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January 22, 2025 42 mins

In this episode of Restaurant Catering Smarts, Michael Attias welcomes Julie Wade, Head of Marketing at Taziki’s Mediterranean Café. With over 15 years of experience in brand strategy and marketing, Julie shares insights on creating authentic customer experiences, leveraging technology like AI for personalization, and the importance of integrating catering into broader marketing plans.

Julie discusses how Taziki’s combines fresh ingredients with the spirit of hospitality to stand out in the competitive restaurant industry. She also highlights her strategies for building loyalty programs, implementing AI in call centers, and using data-driven campaigns to boost catering sales. Packed with actionable advice and inspiration, this conversation is a must-listen for restauranteurs ready to elevate their marketing game.

Learn from Julie’s career journey, creative campaigns, and her passion for storytelling in this exciting episode.

Restaurant Catering Smarts is sponsored by CaterZen Catering Software.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:28):
Hello again, I'm Michael Attias, your host of Restaurant Catering Smarts and today's guestis Julie Wade, Head of Marketing at Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe.
With over 15 years of experience in marketing and brand strategy, Julie has beeninstrumental in helping Taziki's expand its footprint and connect with a diverse audience.
Passionate about creating authentic and engaging customer experiences, Julie leads thebrand's marketing initiatives, digital presence and community outreach.

(00:57):
Her innovative approach to storytelling and brand building has contributed to Taziki'sgrowing popularity and success in the competitive restaurant industry.
And we're thrilled to have her on the show today.
But before we get into asking Julie a bunch of questions, let's take a minute to recognizeour sponsor.
This episode is brought to you by CaterZen Catering Software, the industry leader inhelping restaurants turn their catering chaos into calm.

(01:20):
Discover why top independent and enterprise restaurants trust CaterZen to save them timeand increase their catering sales.
Go to www.caterzen.com and sign up for a walkthrough of the software or a free 30 daytrial.
Now let's dive into this episode of Restaurant Catering Smarts.
Welcome Julie, how are you doing today?
I'm good, Michael.
How are you?

(01:40):
Good.
Let's start off with an icebreaker question.
Give me a number between one and 300.
Between one and 300?
150.
We'll split it down the middle.
Okay, what's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

(02:05):
Best piece of advice?
Probably.
Go ahead and 'fess up when you messed up.
Fess up when you mess up.
That sounds like a good t-shirt.
I like that.

(02:25):
I like that.
Did you have a good Christmas?
I did.
I did.
Yeah.
It was quiet, but it was good.
Those are always nice.
The older I get, the more I enjoy solitude.
Yeah, yeah, Well, yeah, our house is pretty quiet these days.
it's have a have a little bit of that.
it December has been crazy.

(02:48):
Every weekend has been full of stuff.
So it was nice to have a little bit of R &R on Christmas Day.
So.
Nobody invites me to anything, so I have a quiet Christmas.
I'm good.
Don't feel sorry for me, please.
Whoever's listening, don't add me to your list.
So we sort of have a mutual, not sort of, we have a mutual connection to your past.

(03:14):
So why don't you tell me how you got started in the marketing game and where you gotstarted.
Okay, well that, yes, goes back to our mutual connection.
So I graduated with a degree in advertising from the University of Alabama and wasactually not working in advertising at the time.

(03:34):
then through a mutual friend got introduced to David Kahn that had a large franchise.
Well, it wasn't that large at the time.
It was a growing franchise of Blockbuster Video.
And that was my first job in marketing and I had been out of college probably six or sevenmonths at the time.

(03:55):
So not very long.
And I started with him and was so much fun.
Loved the movie business, the movie industry.
Who wouldn't?
It was like a dream job.
Grew with that company and

(04:15):
expanded my knowledge base, my experience set, did a little bit of product management forthem, did some HR work, office manager for a while, stayed with them about seven years, I
think, before I retired to have a couple of babies and stay at home for about the next 10years.

(04:42):
But yeah, that was that was my first start.
And that was really
where I learned how to read a P & L sitting at a boardroom desk and really got that kindof roll up your sleeves, know, boots on the ground kind of, you know, just learn the
business from the ground up.

