June 11, 2025 • 28 mins
Establishing a digital relationship with the 75% of a chain’s patrons that aren’t loyalty customers will be the growth engine for full-service restaurant traffic going forward, Ziosk Cofounder and Chief Revenue and Growth Officer Raymond Howard tells Bloomberg Intelligence. In this episode of the Choppin’ It Up podcast, Howard sits down with BI’s senior restaurant and foodservice analyst Michael Halen to discuss how the company’s offerings, including order and pay on demand, are helping restaurant chains improve their restaurant operations and marketing. He also comments on AI and his vision of the smart-table experience of the future.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Welcome to Chopping It Up. I'm your host, Mike Hanlon,
the senior Restaurant and Food Service Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Our research and that at bi's five hundred analysts around
the globe can be found exclusively on the Bloomberg terminal.
If you enjoy the pod, I'd love it if you'd
leave us a review on Apple or Spotify. Today we're
joined by Raymond Howard, co founder and chief revenue and
Growth officer of Xiosk. It's nice to meet you, Raymond.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Great to meet you, Mike, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Sure thing, man, So how did ziosk come to be?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Oh? Man, I tell you. I'll give you this short version.
There's certainly a much longer story. But you know, I'd
had a lot of passion about starting a business going
into graduate school back in the early two thousands, after
spending probably a decade in corporate America, and it went
back to SMU got my at that time, and around
(01:02):
two thousand and three, two thousand and five, and finished
up then and know it happened to meet a couple
of a couple of weather guys there and got to
know them and we had very similar interest just in
our desire to launch a business and were part of
a entrepreneurship class coincidentally, and this whole idea of being
(01:23):
able to pay at the table really birthed out of
that class. We took it on as a term project.
We really launched the idea and try to come up
with something different and unique around solving a problem in
the industry that everybody has. We certainly experienced it as
professionals in corporate America who were constantly traveling impatiently trying
(01:45):
to get out of restaurants like a lot of consumers today.
And really the whole idea of being able to pay
at the table, or what we think about is paying
on demand, really launched out of an NBA class, and
we really incubated the idea for the better part of
a year year and a half, worked on nights and
the weekend, sort of a year after graduating over the
(02:06):
NBA and went back and I looked around town at
Dallas and in other places for funding and you know,
lo and behold. Our professor at that time was a
guy by the name of Jack Bam who was a
serio entrepreneur had previously bought a concept called Kozamels from
Brinker International and had launched and sold another restaurant brand,
(02:28):
and so we ended up partner with him and we
all launched the business together back in the you know,
late two thousands and sort of the rest is history.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, it's a cool backstory, man. I'm sure the products
evolved a lot over the last decade, especially post pandemic.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
It has, you know, the pandemic I think was a
marker for the industry. It was a marker for us.
You know, we had we had focused a lot in
the early days around operational efficiency, really solving the pain
of giving consumers more convenience and control the experience, and
there was so much happening, you know, more broadly in
the industry in retail and other places around self service,
(03:11):
and we were really trying to find a way of
just eliminating those friction points in the dining experience, particularly
around casual dining. But you know, as time has gone by,
we really expanded the platform to really just a full
comprehensive Sweetest Solutions to address a lot of the pain
points and inefficiencies and the restaurant you know, not just
(03:32):
in casual dining, but today even beyond and to find dining,
polished casual, and a number of places and really tackling
the the a lot of different digital touch points with
a consumer. And so even though it really started as
a payment on demand being the killer app, it's really
evolved there to become now a self service sort of
(03:56):
application for merchants to be able to digitally create and
change content, to make it more of a dynamic interaction
with their guests, to be able to drive and influence
you know, purchase behavior. Obviously we've extended that to include
you know, a lot of the things around loyalty. We
obviously do a great job of collecting guest insights and
(04:17):
data if you've seen some of the things that you know,
other publicly traded companies out back and others are talking
about in the industry today. So we collect you know,
survey data from probably forty five percent of the guest
of the ninety percent now that are actually paying at
the table. And so certainly the adoption since we launch
(04:37):
the business has dramatically changed, and covid has done a
lot to really create more of that self service environment.
And you know, one of the business levers and I
think business drivers have changed for a lot of the
brands over time, and certainly our focus is continuing to evolve.
The killer app still becomes pay at the table, and
(04:58):
that's really a lot at the driver of the of
the platform.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Interesting the survey data is that are those your proprietary
surveys or do you have a third party that integrates
into your software.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, it's our survey platform, Mike, and oftentimes that's modeled
after what the brand is really looking to learn from
the restaurant. You know, there's somewhat handicapped today in that
most brands will only get thirty or forty responses per
restaurant per month. We, on the other hand, you know,
after going through a deployment, will will give them a
(05:34):
thousand plus and so now you start to change the
dynamic of the types of questions that you can ask.
And some of our customers will have one hundred and
fifty questions and their bank but you know, any given
customer may only answer seven. And I think part of
that is because it's guest facing, it's real time, it's dynamic.
We know exactly what's on the check. We can make
(05:56):
real time decisions about what we want to ask consumers
in the mother So when you think about brands that
are going through a brand transformation and they're trying to
re engineer a menu, and you want to get specific
data on an item that they're launching today, but you
want to have insights into that in three days, not
in two or three weeks. That's the kind of scale
that we can bring to your data and your insights.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Are any of your clients able to react fast enough
to those surveys to do kind of customer recovery?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, so that's a great question. You know, today we're
not signaling to the brands in all cases. I will
say some brands are taking advantage of that where we
can message someone in the restaurant when we see a
one or two or low score. You can recover those.
