Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to another edition of Give and Ovation, the Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast. I'm your host, Zach Host, 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 I have someone who is, I would consider him a friend and a mentor. He is the founder and CEO of Boley, a brand that has recently crossed its 10th birthday, which the percentage of restaurant brands that do that are just so minuscule. And we're not talking about a one-location cafe down the street. They have over 20 locations around the South. It's an amazing brand. I've had the privilege to go there. It's very healthy, good for you, good feeling. You get fed, you feel good. The brand and color is just on fire. It's such an amazing place to go. Go check out Boley. And Chris Gannon has a really interesting background because, and I'm sure that at some point this will come up, but he's picked up a lot of lessons from his dad, Tim Gannon, who's one of the founders of Outback, and the inventor of the Bloomin' Onion. But as I said, he's really paved his own path. Chris actually spent years as a professional polo player. Fun fact about Chris. And uh he was the second youngest, correct me if I'm wrong here, second youngest polo player to win the US Open Polo Championship.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Did I get all that right, Chris? Pretty much. There's a whole lot else in there too. But I think you're hired to be our marketing and my personal uh motivator every day to make me just wake up and go crush the world. So thank you for that intro.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

It's easy. All you got to do is just read a couple of the highlights of the accomplishments of what you're doing.

Ten Years Of Boley Lessons

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Yeah, I think what you said, Zach, hit hit home pretty heavy. You know, everybody knows getting into any business, starting any business from scratch is such a daunting challenge, so rewarding. And when you're in it, you don't really ever stop and smell the roses. And we never really did. There was a couple moments, and it wasn't until last week when we hit 10 years that I was like, wow, we made it. And we made it to 10 years. And through all the ups and downs of the four-headed horsemen I called COVID, great resignation, supply chain crisis, inflation, all that fun. But really reflected back on how many people we were able to serve. Were we staying true to the what we set out to do? How many team members have we gotten to hire and give their first job to? How many people have promoted within our system? How many vendor partners have made wonderful money along the journey, right? Everybody's got to make money along the journey. How many school donations we've given to, how many charity organizations we've supported? And you look back at the 10 years of doing that, and you're like, wow, we've been able to accomplish so much. Now obviously we think we should be quadruple where we're at, but that's the entrepreneur in us, the winner. But it was a hot, it was a great moment just to stop and smell the broccoli, if you will. Yeah, yeah. And uh and reflect on that on what we've accomplished. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Well, and it speaking of smelling broccoli, I mean, every moment that you have where you could look back and reflect, it's bittersweet because entrepreneurs, and you know, you and I have hung out enough that I know that you and I are kind of cut from the same cloth when it comes to it's hard for us to celebrate because we always think that we should be further than we are. And so it's like, yeah, good job. We did XYZ, but we should have done that a long time ago, right? And it's one of those things where we actually have our third value. So we have six values in ovation, and value number three is celebrate. And it's the only value with a punctuation mark, and it's an exclamation mark. So every other value is a two, three-word value, and then value number three is just celebrate exclamation mark because I think at some point you really have to stop, you have to punctuate it, you gotta celebrate because it's hard, and like it's hard when your backyard's on fire and our job as as leaders is to make sure those fires don't get to the house, but that doesn't mean we can't celebrate the stuff going on in the front yard and the stuff that's going on in the house, and like there's good things happening, and we can't just focus on where we should have done things better because there's a lot of really good things that the team has done, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:33

I probably need to go see a therapist for that one, but yes, I agree. It's hard, it's the hardest, it is the most challenging thing to do, and I think it's just yeah, it's what you and I just what you just said, and putting it in a core value, putting it in something that says and it's repeated is how it stays alive, and you take a moment to reflect on the journey.

Gratitude As The Guest Experience

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Yeah. Now I will say that is probably the one of the values I struggle the most with because again, you're always wanting to push to the next thing. But one of the things I feel like has been a huge win for you is just the guest experience and being able to go into a bole, it literally just like feels fresh. And so talk to me about the guest experience. What are some of the principles that you've used to guide creating and growing boley when it comes to the guest experience?