(05:02):
Everything that school doesn't teach you, that's where I learned all those kinds ofthings.
Yeah, it's a shame you really don't learn that much in school.
It's out there, the hard knocks and good mentors.
And so David and I, for everybody tuning in, we go back to when I was waiting tables inMemphis.
I used to wait on his in-laws before they were his in-laws.

(05:24):
I knew his wife, Carol.
I think I introduced them.
And then I was in his wedding.
I forgot, it was so long ago, I forgot I was in his wedding.
So I've known him forever and then he moved to Birmingham.
And when we reconnected because of you, because you go, we have a mutual mutualconnection.
How do you know David?
I called him up and we caught up and I hadn't talked to him in forever.

(05:46):
He is definitely the entrepreneur's entrepreneur and he was beyond complimentary of youand how sharp you were.
And it doesn't take long to figure that out.
So I'm sure you were a spitfire and
all over it back then and look at where you are now.

(06:07):
Well, yeah, and I have a lot to thank David for because he did see a lot in me at the timeand I was, like I said, fresh out of school, know, very bright-eyed, wanted to learn
absolutely everything and just be a sponge.
And he gave me those opportunities to do that and grow with his company and learn, makemistakes and that...

(06:36):
you know, fess up when you mess up like I was talking about.
I did a lot of that back then.
And that was really where I learned that on the job that it was a whole lot easier.
When I did mess up, go ahead and admit to the mistake and try to fix it rather than coverit up and or deflect or do something else.

(06:59):
But say, yep, okay, that was that was bad.
I did it.
Let's
Let's not make that same mistake again.
Let's move on from there.
But yeah, David working with him, I learned a ton and it really set a great foundation formy career.
So much so that I went back to work for him again in 2011 when I went to work for him withYogurt Mountain when he really did set those entrepreneurial spirits on fire of his when

(07:29):
he started the Yogurt Mountain brand.
You know, a lot of people get opportunities, but not many do something with them.
Like my first restaurant, you might not know this, my first restaurant, I talked someoneinto backing me.
I never open run, manage a restaurant.
He wrote a million dollar check and backed me.
And I was like, he had just sold a roofing company and he was from middle Tennessee.

(07:51):
He goes, we need good West Tennessee barbecue in middle Tennessee.
I used to live in Memphis is good.
And then years later, I mean, he never made less than a 25%.
cash on cash return on his investment.
was absentee, didn't have to worry about anything.
He'd just come in like once every month or two and eat lunch with me and review P &Ls andpretty much left me to my brothers.

(08:12):
And I said, you know, most people get in the restaurant business lose their ass.
Like why in the world would you write a million dollar check for somebody who'd never runa restaurant?
And he looked at me with a straight face and he said, greed.
And I mean,
Luckily it paid off for both of us, but obviously there's something in you that drove youto be successful, right?

(08:36):
There's a lot of people that would be deer in the headlights.
can tell, you know, knowing you at such a short period of time, you've got that fire.
Where does that come from?
Like, is it something you saw around the dinner table?
Is it what you didn't see it?
You know, you either want to be what you saw growing up or you want to be the opposite.

(08:57):
Where does your motivation?
to be the best come from?
I think it was from from both of my parents.
My mom was a stay at home mom, but she was not a I mean, she was, I she was a stay at homemom.
She did not collect a paycheck, but she did not stay at home.

(09:18):
She was one of those that was always involved in everything, whether it was, you know,school activities.
She was involved in every social club and was, you know,
just very, very active and involved.
So I saw that type of involvement.
And then, yeah, my dad, he was an entrepreneur, he owned his own business.

(09:44):
And so I saw that type of drive and spirit.
And in fact, I worked for him when I was in high school.
And I remember the day that I turned 16 was a Saturday and
He came and woke me up on my 16th birthday and was like, come on, let's go to work.
And I was like, it's my birthday.
I'm 16.

(10:04):
He's like, no, it's a work day.
We're going to work.
And I had a party that night, but I wouldn't do anything during the day.
So I was going to work that day.
So that's just kind of the, the work ethic that I grew up with.
And it definitely rubbed off on me the rest of my life.
And I, and I hope that I instilled that same thing in my children.

