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
How Drew Kimball of SpotOn Builds Loyalty Through Service and Tech
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Drew Kimball, Relationship Manager at SpotOn, joins Zack Oates to talk about what it really takes to build lasting relationships in hospitality. With over 15 years in B2B sales and a background in restaurants, Drew shares stories from his work with operators, his time as a game store owner, and how he helps brands improve guest experience, efficiency, and revenue.
Zack and Drew discuss:
- Why relationship-building is Drew’s business superpower
- The four “core” pillars every restaurant should focus on
- Real-world examples of improving table turn and guest feedback
- How to provide value through authentic, personal connection
- What a board game store has to do with hospitality
Thanks, Drew!
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drew-kimball-844a1912/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/spoton/
Introduction to Drew Kimball
Speaker 1Welcome 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 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 . Learn what is actually happening at your restaurants and how to improve without a long survey . Learn more at OvationUpcom . And today I've got one of my good buddies , drew Kimball , on . Today . He's a relationship manager at SpotOn . He's been there for 15 years . He's got an amazing social media game . He is a world-renowned networker . I mean , this guy just knows everyone is just so great at giving up his time and his thoughts and he's also part owner in a game store . But anyway , most of all , he's just like a good , straight up guy . So , drew , welcome to the podcast man .
Speaker 2Thank you . Thank you , Zach . You have such good energy and perfect hair and your style is so good .
Speaker 1I just dig your whole vibe and aura is like oh , I want to be like zach when I grow up . Oh , geez , well , you know what in like 30 years , when you look as old as I do , you , uh may decide what you want to do .
Speaker 2I got the greys just up , though I'm hiding them , yeah well , drew , you've got such a fascinating background .
Speaker 1You're doing so many cool things , but one of the things I especially want to dig into is your ability to connect with people , because you are like hospitality through and through . You care about the people that you work with , and so I'd love to just get your take on . What is your philosophy on building relationships philosophy on building relationships
Philosophy on Building Relationships
Speaker 1?
Speaker 2Oh man , that's my favorite question . Thanks for starting with that . So everyone has their strengths . My superpower is making friends and it all stems back to 2004 . I decided to go serve an LBS church mission . I went to Houston , Texas , southwest Louisiana . I cleaned up homes after Hurricane Katrina , hurricane Rita . I just love talking to people and making connections and making new friends and serving people . It's all in our blood and our culture here in Utah .
Speaker 2But after that I went and did door-to-door sales for a summer sales company called First Line Security and it was in that office that I started recruiting and learning the power of managing and being a mentor and training people out on the doors . Because I was having success . I was the top first year sales rep for that company as a fortune , I think , 500 company and I ended up being their top first year sales rep that year in 07 . And I don't know , I just after door to door sales because everyone's like , oh , that's such a grind . It is a grind , say what you will about door to door people , but it builds character and I just it was a means to an end .
Speaker 2I basically left that industry in 08 . They basically the recession came and destroyed a lot of the companies so I didn't get back in checks properly . This is a roundabout way to answer your question , but I ended up going into B2B sales . I've been in restaurants my whole life . So I started out under the table 13 year old kid going to a place called Hein Mike's pool billiards in Sandy , utah and I would wash dishes and essentially clean up after the chef and I ended up loving that work there until I was about 15 . And then they closed and I ended up going to work as a server dishwasher host for frontier pies , if you remember that .
Speaker 2Oh yeah , I think they still have one in Idaho . I've worked every position in a restaurant except line cook and manager owner , but I love it , love the guest experience , so we'll get into that . But when I went into B2B sales I was a food broker and distributor for a group called the Nutty Guys . It was a Utah's own manufacturer that would enrobe nuts in chocolate , chocolate , cinnamon berries , yogurt , pretzels , that kind of stuff and I ended up selling it here , local , and distributing throughout like mom pop locations in Utah . And then I ended up opening a distribution franchise or territory for them in Houston , texas and I was their number one outside distributor , sales and distributing . I moved a lot of product . I just fell in love with chefs and cafes and managers in the restaurant , retail space , hospitality space . And I think my favorite thing about to answer your question more directly is I read this book in college called how to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie . Yeah , I love it .
Speaker 2There's a quote in there . It still resonates in my mind . He says it's more important to be interested than interesting . So , like when you're making connections , it's all about how can I help you , not what's in it for me and I feel like in this day and age we have a look at me or what's in it for me attitude , especially amongst , like , social media influencers and subscribers .
Speaker 2And it's just like for me , working with restaurants the passionate ones , the ones that are successful it's all about the guest experience . It's all about , hey , I want to improve what people say about my restaurant , not just , oh , it was cheap , or food was good or whatever . It's all about the whole , the ambience of the restaurant , the entire of the people that work there , the style , the vibe , everything matters , all those little details , right . So relationship management's kind of like that for me . It's all about like , do we connect on a personal level , like me and you do , zach , I see like good things in our future with business . And then also it's just who do you want to know and how can I open a door for you ? So , understanding what your target market is , it helps me go . Okay , let's play the who do you know game , but then let's make those introductions so it's a personality fit , not just a . You guys should do business together because of you're in the same industry .
