December 30, 2024 • 34 mins
In this episode of the Restaurant Technology Guys podcast, Jeremy Julian is joined by Brian Wayne, VP of Customer Success at QSR Automations. They discuss how QSR Automations' technology solutions, such as the ConnectSmart kitchen display system and front desk software, enhance kitchen efficiency and guest experience. Brian shares insights into his journey with QSR Automations, the evolution of their products, and the importance of data in improving restaurant operations. The conversation highlights the benefits of transitioning from kitchen printing to more sophisticated kitchen management systems, including improved food quality, reduced noise, and better guest communication. Brian also touches on the significance of real-time data, partnerships, and predictive analytics in the future of restaurant technology.
00:00 QSR Automations
00:39 Introduction and Guest Introduction
01:03 Brian's Journey with QSR Automations
02:55 What is QSR Automations?
05:25 The Evolution of Kitchen Display Systems
12:03 Real-Time Data and Guest Communication
19:30 Front Desk Software and Integration
26:11 The Future of Restaurant Technology
29:48 Touchscreens vs. Bump Bars in Kitchens
32:37 Conclusion and How to Engage with QSR
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 Julian (00:12):
In today's episode, we are joined by Brian
Wayne from QSR automations,Brian and I have known each
other for quite some time.
And if you're not familiar withQSR and what it can do to
automate your kitchen, Youreally need to listen to this
episode.
He, and I go through all of thedifferent ways that they deploy
the software to make kitchenssuper efficient using technology
(00:32):
and integrations to yourexisting point of sale
solutions.
If you don't know me, my name isJeremy Julian.
I am the chief revenue officerfor custom business solutions.
We sell the NorthStar up on acell product that focuses on
automating multiunit restauranttechnology.
Check us www.Cbsnorthstar.com.
Welcome back to the RestaurantTechnology Guys podcast.
(00:54):
I thank everyone out there forjoining us.
The guest today is, actuallysomebody I've known for quite
some time and Brian and I weretalking a little bit pre show.
I'm going to let him introducehimself, but, I am certain many
of our listeners out there aregoing to know Brian's
organization, who he's workedfor quite some time as well.
But Brian, why don't youintroduce yourself?
Then we can talk a little bitabout what you get to do for a
living.
Brian Wayne (01:15):
Sure.
my name is Brian Wayne.
I'm the VP of customer successat QSR automations.
I just celebrated my 20th yearanniversary here, which was
pretty, pretty overwhelming tobe honest.
I actually, Started with QSR.
QSR was founded in 1996, and Istarted with QSR when I was in
(01:36):
high school.
so I truly am, a lifer.
when Lee founded the business,he needed somebody to build, the
hardware, because it was allcustom hardware, video
controllers, and bump bars.
And, he, he brought me on, Iwould come after school and I
would sit at a card table and,had a Phillips head screwdriver,
(01:57):
a box of screws and some rubberfeet and would assemble all the
bump bars and, epic videocontrollers back then.
so it was pretty cool.
I, so that's how I got to knowhim and then really stayed in
touch with them throughoutcollege.
I interned a little bit and thenhe hired me on full time.
and I've had the opportunity todo a little bit of everything
throughout my years here, whichis really how I learned the
(02:20):
product.
I started in support and in QAand, really got a handle on the
product and then spent themajority of my time here in, in
kind of the implementationworld.
Jeremy, I look back, I found,through the archives.
I had come out in 2006, itlooked like to, to train your
team.
on how to use our products and,so I've known you guys for a
(02:43):
really long time.
And it seems half the people Itrain there are now IT execs, on
the West Coast.
So it's a testament to you guysfor how many, how many people
have come through the CBS
Jeremy Julian (02:52):
I love it.
and it's one of the things thatwe're most proud of on the CBS
side is just how many employeesand team members we've gotten,
to different positions.
The cool part for both of us isthat, that, many of them are
using your guys products, whichis even more, more awesome from
that perspective.
So yeah.
for those that are living undera rock and don't know what this
business is, that's been that,what is QSR automations?
(03:13):
Cause I know a lot of ourlisteners are going to know, but
for those that don't, aren'taware of it, you talked about
epic boxes.
I'm I like brought back, PTSD ofsome of those old boxes coming
back out of the greasy kitchensand having to repair the darn
things.
But, but Brian, why don't you,why don't you go through what's
What is the flagship productthat you guys started with so
many years ago and in highschool, what you were building
out, what was it doing and howwas it such a special, special
(03:35):
product that again, we've beenpartnering with you guys, close
to 20 years now,
Brian Wayne (03:39):
Yeah, so it's, it's at its core.
Our core product is a kitchendisplay system.
and in the mid nineties, ourfounder was actually a contract
developer for KFC here inLouisville, which is where we're
based.
And he, KFC needed a solutionfor, digital, kitchen in their
restaurants to produce the food.
(03:59):
so we set out to create thatsolution for him and built it.
For kfc and from there itexploded, we got a few table
service restaurants early onbrinker chili's being one of the
big kind of first adopters andthen it just took off from there
Several years later.
we modernized the platform,which is what it is today called
(04:22):
connect smart so connect smartnow, you know is the kitchen
product, but then we've also gotYou front of house, table
management, reservations,waitlist management, product
called Connect Smart Host,recipe solution, off premise,
management solution, analytics,and all the other little bits
and pieces.
but, It, throughout the kind ofearly 2000s, we really grew
(04:47):
quite a bit and started landinga lot of enterprise level
chains.
We really made our name in thetable service space, which is a
little bit ironic with our name.
a lot of people think we'rejust, for quick service
restaurants, but we expanded to,there were a few.
Big brands like Brinker,Cheesecake Factory was another
big one where, a lot of peoplewanted to emulate what they were
(05:08):
doing.
And, so we grew out to, I thinktoday we're in about 20 out of
the top 25 table servicerestaurant, change using our
product.
And, we've made our way intofast, casual, we've got a lot of
quick service and then all otherareas to, cruise ships, senior
living.
Jeremy Julian (05:25):
Yeah.
Brian Wayne (05:26):
Anyway with a kitchen really can use it.
So it's opened the door to sellto all sorts of types of
Jeremy Julian (05:32):
and I love that.
Cause again, we were part ofsome of those early
conversations and a lot of thattable service world.
And so for those that I guesspaint a picture, Going back to a
lot of kitchen display systemsback in the early days, even
your guys's onset with KFC wasthat fast food drive through.
We got to get the food from thefront counter to the back and
get it in and out of thekitchen.
(05:54):
It replaced printers, but itwasn't, there wasn't a whole lot
of intelligence to it.
And I don't want to speak.
poorly about that.
But quite frankly, in fast food,it's fast.
It's you got to be in and out.
It's fast.
The food is sitting therewaiting.
Most times it's being assembled,put no bag, put no box and then
hand it out to a guest.
So the complexity of thesoftware side of it was a lot
less difficult.
Then you get into table serviceand you've got things like
(06:16):
timing.
You've got different stations,different kitchen layouts, our
listeners through.
Cause I still talk today to,operators that are, I just need
to go back to tickets.
I don't need to deal with all ofthis stuff and talk, talk me
through what even that processlooks like, Brian, for one of
those brands that's coming offof tickets or is not familiar
with how much a KDS can do forthem and how.
(06:39):
Quite frankly, I remember earlyon, and I, sorry for the story,
but I was meeting with one ofthe Brinker people and they're
like, it was 180 degreesdifferent from kitchen printing
to going to KDS when they firstrolled out your guys solution,
because the world literallychanged the efficiency within
the kitchen, the noise levelwithin the kitchen, the accuracy
within the kitchen.
But walk me through what itlooks like for one of those
(07:01):
brands that might be on kitchenprinting, that is not aware of
this and has never worked in akitchen.
That's got.
A fully orchestrated KDSsolution, because I think it's
this picture that I think itneeds to be told because I think
everybody has to be there todayin order to compete.
Brian Wayne (07:16):
Yeah, you nailed a lot of the, you nailed a lot of
my key points on the head there,Jeremy, but, it's essentially.
It's the fact that, when I'vedone these implementations
throughout the years, it'salways amazing when they flip
that switch on the first time.
And there's always somenervousness in the kitchen.
it's people who have relied onthese printed chips and they
(07:37):
know their way, they know how torun their kitchen.
And then they realize howeverything changes, how much
easier it is, how many, lessmistakes are being made, how
much less food waste and the,and then the ticket times just
naturally.
