October 21, 2024 • 36 mins
In this episode of the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast, host Jeremy Julian sits down with Laura Wilbur from Dinova to discuss strategies for attracting higher-spending corporate guests to restaurants. They delve into the benefits for both corporate diners and restaurant operators, including increased guest frequency, higher average check sizes, and loyal business relationships. Laura shares her professional insights on how Dinova helps bridge the gap between Fortune 1000 companies and high-quality dining establishments through tailored corporate dining programs. Key topics include restaurant vetting, managing guest experiences, and the specifics of business dining trends in today's economic climate.
00:00 Introduction to the Podcast
00:12 Meet Laura Wilbur from Dinova
00:19 The Importance of Corporate Guests
01:16 Laura's Background and Expertise
02:23 Understanding Expense Account Diners
03:44 How Dinova Connects Restaurants and Corporations
05:50 Navigating the Dinova App
07:31 Benefits for Diners and Corporations
11:13 Advantages for Restaurants
15:12 Ensuring Quality Experiences
19:58 Balancing Family and Business
20:26 Dining Out with Family vs. Business
21:24 The Importance of Customer Relationships
23:11 Challenges in the Restaurant Industry
26:54 Corporate Dining Best Practices
33:01 Engaging with Dinova
35:42 Conclusion and Contact Information
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
This is the RestaurantTechnology Guys podcast.
Helping you run your restaurantbetter.
Jeremy (00:12):
In today's episode, we are joined by Laura Wilbur who
worked for Dinova.
Her.
And I met at a conference acouple of years ago.
And in today's up show, she'sgoing to share how you can
attract corporate guests, whostatistically spend more and
drive higher levels of frequencyand profit to your restaurant.
If you don't know me, my name isJeremy Julian.
(00:33):
I am the chief revenue officerfor CBS north star.
We developed the north star.
point of sale product that is.
Geared towards multiunitrestaurants, check us out at
cbsnorthstar.com and now ontoour episode.
Welcome back to the RestaurantTechnology Guys podcast.
I thank everyone out there forjoining us.
(00:53):
As I say, each and every time Idon't take your days, this time
for granted.
And so thank you guys forjoining us.
I know you guys got lots ofother choices.
Today is a fun story because,Laura and I met a couple of
years ago through a mutualintroduction.
I'm gonna let her tell her storya little bit more here in just a
second, but.
Very few times in the restaurantindustry, am I at a conference?
And one of the people that I'mtalking to says, you really
(01:14):
gotta know who Laura is.
And so Laura, why don't youintroduce yourself?
who is Laura?
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself, a little bit about
your background, and then we canget, get into what you get to do
professionally
Laura Wilber (01:23):
Thank you so much, Jeremy.
My name is Laura, and I help,busy restaurant operators get
more expense account diners intotheir restaurants and keep the
ones they have.
I live in North San DiegoCounty, Encinitas.
I'm a mom to two kids, one who'sa nurse, Sarah.
She's a NICU nurse, and our son,Nick, sells financial services
(01:45):
in Phoenix, Arizona.
two fluffy dogs sitting overthere that may, decide to say hi
sometime during ourconversation.
But I've spent my whole careertrying to help businesses grow
and, I'm just really thankful tobe working in this space, which
is exclusively with businessdiners or expense account diners
(02:06):
paying with the company's money.
Jeremy (02:08):
I love that.
And, again, I know we met at arestaurant conference and I love
that are passionate about thisindustry because I know we were
talking about it pre show andoftentimes we'll do a, 10 or 15
minutes with every one of ourguests on the show and we'll
talk, help me understand, talkto me a little bit about it.
And so I love that you're sopassionate about that.
For those that don't quiteunderstand or can't get their
head around, how do you getexpense diners, business diners?
(02:30):
Help me help tease that out alittle bit, because I think it's
a unique value proposition.
And part of why I wanted toshare your story and the story
of what you guys get to doprofessionally with our
Laura Wilber (02:40):
thanks for asking.
if you think of it as theoverall expense management
function for a large company ora government agency, they have,
procurement officers and folksin at the corporate office whose
job it is to manage theirexpenses, right?
So these folks will have directrelationships with airlines.
Hotel groups and rental carcompanies that they're able to
(03:02):
manage themselves because thereare only a handful of players
large enough to accommodatetheir needs.
And for example, they'll sendout a request for proposal to,
let's say, the top five airlinesand say, Hey, we're going to
spend X million dollars on airtravel in the next few years.
Who wants to be our partner?
They'll pick one, they'll alertall their teams traveling for
business using a company card.
(03:23):
Hey, everybody, we're flying.
American is our partner, right?
So if you have a businessmeeting in a city American
doesn't fly to, you can flyUnited.
But as a good steward of companyresources, we need you to fly
American drive the partnerrental car.
Stay at the partner hotel anddine at one of the partner
restaurants.
(03:44):
So because of the fragmentednature of the restaurant biz
that, very well, they just don'thave the bandwidth to have
conversations and figure out whoare these great restaurants that
we should be going to, whichrestaurants might want to be our
partner and have us startshifting our spending to them.
and who might be able orinterested in giving us some
consideration if we do shift ourspending to them.
(04:06):
So they outsourced that toDinova.
Dinova has been at it about 16years, and we've, we have about
560 global companies that havehired us to run this network for
them, as well as, very largegovernment agencies.
Jeremy (04:22):
Yeah.
So I'm, there's so manyquestions, Laura.
So I'm going to start at thetop.
So if I'm one of those brands,say I'm Hilton hotels and, not
all Hilton properties have arestaurant inside of them, but I
want to now send our executivesout and they're going to go out
and be whining and dining,which, I have been that same
consumer and we will talk alittle bit about your previous
experience.
(04:43):
I am that guy.
I'm the guy that picks whenwe're going out of town, I'm the
person that picks oftentimeswhere we're going to eat.
Literally an hour ago, I wastalking, we have a show next
week in Dallas in my hometownwhere I live and there's a show
next week and we're bringing acustomer out to finish up
signing up a deal.
And the sales rep goes, I'm notfrom Dallas.
Help me understand where we needto go.
(05:03):
So tease that out a little bitfor me.
I'm Hilton.
I'm now going to Dallas for thisconference.
And I'm not going for thisconference.
Help me understand what thatwould look like, both from the.
Brand side, the restaurant brandside, and then really from the
consumer, brand, consumer side,the guy that's making the choice
to go to X brand
Laura Wilber (05:20):
Okay, I love it.
So if you happen to be workingat a fortune 1000 company, you
would most likely have some sortof travel policy related to who
your partners are, right?
because you are a businessowner, you get to pick right?
so that's,
Jeremy (05:38):
Yes, I do.
Whether I feel like ribeye or Ifeel like, I feel like fish
today.
I get to choose where I'm going,but I
Laura Wilber (05:43):
any
Jeremy (05:43):
out of big company.
There's yeah, exactly.
But at a big company, you havecertain policies that you got to
adhere to.
So keep teasing that out
Laura Wilber (05:50):
So what you would do is you would go to your
expense management tool.
So concur or tripism or,whatever, or you could go to the
Dinova app, which is justDinova.
com.
For restaurants you would clickon that and then there would be
a list of all the restaurants inthe city that you're going to In
dallas so I could do it on myphone.
(06:12):
As we talk i'll just pull up thesearch real quick It's a real
easy, you know something foryour smartphone And so for
dallas I would just type indallas or actually the zip code.
So you're at the gaylord Okay.
Okay.
so i'll just do search And soit'll come up as, and you can
probably just barely see thecuisine images, right?
(06:35):
But if you get really specificand you do the search from your
hotel, the Gaylord Texan inGrapevine, it'll show you all
the restaurants that are closestin proximity to where you're
staying.
And you can pick by cuisinetype.
You can pick by, do they have aprivate dining room?
Do they offer catering if youwant to bring food in, to the
(06:55):
resort?
for a team or for a group ofclients or something of that
nature.
so Pegasus City Brewery, Moe'sSouthwest Grill, Press Box
Grill.
Monarch, Sushi Bar Dallas,Paparazzi Chop House, Mendocino
Farms, Leigh Madeline, TheOperators Club, Truth and Alibi,
(07:18):
Cheap Steaks, Deep Sushi, solots and lots of options in
Dallas.
So you would likely find whatyou needed.
Based on cuisine type and levelof service,
Jeremy (07:31):
Okay.
And so with that, as theconsumer that's using this
product, I'm looking for abusiness meal.
I'm looking for a, what's thevalue to me other than it meets
my policy.
And my boss, isn't going to yellat me about my expense report.
Most Southwest is a fast, casualconcept.
It's not.
Taking a client.
likely you're not going to takea client out to most Southwest
for a business meal, nothingwrong with most Southwest.
(07:52):
It's awesome.
Great food, but you're probablynot going to take a client out
to that.