SPEAKER_01 5:20

So is the artist part where we started with where we grew, where we had some bumps on the road, and now where we're getting back on. I feel like it's life, right? Or the journey. You get on that horse. Obviously, poll player, so I know that. You get bucked off, and you got to get back on the horse, stay on the horse, and ride even better. And it's the same thing of climbing a mountain, right? Everybody knows that's just not this straight shot up to the top, and all the bumps and ravines on the way up, you learn something from. But to specifically ask you, answer your question, we are a walk the line concept where you build a bowl. So every interaction with a team member is very short. It's very 10, 20 seconds. So how do you do it? But it's the little details, it's the guest experience making sure that we're smiling, that we're interacting, that we're recognizing that we have a first guest in the restaurant, that we're recognizing that it's somebody that has a welcome patch from a hospital, that majority of the time, if they've got a welcome patch from the hospital, they're probably going through something not fun. And so we might buy their bowl that day and recognize that we thank all of our first responders when they come through the line to really show appreciation. And I think when you teach the team members about how important appreciation is, and that one of the things that we really pride ourselves on is today's, now more than ever, people have the ability to choose to go to a thousand different restaurants. You just go on to, you know, one of the three PD apps and order. So if they choose to come to Boley, let's be honored and humbled every day. And that's hard to do, but really celebrate that you they chose us, right? They picked us. Hey, we're the little guys, picked us. And and realize, and we talk about all the time, someone is coming in, they give us their hard-earned money that they worked. Sometimes our meals can get up there where they're working more, it's more per hour than the meal, right? So we think, like, hey, we're taking someone's hour of work away that they paid for, so we better honor that.

Hiring For Values And Recognition

SPEAKER_00 7:15

I love that concept, that gratitude and that appreciation, because I mean, everyone wants to feel appreciated. And when you feel important, I love what you're talking about with things like the smile, that showing the appreciation, giving your team the autonomy to take that extra step. And also it's about like the consistency. If I order a$15,$16,$17 bowl and I'm getting extra protein, and I get this stuff, and I get the bowl and it's like all wrong, man, that's a great way to get a really upset guest, right? And so that consistency, I think, is also key. And yeah, I know you and I have talked about this, but like, what do you do when you're focusing on the employee experience and the training of them? How do you go about knowing what are you gonna train your team on? And how do you make sure that that sticks?

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Well, first and foremost, it starts with who we select, right? If you're if you're in the interview process and you have a team member that doesn't smile, I say quite simply our leaders. You want to select people that are fun, you want to be around, and that you can see you're gonna be in a very high pressure situation. And you know, think about it, in a thousand square foot kitchen, give or take, 1,500. You've got 11, 12, 15 people all working each other, hot area, steam, knife, guests coming in. If you're gonna be in that kind of situation, I want to you want to be around somebody you like. Let's start with that. Start with somebody you like. Yeah. All right. Then you work your way back and do they possess all the core values and selecting them, going through our core values, our mission, our purpose. Just talk to them about that. Tell me who you are, and then tell me how these core values reflect you. Because if you you don't live our core values, teamwork, excellence, integrity, stewardship, and want to feel people be their best and provide genuine experiences of positive experiences, genuine hospitality. If you don't want to do those things, then there's a great you'll be successful somewhere else, but you just won't be successful at boley. So it starts with that, and then it starts with repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, and then celebration, right? Celebrate great performance, great success, the many celebrations. Recognition, I think, is a big one, part of our four R's of a great experience. So recognition is a big one that we we really pride ourselves on. And we start that at the support center every week when we start the meeting or Monday huddle. We go around the room, we all tell a positive story from either a guest or a team member, and we nominate them. That goes in the weekly brew, which goes out to the entire company. So, Zach, let's say you're the head cashier at one of our restaurants. I'd say, you know, Zach, I saw him go above and beyond. So I'm purposefully looking all week long. It's forcing me to look for great behaviors all week long to then publicly celebrate our people. And it's something that we've stuck with, and I don't think we've ever kind of gone from, and it's been great.

