SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Welcome to another edition of Give Novation, 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. Learn what is actually happening in your restaurants and exactly how to improve while driving revenue. Learn more at ovationup.com. And today I am so excited. We have Mr. Pedro Uchoa, and he is the founder and CEO of Tapé, which is based in New York City. It is a Brazilian concept full of flavors and energy. If you aren't in New York City and you want to experience a little bit, just follow them on social. They've got a phenomenal social. But Pedro, welcome to the podcast, my friend.

SPEAKER_00: 0:55

Thank you so much. Love the energy, Zach. Love to be here and share a little bit more of Al Tapi and what we're doing. And let's chat.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04

Now, I had known of you because you had been working with one of our accountant reps for ovation. And so he had been talking about what a great brand you are. So I already looked you guys up, but then you guys won the perfect pitch competition as well. What did that mean to you to win that from a room full of your peers going through two rounds of voting, one round of preliminary voting just to even get in? What did that mean to you guys?

SPEAKER_00: 1:31

Oh man, for us, that's a big accomplishment. As you said, like in a room with I don't know how much 100, 200 people from the industry all around the US, and bringing our concept, our Brazilian healthy, 100% gluten-free concept to the market. For us, just being there was already like we're gonna be able to share a little bit of what we're doing to everybody. And we love to go to these events to learn. And this time sharing and having everybody like, whoa, what is this? Because we're bringing to the market something that's unique. It's hard, it's challenging actually. It's not a bagel or a pizza or any like normal, like tacos. You have all of that all around the US. So when we bring like tapioca sandwiches, ponji queijo, that's the Brazilian cheese bread, with açaí and smoothies, it was such a great vibe. And at the end, winning it was awesome. And for us, since then, it's been resonating, and especially for our team, we were able to bring this victory to them and being able to even empower them as well and keep on pushing, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 2:44

Well, it's amazing what you're doing, and the concept is just so fresh, it looks so good, so vibrant. And you're obviously doing something that is resonating with your customers. And so your guest experience is so palpable online. Talk to me about what do you think are some of the most important aspects of guest experience nowadays?

SPEAKER_00: 3:06

We talk about authenticity, right? A lot. And for us, that's something we push because we're a Brazilian concept. So we have to bring authenticity to our stores and to our guest experience. And I think when we think about authenticity and personalization, that's what we can build to the guest experience. You know, like we have to enable and understand that each guest counts. So we talk a lot about that with the guests, with our team, actually. So everybody that walks through the door, everybody that's ordering, we have to make that a special moment. And with our Brazilian hospitality, I think that plays a big role. We are a warm country, we are warm people. We love to embrace, get to know the guests, you know. Like we have our managers talking by name, remembering the name of the dogs that come in. Last week we rolled out our new menu and we had the opportunity to create an event and bring our most loyalty guests to the event from all three locations in New York. First time we did it, we were vulnerable. We didn't know what was gonna happen. And having people coming in and like hugging us and saying, like, you guys change our lives. I had a lady, a 65-year-old lady, like she was like almost crying. Uh you guys welcome me. I come here every week, two times, three times, and I feel embraced. I never went to Brazil, but this is already good for me. So I think guest experiences when we understand and also being able to personalize the experience in some ways. And ovation, for example, we started this month actually using you guys, and it's such a powerful tool, and we've been receiving so many feedbacks, but it's exactly to that point when my manager calls the guest by name, like shares his name and response to the guest that wasn't expecting to be responded by back, you know, sometimes. So that surprise also I think builds to the whole guest experience.

SPEAKER_01: 5:09

I love that because you know, I look at ovation just like a restaurant in terms of we can have a great product and we could have a great service. But at the end of the day, it's the people that are using it that really matter. It's because of the culture that you've created, Pedro, that instills in your people the ability to respond to that guest and to make them to know that you're supposed to make them feel the love and feel the hospitality. That's really what makes it. Because good food, if it's delivered with poor service, isn't gonna make it's not really gonna matter. And ovation is just a tool for you guys and for the culture that you've created and and the people that you're bringing in. So kudos to you that they are leveraging every opportunity they can. But and I love that story about that woman coming in because that feeling that's what creates lifelong customers, and that's what you need to succeed in any city, especially New York.

SPEAKER_00: 6:04

Especially New York. We talk a lot about that because we have to be always on top of our feet. Of course, any city, you have to, you're in the game, you're in the market, you're bringing something to people. We have to always be elevating and being in New York, it brings another level. You have so many concepts that open and close in less than one year, two years, especially in the restaurant business in New York. And we're there eight years. We survived the pandemic. We we're growing. We have three locations there, and we also have one in Miami that just completed a year, and we're really excited to what's coming. But it's always about having our people, having our staff understanding what we believe and putting the guest on the next layer of what we have to do to make these people come in, have a great time, and come back because it's experience and convenience. We're a fast casual concept, so we're looking at the time of preparation, and people are imagine New York, people are on their pace. They want to just come in, they want to have a good time, and they're leaving. They're going to another spot, they're going to work and everything. So having that possibility and having tools, as you said, that empowers us to go to that next level that until last month we didn't have it. We're trying other ways to get the feedback, to get the review on Google. We still have some tactics in place to have our managers getting to the tables. Because, you know, a fast casual, the challenge is we're serving something different at the first point. The second point is people come in, they order in the counter, and for us to ask for a review before they eat, it doesn't make sense. I can't have my cashier asking for a review before they even receive the order. So we have some special treats that the managers can approach the guests after they eat to get the table cleaned and ask for how was their experience. But I think at the other point, having this open channel for people to send their feedback and we start a chatting. And even with leadership level, I'll I'll share with you. It's been such a great possibility for me to try to teach also and have my managers even more leveling up their game and understanding about hospitality. Because having the conversation from the leader with the manager with those internal chats in situations, I can't have that on a daily basis before. I couldn't. And now I can talk with my manager from the upper west side. That was a great response. But next time, let's add this and that and see how it works. And that's at the same time, you have the manager's learning curve because a lot of people they became like in our culture, we love to promote people. So every manager that we have in our stores, they're not, they didn't study to be managers of a restaurant. They have their background and they're learning at the same time. So this exchange of backgrounds, I didn't come from the restaurant business. I came from the marketing business. Also, I worked 12 years in Sao Paulo in agencies and three years now with my brother learning about the restaurant business and bringing my background of customer experience and having these possibilities and also I love that.