Some of those other options thatyou rattled off that were in
Dallas, you would take a clienttoo.
And so what would the value forme be?
If I'm just, you know what, I'vegot a per diem.
I know that I can go spend it atChipotle or Moe's or Qdoba,
which are all very similar pricepoints of all very similar
products.
And you know what?
I'm going to go do that.
(08:13):
So talk me through as the.
Person that's at one of thosefortune 1000 companies.
Why would I choose to go to Mo'sand even go look that up if I'm
just having a solitary mealversus going and looking,
looking for a business meal typeof thing.
And then we can tease out the
Laura Wilber (08:25):
Okay.
Sounds great.
So yes, as you know with whenyou're traveling for business,
You need a solution from morningcoffee to last call at the bar
to a quick drive thru to a bagelWhatever you need, right?
And you know for me as Imentioned earlier Being a good
steward of company resources.
It's, you're a business owner,right?
When you hire, when you onboardsomebody and you tell them the
(08:46):
rules, if you're going to givethem a company card, there are
just a few rules, right?
you have a policy.
And so most of the folks thatare traveling for official
company business are goodsteward of good stewards of
company resources.
Not every company has a policy.
again, we're only working withabout half of the fortune 1000,
so I'm not sure what they do,but really, it's the
(09:09):
conscientious traveler that'sdoing their best to be a good
steward.
In addition to that, they earnreward points individually when
they dine at an in networkrestaurant that they can redeem
for different gift cards or,whatever.
Items that they would like onthe Dinova marketplace,
Jeremy (09:29):
Okay.
That's as a diner.
I get rewarded for using soinstead of going to chipotle and
nothing wrong with chipotle butinstead of going to chipotle if
I choose to go to moe's it'sgoing to benefit me as the user
Of that car App and of yourguys's solution.
Okay.
At corporate, I think I get whattheir benefit is.
Corporate's going to be able toget the benefit of they're going
to know where those things areat.
(09:50):
It's a little bit easier.
Do they also get rewarded forpartnering with them?
So if I am American Airlines orif I'm Hilton and I've now a
partner of yours, and I've nowput this policy in place, do
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Laura Wilber (10:38):
Yes So that's a good point that I think I left
out Jeremy is that the wholereason that they shift their
dining spend to their Partnersis that they receive some
consideration back from thepartner and in the case of
Dinova It's a loyalty rebate asa percentage of what they spend
Once a month and it's arelatively small percent,
(10:59):
compared to certainly thirdparty delivery or other third
party solutions out there.
but it is, there is a, cash, ifyou will, loyalty rebate that
the restaurants provide.
To the corporations that shifttheir spending to them.
The reason that they, theybelieve that makes sense is that
it's early and midweek when therestaurant's not at capacity,
(11:21):
typically, and the average checkwhen the company's buying is 50
to 200 percent higher than whena consumer is paying with their
own money.
And especially right now, asconsumers are pulling back, due
to inflation and a variety ofreasons, Traffic is down.
That's no secret.
Consumers are just watchingtheir pennies a little bit
closer.
(11:41):
Things have gotten a lot moreexpensive since the pandemic.
So if consumer traffic is downand you have empty and perishing
inventory, empty seats, earlyand mid week, why not invite a
high spending business dinerthere?
The business diners want to behome for dinner with their
family by Friday night if theycan.
And, it's, they're not familiarwith your menu, per se.
(12:03):
They don't care or know ifyou've had to raise prices on
your menu five times in the lastthree years.
they just, they're willing topay for a great experience.
Jeremy (12:13):
Okay.
Yeah.
And I think that's, that's afantastic, from, from the, which
really shifts I guess from therestaurant side, they're looking
for more diners.
They're looking for more walletspend.
They're looking for to hit that,to get to that consumer.
What other advantages does therestaurant see other than
potentially an uptick in guestcount and in, I guess just guest
(12:33):
count and really traffic becauseI know for myself and again,
exact example I chose.
And again, business owner, I canmake the choices.
I always like to dine atrestaurants that we do business
with, which is always goodbecause then I can give feedback
to the owners that I have a goodexperience, that I have a bad
experience.
But I also know when I'm takingsomebody out that I'm trying to
court, I'm I know what myexperience, what I want my
(12:55):
experience to look like.
And so there's a reason I choseto go to this one brand versus a
different brand.
and we can talk through that,but what other benefits does the
restaurant receive other thanthe potential of extra traffic
from that
Laura Wilber (13:07):
thankfully it's guaranteed extra traffic, right?
So we know that when we send,when you go live and you get
added to company policy, thereare 18 million corporate
cardholders that are, that we'remanaging this dining network
for, right?
You're absolutely going to getsome business from it.
I have signed up.
(13:28):
There's a, there's a.
Yogurt shop with two locationsin Murrieta, Georgia.
they are not seeing a ton ofbusiness travelers through, but
they are getting some, right?
So why not be on the part onthe, in the network?
it doesn't cost you anything tojoin the network.
And if nobody comes, all you'vedone is gained exposure to a
(13:49):
really high value guests.
So there's great value in that,right?
There's no work whatsoever forstaff or guests.
We're not in your POS, which Iknow is your business.
There are no tablets.
there's no special loyalty cardsor anything.
It's all tracked through thecompany card.
And, the manager, the data ismanaged by the corporations
(14:12):
themselves.
for that reason, for therestaurant, no friction, no
discounting to the consumer,either of these consumers are
paying full price, they'retelling their colleagues.
about a great restaurant in thecity.
They're not exposed to yourlocal marketing because 71
percent of the guests we sendany restaurant are coming in
(14:32):
from out of area.
And you just gave that example,Jeremy, about how you're in this
case of this conference, ithappens to be in your home city.
you are in your home market andthe company will pick up the tab
for that dinner, but usuallyit's, it's a vendor traveling.
To see their customer who isn'tnecessarily in their home
(14:53):
market.
They're not as familiar with therestaurants.
And so they're reliant on theircorporate company policy to
identify who are our partners.
We already know, colleagues havehad great experiences there.
They've been vetted and, that'show they're finding the
restaurants.
Jeremy (15:10):
So I've got two series of questions.
The first of which is really.
wrapped around, you just made acomment that says there, they're
going to get a good experienceif they're in network, talk to
me about how you guys monitorand manage that to ensure that
these business diners aren'tconstantly having bad
experiences.
Obviously you guys can't manageevery transaction or every, you
said 18 million corporate crowd.
(15:31):
And that's insane to me that youguys are driving that much
potential traffic.
So looking at that there, but.
if I happen to go to X, Y, Z,Ruth, Chris, and I had a bad
experience in the city, thatcould be poor to the network,
the network effect.
Talk, talk to me a little bitabout how you guys manage that.
Cause when you look at otherthird party marketplaces,
whether that's a DoorDash,whether that's a Yelp, whether
(15:52):
that's a Google, other, and Isay third party marketplaces,
other places where you can go dodiscovery of where you want to
go.
You can see the reviews.
Do you guys do something similarto that?
Do you guys pull them from thenetwork?
Talk me through a little bit ofhow that.
How that whole thing would work.
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performance, Growing yourbusiness can mean big time
logistical questions like, howam I going to keep up with all
(16:13):
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Laura Wilber (16:34):
we don't have a problem with that.
So we'll hear directly from ourcorporate clients if there is a
problem, which is incrediblyrare.
So these corporate diners likeyourself, right?
These are business leaders.
business owners in some cases,and they're very experienced in
their ordering of catering orordering food for teams, they're
(16:57):
very specific about what theywant and need.
And they're just savvycustomers.
They know if there's a badexperience, that the right thing
to do is to deal directly withthe restaurant on that.
and allow the restaurant thechance to make it right.
We don't hear, thankfully.
at least in my role, we don'thear much about any negative
(17:18):
experiences and really just thevetting of the restaurants,
right?
So we get referrals like I knowyou do for your company, for
your POS company.
So those are a lot of our, a lotof our restaurants that are in
our network are referred byother great restaurants in our
network and people will vouchfor the restaurants and say,
Hey, this is a great restaurant.
My buddy works over here or,they've had a great experience
(17:41):
at the restaurant and theybelieve that more business
diners would enjoy it, butcertainly just like you, Jeremy,
when you're vetting a newrestaurant partner to
potentially add as a customer,you're doing your due diligence
about the business, right?
Spending.
Jeremy (17:58):
Just to make sure that they're not going to be a bad
customer because at the end ofthe day, that hurts all of us.
So the second thing that Iwanted to talk about, Laura, is
you've said something about anincreased spend on corporate
dining.
And as a owner, I've had to lookthrough expense reports and go,
Hey, why was this meal soexpensive?
But.
Statistically, you found thatit's, I think he said between 70
(18:18):
and 200 percent higher than if Iwas going in with my family for
that same meal, same party offour, same party of six,
whatever that, whatever thatmeal is, it's that much higher.
