SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to another edition of Give and 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. Learn what's actually happening in your restaurants and exactly how to improve while driving revenue. Learn more at ovationup.com. And today we have someone that I am so excited to take a different approach to guest experience. And we've talked about the power of people before. But Brandon Batt is the CEO and founder at the Tabletop Group. Recently, he was the director of people for 12 years at Savory. Everyone knows Savory, and I'm actually drinking some swig. Mmm. Hear that ice? That's magical ice right there. But he's been all over doing amazing things in his career and really focused on people. And now he's out there doing his own thing. And I'm really excited to chat with you, Brandon, Bat, about what you're doing and hear about how people can affect the guest experience. So welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_01: 1:14

Hey, thank you, Zach, for having me. I appreciate it. And I've listened to your podcast for a long time and listened to a lot of other podcasts. And man, I just have to say, your intro is so good. And to see you do that live was the man, that made my day. I've always thought that that intro is too good. There's no way he does that live every single time. And just to see you do that live, wow, I'm yeah, I'm I'm I'm floored. You man, you nail it.

SPEAKER_00: 1:44

Those who uh aren't seeing the video of this, I'm blushing. But Brandon, appreciate that, man. Um man, here he is. Just way to start a podcast. Just hype up the host and make him feel good. So, well, Brandon, talk to us about the tabletop group. What is it and what inspired you to start it?

SPEAKER_01: 2:02

So I guess what inspired me is like you mentioned, I was with Savory for a little over a decade, 12 years, and man, there's inspirations all around in that firm. The just amazing people from top to bottom. It's easy to get inspired when you're around amazing people like that, and around Andrew and Shauna and Josh Bouchard and all the leaders there. So they were definitely an inspiration to me every single day, and it inspired me to go out on my own and bring to the market some of the stuff that I had learned from them and others along the way. But the tabletop group, I help in the most simplistic form. I help restaurant founders and operators really hire and develop the leaders that actually move the needle. I know what it's like to be an operator who's lived with staffing and the chaos that can happen there, missed shifts, pressure making payroll while protecting the guest. And, you know, guest experience, it's built on great leadership and a team that really wants to be there. And that's my goal with the tabletop group is to be able to help founders and CEOs be able to find the right people and really just continue to grow their brands.

SPEAKER_00: 3:17

And it is so powerful to move the needle with people. I love how you said that because anyway, anytime I think about a needle right now, I think of like my weekly GLP1 injections and like having to move that needle in. And sometimes it's hard and it's scary, but if you do it right, dang, you look good after. You know what I mean? It takes some work. But as you're thinking about moving the needle of obviously like the speed, the improvement, what are some low-hanging fruit that you've seen in restaurant brands that can really help? Because one of your roles at Savory was taking the brands and integrating and making sure that the people had homes and they were doing the right things in the right times. And so, what are some low-hanging fruits that you've seen in the last dozen years working with all these different kinds of brands that can help uh restaurant owners and operators right now level up their team?

SPEAKER_01: 4:11

Yeah, definitely. That's a great question. I like to say that the guest experience is the employee experience showing up in public. Ooh, I love that. So it's something that that everybody knows that that you have to do. Every business owner, they've read it in every book since they were in high school that take care of the employees and your guests will be taken care of. But it's just one of those things that's so easy and you hear so many times that that you forget. So, in my experience, I would say that's probably the the lowest hanging fruit is continue to invest in your team. And in doing so, yeah, the guest experience will continue to thrive and grow.

SPEAKER_00: 4:52

When you talk about investing in the team, what are some ways that you've seen that there are some good investments and bad investments? What's a waste of money versus like what's essential?

SPEAKER_01: 5:01

Yeah, I would say invest in the people that have earned it. And when I say invest, maybe it's invest your time.

SPEAKER_00: 5:09

Oh, interesting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 5:10

Invest your time in the employees that have earned your time that are doing the correct things. Spend all your time with those people. You know very early on if somebody fits the culture and if they're going to add value to the culture. You know, very early on. And a lot of founders will focus on trying to fix the employees that don't when they could be spending that time making those employees that do even better.