You know, different brands, like I said, are leveraging the
(06:46):
platform in different ways. So it really just depends on
how they've implemented. There's a lot of flexibility there to
unlock value where brands want to take advantage of that.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah, it's cool. It's a great opportunity. How much faster
are your clients earning their tables?
Speaker 2 (07:01):
You know, it ranges. We I would say on the
low end, we're definitely seeing five minutes plus, and a
number of our brands have been very public about that,
you know, I think out back most recently, you know,
mentioned five minutes. We've historically seen you know, upwards of
seven minutes from some of even our customers that went
on the platform in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen. Dard was
(07:23):
one of those that was public about some of the
early results. And in some cases we've seen nine minutes.
And so it kind of depends on the profile of
the customer and how they operate today as to how
much of the inefficiencies we can take out of the process.
But for us, you know, that's always a win. You know,
with some of our more recent products, with the handheld
(07:44):
devices that were dropping off at the table as opposed
to the tabletop devices that sit on the table, you know,
because it's not on demand, you're still waiting on an
employee or server to drop that device off. Your GENA
typically see a few minutes us, but it's still, you know,
for a lot of brands, very meaningful impact to operational efficiency.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
And those drop off as that more geared towards.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Some of the fine dining, it is, yes, you know,
are you know, we're finding some fine dining brands like
the notion of having servers have tablets they can use
for ordering, But in many cases they don't want to
lose the hospitality and that fine dining feel of the
eye contact and so they but they still want to
(08:29):
have a digital payment experience where they can then still
get data and still be able to capture sort of
payment in the moment when the guest is ready to leave.
And so you know, you're still going to see an
impact there, just not to the extent that you would
with a device on the table.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Interesting, uh, and I'd imagine tips and guest satisfaction gets
a boost.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Tips, Yes, So we certainly see a tip tip increase
in the brands that we're in. The guest satisfaction you know,
my well, I would tell you since COVID has probably
been an even bigger dynamic because the labor constraints and
even I think the talent pool has been, you know,
in a much more challenging place for most brands, and
(09:14):
so in you know, in a pre COVID scenario where
we were very much playing a role in labor savings,
and obviously we continue to see wages increase in certain
places today, we're becoming more and more I would say,
not an ancillary part of the dining experience has shifted
more into a necessary part of the dining experience, because
(09:37):
brands know that they need to be able to improve
the guest satisfaction because that's a future indicator of sales.
And we've proven time and time again that attentiveness improves,
you know, server attentiveness improves, your overall dining experience improves,
and so we're no, we're making an impact on guest satisfaction.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
And you kind of touched on this, but are many
of your customers eliminating servers after installing their CIS tablets?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
You know, it varies by brand and certainly by geography. Frankly,
so if you're really focused on let's say the West Coast,
you know, we now have brands on the platform that
are very deliberate about having a tablet in the hand
of the server that's specifically focused on ordering and moving,
(10:24):
and really that frees them up to really focus on
hospitality and what I would say are high value engagements
with the guest where they're building relationship and they're building
check But then they've separated the things that are more
transactional that the guests quite frankly, are more than happy
and prefer just to do themselves at scale, which is
(10:46):
around payment, loyalty survey, ordering another round of drinks. And
so we're seeing more and more in high labor markets
that those processes are being bifurcated. Now a low labor markets,
you still have some states that are two fifteen, you know,
three dollars an hour. Most of those brands we see
(11:06):
are leaning more toward one of the other solution, and
obviously high favorability toward tabletop because of the you know,
the business model of the ROI that we can provide.
So it really depends by geography and by brand.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I'd imagine there's some upsell opportunities too, right, I'd imagine,
you know, drink sales would probably increase, right.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Absolutely, yes, And you know, it's part of the beauty
of bringing digital to the table as opposed to some
of the more static things that are historically been in dining,
which are bar books or table tents, you know, in
some respects, then the fact that we're now bringing a
self service content management platform to marketers is a dream
(11:50):
for them because now they can not just take static images,
they can create video that helps to create a compelling
story in a very enticing, appetitive pill for drinks or
appetizers or desserts. And it's not just about delivering it.
It's about delivering with the right message at the right time.
So breakfast you may have, you know, one specific promotion.
(12:14):
Lunch and dinner you may have different promotions. Happy hours
you may have different promotions. But even beyond just the
day part, we can get granular even during that forty
or fifty minute experience, so that you're only really focused
on seeing desserts during the latter thirty minutes of the experience.
And so now we're getting very specific about what we're
(12:36):
trying to drive to create impulse purchase and stimulate sales
during that fifty minute experience. And so, you know, the
CMO of Miller's Hell House, you know, was recently talking
about that and some of the recent press release, and
you know, those kind of things are game changers for
a marketer when you can give them that kind of
(12:57):
latitude down to a day part or down to a
restaurant to make it very specific. And I think that's
just the beginning when you start thinking about personalization and
the journey to personalization, which everybody's on today. How do
you now start to think about marketing to certain types
of personas and individuals as opposed to everybody universally just
(13:18):
inside the full walls of an individual restaurant. And so
that's kind of the journey that we're on.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Very cool, and it sounds like you've touched on some
of them. But how does the differentiate itself in an
increasingly crowded restaurant tech space.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
It's you know, it's interesting. We are we're highly differentiated
than what we do. Certainly, you know, from the idea
of being guest facing technology that's always available. We're very
differentiated from mobile. You know. I heard it said once
when we started the business from a CEO of a
very large, publicly traded brand. You said, you know, when
(13:54):
it comes to digital, I would rather control the brand
experience at the table then relegate it to the consumer
to control and opt in on their mobile phone, because
we'll never win that battle. And I think he's right,
and so I think the screen at the table and
on the table really does a great job of engaging
the consumer and certainly allow them to opt in in
(14:16):
the way that's meaningful for them. But it gives brand
the brand the tools to be able to deliver the
right message at the right time to the consumers in
such a way that they can control that brand message.