Speaker 1Yeah , and I think that's something that so many people are like hey , we should do something together or we should like connect .
Speaker 1But , dude , you have been so good at the follow-up , the texting , making sure that we keep in touch as opposed to because you know you and I meet a lot of people , yeah , and it's just
The Core of Guest Experience
Speaker 1so rare that I meet someone who's like actually follows through on , like , yeah , let's actually like do something . We got our families together and we went to like a roller rink slash what fun center one of my clients , classic Classic Fun Center .
Speaker 1I've been going there since 93 or 94 , like my whole life into your store , seeing you talk to people , seeing you engage with your clients it's like you get that . It's about a great experience and so , based on what you've seen and based on your 15 years in this industry , what do you think is the most important aspect of guest experience nowadays ?
Speaker 2Oh man , that's a good question . So you're in the review space , you understand the power of a word of mouth , referral , right and you understand that when you go to a restaurant and you say me and my wife had a great experience , that is going to have an impact . If you go to your friends , they do not go there . It was a terrible environment , the staff was mean , they didn't refill my drinks all those things . That's going to resonate with your friends too . So we are consumers , but we are also sales billboards for these restaurants , right ? They ?
Speaker 2don't understand that we word of mouth is everything . So to me , as a company , spot on a software tech company , it's a system built by restaurant owners for restaurant owners and I love to be a part of that because their end goal is to improve the efficiency of the business , the guest experience and overall revenue . So my sure is it says spot on core . It stands for customers , operations , revenue and employees . It's the four components . The core components of any restaurant is the customers . First right Operations If you're not getting good food costs , you don't have a system in place , you're going to fail your revenue what do you make a month ? But more importantly , what do you keep ? And then employees it's hard to find good help in this market right now . So how do you keep your employees tied into the vision of the business and the mission statement ? And those things are so important . So our company is dedicated to improving the core , the four things . I love that , man , and not just , you know , workout shirt like core .
Speaker 1I love that man and not just like make all of your life work right . We're things in there to help improve things that have always been done . From the beginning of restaurant history in ancient Rome right To today , you have the same basic things . It's just a matter of how quickly , how efficiently and how much visibility do you have into what's actually happening , and that's where technology comes in . A matter of how quickly , how efficiently and how much visibility do you have into what's actually happening , and that's where technology comes in . And nowadays , a lot of this is table stakes , right . But when you look at your clients , what have you seen of who's producing a great guest experience and what are some tactics that you've seen that create that great guest
Creating Efficient Restaurant Experiences
Speaker 1experience ?
Speaker 2Well , a restaurant I took you to I'm going to highlight Zach is Pat's Barbecue in Salt Lake City , utah . This is a staple barbecue restaurant . It's a one location currently . They had multiple but pre-pandemic changed owners and they've done a phenomenal job of interacting with the communities . They host a Connect Utah to Salt Lake networking group there on Thursdays . They just do a lot of catering .
Speaker 2So what I've seen is they went from toast to spot on and , from a point of sale provider perspective is they really wanted to cut down the wait time from running around with a handheld and taking people's credit cards , and so we put QR code ordering checkout experience on the receipts . So you make an order , zach , you got your receipt and you had to dip and get back to Spanish Fork , which that mean coming up here to eat lunch with me was awesome , and then you probably scanned Apple Pay on that receipt and bounced yeah and didn't have to ask for permission . You're not a hostage at the restaurant , you're a guest . You could do that , and so our feedback from them was everyone likes that , they like to to be able to pay and go , and a big group of 60 people there for lunch . They all run businesses , they're self-employed and so they don't have every minute counts . They don't want to wait in line to check out . So efficiency is key when running any business . But for them , table turn means more revenue , so we have to figure out ways to kind of improve that from every aspect .
Speaker 2I think another great thing about working with them is Biz , the GM there . She's constantly interested in feedback and reviews , which is kind of where you come in , and so making these connections from my network is like if I can't do everything for the business , I know the professionals that can . So plug for Ovation it's like , hey , you need to talk to Zach , and so you'll get that meeting here shortly . My friends are your friends , so it's all about for me like , hey , what keeps you up at night , what's running the business right , what's hurting the business ? And taking that puzzle apart and just having a second set of eyes to be like I have some people that could help , and then making introductions .
Speaker 1I appreciate that man , because you get this and your ability to make those connections , because you know so many people , you're constantly like hey , can I help here ? Can I help here , like in in such a helpful way that people can't help but just be like man we love drew . Not only you , nice guy , but you're someone who's very helpful and I think that's incredible to the point that you got involved in a game store and I'd love to just like dive in quickly to that story .