Talk me through, I'm certain I'mentertaining different, cultural
things, different industries,but talk me through one.
What does that really look like?
Is it.
Is the trend even holding aswe're getting into, into the,
(18:39):
this recessionary or whateveryou want to call it,
inflationary period.
Is it still happening?
talk me through a little bit ofthat.
Cause I'd love, I thinkrestaurants that aren't exposed
to this type of guest shouldreally be considering it.
Even if, because a lot of timeswhen I talk to people about what
you guys do, it's like, I'm a,I'm a competitor to Moe's.
Why would anybody care aboutthis?
Which is part of why I want tomake sure you tease that out.
(19:00):
But that's a huge uptick insales, that they should be able
to take advantage of if they'redoing it properly.
So talk me through what is thestatistics cold?
Why do we think that's the case?
and where does it go in, inthat?
Because they still have a policyto uphold.
They still have to deal with thecorporate rules for these
fortune 1000 companies.
you got both sides on theirattention, but you're still
seeing that it's
Laura Wilber (19:20):
Oh, yeah, and again take yourself as an
example So when you're eatingout with your family, and I
don't know how large your familyis jeremy.
Oh my goodness
Jeremy (19:30):
to have a son.
I happen to have a son namedNick.
So when you said Nick was yourson, I happen to have a son.
He's my oldest.
he's a second year in college.
And then I've got threeteenagers, two at home.
And then I, eight year old whowill turn nine in a couple of
weeks.
So life is very full for
Laura Wilber (19:43):
Definitely.
there's a book called fullcatastrophe living i'm
digressing here But it's basedon the it's based on the movie
Zorba the Greek, and it, theidea, the reason for the
catastrophe is, Zorba is asked,are you married?
And he goes, oh yeah, wife,kids, the full catastrophe,
right?
Which is just, the more fullyour life is, the more chance
(20:05):
for great joy and great heart,heartache too.
But,
Jeremy (20:10):
No, I, four kids is a lot, but, and my, and sometimes
my parents are like, what, youguys are never home.
You never, but, and they're allin competitive sports and we're
very active at church and, soyes, life is very full.
And I.
Happen to run a business, thatsells point of sale to
restaurants that never closed.
It feels like so sorry.
I'll let you keep going.
Laura Wilber (20:26):
love it.
So you are, you have a largefamily, so eating out with your
family is, probably moreexpensive than some families or
just couples that are going outto eat, but I would imagine that
when you're out with your familyof six, you're not always,
trying the appetizers.
order, trading up on the winelist or ordering the fancy
(20:47):
cocktails for everyone to try.
you're maybe not, orderingdesserts or several desserts for
everyone to, to try.
You're maybe not ordering theseafood tower as an appetizer.
But tell me about yourexperience when you're
entertaining groups forbusiness.
Yeah.
Jeremy (21:04):
no, absolutely.
you either go around the tableand figure out what, Hey, these
are the three appetizers or halfthe time when I'm doing it.
I just ordered them.
Does anybody at the table reallyneed those extra, thousand
calories in that meal?
Probably not, but everybodydoes.
And, for somebody that travels,a hundred.
20 nights a year.
I eat a lot of meals out and, Ioften eat more calories than I
should when I'm out on the road.
So you are a hundred percent
Laura Wilber (21:24):
and that's really what drives up that average
check, Jeremy, is, it's thatfun, celebratory, splurging.
And you and I both know, thetime that we get with our
existing customers is a chanceto say thank you.
It's pretty rare.
And so when we're at a finedining restaurant and we have a
chance to really sit with themand get to know them, we want
(21:46):
to, celebrate and experience newfun things on the menu and ocean
prime is one of our partners andhas been for many years.
And, that's, I was thinking ofthe seafood tower there.
they also have.
Jeremy (22:00):
I've had it multiple times.
I've had it where a vendor haspaid for it.
I've had
Laura Wilber (22:03):
There you go,
Jeremy (22:04):
for a customer.
So I've been on both sides
Laura Wilber (22:06):
but you it is but it's something again like you
and I are blessed to be able Todine out for business, right?
So if you're gonna go With thefamily, you might say, I'm going
to wait and get that seafoodtower when I'm going for
business, and experience thatwith a customer.
So again, that's a lot of it.
Jeremy (22:26):
Love that.
the last, line of questioning isbefore the show kicked off, you
and I talked about your historyprior to joining the
organization you're with now,why is it something that you're
so passionate about helping boththe brands and even the
consumers to experience this?
Because.
You were in my role at somepoint in your career prior to,
(22:47):
and so I love that you're sopassionate about helping people
to achieve success as it relatesto this endeavor, because prior
to meeting you a couple of yearsago, I didn't even know
something like this existed.
And so because of it, it's like,why are, and I said it to you,
when we're, Pre recording.
It's like, why are more peoplenot doing this?
And you're like, I don't know.
They need to talk to me.
why are you so passionate aboutmaking sure that this is, this
(23:08):
is such a success for the brandsthat you
Laura Wilber (23:10):
Oh my gosh.
there are so many reasons,Jeremy, that I feel, like I
said, very blessed to be whereI'm at today, representing this
network of 24, 000 restaurants,that are.
If you break it down to what thesolution is for the restaurants,
really, when you think about it,it's automating something that
(23:32):
is very time consuming for anyof us.
So again, you and I, as salesprofessionals, we know how long
it takes to get someone on thephone to talk to us or, that
whole process.
Imagine, if you were arestaurant trying to get into
fortune 1000 companies andgovernment agencies from across
the United States to say, cometo my restaurant or my
(23:56):
restaurants.
And this is the reason why, andwe want to partner with you and
we're going to roll out the redcarpet and we're going to
provide you with an incentive tobe our customer.
if we think the restaurantoperator, screening game is
good, try, top securitygovernment agency right to try
to get that meeting, right?
Jeremy (24:15):
Yeah.
There's a reason we don't sellto government agencies because
they're a pain in the butt, andthe amount of paperwork you got
to go through is reallychallenging.
Laura Wilber (24:22):
we're so thankful to have, most of these companies
will white label the Dinovanetwork and call it.
Their company dining program.
So one of them is D.
O.
D.
Dine smart, right?
They have their own logo for it.
it's something that you knowthat people at the government
agency will drive past a lot ofrestaurants to go to one that's
(24:43):
part of company policy.
So again, I'm I feel veryblessed to be coming to you from
my kitchen here in North SanDiego County.
I'm yeah.
Less to work from home.
I didn't always get to do that.
So I used to be national salesmanager at a large radio group,
in Los Angeles, really big one.
And so my job was to wine anddine my ad agency buyers at
(25:07):
restaurants in all the bigcities across the country.
And I would say, Hey, go, I'llbe in New York, one week, every
quarter.
Which Michelin starredrestaurant haven't you dined at
yet?
And then we would just go tothose restaurants for a week,
right?
And then do it again in anothercity.
And, I remember in Chicago oneyear when chef Charlie Trotter
(25:28):
was still alive, I had a weekthat all of my customers wanted
to go to Charlie Trotter'srestaurant.
So I think.
Jeremy (25:35):
Yeah.
That's not a bad gig
Laura Wilber (25:37):
Yes, he was.
And the chance to get to meethim in the kitchen and, because
if you're a customer that'scoming in that much, and I think
I was
Jeremy (25:45):
They get to know who you are because
Laura Wilber (25:47):
Yeah.
And I'm also like very curiousand friendly and definitely want
to see behind the curtain andfigure out what makes this place
tick.
so again, that was part of mycareer in the past as to
experiencing a great restaurantexperience as a business
traveler and a business diner.
And, so fast forward to now, I'mreally looking for restaurant
(26:10):
operators and for my customersto figure out what's the lowest
cost way that I can acquire.
The highest value guest at myrestaurant and not really have
to do a lot of heavy liftingbecause as we know, restaurant
operators are incredibly busy.
Their attention and time isstretched really thin.
So our solution at Dinovacorporate dining is to tell that
(26:33):
story for these great restaurantoperators to the who's who in
business and government travel.
that's all we do is say, Hey,you're traveling to Dallas.
You need to make sure thatyou're dining at these great
restaurants.
And here are the reasons why.
And same goes for every city inthe U S and in Canada.
Jeremy (26:52):
I love that.
not necessarily related to whatyou do every day, but are there
any best practices that you'vefound for corporate dining?
I happen to, so one of ourclients is Perry's Steakhouse
based in Houston.
Fantastic food.
If you've not gotten a chance togo to Perry's and I happen to
have our.
Host our Christmas party therefor our Dallas based staff.
It was one of the mostremarkable private dining pre
(27:15):
experiences that I had.
And from pre experience, theydid a great job of prepping the
menu.
What was going to be on thetables?
What was where they failed,which I say they failed.