Role Play Filming And Real Smiles

SPEAKER_00 9:59

I love that. We do something similar to ovation. We call it give an ovation. So everyone's got a$20 bonus each month that they have to give to somebody else. And it's for living one of the ovation values. And like then we get a chance to, when we have time, we talk, we read them all in the all hands. Otherwise, we just read a couple of them and then post them in Slack. Because I do think that recognition, again, like the importance, the gratitude, the pausing, all those things are so key in order to not just grow a restaurant but grow a culture. And I think that you've done a really good job about that because what you're saying is more than just lip service. Going in there, that's been my experience in Bolas is that that is the friendly, fun. You have a lot of woo people, the winning others over of people who are just able to make those real quick connections. And I think that's key. So, other than hiring the right people, are there any other tips or tactics that you found that improve the guest experience?

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Yeah, we've done some role playing in the restaurants and we video the team members doing some role playing back in guest experience. And it's interesting to see yourself back and uh have the coaching moment of saying, hmm, do you really think that you're smiling? Do you really think you're warm and welcoming? And for someone to see themselves like, oh, wait, no, I I got opportunity, or hey, let's use this to really focus on how we can get better.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

But Chris, that's so awkward. You're actually, you you really do film. Yeah. They film me too. No way. Wow. So, how did you get over the initial awkwardness of that filming of like, how'd you set the expectations that nah, this is what we do?

SPEAKER_01 11:32

I do it myself. I lead, I just jump in, film myself. So many times you're like, oh, this is awkward, but you just do it, right? I remember the first, you know, it's so funny. I remember myself when I was younger in the restaurant business, and it was so nerve-wracking to go up and speak to guests the first time, even though I'm a pretty out there going out there person. But, you know, and when you're just not comfortable, hey, this is business. I'm supposed to be, you know, blah, blah. Hey, no, those are human beings. I'm a human being. I'm just gonna go talk to you. And so I'll even have some team members that are super shy and nervous, and I'll just jump on the other side of the line and I'll just say, watch this. I'll just start making jokes with the guests. And I'll look at the team be like, look, see, it's a human being on the other side. And the guest laughs, I laugh, team member laughs, and we've just now broken down that awkward barrier, and everybody's having fun. And you realize, like, hey, this is what this meant to be. It is not supposed to be this robotic AI, whatever experience. This is two human beings interacting, and what kind of interaction can we make for the positive we were talking about today? Just how important a smile is and the chemical reaction you get from a smile versus you know, you yawn at somebody, what do you get back? Oh, like a yawn. You smile at somebody, you get a smile back. Now, I would much rather be a smile and get each other happy. And so it's those little things, and I think it's like everything we try to remind the team in the most polite way, is in and I find myself there too, even on you know, Zoom meetings, the resting uh we call it the R R B F, the resting bitch face, right? But you don't realize we're you're just focused on thinking, but you don't realize what your face looks like. Like, well, that's not an approachable person.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

You never get that though with those big smiles, and Zach walks in the room with his bright shirts and lights up the room. You don't get that.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Actually, I picked this shirt out for you. I was like, what's my most Florida shirt I could wear today? And so anyway, you got you got one of my Miami chic shirts. I love that though. I think that that is I I haven't thought about that about how a smile is just as contagious as a yawn, if not more so. And I think that's a really great philosophy to have.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

You can't came up with a reaction. You're making two people happy at the same time. I smile at you. I'm I'm making myself, you smile back at me, you just made me happy.

Listening At Scale With Ovation

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Yeah. Love it. Now to put you on the spot a little bit, how has ovation been helpful for you?

