajitas for two, four. Bring whoever the other decision makers are, and then that way you get to show them and earn that confidence, because I think catering is a relationship business and it's a trust thing. So you have to earn that. And then, from then, then, the sale becomes super easy. Right, you don't I that? And then, from then, then the sale becomes super easy, right, you don't? I mean, they're going to order after that. So I think it's really kind of a presentation, the showroom, if you will.

Speaker 1: 9:45

And what do you do to increase repeat order? So let's say someone, you know someone who places a catering order. How do you remind them to order again?

Speaker 2: 9:53

Well, we have constant outreach to them. We have a few emails per month. And then the people because catering we do a lot of corporate catering, so maybe people don't order every week. Some do. Some pharmaceutical reps are different than office admins, but if there's dormant for 30 days they get another little touch point, 60 days they get another one. There's some customers that only order once a year but they order for 800 people when they do.

Speaker 2: 10:15

So, it's just a different way to get in touch with them. Also, what's in the box? I mean, this is completely erratic, right? I send the gift card to the person placing the order with a note that says hey, you're always feeding other people. Here's a gift card for you to feed you and your family. Come by the shop and pick up fajitas for four, fajitas for six, whatever. Give them $100, $200 gift card, whatever it is, Because I think that's lost in that when I used to do the catering myself, I always noticed that the person placing the order never went in the room where the food was.

Speaker 1: 10:45

You know, because they're doing the corporate catering.

Speaker 2: 10:48

So then you could do little things like bring an individual meal for them, even though they ordered fajitas for 30, guess what? Take fajitas for 30 and then one on the side Say, here you go, I know those guys that don't like to share, they might take a while. Aside. Say, here you go, I know those guys that don't like to share, they might take a while. I wanted you to get your food hot and then you give them their own meal at that time.

Speaker 1: 11:04

Wow, one of the things we always talk about at Ovation is that the little things matter because they are the little things. We can fake the big things, but you can't fake the little things, you can't fake the really caring right.

Speaker 2: 11:19

Yeah, genuine moments are so important, even for the valet security guard who wants to kick you out of the line when you're trying to deliver. Say, bring him two tacos, rice and beans, queso and a drink. Yeah, here you go, bud, and that's it. I mean next time he'll say, hey, you got 15 minutes to go up there. Little things like that. When you walk into these huge buildings, the guard nobody looks at. Drop them off, chips and queso. Hey man, here's a snack, a quesadilla. You know what I mean? Those little things that you would do for your guests that come in regularly. And I think that's the advantage of coming from.

Speaker 2: 11:54

Full service is, and we tell our people, even though we only interact with guests 40 seconds, we preach 40 seconds of hospitality. And the stores that get that, the franchisees that get that, you can tell in their repeat business and order volume right, so it's just about getting in. And that's where I like Ovation, because when we were waiting tables somebody was mad. You could tell they were mad and they could yell at you immediately, which is what you want With Ovation and we're 98% to go. Let's say I have a delivery at night three blocks away from one of my stores.

Speaker 2: 12:29

Man, these guys suck. They forgot my queso and you get it immediately. You get a ticket number. You pick up, the manager gets it immediately. You call and say oh my God, I checked that order myself. My apologies, the queso's on its way and a couple brownies, so sorry about that. That right there is the table touch that we used to get in full service that we don't get anymore. But through this, people get to see that because people are, we're going to and I tell them hey, the only thing I can guarantee you is we're going to mess up again because we're human, but we're going to care again. People won't be too upset that you mess up. They'll be upset if you mess up and then you ignore them.

Speaker 1: 13:03

That's just double loss, yeah, and I think it's so powerful that the real key ingredient of success with Ovation is people who care. You have to care about the guest experience, you have to care about the guest, and if you do about each individual guest, then, yeah, a tool is going to be great, but if you don't want to use it, it's not going to matter. We preach response times.

Speaker 2: 13:26

Response times? Yes, because I mean I don't want you to. Hey, you forgot my case. So two days later, oh yeah, my bad, here's $5 off. No, just ignore me At that point, don't even talk to me. It's got to be instant and overwhelming that you show that you care. Kpis and response times and innovation scores is part of our KPIs when we do store visits. And to your point about caring, that's what I told the gentleman that helped us write the operations manual when you're starting the franchising process, and it's hundreds of pages in digital and this I said. You could have saved me so much time if on the second line, it just said do not read further if you don't give a damn, because if you don't give a damn, these next hundred pages will mean nothing. There will just be words on paper if you don't give a damn.

Speaker 1: 14:17

Amen, which is why we always preach at Ovation to do good and eat well. Right, it's like you got to do good, you got to help your guests feel like they matter and if you really care about them, they're not just going to be filled, they're going to be fulfilled, and that's what this is all about. That's the reason that people get into this and that's what this is all about. That's the reason that people get into this. But my last big, salient question here, Pete, is I get that you have this magic about you and that you get it and you love people and you care about people. My question is how do you scale that, and not just scale that with corporate locations, but you're scaling this with franchises. How do you do it?

Speaker 2: 14:54

If I knew that answer, I would be the one with the cool podcast equipment right now. I think it's like marketing. It's like every marketer tells you they have the silver bullet and there's not. If they had the silver bullet for marketing, they'd be retired 30 years ago. It's consistency, it's caring, it's trying to make care a process right, trying to instill that in every part of the process. And I think, like anything else in the restaurant business or HR related businesses, 85% of your problems are solved at the hiring table. If you hire the right person, then that's a huge part of it. If you hire the wrong person, you can have the best systems and it won't matter. There's nothing better for the crops than the farmer's own two feet type of mentality, right. So whoever's on there in that store has to have that presence. It's about leadership at the store level that will push that through.

Speaker 1: 15:44

Man, I feel like there have been so many one-liners here. I don't know how we're even going to edit this down to a single clip, but I'm so glad that we can have the whole podcast here. Last question, Pete, who deserves an ovation? Who is someone in the restaurant industry that we should be following?

Speaker 2: 15:59

I try to stay away from food critics. I think anybody that's preaching employee improvement. I think somebody that really provides a path for your employees to grow, I think to go along with the fact that we need people that care. I think a big part of that is providing the store level hourly employees a path that they feel like they have in their own hands Training, set goals and that develops a thing where they won't have turnover. I think somebody that really teaches that can help you learn leadership at the manager level. We're a growing company and we have the C-suite and the CEO and the COO and, at the end of the day, the most important C is the cooks the more people that you have training your people, enrolling them in your idea. I think anybody that teaches that type of leadership if leadership can be taught that's the big debate, right Is somebody that will make your store better.

Speaker 1: 16:51

Love that Pete. How do people find you and Fajita Pete's?

Speaker 2: 16:55

FajitaPete'scom. Baby, I think we have social media, we have other stuff like that. I don't know if you can tell you haven't known me long enough but I'm a simple man. I named the company Fajita Pete's because I'm Pete myself fajitas. So we do have all those cool social media and LinkedIn pages, but the best thing you can do is go buy a store, try the fajitas and get to know. The crew Love that.

Speaker 1: 17:18

Well, pete, for serving up a masterclass on caring with a side of catering. Today's ovation goes to you. Thank you for joining us on Give an Ovation.

Speaker 2: 17:26

Thank you, brother, keep doing what you do. It helps a lot. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 17:29

Thanks 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.