Speaker 2Yeah . So I have a lot of clients that I manage and I'm vertical agnostic . So restaurants are my main focus and vertical especially for spot on . But I have a lot of like what we call retail or non-restaur restaurant accounts with spot on . And being in relationship management for 15 years in B2B sales , what I've learned is you have to provide massive value with more than going above and beyond the same , with restaurants going above and beyond the experience .
Speaker 2So to get in the game store , I have to tell you this story . I have a client from Pakistan and she would always ask me for referrals and most of them she would send running because she was a really skilled negotiator . I think it's a cultural thing , but she loved to haggle , so they I would kind of prep my network . Hey , go in , but you're not going to get the cell on the first
The Game Store Side Venture
Speaker 2visit . You have to learn her needs and you have to be budget conscious to her bottom line , because she will never pay full price for anything . I ended up networking with her so well and understanding her buying mentality so well that everyone I would send her she would call me and be Drew .
Speaker 2This was fantastic , this person helped me I grew my business or got someone for my home . She's like you're like my personal Angie's List , I don't go to Google . I don't go to Google , I don't go to Angie's List or Facebook Marketplace . I call you and say Drew , who do you know ? I know you got a guy or a gal for this . So Zig Ziglar said it this way and I like this quote . It's my favorite quote you can have anything in this world you want if you'll help enough people get what they want . So it's all about the law of reciprocity , right ? So with the game store actually a kind of funny story I've done Jeff's merchant accounts for his storage units for years with Spot On and he loved doing business with me .
Speaker 2We built a friendship and it was during the pandemic . Our church was sending missionaries international from Utah and other states , but those countries were essentially shutting down and it was so much unknown , Right ? So lots of missionaries got sent home from Brazil and the Philippines and Mexico and essentially our church was putting them in hotels . So I offered them a chance to live with the Kimball's , which my wife still hates me for that but they ended up . Here's my dog . They ended up moving into the basement for a year and every night because they couldn't really go out they would finish their like missionary work . We would play like settlers of katan , or we would play like exploding kittens or doomlings or just like they would play magic the gathering . And so jeff would come over , play games and be like dude . We should start a game store . And then I'm like , yeah , that's a great idea , there's no money in that . So he no , the community is alive and well in Utah .
Speaker 2He started a company called Game Haven and sold it after they got to multiple locations and had a nice exit from that and then essentially opened a store and I set up the merchant account for him and then ended up . He needed some money and so I invested in it and been a part of it , so it's called Galaxy of Games , or in Harriman Utah . We in it and been a part of it , so it's called Galaxy of Games or in Harriman Utah . We started in West Jordan and we were in a 3000 square foot building and I would do a lot of networking there and expose people to the store that otherwise wouldn't know about the story , like are naturally interested in those things . But it's such a fun community I don't take a paycheck on the store right now , but we're reinvesting all the profit into the store .
Speaker 2It's going great . We just built a location in Harriman , 6,000 square feet . So we're doing the ribbon cutting August 23rd . So everyone listening and Zach , you guys got to mark your calendars . August 23rd all day , raffles , ribbon cutting , food trucks the whole nine August 23rd .
Speaker 1I just put that down on my desk now because I want to remember that Drew , who is someone that deserves an ovation on my desk
Final Thoughts and Recommendations
Speaker 1now , because I want to remember that drew , who is someone that deserves an ovation .
Speaker 2Who's someone that we should be following ? I would say pat's barbecue and I would say donut star , donut star . One best of state for their cronuts .
Speaker 1Those are good and a donut .
Speaker 2Yeah , and dave and his wife bless her heart , she's gone through cancer I just love , love , love the way Dave goes to market . He is in his business making those donuts . He's got two locations Draper in South Jordan and I mean he's one of the hardest workers I know . I've worked with him through all the challenges and the tech issues , from internet to point of sale outages , to all the frustrating things of running a business , and Dave remains consistent and has always been loyal to me and I just from the bottom of my heart when he listens to this , like go to Donut Star , get yourself some donuts , get a Cronut . You'll thank me later .
Speaker 1There we go Love that man Drew . How can people find and follow you ?
Speaker 2I have a YouTube channel now it's called Drew Kimble and I have a Dr Strange profile picture that all my friends are nerds and they say I look like Dr Strange , so we went full Dr Strange headshot for that . And then , obviously , facebook , instagram Drew underscore Kimball . Linkedin we weren't connected on LinkedIn , now we are , so I can't believe that .
Speaker 1Well , good , I know we righted a deep wrong . Well , drew , for not just being one in a hundred , but for being one in a million , today's ovation goes to you . Thank you for joining us on Give an Ovation . Thanks , man . 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 .