So that's highly differentiated, you know, I would say the
other thing is we're very much agnostic to partners. You know,
we're not the point of cell system, but we partner
(14:38):
with all the point of cell systems. We partner with
processors in gateways and loyalty platforms, and so we're not
trying to walk into a brand today and change their
whole tech stack. We're trying to approach them in a
way that's very frictionless and easy just to plug into
their existing tech stack to minimize the amount of disruption
(14:59):
that they're to incur to be able to opt to
a platform like ours that's smart.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Pos changes cause a lot of disruption, so I know
restaurant tours try to avoid it at all costs.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
It's it's a big lift, you know, as you know,
and some brands depend on you know who they are,
you know, they oftentimes can view those types of platforms
as an expense. And I think what's interesting about our
platform is, you know, we can demonstrate that we can
drive sales, that we can improve operational efficiencies, we can
(15:32):
give you a great guest experience, we can deliver a
feedback and a scalable way that you just can't get
at any other place. But we're also a revenue producing platform,
and that we create opportunities to drive revenue through our
own entertainment offerings, and that becomes a revenue that we
then share back with the brands to subsidize the platform cost,
(15:56):
to lower the hurdle for them on an ongoing basis.
And so it makes a very very partnership discussion, which
we always view ourselves as a partner to our you know,
our to our customer, to our customers and to the
restaurant merchants as opposed to having a vendor vendor conversation.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
What are the biggest revenue growth opportunities this year and next.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Yeah, so we've you know, we've been very focused, Michael historically,
which is probably a typical for startup frankly, on a
lot of enterprise brands. And today I think we've got
six of the top ten already on the platform, and
obviously you know a number of those will continue to
add over the next twelve to twenty four months, and
(16:40):
so there's still a lot of enterprise growth for us.
You know, we have continued to expand our offerings into
fine dining, polish casual, you know, not just focused then
on one sector of casual dying, but expanding into adjacent
markets so that that will be that will create new
opportunities for us. We're obviously have a huge focus on
(17:04):
you know, middle market small business, and so that's creating
a lot of opportunity for us for growth as well
and hasn't been a huge focus for us historically, but certainly,
you know, we think that we can improve the operational
efficiency for all restaurants, regardless of size, and so we're
absolutely doubling down on and being very focused about that growth.
(17:27):
And then I think, you know, just beyond the tabletop
and the dining room, we've got handheld solutions now to
really position ourselves to be able to take and improve
the experience of guests and the team member behind the
bar for curbside and so really trying to address all
the friction points around payment, loyalty survey regardless of where
(17:51):
you are in the front of the house. And so
it's really a comprehensive suite of front of house those solutions,
and so that's that's happening in real time. There's a
lot that we're working on relative to AI, tokenization and personalization.
You know, there is a lot of interest and we
constantly hear feedback from brand saying, how can you help
us get more data? How can we understand more about
(18:13):
who our guests are? And so we have historically focused
on enabling and enhancing I would say, the loyalty members
for a brand, which is typically twenty five percent of
their guest, Well, what about the other seventy five percent
that you don't know who they are? And so now
(18:34):
we're very focused on helping them establish a digital relationship
with the other seventy five percent because we think that's
the growth engine for traffic going forward. And how because
we're sitting in front of the guest, can we help
you unlock and understand and build profiles around who those
consumers are to enable those brands to be able to
(18:55):
target and drive personalized offers to them.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Operations and market a great place to play. Man, it's
two of the most important things in the restaurant space.
And you're seeing a lot of chains that have struggled
over the last decade or so really focus on those
two to turn things around.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yeah, they really have. And you know, I would say
probably the big one of the big stories of that
recently obviously is Chili's and they've done a tremendous job
really marketing and getting people into the restaurant. But you know,
I think even they would say, marketing's job is to
get them to the restaurant, but then you have to
satisfy them and deliver on the promise when they get there,
(19:34):
to make sure they come back. And that's really where
operations comes in. And I would say what's interesting about
our position is we're really catering to both of those.
We're really trying to help them improve the experience of
the consumer while they're there, but we're also trying to
help marketing understand who their consumers are so they can
help get them back more often.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Good stuff and certainty was a term commonly heard on
first quarter earning calls. Have Chains pulled back on their
tech investments this year?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Well, you know, I won't speak for everyone, I will
tell you it hasn't been pulled back from our point
of view. You know, this has been a year of
tremendous growth for US as was last year, and I
think from where we're sitting even looking at to next year,
you know, we're looking at a very promising you know,
next twelve to twenty four months. So you know, I
(20:25):
think relative to you know, some types of technology that
are less proven, I just think they're having to be
very prescriptive and a bit more decisive to know exactly
where they're going to make the investments to know they're
getting the returns. But you know, for platform like hours
that you know, we've got lots of proof points out
(20:46):
there now, and lots of brands like Texas Roadhouse and
Miller's l House and Chili's and you know, probably four
Garden's brands out there today, and we've got a lot
that we can point to where you know, many that
those brands are performing well. And I think many of
the brands that are in a more challenging situation or
(21:06):
looking to them and saying, boy, what are we doing different?