And a lot of that, like yousaid, is, and especially in a
table service kitchen is throughthat orchestration, it's the
(07:58):
cook time, sequencing and it'sthe coursing and it's the
activity levels that you canhave when there's less, cooks
on.
So it really, it's thecombination of all those things.
And the other 1 that youmentioned, which is 100 percent
accurate is the is how quiet itis.
Yeah, it's people are always inall I'm not having to scream
(08:19):
across the kitchen anymore.
the screen is just telling mewhat to make, when to make it.
And then, the other hugebenefit, too, that people don't
always think about right off thebat is the data behind it.
and, back 15 years ago, the datawas a nice thing to pump into
your BI tool and run reports andsee things after the fact.
(08:40):
And now it's become more thatreal time, benefit that a lot of
people aren't thinking about,but it's where off premise comes
into play and, how do I,communicate when my order's
ready to a guest through my appor through an SMS message or how
do I give a more accurate quotetime back to the guest and all
those types of things,
Jeremy Julian (08:58):
Yeah.
I'd love to talk through evenkitchen timing, because I think
there's, again, this misnomerwhen you're on printing.
Most systems nowadays, do havesome level of timing, but they
don't necessarily have theability to have, a well done
steak go in now and then achicken Caesar salad go in 12
minutes after the well donesteak went in.
Talk me through even what doesthat look like, Brian, when you
(09:19):
guys are implementing this?
Cause again, most people don'thave the level of sophistication
that Cheesecake Factory does forour international listeners.
They do some of the highestvolume of a casual dining chain.
they actually do statisticallyhave the highest volume of a
casual dining chain and most oftheir kitchens, because they
happen to be a mutual client ofours, as well as, as well as
QSR, they will, they have 12 to15 screenings, all running
(09:44):
touchscreens in theirenvironment to be able to
orchestrate this kitchen thathas thousands of items coming
out of it every day.
But talk me through even whatdoes that look like for somebody
that's used to the.
The fast food, everything justgoes to the screens and now it's
the kitchen managing it versusthe technology.
Brian Wayne (10:00):
yeah.
So there's, there's kind of twolayers to it in our system.
One is what we call thecoursing, and we've got
intelligent coursing built in towhere you can literally send in
apps, salads, entrees, all atthe same time, and we can paste
that out depending on when itneeds to hit.
But then what within eachcourse.
Each item, you can program in aprojected cook time of that
(10:22):
item, and based on those cooktimes, it's going to hold the
next item in line, just to makesure with the goal being all the
food hits the window at the sametime so it can be run out, and
we capture all that, that databehind the scenes so you can go
and audit yourself after thefact to see, is this cook time
accurate, why is food sitting inthe window so long?
(10:44):
Or why is this item dragging?
So maybe I shouldn't, this itemis taking too long to make.
So maybe I should, not includeit in my menu going forward, all
those types of things.
But it's, it's a process we takeour customers through.
Or we're very, consultative interms of when we're onboarding
somebody new and you'reprobably, I think you guys share
a lot of the same, sameideology, but we're going to get
(11:06):
Integrated into your business,make sure, do full operational
reviews, meet with ops, meetwith the restaurant, make sure
we understand how the businessworks.
And then this solution is,configurable and it's due to all
the customization over, over the20 something years that we've
had it out there that it's got.
(11:27):
everything in it that you canimagine.
It's funny.
Sometimes I've been atrestaurants where I'm training
somebody new and they say, Oh,we use this solution that was,
like this at my old job.
And I said, where'd you work?
And it was one of our customers.
I'm like, no, that was the samesolution.
It just looks completelydifferent.
Cause they want it to workdifferently.
So it's, it's one of those, andit's thanks to all those
(11:49):
customers that with those 20 ofthe top 25 chains that I just
talked about, everyone hadslightly different requirements.
We made a name for ourselves bycontinuing to build upon and
adapt the product so that itwould work.
if Cheesecake Factory thinksthis is a good idea and it's
probably going to work somewhereelse too.
And if Brinker thinks this is agood idea, then somebody else is
probably going to think
Jeremy Julian (12:09):
Yeah, no, I love that.
And that's part of why we've hadsuch a long standing partnership
with you guys is because ofthat.
you said something in your introabout the product, about real
time data.
One of the things that I findmost valuable when you're
running tickets, there's alwaysthis tension between the front
of the house and the back of thehouse.
When has my food going to getout for my guests and the, and
the kitchen At times is runningbehind and the kitchen staff at
(12:32):
times is not running behind whenit's tickets.
There's no real arbiter Of whowins who's right who's wrong?
But when you've got a systemlike qsr You can see when
something is supposed to takenine minutes and it's at 12 or
14 minutes for that miso salmonYou can't see it You can see it.
And now as a manager, assomebody that's on the expo side
of the line, I can start to seethose things and figure out, is
(12:54):
this guy running behind?
Is he, is there something wrong?
Is the station not set upproperly?
Talk me through how some ofthose real time things benefit
both the guests and the staffcommunication and really the
guest experience at the end ofthe day.
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Brian Wayne (14:06):
Yeah.
So the simplest thing we haveis, we call it priority and rush
times that can be assigned toeach item and each order in the
screen.
it'll go to yellow when it'slate and it'll go to red when
it's really late.
But we also track all theaverage, times and you can put
all sorts of, custom metrics onthe headers of your screen that
really get any point across thatyou want.
(14:26):
What percentage of orders aregoing into rush over the last 30
minutes?
Or what's my average tickettime?
so you can get a pretty goodhandle and then each order also
has a timer on it, obviously, soyou can see, where, how late
you're running.
we've got some customers thatwill dedicate an entire screen
to just dashboard metrics sothat they can just glance up at
any point in time and see.
(14:47):
And, a point that I made earlieris the, That data now is so much
more important because it'simportant for leaving the walls
of the restaurant.
Like we, we, we've always beensitting on this goldmine of
data, we believe the kitchen isreally the engine room of the
restaurant, all these differentchannels and delivery and all
(15:08):
these providers that are pumpingorders in.
We've got all of that data, andwe know how many orders are
being prepared through thekitchen at any given time, and
if you're running late.
and we never really knew how tobest get that back out.
We've got APIs, we've gotwebhooks, but we haven't really,
unlocked how do we make thisavailable so that everyone,
(15:29):
we've got all the data you need.
but we've made some strides.
We shifted a little bit a fewyears ago in the partnerships, a
little bit more.
we built a partnership with Olowhere now customers using both
Olo and, ConnectSmart can getmore accurate Olo quotes because
they're taking intoconsideration all the orders,
not just Olo orders, but evendine in orders or orders from
other channels.
(15:50):
we did a partnership.
I'm not sure if you're familiarwith the team at Curbit, but
that's another one, yeah, thatwe did.
We're.
they've taken the data andthey're handling all the guest
communication side.
they're feeding the guests moreaccurate, recalibrated quote
times.
when your takeout food is goingto be ready and they're
communicating with SMS back andforth to the guests.
and another one was a fly bythat we did.
(16:12):
so fly by is more locationawareness and using that data
and feeding that in.
So we we were like, it was astruggle to try and find a
solution that everyone wouldadopt.
So it was like, why don't we Gomore of the partnership route,
to feed people back.
And then we've got customersthat do it all themselves.
They'll just take the data
Jeremy Julian (16:27):
Yeah, we ironically built, built our own
machine learning logarithm, tookdata from cheesecake and some
other clients to get accuratequote times back, not
necessarily compete with LO, butreally to prove out the model
that says the right quote timesare going to increase basket
size.
Cause most, quoting tools arevery linear.
I have five orders in thekitchen.
It's a 30 minute wait time.
(16:47):
I have six orders.
It's 35 minutes.
Whereas if I'm just getting achicken Caesar salad and a slice
of cheesecake, it might be eightminutes worth of a cook time.
Cause that's a much quicker cooktime than a well done New York
strip and a jambalaya pasta.
that, take a lot longer toprepare.
one of the other things, Brian,that I like to remind people of
when we're talking about QSR isfood quality.
(17:07):
When you're running kitchenprinting or you're running
everything going to the kitchenat the same time, and we've got
that example and again I've usedthe example of the chicken
caesar salad and the well doneNew York, the well done New York
is going to take 14 to 16minutes to cook just for sake of
argument, and the chicken caesarmight take 6 minutes to cook.