(10:24):
They're both grown and in the workplace now.
And both of them had told me stories about how they're dealing with coworkers and bossesand things.
And it is very refreshing and satisfying to hear about things that, you know, theirsuccess stories in their workplace.

(10:44):
I'm like, yeah, okay.
You know, some of that's rubbed off on them.
I think our kids do pay attention.
Our kids are about the same age.
And I think the things that they moan and groan about when they were kids, I think theylook back and they appreciate those things.
I was never, I've always said I want my kids to respect me, not love me.

(11:05):
And it sounds like your dad was that way.
Like when my daughter learned to ride a bike, she was crying.
And I said, are you a winner or a whiner?
Whiners don't win and winners don't whine.
I'm a winner daddy.
Yeah.
I still have to deal with that a little bit with her.
If she calls me up and she just wants to vent, said, you're calling the wrong person.
Like I'll fix it and I'm the only guy who will tell you what's up in your life.

(11:28):
Cause everybody else will coddle you.
I'm the only one who's going to tell you the unadulterated truth.
So, and if you want me to listen, you better preface it by saying, I, all I need you to dois listen.
Cause I'll try to give her some advice that she probably doesn't always want, but it'salways pretty solid.
Yeah, yeah, my dad was definitely, he was the fixer of anything.

(11:52):
He was the go-to guy for anything that we needed.
He was always the ultimate fixer of anything, so.
I think that's sort of men and I always say women are Oprah, men are Home Depot.
yeah, yeah.
Like I'm not a very good, you know, don't tell me your problem, because I'm going to fixthem.

(12:15):
Like I will get out the, the whiteboard and I'll fix them.
obviously David was a big mentor of yours in business.
Did what other mentors did you have?
Like, you know, one of my big mentors was Dan Kennedy.
I read all of his books.
I went to all of his seminars.
Did you have any other unofficial mentors that maybe you didn't know personally, or maybeyou did know personally that you learned a lot from?

(12:43):
I think probably there's some like more in my personal life like people in my church thatI grew up around.
think those those are the type of mentors that you know not somebody that people see onthe stage or anything but people that had a big influence on me and my life that that

(13:09):
nobody would have ever heard of but
Would you say they influence more your marketing or more your character and your ethic?
Definitely the character aspects and just the person that I am and less about what I doand more about who I am.

(13:29):
Yeah, I definitely am big believer in that.
And I don't think there's focus on that these days like it used to be.
I was raised like your word is your bond and that's the only thing that has value.
If you ruin that, you got nothing.
So I try to do that as much as possible.

(13:51):
Marketing in the restaurant industry is really competitive.
As y'all...
have surpassed 100 unit chain at Taziki's how do you differentiate Taziki's from all theother QSRs, all the other options out there?
Yeah, there's increasing competition every day.

(14:14):
That's for sure.
One of the things that we really strive to bring to every single restaurant is what ourfounders, Keith and Amy Richards, really the spirit that they brought to Taziki's when it
first opened in 1998 was the spirit of hospitality.
And yeah, our food is really good.

(14:35):
We have the Mediterranean inspired
menu and all the different ingredients, the fresh ingredients and everything that we bringto it.
But the hospitality is one thing that they have really tried to inspire in every singlerestaurant across the brand, all of our franchise units as well as the company units.
And when you walk in the door, it's kind of that where everybody knows your name feeling.

(15:05):
When I first interviewed for this job,
over four and a half years ago, I told Dan, our CEO, said, I really feel like Taziki's isan extension of my kitchen because this is the place where I come when I have out of town
company coming in.
I know that I want to take them to Taziki's.
This is the place when my kids were younger and we were, had a late ball game and weneeded somewhere to stop on the way home and grab something that was nutritious.

(15:37):
This was where I would go and get dinner for the family.
Those types of things, was just, it was just a natural for us.
And I think there's, you know, tons and tons of other families that feel the same way.
And we were really excited when one opened up in my neighborhood five or six years ago.