How are they moving forward and getting ahead? And so
I think it's creating an opportunity for us, frankly, but
I can't speak for I can't say that for everyone or.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Your biggest competitors, both for your hospitality platform and more
generally for restaurant CAPEX dollars.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah, I think you know, the POS business obviously is
a big investment for brands, and naturally that creates both
opportunity for the restaurants, but I think it just creates
a lot of change management when then they're building, and
so you know, oftentimes we find if they're going through
(21:47):
a POS transition, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're not
wanting to engage and leverage our platform. It just means
that they can only undergo so much change at any
given time, and so oftentimes it's as much about sequencing
and it doesn't mean not ever, It just probably means
not now, and so that ends up being a lot
(22:08):
of the conversations that we're having today. You know, there
was a point in time where I think we were
really evaluating where does mobile fit and where does QR
fit and some of those other technologies in a post
COVID environment. But I think where we are today, most
companies have sort of pulled back on QR strategies and
(22:29):
even APP strategies, because if you think about trying to
make an impact to your operation, it really comes down
to adoption and if you can't get adoption, then the
amount of impact you can have to your overall brand
and inside the four walls of the restaurant is minimized.
(22:50):
And because we've been able to get to you know,
ninety and in some cases, you know, like Chile's most
recently ninety five percent plus adoption now delivering hospitality at scale,
and so that that's that's something we feel good about.
That you know, was a big advantage for us. But
I would say typically it's as much sequencing around pos
(23:12):
and change management as anything.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Okay, national force full service brands like Chili's, like we
just spoke about, are kind of making a comeback this year.
Chili's is skewing the data, you know, but Texas Roadhouse,
Cracker Barrel, Cheesecake Factory, they all outperformed QSR by a
sizable margin in the first quarter, you know, outside of
the easier sales comparisons. You know, what do you attribute
(23:36):
their better result?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, that's a great question. You know. I think they've
done a very good job of executing inside of the
four walls and really coupled with marketing. I mean, if
you look at Texas Roadhouse, they're not as active in
their marketing. But they've been very consistent on delivering a
(24:00):
a value proposition over the years, and they continue, I
think to win with their guests and really knowing who
their guests are. And so, you know, I have a
lot of admiration for that group because they really deliver
on the promise that they communicate to their guests and
their value proposition, and I think they're well positioned to
continue to perform, for sure, you know. And in Chili's case,
(24:25):
you know, they've just they've put together a great plan
I think to really attract consumers, especially those that are
looking for value, and the value that they're providing is
really delivering on that. They've done a great job execution,
I think, on that promise that they're making to their consumers,
and I think they'll continue to win.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Yeah, those two have been fun to follow, for sure.
What trends are you watching most closely in restaurant technology
over the next two or three years?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Yeah, Look, I think there's I think we're still early
days an AI. Obviously, you know, we're investing in it,
we're leveraging AI. Uh, but there's so much innovation happening
in AI, and it'll be interesting to see what use
cases when I think we're living in an age right
now similar to almost what you did in the you know,
(25:18):
the dot com days. Everything was dot com and today
everybody's attaching AI to everything that they're doing. And so
I think it's going to come down to real world
use cases that can unlock real value out of the
insight that you can deliver. Yeah, I think where we're
positioned is really interesting because AI is almost a necessity
(25:41):
to consume all of the data that we can collect
on behalf of the restaurants at scale, and so you know,
it becomes a necessary ingredient to what we're doing. So
that's one of the reasons why we're super excited about it.
But you know, we'll invest in that even beyond just
a lot of the survey data to drive some of
the insights. So AI's got a tremendous amount of potential opportunity.
(26:05):
And I would say the other you know, we continue
to hear more and more about guest data profile. How
do I learn more about the consumers that are not
part of your standard pointspace loyalty platforms, and how do
I continue to build a picture in an understanding of
who those guests are so I can drive repeat traffic,
(26:25):
and so a lot of focus being placed on data
where it can help them drive consumer behavior and repeat visits.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
And what's your vision for a smart table experience maybe
five years down the road.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Yeah, so that's that's always a fun one. Lots of
ideas there. You know, we we're thinking about AI in
a few different ways. You know, it's not just about
automating the experience. It's really about taking some of the
information that we can get out of the data at
scale and creating what we think about as human and
(26:59):
tell legence. So how can we make the servers smarter
about who's sitting at the table before they even approach
the table, and anything you can do there to make
guests feel like they are known and they're a regular,
even though they may not be a regular that goes
to a restaurant every single week, we think just adds
(27:20):
to the special occasion that they want to have in
the sense that they want to be known and understood.
And we think that's got a tremendous amount of opportunity
where our platforms, whether it's handheld or tabletop, can all
communicate to create an ecosystem where the guest and the
team members are sharing information to create that kind of
(27:43):
dynamic inside of the restaurant.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah. I love that. Man. Everybody wants to go to
a place where you're treated like a regular.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
For sure. Absolutely, this is great.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Thanks for doing this, Raymond.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Yeah, thank you so much for having us. Mike, you
got it.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
I want to also thank the audience for tuning in.