That 10 minute window, if it'sgoing with printing or
everything goes to the kitchenat the same time, that salad is
(17:29):
going to be 10 minutes olderthan the New York strip that's
getting put into the box orgetting put onto the plate,
which ultimately impacts foodquality.
Talk to me a little bit abouthow you guys even.
Work with clients to organizethat kitchen to make sure that
all of the food the hot foodcomes out of the window Hot the
cold food comes out of thewindow cold and everything stays
(17:50):
At the right temperature becausethat can I mean I was just
somewhere last week Not usingqsr and somebody would complain
that their food was cold andsomebody else's Plate was
burning hot because theyprobably made the food, and it
wasn't sitting under the hotlamp, the heat lamp, and it
probably shouldn't have beensitting under the heat lamp
because they're not usingautomation that will help make
these things better.
So can you talk us through howyou would even organize that and
(18:12):
why, what's the business impactultimately to the guests and to
the brand?
Brian Wayne (18:16):
Yeah, it's all about that sequencing, right?
We always say the same with hotfood, hot, cold food, cold, you.
if your timing is accurate andwe've got other kind of features
built in, we have a feature thatsays, wait until the longest
item is started, you acknowledgeit, you started cooking it in
our system and then trigger thedelay routing from there.
So if you're way behind on thatstation, then, it keeps
(18:38):
everything in sequence.
It pulls everything back alittle bit.
there's, so there's things likethat kind of keep, keep that
food hitting the window at thesame time.
And we've got other featurestoo, where.
it, zone feature that we havewhere you can push certain food
into certain spots in the windowto help with the expediting of
the food, but it's all about it.
(18:58):
It's funny to it again, 10 yearsago.
Food quality was the only goal,and now it's this combination of
food quality and accuracy, withthe takeout, where it's, you
have to hit both of thosethings, it's, the food quality
is of utmost importance,especially for dine in, but it
almost shifts a little bit, sothe order accuracy has gotten
(19:19):
really aligned, alight.
shown on it with, with the,takeout.
And that's where, we see peopledoing, the sticky printing,
which I'm sure you see a lot ofas well with late labeling each
item.
And, you can use our system as achecklist to go one by one as
you check each one off and itprints a label out to make sure
you have the right thing.
but yeah, it's, the food qualityis just an enormous benefit.
(19:40):
There's no
Jeremy Julian (19:41):
Yeah, I love that.
one last piece before we jumpinto kind of why some of the
other products that you guyshave built on.
Cause I think it's a really coolstory when we talk about front
desk, but you talked about guestcommunication and one of my
favorite features, especiallyfor things like fast casual,
we've all worked at, we've alleaten at a fast casual
restaurant 10 years ago, 15years ago, we'd have a fast
casual restaurant.
They'd be either calling outnumbers, number 52, your order's
(20:02):
ready.
You got to go to the counter andgot to go get it.
Or they give you these pagersthat were really expensive and
they were hard to maintain andthey were hard to run food to
you.
You guys came up with somepretty cool stuff that I think
is something worth talkingthrough, which is the ability to
communicate with that guestswhen food is ready and where to
go and have a guest engagementbecause you guys know when the
food is done.
It's hitting the expo at thepoint of sale.
(20:23):
They only know when it got tothe kitchen, you guys know when
the food is prepared and it'seither boxed up.
If it's in a takeout scenario orit's in the dining room, and I'm
grabbing it from the window.
You guys know those things inthis fast, casual fast food
environment.
Talk me through how that cameabout and what that looks like.
Cause I think it's, it's sounderutilized and I think more
and more people should bethinking about it because I
think it creates a fantasticguest experience.
Brian Wayne (20:44):
Yeah, so it started, we built, we built
within our table managementplatform years ago, the ability
to, notify the guests via SMS.
Like you said, it used to justbe those pagers.
And then once the SMS kind ofgot popular, we jumped onto
that.
And, we built two way SMS andall different triggers that you
can send to the guests whentheir table's ready, when
(21:06):
they've been added to the waitlist, when they're about to be
seated, reservationconfirmation.
We built the platform thatenabled those SMSs to get sent.
And then when takeout started toboom a little bit more, it was a
no brainer to extend that tothose takeout orders.
And all we needed was the phonenumber.
and a lot of, we've got 70 pluspoint of sale integrations and
(21:28):
everybody sends us informationslightly differently.
And there was a little bit of achallenge there, and how do we
get that phone number so we knowwho to send that order ready SMS
to, and we actually built in arules engine into the software
that says, hey, just send us thephone number as a menu item if
you don't, if you're not goingto send it to us in the phone
number field, which some ofthese older interfaces couldn't.
(21:49):
we built in the plumbing toallow it to happen.
and then, yeah, from there itwas, we can send you a, we can
send you a message when theorder is confirmed.
If you want, we can send you amessage when the order is ready.
the other interesting one too,that we've seen a lot, a lot of
adoption and, Dave's hot chickenis a up and coming brand that
just, is starting to roll outwith us.
(22:09):
they added an order ready screenas well.
For the lobby.
So we're seeing more and more ofthat where people will mount a
big TV, essentially.
And have the information upthere, you first only would see
that in fast food But you werestarting to see it with casual
fast casual dining even attakeout
Jeremy Julian (22:25):
I think at the end of the day, us as guests,
I've had multiple people on theshow in the past as guests, we
have certain expectations andunfortunately, people like
Amazon ruin those expectationsfor us because they communicate
all throughout the way.
I got something delivered todayand it's there's 11 stops that
you're on the 10th stop.
You're on the night stuff.
Like they're giving us thatdata.
And unfortunately, so manyrestaurants, you hope and pray
(22:49):
that it got to the restaurantand you hope and pray that the
food gets to you, whether that'sat DoorDash or it's in takeout.
and sometimes you have a lot of,guest experience problems.
And so being able to real timecommunicate with the guests,
what's going on is huge.
And you talked about it, Brian,on the front desk side, front
desk is amazing.
I love what you guys do therefor those brands that, that have
(23:09):
a wait list.
and again, you guys have a lotof different features there.
Cause one of the things that, Ialways say about QSRs is if it
can be done in the kitchen,likely QSR Automations is going
to be able to do it.
I did get stumped yesterday andI got a problem for you to
solve, but, differentconversation, not for the
podcast, but, that all beingsaid, talk me through, what is
the front desk software?
Why did it get created?
You talked a little bit aboutkind of some of the advantages
(23:31):
of communicating with people,but what is it and why does it
exist?
Brian Wayne (23:34):
Yeah, so it was it just was an extension of you
know we had the kitchen productand it was a lot of as we had
grown into the table serviceworld It seemed like there were
a lot of restaurants that YouNeeded a better solution for
their front desk.
There were a lot of honestlythat were still using pen and
paper.
Some of them were using somesolutions that were either
(23:54):
outdated or going into life.
And so we saw that there was aneed for it.
And we focused, in a fewdifferent areas.
One was the actual.
Table management side of things.
So server rotation and, managingthe status of the tables.
So you, where each table is andits life cycle.
The waitlist management wasanother big one.
(24:15):
we were pretty early to add,online waitlisting.
so we had that in for years andyears, and that's become even
more and more popular.
you can see, we've got anintegration with Google now
where a lot of restaurants, youcan just go right from the
Google page to add your name.
and then we added reservationsin as well.
we intentionally stayed out, ofthe, B2C, OpenTable type thing.
(24:36):
We integrate to OpenTable, weintegrate to Google, but we're
just focused on, the operationalside of managing your tables,
your wait lists, and yourreservations within your
restaurant.
That's it.
And then the big benefit that wealways sell people on is because
we have the kitchen, you getsome pretty tight integration
between the two.
So you can see the check detailor what the status, what course
(24:58):
they're on, in the kitchen fromthe front.
And then one feature that weadded a few years ago is adding
host metrics into the back.
a big one was open menu countthat people love where, From the
kitchen screen at the expo orany kitchen screen, I can see
how many people have an openmenu.
So I can predict what's about tohit.
Jeremy Julian (25:15):
Yeah.
and I think, again, having dinedat lots of the restaurants that
have your guys's stuff with thefront desk, it's amazing to
watch how much more efficientquote times are guest
communication at the counter isas well as even them walking
around the dining room to figureout when our tables, they can
see where food's at in thekitchen.
They can walk to the table, seethe check has been dropped and
know that likely a four top isgoing to come up to seat.
(25:37):
The next guest, the logarithmtells them, The table likely be
ready in eight minutes, but theyalso can see it with their eyes.
They can see it on the system.