SPEAKER_01: 9:32

And so, in the things that you've been looking at in the last three years, what are some tactics that you would recommend to improve the guest experience? What are some things that have worked for you guys?

SPEAKER_00: 9:41

Again, I'll touch on the authenticity. When I joined Tapi with my brother, I truly believe in storytelling and bringing layers of connection. So we brought a graffiti artist from the slums of Rio de Janeiro. It's not just any graffiti artists, it's a graffiti artist that never traveled to the US that we're able to bring to do all the murals in all the stores. We got a playlist that is curated by a DJ in Brazil. It's uh little details with the Brazilian flag that we actually didn't have any Brazilian flag in the store. And if we're bringing something unique, if listeners here, other entrepreneurs, you I think we have to understand what we're bringing different in game on. We have to try to level up in that part because people are going to understand even more. The competition is hard. If you get any other concept, of course, our competition, because we're bringing something that, oh, there's not a other tapioca sandwich on the other corner, but you have other options. So we have an education challenge, but other entrepreneurs, for example, if you have a pizza place or a chicken space, you have a thousand of options that people can go to. So what does it bring to the guests? What are you bringing different and push on that and try to tell that story not only on social media, but inside the store as well, having the staff know about the story. For example, on our onboarding, we have to have people understanding our story. So the video that we shared in the Fast Casual Summit, for example, now it's already part of on our onboarding process, having the managers truly understand where we're going and having people like, oh, because we had other days, like now in New York, we went to do the menu. We used the time also to get the staff together and we passed it through the message again. And we saw employees that were there, they didn't even realize some of the aspects that we were bringing. So also having your staff understanding that because at the end of the day, they are at the cashier at the store every day. They are doing the connection. It's not me and Cleo, my brother. So I truly believe in that. I think for you to level up on your guest experience, you have to have your staff on board and the best way possible as well.

SPEAKER_01: 12:01

I love that because I think that makes so much sense when whatever you do, you got to do something that looks different, right? If somebody walks into your restaurant and they can't tell where they are because it just looks like everyone else, it's not going to be the experience. It's going to bring them back. It doesn't have that memory. But looking at your locations online, they pop, man. And you look at other brands that are doing really well right now, walk into a Dave's Hot Chickens and tell me that you're in some other restaurant besides Dave's Hot Chicken. You walk in and you know from the second you walk in where you are. And it has a vibe to it. And I think that there's some other really awesome concepts that do the same thing. Otto over at Pincho. I mean, you walk into a Pincho and you're like, I'm in a Pincho. Like it's got a great vibe to it that's super cool. Now, obviously, you've been in this industry now for a few years, but you had a great marketing career before this. When you look at the people that you follow, who is someone that deserves an ovation? Who is someone that we should be following?

SPEAKER_00: 13:05

Oh man, you just touched on one that is Otto from Pinchot. I love his concept. And we got to meet uh recently, actually. There's so many people out there that are doing a great job. There's a concept here in Miami called Happies. There are our neighbors next to us, Danny and Eduardo. They're bringing a Mediterranean real concept learning curve, also like two, three years here. And I wanted to point out them because they're always trying to bring the guests and having their personalized experience, and they're like door to door with us. They're like wall to wall. And that brings another point that partnerships, there's space for everybody. So we have like four restaurants, one line here in Brickwin, Miami. And we talk as owners, as restaurateurs, all the time, you know, because one day the person's gonna eat a Mediterrarian, and the other day they're gonna eat a Brazilian, and the other day they're gonna eat like a Tit's Chicken. That's another concept, a chicken concept here. What's it called? It's called Tit's Chicken. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01: 14:11

I thought I misunderstood you.

SPEAKER_00: 14:13

No, it's it's it's an Australian, it's an Australian concept that just got here in Miami. It's a Miami vibe. Okay, here we go. Yeah. They're looking for expansion also in New York. So these connections are, I think that's the beauty of the industry when we can have conversation, go to these events and have entrepreneurs sharing and wanting the success of each other. So I think they're doing a great job at Hopies, looking and trying to understand their guests, listening to them. Daniel's always at the restaurant, also getting the feedback and putting in practice things. So I think that's a good shout-out for them.

SPEAKER_01: 14:51

I love that. And Pedro, for those who want to find and follow you and the success journey of Tappy, where can they go?

SPEAKER_00: 14:59

So on Instagram, you touched on Instagram. So the handle is eat underscore tappi. We're putting out a lot of videos, content backstage. We're we're leveling up, always there. And on LinkedIn, you guys can follow me, Pedro Uchoa. I love to post also on LinkedIn even more now. We're sharing, we like to connect, so please reach out and let's network as well.

SPEAKER_01: 15:23

Awesome. Well, Pedro, for bringing us a big bite of Brazilian flavor and hospitality to the U.S. Today's ovation goes to you. Thank you for joining us in giving ovation. Thank you so much, Zach. It was a pleasure. Obrigado.

SPEAKER_00: 15:38

Obrigado, obrigado.

SPEAKER_01: 15:42

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 ovationup.com.