If you'd like to learn more about Ziosco to ziosk
dot com, z I O s K, and if you
liked our discussion, please share with your friends and colleagues.
Check back soon for an interview with Mike Lukianoff, the
founder and CEO of Signal Flare AI
Welcome to Chopping It Up. I'm your host, Mike Hanlon,
the senior Restaurant and Food Service Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Our research and that at bi's five hundred analysts around
the globe can be found exclusively on the Bloomberg terminal.
If you enjoy the pod, I'd love it if you'd
leave us a review on Apple or Spotify. Today we're
joined by Raymond Howard, co founder and chief revenue and
Growth officer of Xiosk. It's nice to meet you, Raymond.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Great to meet you, Mike, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Sure thing, man, So how did ziosk come to be?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Oh? Man, I tell you. I'll give you this short version.
There's certainly a much longer story. But you know, I'd
had a lot of passion about starting a business going
into graduate school back in the early two thousands, after
spending probably a decade in corporate America, and it went
back to SMU got my at that time, and around
(01:02):
two thousand and three, two thousand and five, and finished
up then and know it happened to meet a couple
of a couple of weather guys there and got to
know them and we had very similar interest just in
our desire to launch a business and were part of
a entrepreneurship class coincidentally, and this whole idea of being
(01:23):
able to pay at the table really birthed out of
that class. We took it on as a term project.
We really launched the idea and try to come up
with something different and unique around solving a problem in
the industry that everybody has. We certainly experienced it as
professionals in corporate America who were constantly traveling impatiently trying
(01:45):
to get out of restaurants like a lot of consumers today.
And really the whole idea of being able to pay
at the table, or what we think about is paying
on demand, really launched out of an NBA class, and
we really incubated the idea for the better part of
a year year and a half, worked on nights and
the weekend, sort of a year after graduating over the
(02:06):
NBA and went back and I looked around town at
Dallas and in other places for funding and you know,
lo and behold. Our professor at that time was a
guy by the name of Jack Bam who was a
serio entrepreneur had previously bought a concept called Kozamels from
Brinker International and had launched and sold another restaurant brand,
(02:28):
and so we ended up partner with him and we
all launched the business together back in the you know,
late two thousands and sort of the rest is history.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, it's a cool backstory, man. I'm sure the products
evolved a lot over the last decade, especially post pandemic.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
It has, you know, the pandemic I think was a
marker for the industry. It was a marker for us.
You know, we had we had focused a lot in
the early days around operational efficiency, really solving the pain
of giving consumers more convenience and control the experience, and
there was so much happening, you know, more broadly in
the industry in retail and other places around self service,
(03:11):
and we were really trying to find a way of
just eliminating those friction points in the dining experience, particularly
around casual dining. But you know, as time has gone by,
we really expanded the platform to really just a full
comprehensive Sweetest Solutions to address a lot of the pain
points and inefficiencies and the restaurant you know, not just
(03:32):
in casual dining, but today even beyond and to find dining,
polished casual, and a number of places and really tackling
the the a lot of different digital touch points with
a consumer. And so even though it really started as
a payment on demand being the killer app, it's really
evolved there to become now a self service sort of
(03:56):
application for merchants to be able to digitally create and
change content, to make it more of a dynamic interaction
with their guests, to be able to drive and influence
you know, purchase behavior. Obviously we've extended that to include
you know, a lot of the things around loyalty. We
obviously do a great job of collecting guest insights and
(04:17):
data if you've seen some of the things that you know,
other publicly traded companies out back and others are talking
about in the industry today. So we collect you know,
survey data from probably forty five percent of the guest
of the ninety percent now that are actually paying at
the table. And so certainly the adoption since we launch
(04:37):
the business has dramatically changed, and covid has done a
lot to really create more of that self service environment.
And you know, one of the business levers and I
think business drivers have changed for a lot of the
brands over time, and certainly our focus is continuing to evolve.
The killer app still becomes pay at the table, and
(04:58):
that's really a lot at the driver of the of
the platform.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Interesting the survey data is that are those your proprietary
surveys or do you have a third party that integrates
into your software.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, it's our survey platform, Mike, and oftentimes that's modeled
after what the brand is really looking to learn from
the restaurant. You know, there's somewhat handicapped today in that
most brands will only get thirty or forty responses per
restaurant per month. We, on the other hand, you know,
after going through a deployment, will will give them a
(05:34):
thousand plus and so now you start to change the
dynamic of the types of questions that you can ask.
And some of our customers will have one hundred and
fifty questions and their bank but you know, any given
customer may only answer seven. And I think part of
that is because it's guest facing, it's real time, it's dynamic.
We know exactly what's on the check. We can make
(05:56):
real time decisions about what we want to ask consumers
in the mother So when you think about brands that
are going through a brand transformation and they're trying to
re engineer a menu, and you want to get specific
data on an item that they're launching today, but you
want to have insights into that in three days, not
in two or three weeks. That's the kind of scale
that we can bring to your data and your insights.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Are any of your clients able to react fast enough
to those surveys to do kind of customer recovery?
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, so that's a great question. You know, today we're
not signaling to the brands in all cases. I will
say some brands are taking advantage of that where we
can message someone in the restaurant when we see a
one or two or low score. You can recover those.
You know, different brands, like I said, are leveraging the
(06:46):
platform in different ways. So it really just depends on
how they've implemented. There's a lot of flexibility there to
unlock value where brands want to take advantage of that.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah, it's cool. It's a great opportunity. How much faster
are your clients earning their tables?