They can go in and see all ofthat.
You're not taking the point ofsale data, but you do see, and
it just ultimately creates abetter experience when you're
going to that counter and youknow when you're going to be
able to get that data is,
Brian Wayne (25:58):
those wait times, the wait times is huge.
And we put a lot of focus on thedifferent wait times.
and that, and then, it's funny,it's like that kind of extended
now into, onto the kitchen sidewith takeout.
And I really feel like that'sthe next, thing to really
unlock.
people always talk about AI and,it's always broad and no one
(26:20):
really has, it just seems likeit's just a buzzword.
But for me, it's The A.
I.
In my mind, that would reallyunlock things for guest
experience is all about thatpredictive analytics.
like, how do we better quote offpremise?
How do we better sequence ordersin the kitchen?
How do we better quote the guestfor wait list?
we've had people in the pastwhere.
(26:42):
They might not be using thesystem quite right on the host
end.
And it's a little bit of garbagein garbage out.
And they were able to compensatefor walk in guests.
You know that the system'stelling me it's a 10 minute
wait, but I've got a lobby fullof people.
So I'm going to tell them it's a45 minute wait.
And with all the online, youdon't have that luxury anymore.
if you're adding yourself to thewait list, the system's got to
(27:04):
be right.
And if you're doing an offpremise order, you're not doing
it over the phone.
You're doing it online.
It's got to be right.
To me, it's, that is, is wherethe magic's gonna happen is that
predictive analytics,
Jeremy Julian (27:14):
and I, that was actually where I was going next.
Brian is just this whole ideaof, and I tell this story often
beginning of the pandemic, therewas a brand that I used to go to
all the time.
And I went to the, to that brandand ultimately because of third
party, because of off prem, Ihad two bad experiences in a
row.
And to the point that my wifesays, I'm never going back
there.
Don't need to mention brandnames, but it was so bad because
(27:36):
they had no way to throttle bothin dining room guests and third
party guests.
some of the brands I've talkedto both on the show and just at
trade shows is they're gettingto the point where they've got
almost equal third, equal, Offprem as they do on prem.
When you walked into a storethat was on prem and there was a
line, there was a line at thehost stand, there was a line at
(27:58):
the takeout window, you're at aDave's hot chicken, you see it,
you see the drive thru line, yousee the dining room, you're
like, Oh, I'm probably going towait.
There's four people in front ofme.
I'm probably going to wait 10minutes before I get to order.
With third party, with firstparty online ordering with Olo
orders, you have no idea what'sgoing on in the kitchen until
you get to that place.
Talk me through where you thinkthat's going.
(28:19):
You say that's really where thefuture of it is.
Talk me through why you thinkthat's so critical?
Because again, Domino's createdthe Domino's pizza tracker.
Amazon's got this idea, buteverybody's playing catch up to
the, those same brands.
And as they're trying to expandtheir on.
On premise and off premiserevenue sources.
They have to deliver a, at leastas good as a guest experience,
(28:41):
if not a better at guestexperience.
And the only way to do that isthrough systems.
Brian Wayne (28:45):
yeah, the stakes are so much higher with the,
with the off premise and, it'sbalancing the load.
It's, capacity management, youmentioned your example.
I remember, the first Mother'sDay after, after kind of
restaurants had, the COVID hitthe first Mother's Day.
And mother's day has always beenfor these table service
restaurants a super busy day Butthey were only limited by how
(29:08):
many people could fit in therestaurant and it was like it
was chaos for a few brandsbecause they just left their
online ordering totally openended And people were ordering
way more than the kitchen couldhandle so it's it really is now
that we've got The data, weunderstand how much, how
(29:29):
capacity, how much capacity wecan handle if a certain number
of orders are coming in and acertain pace, how much that's
going to affect the tickettimes.
It's just a matter of, it's justa matter of unlocking that to
really, figure out where thatmagic
Jeremy Julian (29:44):
Love it.
I'm going to pivot real quick tosomething that, that we
fundamentally have believedbefore we wrap up ranks, we're
getting close to time.
we've had this belief at CBS andI'd love at least your opinion
on it.
And then what's the real lifeexamples of it.
Educating a.
Person in the kitchen to use atouchscreen versus using a
traditional bump bar is a mucheasier training process
(30:08):
historically.
And I know that it was alwaysmet with a lot of resistance in
the beginning and we CBS, andagain, I'm sure there was lots
of other people that had donethat, but initially when we
first started taking on ourpartnership with you guys, it
was bump bar, an Epic unit.
We talked about the little miniPCs, and I'll, LCD screen.
Probably it wasn't even LED backthen.
It was LCD screens, maybe evenCRTs back in the day that had a
(30:31):
little computer, a little minicomputer behind it.
And there was a bump bar thatwas sitting in the service
station and you would have thesewindows and you'd bump the
orders.
We fundamentally believe that asthe generations continue to
change.
People are used to touching atouch screen and being able to
get into a kitchen and put atouch screen into the
environment is an easier way.
(30:51):
I just love your philosophy.
Talk to me about what your reallife experience is because all
too often I go into these brandsand they're like, we can't put
these things in the kitchen andI'm like, let me just tell you
how we've done it because we diddo it for cheesecake factory, we
did do it for BJ's with thesetouchscreens in these really
greasy environments.
And I take some of the hardwaremanufacturers into these places
and they're like, This is whereyou're putting this stuff.
I'm like, yeah, but when youdesign it properly, you get
(31:11):
great software that's resilient,it works really great.
So I'd love to at least educateour listeners as to, it's not
just a bump bar and a screenthat's, 12 feet in the air, it
can be in their workspace ifthey want it to be.
Brian Wayne (31:22):
Yeah, it's, it, I would say there's been a shift
to where, touchscreens have beena little bit more widely
adopted.
Cheesecake was ahead of thegame, to be honest, years and
years ago when they first didthat.
And it was way more, bump bar.
Back then, I think it's shifteda little bit.
All in ones have become a littlebit, easier to source and
cheaper, and you've got POE allin ones now.
(31:44):
So there's a lot of people thatgo that route.
We still do have people that usekind of the PCAP touchscreen
with the device.
there are still people that justswear by, And a lot of times
it's the position behind theline, where they'll still swear
by the bump bar where it'seasier for them to just mount a
bump bar that's easier to reachthat the screen can be further
up out of the way where theydon't have to reach it.
(32:05):
we do pretty much exclusivelysee touchscreen at the expo side
now because there's so muchmore, actions that take place
that it's just, it's easier touse.
but yeah, it's, it's, whetheryou go, either way you go, you
can't go, you really can't gowrong.
And the hardware issurprisingly, resilient.
You, you mentioned those epicboxes.
(32:26):
I was actually at Brinker a yearor two ago.
In their corporate office, andthey still had one of the old, I
think it was probably built inthe early 2000s, and it was
still running in their lab.
I
Jeremy Julian (32:38):
That's crazy.
I was going through thewarehouse in our Dallas office
last week.
And I found one, I was like, Oh,I haven't seen one of these in a
long time.
It was not running.
not that it wouldn't have run,but it was just, it was sitting
in a pile.
Brian, how do people learn more?
What does it engagement with QSRlook like?
I know again, we're partners andI'm not saying this to try and
pitch.
Who we are, there's partners outthere that you guys sell
(32:58):
through.
I know you guys do some direct.
So if they want to engage, theywant to learn more.
Where would you direct people togo?
What is that engagement going tolook like for an owner that's
out there going?
I need this kitchen stuff.
Let's make it happen.
Brian Wayne (33:08):
So as you mentioned, we, we have direct,
sales and we also have a strongreseller channel like you guys.
but we, the easiest way to getahold of us is just through our
website, www.
qsranimations.
com.
we're also represented on allthe socials.
So we post a lot on LinkedIn.
You can search for QSRautomations on LinkedIn as well.
and if you reach out to us, ifyou're not sure, we can answer
(33:29):
all those questions, connect youwith a reseller if you're a
single site unit or, no matterwhat size you are, we can help
you
Jeremy Julian (33:36):
Brian.
It's been great to reconnect,talk about some of the, some of
the innovations, man, you'vegotten to see lots of it, so
it's cool to, Kind of talk backabout where it was and where
it's at now.
And, I would implore anybodythat's out there, if you haven't
at least looked into kitchenvideo and having KDS screens in
there, it is truly a gamechanger.
And I'm not saying that justcause Brian's on the phone.