And I've talked to them aboutthis.
I don't feel like I'm talkingout of school where they
struggled is at the end of themeal.
I was sitting behind and a biglong table and they didn't just
take care of the check and dealwith it.
(27:36):
So I had to get up and go paythe check and deal with all of
that, which, I've told them,Hey, you knew, I already told
you that I was just going tojust put it on and keep it on
the same card.
So it created a little bit of anawkward experience for me at the
end.
It happened to be all my staffand their spouses.
So it was easy.
And at the same time, the preexperience was great.
I've also had the oppositehappen where You show up and
you're supposed to have areservation for 20 and it's not
(27:56):
great.
And you're like, Oh crap, whatare we going to do?
I got customer, and so are thereany best practices that you have
learned through dealing withthis group of people and group
of restaurants that you mightgive to our audience that they
need to consider if they'regoing to go down this path of
truly being a destination forcorporate
Laura Wilber (28:14):
Yes.
And, really it's what you saidabout the pre work, right?
So if a restaurant doesn'talready have on their website,
different tabs related to.
Private dining, semi privatedining, catering, carry out to
go third party delivery,whatever they have, make it
absolutely obvious for thebusiness decision maker to
(28:36):
figure out, Oh, your restaurantdoes do this.
And then take it further too.
So in your experience, I'm notsure if Perry's had a form for
you to fill out online.
Did they?
Okay.
Jeremy (28:48):
and then I had a phone call with the catering lady or
the private events.
It happened to be a lady in thiscase.
And she's okay, tell me whatthe, in the forum said it was
for a Christmas party and wewere going to have spouses and
all of that.
Did you want pre prepped wine?
Did you not want pre preppedwine?
Did you want to order off thewine list?
Did you want to let them go tothe highest level of the menu or
do you want to keep them under acertain dollar threshold?
(29:08):
We went through all of that overthe phone and, I made my
decisions at the time, but I'lllet you keep going.
But yes.
We, I filled out the form, thenI got a phone call.
We scheduled a phone call onzoom or teams or whatever,
jumped on a quick phone call,talk through what my experience
that I wanted to have.
And, they, we did it off themenu or maybe we even shrunk
down the menu a little bit, butdidn't go completely to three
(29:29):
items, which.
We've all been at those diningswhere you're like, Oh, I get the
Caesar salad or I get the Frenchonion soup.
Those are my two options today.
Laura Wilber (29:36):
I hate both.
Jeremy (29:37):
but we've done that and that's fine.
there's times that works.
And then there's times thatyou're like, Oh, I really wanted
to try that.
can I pay for the tomato bisquesoup myself?
kind of thing.
we've all been there and donethat if we've dined out on the
corporate side, but I just findthat some brands do it really
well.
And I'm not going to pick on theone that I showed up and it's
Hey, we've got a party at 20 andnobody even knows that we're
coming.
cause that's happened too.
And that's embarrassing andthat's really hard to figure
(29:57):
out.
And I'm like, I'm in therestaurant business and I'm
taking a client out to dinner.
And yeah, so I'll let you keepgoing.
What are the best practices?
So the pre prep work you
Laura Wilber (30:05):
So again, if you're, if you have a restaurant
and again, your website iscritically important.
People need to understand,ideally, if you can even have a
picture of what is this privatedining space going to look like,
cuisine, if you can have acouple images, beautiful images,
it's absolutely worth spendingthe money on professional
photography.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
to give them a sense of maybe asignature dish.
(30:28):
And, the thing about what we doat Dinova is we're the
invitation.
The restaurant is the party,right?
So we can get them there.
The restaurant has to do it welland execute as and that's where
we hand it off and we have totrust that our restaurant
operators are going to take goodcare of our business diners.
(30:49):
what's great is that the numberof repeat visits from a new
customer that we send to anyrestaurant, I just went through
an analysis with our teamyesterday for a brand.
And the, I think the number ofrepeat visits in.
In six months was three timesfor this brand, which a lot of
(31:11):
brands will tell us, Hey, we've,we figured you could help us
with the discovery.
We're not sure how much, howoften these folks are coming to
our market for dining there.
They're usually reallypleasantly surprised by the
number of repeat visits.
And that makes me think that ourrestaurant partners are
executing.
Cause people, as won't come backif they have a bad experience.
Usually.
And it's not rectified, butthere is something else that
(31:33):
Dinova, does for fine dining.
We have a concierge servicecalled Dine Assist, Dinova Dine
Assist.
You could just go online.
You can see the form.
It's if you'd Googled it, DinovaDine Assist, it'll come right up
and we just help our businesstravelers figure out which
(31:54):
restaurants in our network andthe city they're traveling to
can accommodate their group,right?
So we'll figure out.
How many people do you need toserve?
Does it need to be private orcan it be semi private?
how close to the zip code where,or the address of where your
meeting is do you need thisrestaurant to be?
We'll narrow it down to the topthree.
And then from there, they willtake that, they will pick one
(32:19):
and then they'll deal directlywith the restaurant on booking.
Jeremy (32:22):
that's awesome.
And again, I could see therepeat business.
My neighbor who I go to the busstop with, he works for Schwab
and he's always in Austin, thenhe's in Houston.
Then he's in Denver and healways stays at the same hotel.
He takes the same flights hegoes.
And so he's you know what?
It's just easy.
I just know where I'm going tohave dinner tonight and I know
I'm going to have dinnertomorrow night.
And I know I'm going to havedinner the next night.
Cause it's just easy.
It's one of these three places.
(32:43):
And so from that perspective,that's not surprising, but.
Unless you get discovered andget into that, that queue,
because humans really areultimately, at the end of the
day, are creatures of habit.
They don't want to make as manydecisions as we think we want to
make.
And I was like, you know what?
I know if I go here that I'mgoing to get the meal that I
need and deserve.
So how do people learn more?
How do people get engaged?
Talk to me a little bit aboutwhat this would look like.
(33:04):
I'm Perry's, I'm not a client.
I don't know if they are or not.
It doesn't matter.
But now I'm sitting here and I'mPerry's Steakhouse and I'm
listening to this and going, Ineed what Laura has.
How do I get, how do I learnmore?
How do I get engaged there to,to spend some time with you guys
and figure out
Laura Wilber (33:17):
Okay.
Perry's, I would absolutely loveto meet you.
I, have not yet.
And, I've been in the restaurantin Austin speaking of, traveling
in Texas.
Jeremy (33:27):
are, they're based in Houston.
They fantastic.
Every time I've ever gone,they're like one of my go to's
if they're in a city.
I love it.
happened to be a client.
Awesome.
Awesome team down there.
But, so maybe we can figure out
Laura Wilber (33:38):
Okay.
I'll buy dinner at Perry's nexttime.
I'm in Dallas.
Okay.
that would be fun.
So yeah, so it's really just aseasy as a 15 minute phone
conversation to get a sense of,do you have open availability
early in midweek?
is there a need?
Because if not, then, then whywould you offer our corporate
clients any type ofconsideration for shifting their
(34:00):
spending to you?
So that's number one in that 15minute exploratory call.
It's for me to understand.
I know from what you've sharedabout Perry's.
And just from seeing therestaurants myself, that they
would absolutely be, of interestto the, to a lot of our
corporate clients.
So there would definitely beinterest.
There's definitely a lot ofmoney and dining spend being
(34:20):
spent in the cities that theyserve.
And there are, there is a needfor more fine dining.
So we, I know that we would havedemand there for them.
And then it would just be amatter of figuring out the
economics of, what's thatloyalty rebate percent.
how do we make that asaffordable as possible so that
it pencils out?
(34:41):
And we do that calculationtogether and sometimes it does,
and sometimes it doesn't andthat's okay.
it usually does, but again,there has to be a need from the
restaurant side.
Jeremy (34:52):
I love that.
so I'll put your, and I know wetalked about it.
So you best way to connect withyou, email, phone call carrier
pigeon.
I know you said LinkedIn, so howshould they schedule that time
with you?
And getting they're sittinglistening.
They're like, Hey, we got to getthis going.
what would you suggest their
Laura Wilber (35:07):
I would say the easiest if you're on LinkedIn is
just to find me, Laura Wilber,at LinkedIn.
I'll come right up or you couldGoogle search me there.
there's a button that says booka meeting for a 15 minute
exploratory call just to findout if it is a fit and I'll
answer any question that youhave.
also, email is easy, which is LWilber, W I L B E R at Dinova.
(35:32):
You can also go to the websiteto do your own research, Dinova.
com and click on fourrestaurants and you'll be able
to learn a lot about how itworks.
Jeremy (35:41):
thank you for that.
And, as I said at the onset,there's a reason why everybody
likes talking to you and hangingout with you.
Cause you really helprestaurants and solve some
problems that they might have,especially in that early part of
the week.
So thank you for coming on.