Speaker 2 (07:01):
You know, it ranges. We I would say on the
low end, we're definitely seeing five minutes plus, and a
number of our brands have been very public about that,
you know, I think out back most recently, you know,
mentioned five minutes. We've historically seen you know, upwards of
seven minutes from some of even our customers that went
on the platform in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen. Dard was
(07:23):
one of those that was public about some of the
early results. And in some cases we've seen nine minutes.
And so it kind of depends on the profile of
the customer and how they operate today as to how
much of the inefficiencies we can take out of the process.
But for us, you know, that's always a win. You know,
with some of our more recent products, with the handheld
(07:44):
devices that were dropping off at the table as opposed
to the tabletop devices that sit on the table, you know,
because it's not on demand, you're still waiting on an
employee or server to drop that device off. Your GENA
typically see a few minutes us, but it's still, you know,
for a lot of brands, very meaningful impact to operational efficiency.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
And those drop off as that more geared towards.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Some of the fine dining, it is, yes, you know,
are you know, we're finding some fine dining brands like
the notion of having servers have tablets they can use
for ordering, But in many cases they don't want to
lose the hospitality and that fine dining feel of the
eye contact and so they but they still want to
(08:29):
have a digital payment experience where they can then still
get data and still be able to capture sort of
payment in the moment when the guest is ready to leave.
And so you know, you're still going to see an
impact there, just not to the extent that you would
with a device on the table.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Interesting, uh, and I'd imagine tips and guest satisfaction gets
a boost.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Tips, Yes, So we certainly see a tip tip increase
in the brands that we're in. The guest satisfaction you know,
my well, I would tell you since COVID has probably
been an even bigger dynamic because the labor constraints and
even I think the talent pool has been, you know,
in a much more challenging place for most brands, and
(09:14):
so in you know, in a pre COVID scenario where
we were very much playing a role in labor savings,
and obviously we continue to see wages increase in certain
places today, we're becoming more and more I would say,
not an ancillary part of the dining experience has shifted
more into a necessary part of the dining experience, because
(09:37):
brands know that they need to be able to improve
the guest satisfaction because that's a future indicator of sales.
And we've proven time and time again that attentiveness improves,
you know, server attentiveness improves, your overall dining experience improves,
and so we're no, we're making an impact on guest satisfaction.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
And you kind of touched on this, but are many
of your customers eliminating servers after installing their CIS tablets?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
You know, it varies by brand and certainly by geography. Frankly,
so if you're really focused on let's say the West Coast,
you know, we now have brands on the platform that
are very deliberate about having a tablet in the hand
of the server that's specifically focused on ordering and moving,
(10:24):
and really that frees them up to really focus on
hospitality and what I would say are high value engagements
with the guest where they're building relationship and they're building
check But then they've separated the things that are more
transactional that the guests quite frankly, are more than happy
and prefer just to do themselves at scale, which is
(10:46):
around payment, loyalty survey, ordering another round of drinks. And
so we're seeing more and more in high labor markets
that those processes are being bifurcated. Now a low labor markets,
you still have some states that are two fifteen, you know,
three dollars an hour. Most of those brands we see
(11:06):
are leaning more toward one of the other solution, and
obviously high favorability toward tabletop because of the you know,
the business model of the ROI that we can provide.
So it really depends by geography and by brand.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I'd imagine there's some upsell opportunities too, right, I'd imagine,
you know, drink sales would probably increase, right.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Absolutely, yes, And you know, it's part of the beauty
of bringing digital to the table as opposed to some
of the more static things that are historically been in dining,
which are bar books or table tents, you know, in
some respects, then the fact that we're now bringing a
self service content management platform to marketers is a dream
(11:50):
for them because now they can not just take static images,
they can create video that helps to create a compelling
story in a very enticing, appetitive pill for drinks or
appetizers or desserts. And it's not just about delivering it.
It's about delivering with the right message at the right time.
So breakfast you may have, you know, one specific promotion.
(12:14):
Lunch and dinner you may have different promotions. Happy hours
you may have different promotions. But even beyond just the
day part, we can get granular even during that forty
or fifty minute experience, so that you're only really focused
on seeing desserts during the latter thirty minutes of the experience.
And so now we're getting very specific about what we're
(12:36):
trying to drive to create impulse purchase and stimulate sales
during that fifty minute experience. And so, you know, the
CMO of Miller's Hell House, you know, was recently talking
about that and some of the recent press release, and
you know, those kind of things are game changers for
a marketer when you can give them that kind of
(12:57):
latitude down to a day part or down to a
restaurant to make it very specific. And I think that's
just the beginning when you start thinking about personalization and
the journey to personalization, which everybody's on today. How do
you now start to think about marketing to certain types
of personas and individuals as opposed to everybody universally just
(13:18):
inside the full walls of an individual restaurant. And so
that's kind of the journey that we're on.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Very cool, and it sounds like you've touched on some
of them. But how does the differentiate itself in an
increasingly crowded restaurant tech space.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
It's you know, it's interesting. We are we're highly differentiated
than what we do. Certainly, you know, from the idea
of being guest facing technology that's always available. We're very
differentiated from mobile. You know. I heard it said once
when we started the business from a CEO of a
very large, publicly traded brand. You said, you know, when
(13:54):
it comes to digital, I would rather control the brand
experience at the table then relegate it to the consumer
to control and opt in on their mobile phone, because
we'll never win that battle. And I think he's right,
and so I think the screen at the table and
on the table really does a great job of engaging
the consumer and certainly allow them to opt in in
(14:16):
the way that's meaningful for them. But it gives brand
the brand the tools to be able to deliver the
right message at the right time to the consumers in
such a way that they can control that brand message.