I w I was just telling him I wasjust at a customer or a
potential customer yesterday,telling them you're silly if you
(33:57):
don't consider this.
thank you for coming on.
Thank you guys for what you do.
Thank you guys for continuing toinnovate.
It's so awesome to watch youguys literally listen to the
voice of the customer and tryand drive that, drive that
through.
And so thanks for hanging outand make it a great day.
Thanks for listening to theRestaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
Visit www.
RestaurantTechnologyGuys.
(34:18):
com for tips, industry insights,and more to help you run your
restaurant better.
This is the RestaurantTechnology Guys podcast.
Helping you run your restaurantbetter.
Jeremy Julian (00:12):
In today's episode, we are joined by Brian
Wayne from QSR automations,Brian and I have known each
other for quite some time.
And if you're not familiar withQSR and what it can do to
automate your kitchen, Youreally need to listen to this
episode.
He, and I go through all of thedifferent ways that they deploy
the software to make kitchenssuper efficient using technology
(00:32):
and integrations to yourexisting point of sale
solutions.
If you don't know me, my name isJeremy Julian.
I am the chief revenue officerfor custom business solutions.
We sell the NorthStar up on acell product that focuses on
automating multiunit restauranttechnology.
Check us www.Cbsnorthstar.com.
Welcome back to the RestaurantTechnology Guys podcast.
(00:54):
I thank everyone out there forjoining us.
The guest today is, actuallysomebody I've known for quite
some time and Brian and I weretalking a little bit pre show.
I'm going to let him introducehimself, but, I am certain many
of our listeners out there aregoing to know Brian's
organization, who he's workedfor quite some time as well.
But Brian, why don't youintroduce yourself?
Then we can talk a little bitabout what you get to do for a
living.
Brian Wayne (01:15):
Sure.
my name is Brian Wayne.
I'm the VP of customer successat QSR automations.
I just celebrated my 20th yearanniversary here, which was
pretty, pretty overwhelming tobe honest.
I actually, Started with QSR.
QSR was founded in 1996, and Istarted with QSR when I was in
(01:36):
high school.
so I truly am, a lifer.
when Lee founded the business,he needed somebody to build, the
hardware, because it was allcustom hardware, video
controllers, and bump bars.
And, he, he brought me on, Iwould come after school and I
would sit at a card table and,had a Phillips head screwdriver,
(01:57):
a box of screws and some rubberfeet and would assemble all the
bump bars and, epic videocontrollers back then.
so it was pretty cool.
I, so that's how I got to knowhim and then really stayed in
touch with them throughoutcollege.
I interned a little bit and thenhe hired me on full time.
and I've had the opportunity todo a little bit of everything
throughout my years here, whichis really how I learned the
(02:20):
product.
I started in support and in QAand, really got a handle on the
product and then spent themajority of my time here in, in
kind of the implementationworld.
Jeremy, I look back, I found,through the archives.
I had come out in 2006, itlooked like to, to train your
team.
on how to use our products and,so I've known you guys for a
(02:43):
really long time.
And it seems half the people Itrain there are now IT execs, on
the West Coast.
So it's a testament to you guysfor how many, how many people
have come through the CBS
Jeremy Julian (02:52):
I love it.
and it's one of the things thatwe're most proud of on the CBS
side is just how many employeesand team members we've gotten,
to different positions.
The cool part for both of us isthat, that, many of them are
using your guys products, whichis even more, more awesome from
that perspective.
So yeah.
for those that are living undera rock and don't know what this
business is, that's been that,what is QSR automations?
(03:13):
Cause I know a lot of ourlisteners are going to know, but
for those that don't, aren'taware of it, you talked about
epic boxes.
I'm I like brought back, PTSD ofsome of those old boxes coming
back out of the greasy kitchensand having to repair the darn
things.
But, but Brian, why don't you,why don't you go through what's
What is the flagship productthat you guys started with so
many years ago and in highschool, what you were building
out, what was it doing and howwas it such a special, special
(03:35):
product that again, we've beenpartnering with you guys, close
to 20 years now,
Brian Wayne (03:39):
Yeah, so it's, it's at its core.
Our core product is a kitchendisplay system.
and in the mid nineties, ourfounder was actually a contract
developer for KFC here inLouisville, which is where we're
based.
And he, KFC needed a solutionfor, digital, kitchen in their
restaurants to produce the food.
(03:59):
so we set out to create thatsolution for him and built it.
For kfc and from there itexploded, we got a few table
service restaurants early onbrinker chili's being one of the
big kind of first adopters andthen it just took off from there
Several years later.
we modernized the platform,which is what it is today called
(04:22):
connect smart so connect smartnow, you know is the kitchen
product, but then we've also gotYou front of house, table
management, reservations,waitlist management, product
called Connect Smart Host,recipe solution, off premise,
management solution, analytics,and all the other little bits
and pieces.
but, It, throughout the kind ofearly 2000s, we really grew
(04:47):
quite a bit and started landinga lot of enterprise level
chains.
We really made our name in thetable service space, which is a
little bit ironic with our name.
a lot of people think we'rejust, for quick service
restaurants, but we expanded to,there were a few.
Big brands like Brinker,Cheesecake Factory was another
big one where, a lot of peoplewanted to emulate what they were
(05:08):
doing.
And, so we grew out to, I thinktoday we're in about 20 out of
the top 25 table servicerestaurant, change using our
product.
And, we've made our way intofast, casual, we've got a lot of
quick service and then all otherareas to, cruise ships, senior
living.
Jeremy Julian (05:25):
Yeah.
Brian Wayne (05:26):
Anyway with a kitchen really can use it.
So it's opened the door to sellto all sorts of types of
Jeremy Julian (05:32):
and I love that.
Cause again, we were part ofsome of those early
conversations and a lot of thattable service world.
And so for those that I guesspaint a picture, Going back to a
lot of kitchen display systemsback in the early days, even
your guys's onset with KFC wasthat fast food drive through.
We got to get the food from thefront counter to the back and
get it in and out of thekitchen.
(05:54):
It replaced printers, but itwasn't, there wasn't a whole lot
of intelligence to it.
And I don't want to speak.
poorly about that.
But quite frankly, in fast food,it's fast.
It's you got to be in and out.
It's fast.
The food is sitting therewaiting.
Most times it's being assembled,put no bag, put no box and then
hand it out to a guest.
So the complexity of thesoftware side of it was a lot
less difficult.
Then you get into table serviceand you've got things like
(06:16):
timing.
You've got different stations,different kitchen layouts, our
listeners through.
Cause I still talk today to,operators that are, I just need
to go back to tickets.
I don't need to deal with all ofthis stuff and talk, talk me
through what even that processlooks like, Brian, for one of
those brands that's coming offof tickets or is not familiar
with how much a KDS can do forthem and how.
(06:39):
Quite frankly, I remember earlyon, and I, sorry for the story,
but I was meeting with one ofthe Brinker people and they're
like, it was 180 degreesdifferent from kitchen printing
to going to KDS when they firstrolled out your guys solution,
because the world literallychanged the efficiency within
the kitchen, the noise levelwithin the kitchen, the accuracy
within the kitchen.
But walk me through what itlooks like for one of those
(07:01):
brands that might be on kitchenprinting, that is not aware of
this and has never worked in akitchen.
That's got.
A fully orchestrated KDSsolution, because I think it's
this picture that I think itneeds to be told because I think
everybody has to be there todayin order to compete.
Brian Wayne (07:16):
Yeah, you nailed a lot of the, you nailed a lot of
my key points on the head there,Jeremy, but, it's essentially.
It's the fact that, when I'vedone these implementations
throughout the years, it'salways amazing when they flip
that switch on the first time.
And there's always somenervousness in the kitchen.
it's people who have relied onthese printed chips and they
(07:37):
know their way, they know how torun their kitchen.
And then they realize howeverything changes, how much
easier it is, how many, lessmistakes are being made, how
much less food waste and the,and then the ticket times just
naturally.
And a lot of that, like yousaid, is, and especially in a
table service kitchen is throughthat orchestration, it's the
(07:58):
cook time, sequencing and it'sthe coursing and it's the
activity levels that you canhave when there's less, cooks
on.
So it really, it's thecombination of all those things.
And the other 1 that youmentioned, which is 100 percent
accurate is the is how quiet itis.
Yeah, it's people are always inall I'm not having to scream
(08:19):
across the kitchen anymore.
the screen is just telling mewhat to make, when to make it.