Thank you for hanging out withour audience.
to our audience guys, like Isaid at the beginning, I know
you guys have got lots ofchoices.
So thank you guys for hangingout with us.
If you know somebody that youwant to have on the show, send
them my way.
Restaurant technology guys.
(36:02):
com.
There's a, requesting inquiryfor being on the show.
If you haven't alreadysubscribed on whatever your
podcast, and or YouTube channel,pleasure is please do so Laura,
thank you so much.
And to our listeners,
Thanks for listening to theRestaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
Visit www.
RestaurantTechnologyGuys.
com for tips, industry insights,and more to help you run your
(36:25):
restaurant better.
This is the RestaurantTechnology Guys podcast.
Helping you run your restaurantbetter.
Jeremy (00:12):
In today's episode, we are joined by Laura Wilbur who
worked for Dinova.
Her.
And I met at a conference acouple of years ago.
And in today's up show, she'sgoing to share how you can
attract corporate guests, whostatistically spend more and
drive higher levels of frequencyand profit to your restaurant.
If you don't know me, my name isJeremy Julian.
(00:33):
I am the chief revenue officerfor CBS north star.
We developed the north star.
point of sale product that is.
Geared towards multiunitrestaurants, check us out at
cbsnorthstar.com and now ontoour episode.
Welcome back to the RestaurantTechnology Guys podcast.
I thank everyone out there forjoining us.
(00:53):
As I say, each and every time Idon't take your days, this time
for granted.
And so thank you guys forjoining us.
I know you guys got lots ofother choices.
Today is a fun story because,Laura and I met a couple of
years ago through a mutualintroduction.
I'm gonna let her tell her storya little bit more here in just a
second, but.
Very few times in the restaurantindustry, am I at a conference?
And one of the people that I'mtalking to says, you really
(01:14):
gotta know who Laura is.
And so Laura, why don't youintroduce yourself?
who is Laura?
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself, a little bit about
your background, and then we canget, get into what you get to do
professionally
Laura Wilber (01:23):
Thank you so much, Jeremy.
My name is Laura, and I help,busy restaurant operators get
more expense account diners intotheir restaurants and keep the
ones they have.
I live in North San DiegoCounty, Encinitas.
I'm a mom to two kids, one who'sa nurse, Sarah.
She's a NICU nurse, and our son,Nick, sells financial services
(01:45):
in Phoenix, Arizona.
two fluffy dogs sitting overthere that may, decide to say hi
sometime during ourconversation.
But I've spent my whole careertrying to help businesses grow
and, I'm just really thankful tobe working in this space, which
is exclusively with businessdiners or expense account diners
(02:06):
paying with the company's money.
Jeremy (02:08):
I love that.
And, again, I know we met at arestaurant conference and I love
that are passionate about thisindustry because I know we were
talking about it pre show andoftentimes we'll do a, 10 or 15
minutes with every one of ourguests on the show and we'll
talk, help me understand, talkto me a little bit about it.
And so I love that you're sopassionate about that.
For those that don't quiteunderstand or can't get their
head around, how do you getexpense diners, business diners?
(02:30):
Help me help tease that out alittle bit, because I think it's
a unique value proposition.
And part of why I wanted toshare your story and the story
of what you guys get to doprofessionally with our
Laura Wilber (02:40):
thanks for asking.
if you think of it as theoverall expense management
function for a large company ora government agency, they have,
procurement officers and folksin at the corporate office whose
job it is to manage theirexpenses, right?
So these folks will have directrelationships with airlines.
Hotel groups and rental carcompanies that they're able to
(03:02):
manage themselves because thereare only a handful of players
large enough to accommodatetheir needs.
And for example, they'll sendout a request for proposal to,
let's say, the top five airlinesand say, Hey, we're going to
spend X million dollars on airtravel in the next few years.
Who wants to be our partner?
They'll pick one, they'll alertall their teams traveling for
business using a company card.
(03:23):
Hey, everybody, we're flying.
American is our partner, right?
So if you have a businessmeeting in a city American
doesn't fly to, you can flyUnited.
But as a good steward of companyresources, we need you to fly
American drive the partnerrental car.
Stay at the partner hotel anddine at one of the partner
restaurants.
(03:44):
So because of the fragmentednature of the restaurant biz
that, very well, they just don'thave the bandwidth to have
conversations and figure out whoare these great restaurants that
we should be going to, whichrestaurants might want to be our
partner and have us startshifting our spending to them.
and who might be able orinterested in giving us some
consideration if we do shift ourspending to them.
(04:06):
So they outsourced that toDinova.
Dinova has been at it about 16years, and we've, we have about
560 global companies that havehired us to run this network for
them, as well as, very largegovernment agencies.
Jeremy (04:22):
Yeah.
So I'm, there's so manyquestions, Laura.
So I'm going to start at thetop.
So if I'm one of those brands,say I'm Hilton hotels and, not
all Hilton properties have arestaurant inside of them, but I
want to now send our executivesout and they're going to go out
and be whining and dining,which, I have been that same
consumer and we will talk alittle bit about your previous
experience.
(04:43):
I am that guy.
I'm the guy that picks whenwe're going out of town, I'm the
person that picks oftentimeswhere we're going to eat.
Literally an hour ago, I wastalking, we have a show next
week in Dallas in my hometownwhere I live and there's a show
next week and we're bringing acustomer out to finish up
signing up a deal.
And the sales rep goes, I'm notfrom Dallas.
Help me understand where we needto go.
(05:03):
So tease that out a little bitfor me.
I'm Hilton.
I'm now going to Dallas for thisconference.
And I'm not going for thisconference.
Help me understand what thatwould look like, both from the.
Brand side, the restaurant brandside, and then really from the
consumer, brand, consumer side,the guy that's making the choice
to go to X brand
Laura Wilber (05:20):
Okay, I love it.
So if you happen to be workingat a fortune 1000 company, you
would most likely have some sortof travel policy related to who
your partners are, right?
because you are a businessowner, you get to pick right?
so that's,
Jeremy (05:38):
Yes, I do.
Whether I feel like ribeye or Ifeel like, I feel like fish
today.
I get to choose where I'm going,but I
Laura Wilber (05:43):
any
Jeremy (05:43):
out of big company.
There's yeah, exactly.
But at a big company, you havecertain policies that you got to
adhere to.
So keep teasing that out
Laura Wilber (05:50):
So what you would do is you would go to your
expense management tool.
So concur or tripism or,whatever, or you could go to the
Dinova app, which is justDinova.
com.
For restaurants you would clickon that and then there would be
a list of all the restaurants inthe city that you're going to In
dallas so I could do it on myphone.
(06:12):
As we talk i'll just pull up thesearch real quick It's a real
easy, you know something foryour smartphone And so for
dallas I would just type indallas or actually the zip code.
So you're at the gaylord Okay.
Okay.
so i'll just do search And soit'll come up as, and you can
probably just barely see thecuisine images, right?
(06:35):
But if you get really specificand you do the search from your
hotel, the Gaylord Texan inGrapevine, it'll show you all
the restaurants that are closestin proximity to where you're
staying.
And you can pick by cuisinetype.
You can pick by, do they have aprivate dining room?
Do they offer catering if youwant to bring food in, to the
(06:55):
resort?
for a team or for a group ofclients or something of that
nature.
so Pegasus City Brewery, Moe'sSouthwest Grill, Press Box
Grill.
Monarch, Sushi Bar Dallas,Paparazzi Chop House, Mendocino
Farms, Leigh Madeline, TheOperators Club, Truth and Alibi,
(07:18):
Cheap Steaks, Deep Sushi, solots and lots of options in
Dallas.
So you would likely find whatyou needed.
Based on cuisine type and levelof service,
Jeremy (07:31):
Okay.
And so with that, as theconsumer that's using this
product, I'm looking for abusiness meal.
I'm looking for a, what's thevalue to me other than it meets
my policy.
And my boss, isn't going to yellat me about my expense report.
Most Southwest is a fast, casualconcept.
It's not.
Taking a client.
likely you're not going to takea client out to most Southwest
for a business meal, nothingwrong with most Southwest.
(07:52):
It's awesome.
Great food, but you're probablynot going to take a client out
to that.
Some of those other options thatyou rattled off that were in
Dallas, you would take a clienttoo.
And so what would the value forme be?
If I'm just, you know what, I'vegot a per diem.
I know that I can go spend it atChipotle or Moe's or Qdoba,
which are all very similar pricepoints of all very similar
products.
And you know what?
I'm going to go do that.
(08:13):
So talk me through as the.
Person that's at one of thosefortune 1000 companies.
Why would I choose to go to Mo'sand even go look that up if I'm
just having a solitary mealversus going and looking,
looking for a business meal typeof thing.
And then we can tease out the
Laura Wilber (08:25):
Okay.
Sounds great.