So that's highly differentiated, you know, I would say the
other thing is we're very much agnostic to partners. You know,
we're not the point of cell system, but we partner
(14:38):
with all the point of cell systems. We partner with
processors in gateways and loyalty platforms, and so we're not
trying to walk into a brand today and change their
whole tech stack. We're trying to approach them in a
way that's very frictionless and easy just to plug into
their existing tech stack to minimize the amount of disruption
(14:59):
that they're to incur to be able to opt to
a platform like ours that's smart.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Pos changes cause a lot of disruption, so I know
restaurant tours try to avoid it at all costs.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
It's it's a big lift, you know, as you know,
and some brands depend on you know who they are,
you know, they oftentimes can view those types of platforms
as an expense. And I think what's interesting about our
platform is, you know, we can demonstrate that we can
drive sales, that we can improve operational efficiencies, we can
(15:32):
give you a great guest experience, we can deliver a
feedback and a scalable way that you just can't get
at any other place. But we're also a revenue producing platform,
and that we create opportunities to drive revenue through our
own entertainment offerings, and that becomes a revenue that we
then share back with the brands to subsidize the platform cost,
(15:56):
to lower the hurdle for them on an ongoing basis.
And so it makes a very very partnership discussion, which
we always view ourselves as a partner to our you know,
our to our customer, to our customers and to the
restaurant merchants as opposed to having a vendor vendor conversation.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
What are the biggest revenue growth opportunities this year and next.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Yeah, so we've you know, we've been very focused, Michael historically,
which is probably a typical for startup frankly, on a
lot of enterprise brands. And today I think we've got
six of the top ten already on the platform, and
obviously you know a number of those will continue to
add over the next twelve to twenty four months, and
(16:40):
so there's still a lot of enterprise growth for us.
You know, we have continued to expand our offerings into
fine dining, polish casual, you know, not just focused then
on one sector of casual dying, but expanding into adjacent
markets so that that will be that will create new
opportunities for us. We're obviously have a huge focus on
(17:04):
you know, middle market small business, and so that's creating
a lot of opportunity for us for growth as well
and hasn't been a huge focus for us historically, but certainly,
you know, we think that we can improve the operational
efficiency for all restaurants, regardless of size, and so we're
absolutely doubling down on and being very focused about that growth.
(17:27):
And then I think, you know, just beyond the tabletop
and the dining room, we've got handheld solutions now to
really position ourselves to be able to take and improve
the experience of guests and the team member behind the
bar for curbside and so really trying to address all
the friction points around payment, loyalty survey regardless of where
(17:51):
you are in the front of the house. And so
it's really a comprehensive suite of front of house those solutions,
and so that's that's happening in real time. There's a
lot that we're working on relative to AI, tokenization and personalization.
You know, there is a lot of interest and we
constantly hear feedback from brand saying, how can you help
us get more data? How can we understand more about
(18:13):
who our guests are? And so we have historically focused
on enabling and enhancing I would say, the loyalty members
for a brand, which is typically twenty five percent of
their guest, Well, what about the other seventy five percent
that you don't know who they are? And so now
(18:34):
we're very focused on helping them establish a digital relationship
with the other seventy five percent because we think that's
the growth engine for traffic going forward. And how because
we're sitting in front of the guest, can we help
you unlock and understand and build profiles around who those
consumers are to enable those brands to be able to
(18:55):
target and drive personalized offers to them.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Operations and market a great place to play. Man, it's
two of the most important things in the restaurant space.
And you're seeing a lot of chains that have struggled
over the last decade or so really focus on those
two to turn things around.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yeah, they really have. And you know, I would say
probably the big one of the big stories of that
recently obviously is Chili's and they've done a tremendous job
really marketing and getting people into the restaurant. But you know,
I think even they would say, marketing's job is to
get them to the restaurant, but then you have to
satisfy them and deliver on the promise when they get there,
(19:34):
to make sure they come back. And that's really where
operations comes in. And I would say what's interesting about
our position is we're really catering to both of those.
We're really trying to help them improve the experience of
the consumer while they're there, but we're also trying to
help marketing understand who their consumers are so they can
help get them back more often.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Good stuff and certainty was a term commonly heard on
first quarter earning calls. Have Chains pulled back on their
tech investments this year?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Well, you know, I won't speak for everyone, I will
tell you it hasn't been pulled back from our point
of view. You know, this has been a year of
tremendous growth for US as was last year, and I
think from where we're sitting even looking at to next year,
you know, we're looking at a very promising you know,
next twelve to twenty four months. So you know, I
(20:25):
think relative to you know, some types of technology that
are less proven, I just think they're having to be
very prescriptive and a bit more decisive to know exactly
where they're going to make the investments to know they're
getting the returns. But you know, for platform like hours
that you know, we've got lots of proof points out
(20:46):
there now, and lots of brands like Texas Roadhouse and
Miller's l House and Chili's and you know, probably four
Garden's brands out there today, and we've got a lot
that we can point to where you know, many that
those brands are performing well. And I think many of
the brands that are in a more challenging situation or
(21:06):
looking to them and saying, boy, what are we doing different?