And then, the other hugebenefit, too, that people don't
always think about right off thebat is the data behind it.
and, back 15 years ago, the datawas a nice thing to pump into
your BI tool and run reports andsee things after the fact.
(08:40):
And now it's become more thatreal time, benefit that a lot of
people aren't thinking about,but it's where off premise comes
into play and, how do I,communicate when my order's
ready to a guest through my appor through an SMS message or how
do I give a more accurate quotetime back to the guest and all
those types of things,
Jeremy Julian (08:58):
Yeah.
I'd love to talk through evenkitchen timing, because I think
there's, again, this misnomerwhen you're on printing.
Most systems nowadays, do havesome level of timing, but they
don't necessarily have theability to have, a well done
steak go in now and then achicken Caesar salad go in 12
minutes after the well donesteak went in.
Talk me through even what doesthat look like, Brian, when you
(09:19):
guys are implementing this?
Cause again, most people don'thave the level of sophistication
that Cheesecake Factory does forour international listeners.
They do some of the highestvolume of a casual dining chain.
they actually do statisticallyhave the highest volume of a
casual dining chain and most oftheir kitchens, because they
happen to be a mutual client ofours, as well as, as well as
QSR, they will, they have 12 to15 screenings, all running
(09:44):
touchscreens in theirenvironment to be able to
orchestrate this kitchen thathas thousands of items coming
out of it every day.
But talk me through even whatdoes that look like for somebody
that's used to the.
The fast food, everything justgoes to the screens and now it's
the kitchen managing it versusthe technology.
Brian Wayne (10:00):
yeah.
So there's, there's kind of twolayers to it in our system.
One is what we call thecoursing, and we've got
intelligent coursing built in towhere you can literally send in
apps, salads, entrees, all atthe same time, and we can paste
that out depending on when itneeds to hit.
But then what within eachcourse.
Each item, you can program in aprojected cook time of that
(10:22):
item, and based on those cooktimes, it's going to hold the
next item in line, just to makesure with the goal being all the
food hits the window at the sametime so it can be run out, and
we capture all that, that databehind the scenes so you can go
and audit yourself after thefact to see, is this cook time
accurate, why is food sitting inthe window so long?
(10:44):
Or why is this item dragging?
So maybe I shouldn't, this itemis taking too long to make.
So maybe I should, not includeit in my menu going forward, all
those types of things.
But it's, it's a process we takeour customers through.
Or we're very, consultative interms of when we're onboarding
somebody new and you'reprobably, I think you guys share
a lot of the same, sameideology, but we're going to get
(11:06):
Integrated into your business,make sure, do full operational
reviews, meet with ops, meetwith the restaurant, make sure
we understand how the businessworks.
And then this solution is,configurable and it's due to all
the customization over, over the20 something years that we've
had it out there that it's got.
(11:27):
everything in it that you canimagine.
It's funny.
Sometimes I've been atrestaurants where I'm training
somebody new and they say, Oh,we use this solution that was,
like this at my old job.
And I said, where'd you work?
And it was one of our customers.
I'm like, no, that was the samesolution.
It just looks completelydifferent.
Cause they want it to workdifferently.
So it's, it's one of those, andit's thanks to all those
(11:49):
customers that with those 20 ofthe top 25 chains that I just
talked about, everyone hadslightly different requirements.
We made a name for ourselves bycontinuing to build upon and
adapt the product so that itwould work.
if Cheesecake Factory thinksthis is a good idea and it's
probably going to work somewhereelse too.
And if Brinker thinks this is agood idea, then somebody else is
probably going to think
Jeremy Julian (12:09):
Yeah, no, I love that.
And that's part of why we've hadsuch a long standing partnership
with you guys is because ofthat.
you said something in your introabout the product, about real
time data.
One of the things that I findmost valuable when you're
running tickets, there's alwaysthis tension between the front
of the house and the back of thehouse.
When has my food going to getout for my guests and the, and
the kitchen At times is runningbehind and the kitchen staff at
(12:32):
times is not running behind whenit's tickets.
There's no real arbiter Of whowins who's right who's wrong?
But when you've got a systemlike qsr You can see when
something is supposed to takenine minutes and it's at 12 or
14 minutes for that miso salmonYou can't see it You can see it.
And now as a manager, assomebody that's on the expo side
of the line, I can start to seethose things and figure out, is
(12:54):
this guy running behind?
Is he, is there something wrong?
Is the station not set upproperly?
Talk me through how some ofthose real time things benefit
both the guests and the staffcommunication and really the
guest experience at the end ofthe day.
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Brian Wayne (14:06):
Yeah.
So the simplest thing we haveis, we call it priority and rush
times that can be assigned toeach item and each order in the
screen.
it'll go to yellow when it'slate and it'll go to red when
it's really late.
But we also track all theaverage, times and you can put
all sorts of, custom metrics onthe headers of your screen that
really get any point across thatyou want.
(14:26):
What percentage of orders aregoing into rush over the last 30
minutes?
Or what's my average tickettime?
so you can get a pretty goodhandle and then each order also
has a timer on it, obviously, soyou can see, where, how late
you're running.
we've got some customers thatwill dedicate an entire screen
to just dashboard metrics sothat they can just glance up at
any point in time and see.
(14:47):
And, a point that I made earlieris the, That data now is so much
more important because it'simportant for leaving the walls
of the restaurant.
Like we, we, we've always beensitting on this goldmine of
data, we believe the kitchen isreally the engine room of the
restaurant, all these differentchannels and delivery and all
(15:08):
these providers that are pumpingorders in.
We've got all of that data, andwe know how many orders are
being prepared through thekitchen at any given time, and
if you're running late.
and we never really knew how tobest get that back out.
We've got APIs, we've gotwebhooks, but we haven't really,
unlocked how do we make thisavailable so that everyone,
(15:29):
we've got all the data you need.
but we've made some strides.
We shifted a little bit a fewyears ago in the partnerships, a
little bit more.
we built a partnership with Olowhere now customers using both
Olo and, ConnectSmart can getmore accurate Olo quotes because
they're taking intoconsideration all the orders,
not just Olo orders, but evendine in orders or orders from
other channels.
(15:50):
we did a partnership.
I'm not sure if you're familiarwith the team at Curbit, but
that's another one, yeah, thatwe did.
We're.
they've taken the data andthey're handling all the guest
communication side.
they're feeding the guests moreaccurate, recalibrated quote
times.
when your takeout food is goingto be ready and they're
communicating with SMS back andforth to the guests.
and another one was a fly bythat we did.
(16:12):
so fly by is more locationawareness and using that data
and feeding that in.
So we we were like, it was astruggle to try and find a
solution that everyone wouldadopt.
So it was like, why don't we Gomore of the partnership route,
to feed people back.
And then we've got customersthat do it all themselves.
They'll just take the data
Jeremy Julian (16:27):
Yeah, we ironically built, built our own
machine learning logarithm, tookdata from cheesecake and some
other clients to get accuratequote times back, not
necessarily compete with LO, butreally to prove out the model
that says the right quote timesare going to increase basket
size.
Cause most, quoting tools arevery linear.
I have five orders in thekitchen.
It's a 30 minute wait time.
(16:47):
I have six orders.
It's 35 minutes.
Whereas if I'm just getting achicken Caesar salad and a slice
of cheesecake, it might be eightminutes worth of a cook time.
Cause that's a much quicker cooktime than a well done New York
strip and a jambalaya pasta.
that, take a lot longer toprepare.
one of the other things, Brian,that I like to remind people of
when we're talking about QSR isfood quality.
(17:07):
When you're running kitchenprinting or you're running
everything going to the kitchenat the same time, and we've got
that example and again I've usedthe example of the chicken
caesar salad and the well doneNew York, the well done New York
is going to take 14 to 16minutes to cook just for sake of
argument, and the chicken caesarmight take 6 minutes to cook.
That 10 minute window, if it'sgoing with printing or
everything goes to the kitchenat the same time, that salad is
(17:29):
going to be 10 minutes olderthan the New York strip that's
getting put into the box orgetting put onto the plate,
which ultimately impacts foodquality.
Talk to me a little bit abouthow you guys even.
Work with clients to organizethat kitchen to make sure that
all of the food the hot foodcomes out of the window Hot the
cold food comes out of thewindow cold and everything stays
(17:50):
At the right temperature becausethat can I mean I was just
somewhere last week Not usingqsr and somebody would complain
that their food was cold andsomebody else's Plate was
burning hot because theyprobably made the food, and it
wasn't sitting under the hotlamp, the heat lamp, and it
probably shouldn't have beensitting under the heat lamp
because they're not usingautomation that will help make
these things better.