So yes, as you know with whenyou're traveling for business,
You need a solution from morningcoffee to last call at the bar
to a quick drive thru to a bagelWhatever you need, right?
And you know for me as Imentioned earlier Being a good
steward of company resources.
It's, you're a business owner,right?
When you hire, when you onboardsomebody and you tell them the
(08:46):
rules, if you're going to givethem a company card, there are
just a few rules, right?
you have a policy.
And so most of the folks thatare traveling for official
company business are goodsteward of good stewards of
company resources.
Not every company has a policy.
again, we're only working withabout half of the fortune 1000,
so I'm not sure what they do,but really, it's the
(09:09):
conscientious traveler that'sdoing their best to be a good
steward.
In addition to that, they earnreward points individually when
they dine at an in networkrestaurant that they can redeem
for different gift cards or,whatever.
Items that they would like onthe Dinova marketplace,
Jeremy (09:29):
Okay.
That's as a diner.
I get rewarded for using soinstead of going to chipotle and
nothing wrong with chipotle butinstead of going to chipotle if
I choose to go to moe's it'sgoing to benefit me as the user
Of that car App and of yourguys's solution.
Okay.
At corporate, I think I get whattheir benefit is.
Corporate's going to be able toget the benefit of they're going
to know where those things areat.
(09:50):
It's a little bit easier.
Do they also get rewarded forpartnering with them?
So if I am American Airlines orif I'm Hilton and I've now a
partner of yours, and I've nowput this policy in place, do
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Laura Wilber (10:38):
Yes So that's a good point that I think I left
out Jeremy is that the wholereason that they shift their
dining spend to their Partnersis that they receive some
consideration back from thepartner and in the case of
Dinova It's a loyalty rebate asa percentage of what they spend
Once a month and it's arelatively small percent,
(10:59):
compared to certainly thirdparty delivery or other third
party solutions out there.
but it is, there is a, cash, ifyou will, loyalty rebate that
the restaurants provide.
To the corporations that shifttheir spending to them.
The reason that they, theybelieve that makes sense is that
it's early and midweek when therestaurant's not at capacity,
(11:21):
typically, and the average checkwhen the company's buying is 50
to 200 percent higher than whena consumer is paying with their
own money.
And especially right now, asconsumers are pulling back, due
to inflation and a variety ofreasons, Traffic is down.
That's no secret.
Consumers are just watchingtheir pennies a little bit
closer.
(11:41):
Things have gotten a lot moreexpensive since the pandemic.
So if consumer traffic is downand you have empty and perishing
inventory, empty seats, earlyand mid week, why not invite a
high spending business dinerthere?
The business diners want to behome for dinner with their
family by Friday night if theycan.
And, it's, they're not familiarwith your menu, per se.
(12:03):
They don't care or know ifyou've had to raise prices on
your menu five times in the lastthree years.
they just, they're willing topay for a great experience.
Jeremy (12:13):
Okay.
Yeah.
And I think that's, that's afantastic, from, from the, which
really shifts I guess from therestaurant side, they're looking
for more diners.
They're looking for more walletspend.
They're looking for to hit that,to get to that consumer.
What other advantages does therestaurant see other than
potentially an uptick in guestcount and in, I guess just guest
(12:33):
count and really traffic becauseI know for myself and again,
exact example I chose.
And again, business owner, I canmake the choices.
I always like to dine atrestaurants that we do business
with, which is always goodbecause then I can give feedback
to the owners that I have a goodexperience, that I have a bad
experience.
But I also know when I'm takingsomebody out that I'm trying to
court, I'm I know what myexperience, what I want my
(12:55):
experience to look like.
And so there's a reason I choseto go to this one brand versus a
different brand.
and we can talk through that,but what other benefits does the
restaurant receive other thanthe potential of extra traffic
from that
Laura Wilber (13:07):
thankfully it's guaranteed extra traffic, right?
So we know that when we send,when you go live and you get
added to company policy, thereare 18 million corporate
cardholders that are, that we'remanaging this dining network
for, right?
You're absolutely going to getsome business from it.
I have signed up.
(13:28):
There's a, there's a.
Yogurt shop with two locationsin Murrieta, Georgia.
they are not seeing a ton ofbusiness travelers through, but
they are getting some, right?
So why not be on the part onthe, in the network?
it doesn't cost you anything tojoin the network.
And if nobody comes, all you'vedone is gained exposure to a
(13:49):
really high value guests.
So there's great value in that,right?
There's no work whatsoever forstaff or guests.
We're not in your POS, which Iknow is your business.
There are no tablets.
there's no special loyalty cardsor anything.
It's all tracked through thecompany card.
And, the manager, the data ismanaged by the corporations
(14:12):
themselves.
for that reason, for therestaurant, no friction, no
discounting to the consumer,either of these consumers are
paying full price, they'retelling their colleagues.
about a great restaurant in thecity.
They're not exposed to yourlocal marketing because 71
percent of the guests we sendany restaurant are coming in
(14:32):
from out of area.
And you just gave that example,Jeremy, about how you're in this
case of this conference, ithappens to be in your home city.
you are in your home market andthe company will pick up the tab
for that dinner, but usuallyit's, it's a vendor traveling.
To see their customer who isn'tnecessarily in their home
(14:53):
market.
They're not as familiar with therestaurants.
And so they're reliant on theircorporate company policy to
identify who are our partners.
We already know, colleagues havehad great experiences there.
They've been vetted and, that'show they're finding the
restaurants.
Jeremy (15:10):
So I've got two series of questions.
The first of which is really.
wrapped around, you just made acomment that says there, they're
going to get a good experienceif they're in network, talk to
me about how you guys monitorand manage that to ensure that
these business diners aren'tconstantly having bad
experiences.
Obviously you guys can't manageevery transaction or every, you
said 18 million corporate crowd.
(15:31):
And that's insane to me that youguys are driving that much
potential traffic.
So looking at that there, but.
if I happen to go to X, Y, Z,Ruth, Chris, and I had a bad
experience in the city, thatcould be poor to the network,
the network effect.
Talk, talk to me a little bitabout how you guys manage that.
Cause when you look at otherthird party marketplaces,
whether that's a DoorDash,whether that's a Yelp, whether
(15:52):
that's a Google, other, and Isay third party marketplaces,
other places where you can go dodiscovery of where you want to
go.
You can see the reviews.
Do you guys do something similarto that?
Do you guys pull them from thenetwork?
Talk me through a little bit ofhow that.
How that whole thing would work.
If in fact you guys areconstantly seeing, poor
performance, Growing yourbusiness can mean big time
logistical questions like, howam I going to keep up with all
(16:13):
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Laura Wilber (16:34):
we don't have a problem with that.
So we'll hear directly from ourcorporate clients if there is a
problem, which is incrediblyrare.
So these corporate diners likeyourself, right?
These are business leaders.
business owners in some cases,and they're very experienced in
their ordering of catering orordering food for teams, they're
(16:57):
very specific about what theywant and need.
And they're just savvycustomers.
They know if there's a badexperience, that the right thing
to do is to deal directly withthe restaurant on that.
and allow the restaurant thechance to make it right.
We don't hear, thankfully.
at least in my role, we don'thear much about any negative
(17:18):
experiences and really just thevetting of the restaurants,
right?
So we get referrals like I knowyou do for your company, for
your POS company.
So those are a lot of our, a lotof our restaurants that are in
our network are referred byother great restaurants in our
network and people will vouchfor the restaurants and say,
Hey, this is a great restaurant.
My buddy works over here or,they've had a great experience
(17:41):
at the restaurant and theybelieve that more business
diners would enjoy it, butcertainly just like you, Jeremy,
when you're vetting a newrestaurant partner to
potentially add as a customer,you're doing your due diligence
about the business, right?
Spending.
Jeremy (17:58):
Just to make sure that they're not going to be a bad
customer because at the end ofthe day, that hurts all of us.
So the second thing that Iwanted to talk about, Laura, is
you've said something about anincreased spend on corporate
dining.
And as a owner, I've had to lookthrough expense reports and go,
Hey, why was this meal soexpensive?
But.
Statistically, you found thatit's, I think he said between 70
(18:18):
and 200 percent higher than if Iwas going in with my family for
that same meal, same party offour, same party of six,
whatever that, whatever thatmeal is, it's that much higher.
Talk me through, I'm certain I'mentertaining different, cultural
things, different industries,but talk me through one.
What does that really look like?
Is it.
Is the trend even holding aswe're getting into, into the,
(18:39):
this recessionary or whateveryou want to call it,
inflationary period.
Is it still happening?
talk me through a little bit ofthat.
Cause I'd love, I thinkrestaurants that aren't exposed
to this type of guest shouldreally be considering it.
Even if, because a lot of timeswhen I talk to people about what
you guys do, it's like, I'm a,I'm a competitor to Moe's.
Why would anybody care aboutthis?