SPEAKER_00: 5:40

Yeah, because it really is like you focus on the problems, right? You want to stop getting punched in the face as opposed to like working on your right hook. But that right hook is how you nail it out of the park, right? Yeah, we never mix up way too many metaphors here, but you get the point. It's like you have to be deliberate about that. How do you have the discipline to do that? I know that we're supposed to be, I'm supposed to be asking you all these questions about the guest experience, but really that's what this is, right? The employee and the guest experience are so interrelated. So, how do you have the discipline to not just focus on the problems?

SPEAKER_01: 6:11

You're asking all the questions, Zach. You're asking all the good ones. It has to do with building how you stay disciplined. You've got to have a team, right? You've got to have trust in your leadership team. So it's not to say that nobody is focusing on the problems. If you build the right leadership team, you're gonna have somebody on your team that is going to be focusing on that while you're focusing on all the things that are that are going right or strengthening your strengths, or vice versa, whether it's someone on your team or yourself. The goal is to build a leadership team where really everything's being focused on, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00: 6:52

And it's so hard at times to do that because like you've got to solve problems. And if you are only focused on the problems, and I think here's where it comes down to it. It's like if you have your whole calendar open to focus on problems, guess what it'll be filled with? Problems. And I think there's so much to be said for having that time scheduled. And one thing that we do at ovation is I actually do skip level meetings twice a year with everyone. I want to hear how each individual team member is doing. I don't care if there's like two layers between us, it's like that doesn't matter. Like we're all in the team ovation to move things forward. And I have learned so much because sometimes feedback and sometimes it kind of gets a little bit filtered on the way up, but that's led me to understand who are the rock stars and who are the people who this may be a temporary role for them, right? And what are some other like tactics that you've seen of people to help? And by the way, do you think that's a bad idea or a good idea? What I do.

SPEAKER_01: 8:01

No, I think that's a really good idea. And I like that you mentioned, right, if all you're focused on is are are the problems, that's all you're gonna see. The human mind doesn't recognize the negative, it only sees what it sees. So, for example, downhill skiers, right? You're you're skiing through the trees, you're off the trail. If all you're focused on is the trees, you're gonna hit a tree. If you're focused on the path, you're gonna continue down the path. The human mind doesn't recognize the negative, it only recognizes what you're focused on.

SPEAKER_00: 8:35

Love that. Powerful. And getting to the guest experience, I think nowadays the focus should be on the guest experience. At the end of the day, everything boils down to the guest experience. And I think with employees and with team members, it becomes so interesting. And by the way, I think that like employee and customer is the same as like team member and guest, right? It's just like how do you work with them. And one of the things that we talk about often at ovation is that you have your last mile delivery that we often that everyone talks about, but it's really about the last foot and everything along your entire supply chain, all of your processes, everything that all of your training, everything that you've done, if that employee misses an item, if that employee is not having a good day, if that employee feels like an employee as opposed to a team member, all of that is for naught because all the guest feels is that last foot, whether it's a delivery or whether it's dropping food off the table. It's like that last foot is all controlled by people. So I'd love for you to give us your philosophy on the most important aspects of guest experience and how that relates to people.

SPEAKER_01: 9:51

Yeah, I think that consistency is the new luxury. Guests are more value conscious than ever, right? We all know that. If you spend money, they want to know exactly what they're going to get every single time. Same welcome, same pace, same quality, same recovery if something goes sideways, right? So I think consistency is the new luxury. I have a great story. So a bunch of uh fellow coworkers and I would go to this Chinese restaurant, and it was about 15 minutes away from the office, and we just ended up there one day. Never been there. It's I mean, for all intents and purposes, it's a dive. Like we just ended up there one day, and you know what? I've probably been to this restaurant more than I've been to any other restaurant for just the consistency. The same waiter every single time ended up knowing me by name, knowing my fellow co-workers by name, knew what we wanted, we would show up, he wouldn't even give us a menu, all of our items would be there. I mean, if we didn't want to, we didn't have to say a single word. Obviously, we like talking to people, so we said quite a bit, but yeah, if we didn't want to say a single word and we just wanted to decompress and go and sit down, our food would be there. The server knew exactly what we like to drink every single time. So consistency, it's huge, right? And the food wasn't necessarily the greatest. It wasn't the cleanest restaurant I've ever been to, but I knew what I was gonna get. Yeah. Every single time. And that builds trust. It builds trust, right? And that server took time to learn our names, took time to like look at the name on the credit card, seeing who's paying, and then memorized the name. And it was an amazing experience. And again, it didn't matter that it was the best food on the planet, it was the consistency. And we showed up multiple times a week for years. Years. So I think that there's something to be said for that, right? And again, going back to the we all know it, we've all read the books, we've been to the seminars. It's the little things that matter. Too many people, there's too much scope creep. Too many people are trying to figure out a new way of running their business. At the end of the day, it's getting back to the fundamentals and really getting good at that small, simple stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 12:32