So can you talk us through howyou would even organize that and
(18:12):
why, what's the business impactultimately to the guests and to
the brand?
Brian Wayne (18:16):
Yeah, it's all about that sequencing, right?
We always say the same with hotfood, hot, cold food, cold, you.
if your timing is accurate andwe've got other kind of features
built in, we have a feature thatsays, wait until the longest
item is started, you acknowledgeit, you started cooking it in
our system and then trigger thedelay routing from there.
So if you're way behind on thatstation, then, it keeps
(18:38):
everything in sequence.
It pulls everything back alittle bit.
there's, so there's things likethat kind of keep, keep that
food hitting the window at thesame time.
And we've got other featurestoo, where.
it, zone feature that we havewhere you can push certain food
into certain spots in the windowto help with the expediting of
the food, but it's all about it.
(18:58):
It's funny to it again, 10 yearsago.
Food quality was the only goal,and now it's this combination of
food quality and accuracy, withthe takeout, where it's, you
have to hit both of thosethings, it's, the food quality
is of utmost importance,especially for dine in, but it
almost shifts a little bit, sothe order accuracy has gotten
(19:19):
really aligned, alight.
shown on it with, with the,takeout.
And that's where, we see peopledoing, the sticky printing,
which I'm sure you see a lot ofas well with late labeling each
item.
And, you can use our system as achecklist to go one by one as
you check each one off and itprints a label out to make sure
you have the right thing.
but yeah, it's, the food qualityis just an enormous benefit.
(19:40):
There's no
Jeremy Julian (19:41):
Yeah, I love that.
one last piece before we jumpinto kind of why some of the
other products that you guyshave built on.
Cause I think it's a really coolstory when we talk about front
desk, but you talked about guestcommunication and one of my
favorite features, especiallyfor things like fast casual,
we've all worked at, we've alleaten at a fast casual
restaurant 10 years ago, 15years ago, we'd have a fast
casual restaurant.
They'd be either calling outnumbers, number 52, your order's
(20:02):
ready.
You got to go to the counter andgot to go get it.
Or they give you these pagersthat were really expensive and
they were hard to maintain andthey were hard to run food to
you.
You guys came up with somepretty cool stuff that I think
is something worth talkingthrough, which is the ability to
communicate with that guestswhen food is ready and where to
go and have a guest engagementbecause you guys know when the
food is done.
It's hitting the expo at thepoint of sale.
(20:23):
They only know when it got tothe kitchen, you guys know when
the food is prepared and it'seither boxed up.
If it's in a takeout scenario orit's in the dining room, and I'm
grabbing it from the window.
You guys know those things inthis fast, casual fast food
environment.
Talk me through how that cameabout and what that looks like.
Cause I think it's, it's sounderutilized and I think more
and more people should bethinking about it because I
think it creates a fantasticguest experience.
Brian Wayne (20:44):
Yeah, so it started, we built, we built
within our table managementplatform years ago, the ability
to, notify the guests via SMS.
Like you said, it used to justbe those pagers.
And then once the SMS kind ofgot popular, we jumped onto
that.
And, we built two way SMS andall different triggers that you
can send to the guests whentheir table's ready, when
(21:06):
they've been added to the waitlist, when they're about to be
seated, reservationconfirmation.
We built the platform thatenabled those SMSs to get sent.
And then when takeout started toboom a little bit more, it was a
no brainer to extend that tothose takeout orders.
And all we needed was the phonenumber.
and a lot of, we've got 70 pluspoint of sale integrations and
(21:28):
everybody sends us informationslightly differently.
And there was a little bit of achallenge there, and how do we
get that phone number so we knowwho to send that order ready SMS
to, and we actually built in arules engine into the software
that says, hey, just send us thephone number as a menu item if
you don't, if you're not goingto send it to us in the phone
number field, which some ofthese older interfaces couldn't.
(21:49):
we built in the plumbing toallow it to happen.
and then, yeah, from there itwas, we can send you a, we can
send you a message when theorder is confirmed.
If you want, we can send you amessage when the order is ready.
the other interesting one too,that we've seen a lot, a lot of
adoption and, Dave's hot chickenis a up and coming brand that
just, is starting to roll outwith us.
(22:09):
they added an order ready screenas well.
For the lobby.
So we're seeing more and more ofthat where people will mount a
big TV, essentially.
And have the information upthere, you first only would see
that in fast food But you werestarting to see it with casual
fast casual dining even attakeout
Jeremy Julian (22:25):
I think at the end of the day, us as guests,
I've had multiple people on theshow in the past as guests, we
have certain expectations andunfortunately, people like
Amazon ruin those expectationsfor us because they communicate
all throughout the way.
I got something delivered todayand it's there's 11 stops that
you're on the 10th stop.
You're on the night stuff.
Like they're giving us thatdata.
And unfortunately, so manyrestaurants, you hope and pray
(22:49):
that it got to the restaurantand you hope and pray that the
food gets to you, whether that'sat DoorDash or it's in takeout.
and sometimes you have a lot of,guest experience problems.
And so being able to real timecommunicate with the guests,
what's going on is huge.
And you talked about it, Brian,on the front desk side, front
desk is amazing.
I love what you guys do therefor those brands that, that have
(23:09):
a wait list.
and again, you guys have a lotof different features there.
Cause one of the things that, Ialways say about QSRs is if it
can be done in the kitchen,likely QSR Automations is going
to be able to do it.
I did get stumped yesterday andI got a problem for you to
solve, but, differentconversation, not for the
podcast, but, that all beingsaid, talk me through, what is
the front desk software?
Why did it get created?
You talked a little bit aboutkind of some of the advantages
(23:31):
of communicating with people,but what is it and why does it
exist?
Brian Wayne (23:34):
Yeah, so it was it just was an extension of you
know we had the kitchen productand it was a lot of as we had
grown into the table serviceworld It seemed like there were
a lot of restaurants that YouNeeded a better solution for
their front desk.
There were a lot of honestlythat were still using pen and
paper.
Some of them were using somesolutions that were either
(23:54):
outdated or going into life.
And so we saw that there was aneed for it.
And we focused, in a fewdifferent areas.
One was the actual.
Table management side of things.
So server rotation and, managingthe status of the tables.
So you, where each table is andits life cycle.
The waitlist management wasanother big one.
(24:15):
we were pretty early to add,online waitlisting.
so we had that in for years andyears, and that's become even
more and more popular.
you can see, we've got anintegration with Google now
where a lot of restaurants, youcan just go right from the
Google page to add your name.
and then we added reservationsin as well.
we intentionally stayed out, ofthe, B2C, OpenTable type thing.
(24:36):
We integrate to OpenTable, weintegrate to Google, but we're
just focused on, the operationalside of managing your tables,
your wait lists, and yourreservations within your
restaurant.
That's it.
And then the big benefit that wealways sell people on is because
we have the kitchen, you getsome pretty tight integration
between the two.
So you can see the check detailor what the status, what course
(24:58):
they're on, in the kitchen fromthe front.
And then one feature that weadded a few years ago is adding
host metrics into the back.
a big one was open menu countthat people love where, From the
kitchen screen at the expo orany kitchen screen, I can see
how many people have an openmenu.
So I can predict what's about tohit.
Jeremy Julian (25:15):
Yeah.
and I think, again, having dinedat lots of the restaurants that
have your guys's stuff with thefront desk, it's amazing to
watch how much more efficientquote times are guest
communication at the counter isas well as even them walking
around the dining room to figureout when our tables, they can
see where food's at in thekitchen.
They can walk to the table, seethe check has been dropped and
know that likely a four top isgoing to come up to seat.
(25:37):
The next guest, the logarithmtells them, The table likely be
ready in eight minutes, but theyalso can see it with their eyes.
They can see it on the system.
They can go in and see all ofthat.
You're not taking the point ofsale data, but you do see, and
it just ultimately creates abetter experience when you're
going to that counter and youknow when you're going to be
able to get that data is,
Brian Wayne (25:58):
those wait times, the wait times is huge.
And we put a lot of focus on thedifferent wait times.
and that, and then, it's funny,it's like that kind of extended
now into, onto the kitchen sidewith takeout.
And I really feel like that'sthe next, thing to really
unlock.
people always talk about AI and,it's always broad and no one
(26:20):
really has, it just seems likeit's just a buzzword.