Which is part of why I want tomake sure you tease that out.
(19:00):
But that's a huge uptick insales, that they should be able
to take advantage of if they'redoing it properly.
So talk me through what is thestatistics cold?
Why do we think that's the case?
and where does it go in, inthat?
Because they still have a policyto uphold.
They still have to deal with thecorporate rules for these
fortune 1000 companies.
you got both sides on theirattention, but you're still
seeing that it's
Laura Wilber (19:20):
Oh, yeah, and again take yourself as an
example So when you're eatingout with your family, and I
don't know how large your familyis jeremy.
Oh my goodness
Jeremy (19:30):
to have a son.
I happen to have a son namedNick.
So when you said Nick was yourson, I happen to have a son.
He's my oldest.
he's a second year in college.
And then I've got threeteenagers, two at home.
And then I, eight year old whowill turn nine in a couple of
weeks.
So life is very full for
Laura Wilber (19:43):
Definitely.
there's a book called fullcatastrophe living i'm
digressing here But it's basedon the it's based on the movie
Zorba the Greek, and it, theidea, the reason for the
catastrophe is, Zorba is asked,are you married?
And he goes, oh yeah, wife,kids, the full catastrophe,
right?
Which is just, the more fullyour life is, the more chance
(20:05):
for great joy and great heart,heartache too.
But,
Jeremy (20:10):
No, I, four kids is a lot, but, and my, and sometimes
my parents are like, what, youguys are never home.
You never, but, and they're allin competitive sports and we're
very active at church and, soyes, life is very full.
And I.
Happen to run a business, thatsells point of sale to
restaurants that never closed.
It feels like so sorry.
I'll let you keep going.
Laura Wilber (20:26):
love it.
So you are, you have a largefamily, so eating out with your
family is, probably moreexpensive than some families or
just couples that are going outto eat, but I would imagine that
when you're out with your familyof six, you're not always,
trying the appetizers.
order, trading up on the winelist or ordering the fancy
(20:47):
cocktails for everyone to try.
you're maybe not, orderingdesserts or several desserts for
everyone to, to try.
You're maybe not ordering theseafood tower as an appetizer.
But tell me about yourexperience when you're
entertaining groups forbusiness.
Yeah.
Jeremy (21:04):
no, absolutely.
you either go around the tableand figure out what, Hey, these
are the three appetizers or halfthe time when I'm doing it.
I just ordered them.
Does anybody at the table reallyneed those extra, thousand
calories in that meal?
Probably not, but everybodydoes.
And, for somebody that travels,a hundred.
20 nights a year.
I eat a lot of meals out and, Ioften eat more calories than I
should when I'm out on the road.
So you are a hundred percent
Laura Wilber (21:24):
and that's really what drives up that average
check, Jeremy, is, it's thatfun, celebratory, splurging.
And you and I both know, thetime that we get with our
existing customers is a chanceto say thank you.
It's pretty rare.
And so when we're at a finedining restaurant and we have a
chance to really sit with themand get to know them, we want
(21:46):
to, celebrate and experience newfun things on the menu and ocean
prime is one of our partners andhas been for many years.
And, that's, I was thinking ofthe seafood tower there.
they also have.
Jeremy (22:00):
I've had it multiple times.
I've had it where a vendor haspaid for it.
I've had
Laura Wilber (22:03):
There you go,
Jeremy (22:04):
for a customer.
So I've been on both sides
Laura Wilber (22:06):
but you it is but it's something again like you
and I are blessed to be able Todine out for business, right?
So if you're gonna go With thefamily, you might say, I'm going
to wait and get that seafoodtower when I'm going for
business, and experience thatwith a customer.
So again, that's a lot of it.
Jeremy (22:26):
Love that.
the last, line of questioning isbefore the show kicked off, you
and I talked about your historyprior to joining the
organization you're with now,why is it something that you're
so passionate about helping boththe brands and even the
consumers to experience this?
Because.
You were in my role at somepoint in your career prior to,
(22:47):
and so I love that you're sopassionate about helping people
to achieve success as it relatesto this endeavor, because prior
to meeting you a couple of yearsago, I didn't even know
something like this existed.
And so because of it, it's like,why are, and I said it to you,
when we're, Pre recording.
It's like, why are more peoplenot doing this?
And you're like, I don't know.
They need to talk to me.
why are you so passionate aboutmaking sure that this is, this
(23:08):
is such a success for the brandsthat you
Laura Wilber (23:10):
Oh my gosh.
there are so many reasons,Jeremy, that I feel, like I
said, very blessed to be whereI'm at today, representing this
network of 24, 000 restaurants,that are.
If you break it down to what thesolution is for the restaurants,
really, when you think about it,it's automating something that
(23:32):
is very time consuming for anyof us.
So again, you and I, as salesprofessionals, we know how long
it takes to get someone on thephone to talk to us or, that
whole process.
Imagine, if you were arestaurant trying to get into
fortune 1000 companies andgovernment agencies from across
the United States to say, cometo my restaurant or my
(23:56):
restaurants.
And this is the reason why, andwe want to partner with you and
we're going to roll out the redcarpet and we're going to
provide you with an incentive tobe our customer.
if we think the restaurantoperator, screening game is
good, try, top securitygovernment agency right to try
to get that meeting, right?
Jeremy (24:15):
Yeah.
There's a reason we don't sellto government agencies because
they're a pain in the butt, andthe amount of paperwork you got
to go through is reallychallenging.
Laura Wilber (24:22):
we're so thankful to have, most of these companies
will white label the Dinovanetwork and call it.
Their company dining program.
So one of them is D.
O.
D.
Dine smart, right?
They have their own logo for it.
it's something that you knowthat people at the government
agency will drive past a lot ofrestaurants to go to one that's
(24:43):
part of company policy.
So again, I'm I feel veryblessed to be coming to you from
my kitchen here in North SanDiego County.
I'm yeah.
Less to work from home.
I didn't always get to do that.
So I used to be national salesmanager at a large radio group,
in Los Angeles, really big one.
And so my job was to wine anddine my ad agency buyers at
(25:07):
restaurants in all the bigcities across the country.
And I would say, Hey, go, I'llbe in New York, one week, every
quarter.
Which Michelin starredrestaurant haven't you dined at
yet?
And then we would just go tothose restaurants for a week,
right?
And then do it again in anothercity.
And, I remember in Chicago oneyear when chef Charlie Trotter
(25:28):
was still alive, I had a weekthat all of my customers wanted
to go to Charlie Trotter'srestaurant.
So I think.
Jeremy (25:35):
Yeah.
That's not a bad gig
Laura Wilber (25:37):
Yes, he was.
And the chance to get to meethim in the kitchen and, because
if you're a customer that'scoming in that much, and I think
I was
Jeremy (25:45):
They get to know who you are because
Laura Wilber (25:47):
Yeah.
And I'm also like very curiousand friendly and definitely want
to see behind the curtain andfigure out what makes this place
tick.
so again, that was part of mycareer in the past as to
experiencing a great restaurantexperience as a business
traveler and a business diner.
And, so fast forward to now, I'mreally looking for restaurant
(26:10):
operators and for my customersto figure out what's the lowest
cost way that I can acquire.
The highest value guest at myrestaurant and not really have
to do a lot of heavy liftingbecause as we know, restaurant
operators are incredibly busy.
Their attention and time isstretched really thin.
So our solution at Dinovacorporate dining is to tell that
(26:33):
story for these great restaurantoperators to the who's who in
business and government travel.
that's all we do is say, Hey,you're traveling to Dallas.
You need to make sure thatyou're dining at these great
restaurants.
And here are the reasons why.
And same goes for every city inthe U S and in Canada.
Jeremy (26:52):
I love that.
not necessarily related to whatyou do every day, but are there
any best practices that you'vefound for corporate dining?
I happen to, so one of ourclients is Perry's Steakhouse
based in Houston.
Fantastic food.
If you've not gotten a chance togo to Perry's and I happen to
have our.
Host our Christmas party therefor our Dallas based staff.
It was one of the mostremarkable private dining pre
(27:15):
experiences that I had.
And from pre experience, theydid a great job of prepping the
menu.
What was going to be on thetables?
What was where they failed,which I say they failed.
And I've talked to them aboutthis.
I don't feel like I'm talkingout of school where they
struggled is at the end of themeal.
I was sitting behind and a biglong table and they didn't just
take care of the check and dealwith it.
(27:36):
So I had to get up and go paythe check and deal with all of
that, which, I've told them,Hey, you knew, I already told
you that I was just going tojust put it on and keep it on
the same card.
So it created a little bit of anawkward experience for me at the
end.
It happened to be all my staffand their spouses.
So it was easy.
And at the same time, the preexperience was great.
I've also had the oppositehappen where You show up and
you're supposed to have areservation for 20 and it's not
(27:56):
great.