Man, I love that because at the we talk about all the time on this podcast how at first it's about convenience. Like, for example, you love that restaurant, but if you moved an hour away, the chances of you going there multiple times a week go to zero because it's just not convenient. Or if they doubled their prices, you probably are gonna go someplace else, right? Because it's no longer convenient in terms of like the value. But then once you get past that convenience threshold, then it's about consistency. If you went there three times and it was like a certain way and you went there a fourth time and it was totally different, you'd be like, I don't know if I want to go back here because I don't know what I'm gonna pay for. But then the highest level is exactly what this server did, which is connection, right? So it's the convenience, the consistency, and then the connection. And if you build that connection, that's not how you get someone in a couple times. That's how you get someone in a lifetime. And I think that's really key because it's all down to the people. Every process that you have, if at the end of the day the person isn't executing it with that hospitality in mind, you're not building that connection. And you've got a short-term lease that's gonna make food and not a generational business.

SPEAKER_01: 13:45

Yeah, no, absolutely. And you know what? Uh, we would joke too. We would joke that, you know, and this is again, you gotta take care of your employees, especially the good ones. We would joke that if that server left, we probably wouldn't go back to that restaurant. We would find out where they went. We would find out where they're at, where they went, and we would go follow them. Yeah, no matter if we like the food or not. So that server made that much of a connection with us that we were no longer there because of the restaurant. We were there because of that server.

SPEAKER_00: 14:17

Yeah, I mean, I I love that. Take care of your good employees, and as we say in Jersey, take care of the bad ones. You know? Anyway, love that, Brandon. We got to have you back on to talk more about the guest experience because I know you've just got such a wealth of experience and this has been such a great conversation. Who is someone in the restaurant industry that deserves an ovation?

SPEAKER_01: 14:37

Yeah, I would have to say Jamal Rasulli of the the Halal Shack, just a good dude. If you guys haven't heard of him, go look at the Halal Shack. Incredible food. They've got locations all over the country, an owner operator that cares about the business, that's humble, that's really doing the work on that grind. So I got to give a shout out to him.

SPEAKER_00: 15:00

Love that. How many locations are they at? I believe they're at uh a little over 50. 35. Oh, really? At 50. Oh, very cool. Yeah, they're all over the place.

SPEAKER_01: 15:10

He's figured it out. He's got some corporate locations and licensed locations. So he's figured out a model that that's working for sure.

SPEAKER_00: 15:17

Very cool. Yeah. Well, check him out, everyone. Jamal Rasulli. And Brandon, for helping us to remember that moving the needle with people is the best way to get where we need to go. Today's ovation goes to you. Thank you for joining us on Givenovation. By the way, oh, before I forget, how do people find and follow you, Brandon, and and your new company?

SPEAKER_01: 15:35

Uh yeah, you can find me, follow me on LinkedIn, business page, the tabletop group. And then just yeah, Brandon Bat on LinkedIn. I I love to connect, uh uh super active on it. And yeah, thank you for your support. And uh, Zach, I do have to mention that I remember the episode you talking to Josh Bouchard and that t-shirt that everybody keeps talking about. Once you're on this podcast, you get a t-shirt, right?

SPEAKER_00: 15:57

Oh, I got one for you. I got one for you, Brandon. It's a good one. It's a nice, nice, minty pop to it.

SPEAKER_01: 16:07

Love it.

SPEAKER_00: 16:08

Love it. Looking forward to it. Awesome. Thanks, Brandon. 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.