But for me, it's The A.
I.
In my mind, that would reallyunlock things for guest
experience is all about thatpredictive analytics.
like, how do we better quote offpremise?
How do we better sequence ordersin the kitchen?
How do we better quote the guestfor wait list?
we've had people in the pastwhere.
(26:42):
They might not be using thesystem quite right on the host
end.
And it's a little bit of garbagein garbage out.
And they were able to compensatefor walk in guests.
You know that the system'stelling me it's a 10 minute
wait, but I've got a lobby fullof people.
So I'm going to tell them it's a45 minute wait.
And with all the online, youdon't have that luxury anymore.
if you're adding yourself to thewait list, the system's got to
(27:04):
be right.
And if you're doing an offpremise order, you're not doing
it over the phone.
You're doing it online.
It's got to be right.
To me, it's, that is, is wherethe magic's gonna happen is that
predictive analytics,
Jeremy Julian (27:14):
and I, that was actually where I was going next.
Brian is just this whole ideaof, and I tell this story often
beginning of the pandemic, therewas a brand that I used to go to
all the time.
And I went to the, to that brandand ultimately because of third
party, because of off prem, Ihad two bad experiences in a
row.
And to the point that my wifesays, I'm never going back
there.
Don't need to mention brandnames, but it was so bad because
(27:36):
they had no way to throttle bothin dining room guests and third
party guests.
some of the brands I've talkedto both on the show and just at
trade shows is they're gettingto the point where they've got
almost equal third, equal, Offprem as they do on prem.
When you walked into a storethat was on prem and there was a
line, there was a line at thehost stand, there was a line at
(27:58):
the takeout window, you're at aDave's hot chicken, you see it,
you see the drive thru line, yousee the dining room, you're
like, Oh, I'm probably going towait.
There's four people in front ofme.
I'm probably going to wait 10minutes before I get to order.
With third party, with firstparty online ordering with Olo
orders, you have no idea what'sgoing on in the kitchen until
you get to that place.
Talk me through where you thinkthat's going.
(28:19):
You say that's really where thefuture of it is.
Talk me through why you thinkthat's so critical?
Because again, Domino's createdthe Domino's pizza tracker.
Amazon's got this idea, buteverybody's playing catch up to
the, those same brands.
And as they're trying to expandtheir on.
On premise and off premiserevenue sources.
They have to deliver a, at leastas good as a guest experience,
(28:41):
if not a better at guestexperience.
And the only way to do that isthrough systems.
Brian Wayne (28:45):
yeah, the stakes are so much higher with the,
with the off premise and, it'sbalancing the load.
It's, capacity management, youmentioned your example.
I remember, the first Mother'sDay after, after kind of
restaurants had, the COVID hitthe first Mother's Day.
And mother's day has always beenfor these table service
restaurants a super busy day Butthey were only limited by how
(29:08):
many people could fit in therestaurant and it was like it
was chaos for a few brandsbecause they just left their
online ordering totally openended And people were ordering
way more than the kitchen couldhandle so it's it really is now
that we've got The data, weunderstand how much, how
(29:29):
capacity, how much capacity wecan handle if a certain number
of orders are coming in and acertain pace, how much that's
going to affect the tickettimes.
It's just a matter of, it's justa matter of unlocking that to
really, figure out where thatmagic
Jeremy Julian (29:44):
Love it.
I'm going to pivot real quick tosomething that, that we
fundamentally have believedbefore we wrap up ranks, we're
getting close to time.
we've had this belief at CBS andI'd love at least your opinion
on it.
And then what's the real lifeexamples of it.
Educating a.
Person in the kitchen to use atouchscreen versus using a
traditional bump bar is a mucheasier training process
(30:08):
historically.
And I know that it was alwaysmet with a lot of resistance in
the beginning and we CBS, andagain, I'm sure there was lots
of other people that had donethat, but initially when we
first started taking on ourpartnership with you guys, it
was bump bar, an Epic unit.
We talked about the little miniPCs, and I'll, LCD screen.
Probably it wasn't even LED backthen.
It was LCD screens, maybe evenCRTs back in the day that had a
(30:31):
little computer, a little minicomputer behind it.
And there was a bump bar thatwas sitting in the service
station and you would have thesewindows and you'd bump the
orders.
We fundamentally believe that asthe generations continue to
change.
People are used to touching atouch screen and being able to
get into a kitchen and put atouch screen into the
environment is an easier way.
(30:51):
I just love your philosophy.
Talk to me about what your reallife experience is because all
too often I go into these brandsand they're like, we can't put
these things in the kitchen andI'm like, let me just tell you
how we've done it because we diddo it for cheesecake factory, we
did do it for BJ's with thesetouchscreens in these really
greasy environments.
And I take some of the hardwaremanufacturers into these places
and they're like, This is whereyou're putting this stuff.
I'm like, yeah, but when youdesign it properly, you get
(31:11):
great software that's resilient,it works really great.
So I'd love to at least educateour listeners as to, it's not
just a bump bar and a screenthat's, 12 feet in the air, it
can be in their workspace ifthey want it to be.
Brian Wayne (31:22):
Yeah, it's, it, I would say there's been a shift
to where, touchscreens have beena little bit more widely
adopted.
Cheesecake was ahead of thegame, to be honest, years and
years ago when they first didthat.
And it was way more, bump bar.
Back then, I think it's shifteda little bit.
All in ones have become a littlebit, easier to source and
cheaper, and you've got POE allin ones now.
(31:44):
So there's a lot of people thatgo that route.
We still do have people that usekind of the PCAP touchscreen
with the device.
there are still people that justswear by, And a lot of times
it's the position behind theline, where they'll still swear
by the bump bar where it'seasier for them to just mount a
bump bar that's easier to reachthat the screen can be further
up out of the way where theydon't have to reach it.
(32:05):
we do pretty much exclusivelysee touchscreen at the expo side
now because there's so muchmore, actions that take place
that it's just, it's easier touse.
but yeah, it's, it's, whetheryou go, either way you go, you
can't go, you really can't gowrong.
And the hardware issurprisingly, resilient.
You, you mentioned those epicboxes.
(32:26):
I was actually at Brinker a yearor two ago.
In their corporate office, andthey still had one of the old, I
think it was probably built inthe early 2000s, and it was
still running in their lab.
I
Jeremy Julian (32:38):
That's crazy.
I was going through thewarehouse in our Dallas office
last week.
And I found one, I was like, Oh,I haven't seen one of these in a
long time.
It was not running.
not that it wouldn't have run,but it was just, it was sitting
in a pile.
Brian, how do people learn more?
What does it engagement with QSRlook like?
I know again, we're partners andI'm not saying this to try and
pitch.
Who we are, there's partners outthere that you guys sell
(32:58):
through.
I know you guys do some direct.
So if they want to engage, theywant to learn more.
Where would you direct people togo?
What is that engagement going tolook like for an owner that's
out there going?
I need this kitchen stuff.
Let's make it happen.
Brian Wayne (33:08):
So as you mentioned, we, we have direct,
sales and we also have a strongreseller channel like you guys.
but we, the easiest way to getahold of us is just through our
website, www.
qsranimations.
com.
we're also represented on allthe socials.
So we post a lot on LinkedIn.
You can search for QSRautomations on LinkedIn as well.
and if you reach out to us, ifyou're not sure, we can answer
(33:29):
all those questions, connect youwith a reseller if you're a
single site unit or, no matterwhat size you are, we can help
you
Jeremy Julian (33:36):
Brian.
It's been great to reconnect,talk about some of the, some of
the innovations, man, you'vegotten to see lots of it, so
it's cool to, Kind of talk backabout where it was and where
it's at now.
And, I would implore anybodythat's out there, if you haven't
at least looked into kitchenvideo and having KDS screens in
there, it is truly a gamechanger.
And I'm not saying that justcause Brian's on the phone.
I w I was just telling him I wasjust at a customer or a
potential customer yesterday,telling them you're silly if you
(33:57):
don't consider this.
thank you for coming on.
Thank you guys for what you do.
Thank you guys for continuing toinnovate.
It's so awesome to watch youguys literally listen to the
voice of the customer and tryand drive that, drive that
through.
And so thanks for hanging outand make it a great day.
Thanks for listening to theRestaurant Technology Guys
podcast.
Visit www.
RestaurantTechnologyGuys.
(34:18):
com for tips, industry insights,and more to help you run your
restaurant better.
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