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.
Episodes
446 episodes
How Your Legacy POS Is Holding You Back with Jenifer Kern
What does a conversation between two podcast hosts in the same industry sound like? A lot of energy and well-spoken advice! And good sound quality on both ends. Jen Kern is the current CMO at Qu POS, a company reinventing the POS syste...
Tips For A Better 2021 with Christopher Sebes
Christopher Sebes brings 30 years in the hospitality industry and whole lot of expertise to this episode of Give an Ovation. As a board member of Valyant AI, ShiftPixy, ItsaCheckmate, and Results Thru Strategy, advising restaurants is kind of h...
Motivation and Flatbread with Gonca Esendemir
Gonca Esendemir is the real deal! She is a co-founder and the Chief Marketing Officer of Flatbread Grill, a fresh casual Mediterranean bakery based in New Jersey. Flatbread was started by Gonca and her two sisters and has gone on to experience ...
Failure Isn't Fatal with Devon Harris
Devon Harris is one of the founding members of the Jamaican Bob Sled Team (yes, the one you are thinking of ) and a three-time Olympian who is now a published author, accomplished speaker, and the founder of The Keep On Pushing Foundation. You ...
3rd Party, 1st Party, and Everyday Parties with Kevin Tinsley
Kevin Tinsley has been helping restaurants with their print and digital media for 23 years. He got his start in the industry working at the Hard Rock Cafe in Chicago (along with Steve Carell) and now specializes in ghost kitchens and online ord...
The Ins and Outs of Restaurant Fundraisers with Charley Donaldson
After he and his wife experienced the frustration and hassle of running fundraisers as Slim Chicken franchisees, Charley Donaldson co-founded DonationScout to make the process seamless. He and Zack Oates talk why restaurant fundraisers are impo...
Qwick and the Restaurant Gig Economy with Jordan Mellul
Jordan Mellul is the VP of Operations at Qwick, "an on-demand staffing as a service platform that connects service industry Professionals with food and beverage shifts in real-time" (Qwick.com). He also helped grow Uber for five years dur...
Solving Digital Inefficiencies and Being Human with Avi Goren
Marqii is a booming tech company helping restaurants manage their menus and other digital information across all online platforms and free up employees to do what they were hired for. Their co-founder and CEO, Avi Goren came on talk why they've...
Markerations, Ghost Brands, and more with CJ Ramirez
CJ Ramirez is the Executive Vice President and Marketing Director at The Absolute Brands, a flavor-packed collection of off premise brands, powered by the fan-favorite Dog Haus. He and Zack Oates discuss listening to your customers, syncing mar...
Pricing Recipes and Lowering Costs with Mark Kelnhofer
President and CEO of Return On Ingredients, author, and educator Mark Kelnhofer is back making his second appearance on Give an Ovation! This time, he and Zack talk innovative ways of lowering expenses on ingredients, labor and more. Than...
8 Ideas For COVID-19 Restaurants with Tom McNeill and Peter Venti
Peter Venti, Founder of familymeal.com, and Tom McNeill, Director of Growth at familymeal.com discuss their website and how it can help diners and restaurants during these challenging times. They also talk about what's working and give a slew o...
Becoming a SMART Restaurant During COVID-19 with TJ Schier
TJ Schier is the president of SMART restaurant group, a successful Which Wich franchisee, author, and speaker (when it's allowed) with decades of experience in the hospitality industry. He and Zack Oates talk the transition from in-person to of...
Understanding Food Costs, Data, and More with Ian Christopher
Ian Christopher, Galley Solution's CEO and co-founder came on this episode of Give an Ovation to talk about how Galley Solutions can help restaurant operators not only understand their food costs, but also gain insights about the inner workings...
Restaurants "R" Us: Learning From Others' Mistakes with John DiLoreto
This episode features John DiLoreto, the current President of Flipdish North America. He and host Zack Oates discuss Flipdish and showcase the importance of restaurants establishing their own digital presence by looking at what happened to comp...
The Lodel Lowdown - Delivery Insights with Michael Rolland
Michael Rolland is one of the co-founders of Lodel, a delivery platform for local business and niche markets. He had some awesome things to say about Lodel, getting the most out of delivery, and more. Thanks Michael!
Building Customer Relationships Online with Collin Wallace
Collin Wallace is the co-founder of ZeroStorefront, a purpose-built customer acquisition and retention tool for restaurants and other businesses. He's started many successful companies, and was the former Head of Innovation at Grubhub. As a lum...
4 Secrets To Restaurant Victories with Tracey Matney
Tracey Matney is the founder and CEO of Restaurant Victory, and is a chat marketing & ROI expert who specializes in helping restaurants get more fans and revenue. She and Zack talk how to collect customer data (without invading pri...
The 4 Things You Need To Know In The New Normal with Wilson K Lee
Wilson K Lee, a serial entrepreneur, successful restaurateur, prominent YouTuber, and COVID-turned-consultant, came on the show to discuss his four biggest tips for restaurants to survive during the pandemic. He and Zack talk omni-channel appro...
For The Love Of Pizza - 5 Success Tips From Scott Wiener
Scott Wiener is the Big Cheese (owner) of Scott's Pizza Tours, as well as the founder of Slice Out Hunger, a non-profit organization that use pizza to help the hungry. He and Zack talk about Scott's story, his tips for restaurateurs during COVI...
How To Build A Successful Brand with Wing Lam of Wahoo's Fish Taco
As one of the founders and owners of one of the most successful brands in the country, one of the "Top CEOs To Follow", and one of the nicest guys around, Wing Lam had some incredible insights to share about how you can build your brand and hel...
Using Technology To Grow Your Restaurant with Skip Kimpel
Skip Kimpel, Chief Information Officer at 4R Restaurant Group talks with Ovation CEO Zack Oates about making IT a revenue generator, contactless restaurants, and moving forward in COVID-19.
Optimizing Operations During COVID-19 with Paula Grassell
Paula Grassell is an operations expert - as a former operations manager at MOD Pizza, REI, and Starbucks, she had great insights to share about how restaurants can manage during this pandemic. Her and Zack Oates discuss tuning into customers, b...
How Restaurants Can Stay Strong Post COVID-19 with Tanvir Bhangoo
Tanvir Banghoo, Managing Director at TBX Digital and VP of Technology at Freshii talks strategies for surviving the new normal with Zack Oates. They discuss the importance of becoming a digital first business, taking time to ground yourself eac...