How are they moving forward and getting ahead? And so
I think it's creating an opportunity for us, frankly, but
I can't speak for I can't say that for everyone or.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Your biggest competitors, both for your hospitality platform and more
generally for restaurant CAPEX dollars.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah, I think you know, the POS business obviously is
a big investment for brands, and naturally that creates both
opportunity for the restaurants, but I think it just creates
a lot of change management when then they're building, and
so you know, oftentimes we find if they're going through
(21:47):
a POS transition, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're not
wanting to engage and leverage our platform. It just means
that they can only undergo so much change at any
given time, and so oftentimes it's as much about sequencing
and it doesn't mean not ever, It just probably means
not now, and so that ends up being a lot
(22:08):
of the conversations that we're having today. You know, there
was a point in time where I think we were
really evaluating where does mobile fit and where does QR
fit and some of those other technologies in a post
COVID environment. But I think where we are today, most
companies have sort of pulled back on QR strategies and
(22:29):
even APP strategies, because if you think about trying to
make an impact to your operation, it really comes down
to adoption and if you can't get adoption, then the
amount of impact you can have to your overall brand
and inside the four walls of the restaurant is minimized.
(22:50):
And because we've been able to get to you know,
ninety and in some cases, you know, like Chile's most
recently ninety five percent plus adoption now delivering hospitality at scale,
and so that that's that's something we feel good about.
That you know, was a big advantage for us. But
I would say typically it's as much sequencing around pos
(23:12):
and change management as anything.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Okay, national force full service brands like Chili's, like we
just spoke about, are kind of making a comeback this year.
Chili's is skewing the data, you know, but Texas Roadhouse,
Cracker Barrel, Cheesecake Factory, they all outperformed QSR by a
sizable margin in the first quarter, you know, outside of
the easier sales comparisons. You know, what do you attribute
(23:36):
their better result?
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Yeah, that's a great question. You know. I think they've
done a very good job of executing inside of the
four walls and really coupled with marketing. I mean, if
you look at Texas Roadhouse, they're not as active in
their marketing. But they've been very consistent on delivering a
(24:00):
a value proposition over the years, and they continue, I
think to win with their guests and really knowing who
their guests are. And so, you know, I have a
lot of admiration for that group because they really deliver
on the promise that they communicate to their guests and
their value proposition, and I think they're well positioned to
continue to perform, for sure, you know. And in Chili's case,
(24:25):
you know, they've just they've put together a great plan
I think to really attract consumers, especially those that are
looking for value, and the value that they're providing is
really delivering on that. They've done a great job execution,
I think, on that promise that they're making to their consumers,
and I think they'll continue to win.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Yeah, those two have been fun to follow, for sure.
What trends are you watching most closely in restaurant technology
over the next two or three years?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Yeah, Look, I think there's I think we're still early
days an AI. Obviously, you know, we're investing in it,
we're leveraging AI. Uh, but there's so much innovation happening
in AI, and it'll be interesting to see what use
cases when I think we're living in an age right
now similar to almost what you did in the you know,
(25:18):
the dot com days. Everything was dot com and today
everybody's attaching AI to everything that they're doing. And so
I think it's going to come down to real world
use cases that can unlock real value out of the
insight that you can deliver. Yeah, I think where we're
positioned is really interesting because AI is almost a necessity
(25:41):
to consume all of the data that we can collect
on behalf of the restaurants at scale, and so you know,
it becomes a necessary ingredient to what we're doing. So
that's one of the reasons why we're super excited about it.
But you know, we'll invest in that even beyond just
a lot of the survey data to drive some of
the insights. So AI's got a tremendous amount of potential opportunity.
(26:05):
And I would say the other you know, we continue
to hear more and more about guest data profile. How
do I learn more about the consumers that are not
part of your standard pointspace loyalty platforms, and how do
I continue to build a picture in an understanding of
who those guests are so I can drive repeat traffic,
(26:25):
and so a lot of focus being placed on data
where it can help them drive consumer behavior and repeat visits.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
And what's your vision for a smart table experience maybe
five years down the road.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Yeah, so that's that's always a fun one. Lots of
ideas there. You know, we we're thinking about AI in
a few different ways. You know, it's not just about
automating the experience. It's really about taking some of the
information that we can get out of the data at
scale and creating what we think about as human and
(26:59):
tell legence. So how can we make the servers smarter
about who's sitting at the table before they even approach
the table, and anything you can do there to make
guests feel like they are known and they're a regular,
even though they may not be a regular that goes
to a restaurant every single week, we think just adds
(27:20):
to the special occasion that they want to have in
the sense that they want to be known and understood.
And we think that's got a tremendous amount of opportunity
where our platforms, whether it's handheld or tabletop, can all
communicate to create an ecosystem where the guest and the
team members are sharing information to create that kind of
(27:43):
dynamic inside of the restaurant.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Yeah. I love that. Man. Everybody wants to go to
a place where you're treated like a regular.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
For sure. Absolutely, this is great.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Thanks for doing this, Raymond.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Yeah, thank you so much for having us. Mike, you
got it.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
I want to also thank the audience for tuning in.
If you'd like to learn more about Ziosco to ziosk
dot com, z I O s K, and if you
liked our discussion, please share with your friends and colleagues.
Check back soon for an interview with Mike Lukianoff, the
founder and CEO of Signal Flare AI
Host
Michael Halen
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.