SPEAKER_01 13:39

You know, that's something I've been wanting to set up a Zoom call uh with you to talk about and and really help. It's been amazing. I can't swear it's enough. You know, you have all your vendor partners. I think the value for what you charge, I always tell you could charge a little bit more for the service and the technology it provides is spot on. But keeps it simple. Us leaders, you know, I was thinking about the other day, we're a small organization, but we're big too. We're not mom and pop. What is it like to be at the helm of a massive national brand and how are these leaders doing a great job of truly listening and not just the loud voices? And I think as leaders, we are our number one job as chief office executive officers, or even leaders in any company, we're chief listening officers first and foremost, listening to our team, listening to our guests, and really understanding that sentiment across all aspects. And ovation provides that, along with boots on the ground, good old-fashioned talking to the consumer, and then the guests and the feedback. And but just I think the true uh challenge that we all face is how do you take all those data points and voices and create a story from that? And I think that's where the true leadership genius comes from is being able to dissect all those voices and make the right decisions from all those voices. And oil, I tell you, we get it, we strive for perfection all the time, but it is an opportunity and challenge with an organization.

Brands Worth Following And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Well, and I think that by virtue of the fact that you're responding to the guest, that you care about the guest, and you really are listening, because listening is a two-way street. And if someone shares with you something and you respond back to them, that creates that relationship and that connection that is building something that goes beyond just a recovered guest, Steven, but is building that connection where the next time that they're thinking, oh, I need to cater something, I'm calling Boley. The next time they're like, hey, we need to do a family dinner, I'm going to Boley, right? Because they know that you've got their back. And I think that's really powerful. Now, Chris, who is someone in the restaurant industry who deserves an ovation? Who's someone that we should be following?

SPEAKER_01 15:47

I will tell you first and foremost, uh, I'm gonna blanket that statement with a quick, easy one. All of the better for you brands. And everybody says, oh, who's your direct competitor? All the better for you brands that are coming and emerging, because I truly believe that the old fast food brands had their place in our journey in American culinary. But I truly believe I don't know if that should be in the future with how the food has gone in direction. And I truly believe, even though our direct competitors, I look at all of the better for you brands of what we're trying to bring to the market and better for you eating. Everybody's to different levels, but bringing that, so I'd say really follow all the better for you brands, including Bole, first and foremost. Always been a huge fan of Chick-fil-A. They're the gold standard in our brand, the way they operate, the way they execute, constantly innovating, as big as they are, the team, the experience. Everybody wants to throw rocks at them just because they're on top of the world, on top of their game. But I just celebrate them, try to learn from them. And true at Kathy to Dan Cathy, now to Andrew Cathy, their leadership and tenure through family lineage. They do the tribute to the true believers, you know, everything that the team members they select, the speed of service, the consistency in the product. I mean, you look at other emerging brands that are sexier and hitting their ground, yeah, but you look at a brand that's just been on top of their game for so long. I don't know. They're the Michael Jordan, in my opinion, of the restaurant business. And I think that I'm blessed to get to know them and understand them and try to emulate aspects of their excellence. I mean, they just they they operate on another level and we can get there. We're gonna keep working at it though.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

I mean, shoot, you want to talk about consistency. I have never been into a Chick-fil-A and had a even okay experience. Like it has been great every single time, and it is mind-boggling.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

So they're not even they have inspections on whether or not to serve the small little end pieces of the French fry in their French fry. They get judged on if there's grease, too much grease on the outside of the wrappers. I mean, when you focus on details like that, you win. Wow. Jeez.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

Well, may we all be Chick-fil-A is our is the dream, right? Yeah. Well, Chris, speaking of following Boley, how do people find and follow Bole and you?

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Best is Boley on Instagram. Obviously, follow our journey. I'm on there as well. Chief Chris Gannon at Boley. Chief, not because of chief executive office, but chief, because I was chief of CEO at Ford State University, which a lot of people don't know. Got to represent him in pageantry. Obviously, LinkedIn, impossible to keep up with all the messages, but I try to get back to everybody. I used to be in sales, so I have a guilty heart of getting back to too many of our salespeople trying to sell us something. But I have respect for people trying to sell a product. Well, I'm trying to sell a product, so we're all trying to sell something out there. So I have respect for people in that aspect, but trying to mount time as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Yeah. Awesome. Well, Chris, for helping us recognize the importance of recognition and for putting celebration central to our brand. Today's ovation goes to you. Thank you for joining us on Give an Ovation. I love it. Thank you. 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 estimates-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.