And you're like, Oh crap, whatare we going to do?
I got customer, and so are thereany best practices that you have
learned through dealing withthis group of people and group
of restaurants that you mightgive to our audience that they
need to consider if they'regoing to go down this path of
truly being a destination forcorporate
Laura Wilber (28:14):
Yes.
And, really it's what you saidabout the pre work, right?
So if a restaurant doesn'talready have on their website,
different tabs related to.
Private dining, semi privatedining, catering, carry out to
go third party delivery,whatever they have, make it
absolutely obvious for thebusiness decision maker to
(28:36):
figure out, Oh, your restaurantdoes do this.
And then take it further too.
So in your experience, I'm notsure if Perry's had a form for
you to fill out online.
Did they?
Okay.
Jeremy (28:48):
and then I had a phone call with the catering lady or
the private events.
It happened to be a lady in thiscase.
And she's okay, tell me whatthe, in the forum said it was
for a Christmas party and wewere going to have spouses and
all of that.
Did you want pre prepped wine?
Did you not want pre preppedwine?
Did you want to order off thewine list?
Did you want to let them go tothe highest level of the menu or
do you want to keep them under acertain dollar threshold?
(29:08):
We went through all of that overthe phone and, I made my
decisions at the time, but I'lllet you keep going.
But yes.
We, I filled out the form, thenI got a phone call.
We scheduled a phone call onzoom or teams or whatever,
jumped on a quick phone call,talk through what my experience
that I wanted to have.
And, they, we did it off themenu or maybe we even shrunk
down the menu a little bit, butdidn't go completely to three
(29:29):
items, which.
We've all been at those diningswhere you're like, Oh, I get the
Caesar salad or I get the Frenchonion soup.
Those are my two options today.
Laura Wilber (29:36):
I hate both.
Jeremy (29:37):
but we've done that and that's fine.
there's times that works.
And then there's times thatyou're like, Oh, I really wanted
to try that.
can I pay for the tomato bisquesoup myself?
kind of thing.
we've all been there and donethat if we've dined out on the
corporate side, but I just findthat some brands do it really
well.
And I'm not going to pick on theone that I showed up and it's
Hey, we've got a party at 20 andnobody even knows that we're
coming.
cause that's happened too.
And that's embarrassing andthat's really hard to figure
(29:57):
out.
And I'm like, I'm in therestaurant business and I'm
taking a client out to dinner.
And yeah, so I'll let you keepgoing.
What are the best practices?
So the pre prep work you
Laura Wilber (30:05):
So again, if you're, if you have a restaurant
and again, your website iscritically important.
People need to understand,ideally, if you can even have a
picture of what is this privatedining space going to look like,
cuisine, if you can have acouple images, beautiful images,
it's absolutely worth spendingthe money on professional
photography.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
to give them a sense of maybe asignature dish.
(30:28):
And, the thing about what we doat Dinova is we're the
invitation.
The restaurant is the party,right?
So we can get them there.
The restaurant has to do it welland execute as and that's where
we hand it off and we have totrust that our restaurant
operators are going to take goodcare of our business diners.
(30:49):
what's great is that the numberof repeat visits from a new
customer that we send to anyrestaurant, I just went through
an analysis with our teamyesterday for a brand.
And the, I think the number ofrepeat visits in.
In six months was three timesfor this brand, which a lot of
(31:11):
brands will tell us, Hey, we've,we figured you could help us
with the discovery.
We're not sure how much, howoften these folks are coming to
our market for dining there.
They're usually reallypleasantly surprised by the
number of repeat visits.
And that makes me think that ourrestaurant partners are
executing.
Cause people, as won't come backif they have a bad experience.
Usually.
And it's not rectified, butthere is something else that
(31:33):
Dinova, does for fine dining.
We have a concierge servicecalled Dine Assist, Dinova Dine
Assist.
You could just go online.
You can see the form.
It's if you'd Googled it, DinovaDine Assist, it'll come right up
and we just help our businesstravelers figure out which
(31:54):
restaurants in our network andthe city they're traveling to
can accommodate their group,right?
So we'll figure out.
How many people do you need toserve?
Does it need to be private orcan it be semi private?
how close to the zip code where,or the address of where your
meeting is do you need thisrestaurant to be?
We'll narrow it down to the topthree.
And then from there, they willtake that, they will pick one
(32:19):
and then they'll deal directlywith the restaurant on booking.
Jeremy (32:22):
that's awesome.
And again, I could see therepeat business.
My neighbor who I go to the busstop with, he works for Schwab
and he's always in Austin, thenhe's in Houston.
Then he's in Denver and healways stays at the same hotel.
He takes the same flights hegoes.
And so he's you know what?
It's just easy.
I just know where I'm going tohave dinner tonight and I know
I'm going to have dinnertomorrow night.
And I know I'm going to havedinner the next night.
Cause it's just easy.
It's one of these three places.
(32:43):
And so from that perspective,that's not surprising, but.
Unless you get discovered andget into that, that queue,
because humans really areultimately, at the end of the
day, are creatures of habit.
They don't want to make as manydecisions as we think we want to
make.
And I was like, you know what?
I know if I go here that I'mgoing to get the meal that I
need and deserve.
So how do people learn more?
How do people get engaged?
Talk to me a little bit aboutwhat this would look like.
(33:04):
I'm Perry's, I'm not a client.
I don't know if they are or not.
It doesn't matter.
But now I'm sitting here and I'mPerry's Steakhouse and I'm
listening to this and going, Ineed what Laura has.
How do I get, how do I learnmore?
How do I get engaged there to,to spend some time with you guys
and figure out
Laura Wilber (33:17):
Okay.
Perry's, I would absolutely loveto meet you.
I, have not yet.
And, I've been in the restaurantin Austin speaking of, traveling
in Texas.
Jeremy (33:27):
are, they're based in Houston.
They fantastic.
Every time I've ever gone,they're like one of my go to's
if they're in a city.
I love it.
happened to be a client.
Awesome.
Awesome team down there.
But, so maybe we can figure out
Laura Wilber (33:38):
Okay.
I'll buy dinner at Perry's nexttime.
I'm in Dallas.
Okay.
that would be fun.
So yeah, so it's really just aseasy as a 15 minute phone
conversation to get a sense of,do you have open availability
early in midweek?
is there a need?
Because if not, then, then whywould you offer our corporate
clients any type ofconsideration for shifting their
(34:00):
spending to you?
So that's number one in that 15minute exploratory call.
It's for me to understand.
I know from what you've sharedabout Perry's.
And just from seeing therestaurants myself, that they
would absolutely be, of interestto the, to a lot of our
corporate clients.
So there would definitely beinterest.
There's definitely a lot ofmoney and dining spend being
(34:20):
spent in the cities that theyserve.
And there are, there is a needfor more fine dining.
So we, I know that we would havedemand there for them.
And then it would just be amatter of figuring out the
economics of, what's thatloyalty rebate percent.
how do we make that asaffordable as possible so that
it pencils out?
(34:41):
And we do that calculationtogether and sometimes it does,
and sometimes it doesn't andthat's okay.
it usually does, but again,there has to be a need from the
restaurant side.
Jeremy (34:52):
I love that.
so I'll put your, and I know wetalked about it.
So you best way to connect withyou, email, phone call carrier
pigeon.
I know you said LinkedIn, so howshould they schedule that time
with you?
And getting they're sittinglistening.
They're like, Hey, we got to getthis going.
what would you suggest their
Laura Wilber (35:07):
I would say the easiest if you're on LinkedIn is
just to find me, Laura Wilber,at LinkedIn.
I'll come right up or you couldGoogle search me there.
there's a button that says booka meeting for a 15 minute
exploratory call just to findout if it is a fit and I'll
answer any question that youhave.
also, email is easy, which is LWilber, W I L B E R at Dinova.
(35:32):
You can also go to the websiteto do your own research, Dinova.
com and click on fourrestaurants and you'll be able
to learn a lot about how itworks.
Jeremy (35:41):
thank you for that.
And, as I said at the onset,there's a reason why everybody
likes talking to you and hangingout with you.
Cause you really helprestaurants and solve some
problems that they might have,especially in that early part of
the week.
So thank you for coming on.
Thank you for hanging out withour audience.
to our audience guys, like Isaid at the beginning, I know
you guys have got lots ofchoices.
So thank you guys for hangingout with us.
If you know somebody that youwant to have on the show, send
them my way.
Restaurant technology guys.
(36:02):
com.
There's a, requesting inquiryfor being on the show.
If you haven't alreadysubscribed on whatever your
podcast, and or YouTube channel,pleasure is please do so Laura,
thank you so much.
And to our listeners,
Thanks for listening to theRestaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
Visit www.
RestaurantTechnologyGuys.
com for tips, industry insights,and more to help you run your
(36:25):
restaurant better.
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Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com