(15:58):
And I know that there's, you know, every store that we open, you know, everybody feelsthat same way.
around them if they're familiar with the brand and then as we're opening up new locationsand areas that are not familiar with Taziki's, they get to know the brand and then can
have that same experience so that's the way that we can really stand out in addition tothe food and the quality of the food and it can stand on its own because we do have like

(16:28):
just our salmon by itself if you just take one menu item you cannot find a better piece ofsalmon
For that price, anywhere, I would stand it up against anybody else's salmon across thecountry.
And all of our ingredients are so fresh.
So many things are made that day.

(16:49):
I didn't know before I started working here, how many different items are made, like thesauces, the dressings, made fresh every day in the restaurant.
So we really put our heart and our soul into everything that we're preparing there.
for our guests.
And that's just another way that we show our hospitality through the food that we'repreparing so lovingly in the stores every day.

(17:13):
So that really does set us apart.
and I was very fortunate to participate in TASCON this year.
I've got a lot of admiration for companies that can build cultures that large.
When I work with a brand, I work with another brand, they have a great culture as well.

(17:34):
And it's like totally different culture than yours, but a great culture.
And you could tell when all the teammates are
bustling around between sessions or at the bar at night and sitting and how they connectwith each other.
And it's just, you can't pay for that.
I mean, that's just, that's the je ne sais quoi as they say in French that like definitelyadd, it's just a plus.

(17:59):
that's, it's gotta be gratifying to do marketing for something that you believe in, thatyou know you're backing something that's like, you would,
risk your own money on because you believe in it.
I don't know how people market for brands that suck.
Like I couldn't wake up in the morning and I sold Archive Storage.

(18:24):
They were a great company, but I was so hated it.
After two years, I just got married and just bought a house and my boss says, you youhadn't been making your numbers.
Do you need another month to make your numbers?
I said, you should probably just fire me today.
and he fired me and he gave me a month severance and took everything in a box and went outin the car and cried tears of relief.

(18:45):
And then I went to Corky's and started working there to learn the business to find someoneto back me.
So it was interesting.
You know, when I was, had my restaurant, I was teaching restaurants how to get in thecatering business and having been in the software industry since 2008, I've consulted

(19:05):
with.
the likes of Domino's Pizza all the way to mom and pops.
And I found that catering in the eyes of marketing and advertising is sort of anafterthought.
And I know it's a big part of which I'll do.
Maybe you could share like if you had to put a percentage on your marketing efforts incatering versus the restaurant takeout, do you have even percentages and what's your sort

(19:32):
of what's your mindset on that and your strategy?
on promoting catering and where it fits into your overall marketing plan.
Yeah, it's definitely a part of it.
It's got to be a part of it.
We really put a lot of emphasis on catering.
That's a big part of our business.
was strong before COVID.

(19:54):
And then of course, everybody had that dip.
And I think coming out of COVID, we were probably one of the first ones to really recoverreally, really well.
coming out of that.
had a pretty aggressive plan coming out of COVID, have a great box lunch program, whichset us up really well to take advantage of everything happening in 2021 and 22.

(20:24):
And so kind of building on that, we're, I'd say probably,
20 % or so of our marketing really deals with catering.
It's become something that we include in every single LTO kit that we do.

(20:46):
We have at least one or two pieces in the store that feature some kind of cateringmessaging.
We've got a couple of evergreen catering pieces that are in most stores.
We're at
Constantly incorporating catering messaging into our social media into our digital adplacements into our email marketing You know all of that.

(21:15):
It's just very strategic to keep that top of mind.
We're talking about it in different ways.
We're talking about Not only the corporate catering.
We're talking about individual caterings different ways that people can use it
We're even talking about, you know, family feast is kind of that hybrid of, is it really acatering?

(21:39):
Is it an individual order?
It kind of lives on that line there between the two.
And we really focus on it a lot as well.
So it bridges the gap between both of those as well.
But we...

(22:00):
It will continue to be a huge play for us in 2025, as you know, and releasing a cateringrewards program that we we've kind of done catering rewards in some markets.
They do give rewards points along with regular catering orders.

(22:20):
It's really up to the individual market and franchisees if they do that.
But we're going to have a very concerted loyalty program for
catering specific and be a big effort behind that in 2025.
So that's really going to up the ante on everything that we're doing marketing wise forcatering and our catering has his end of the year.

(22:43):
Very very strong.
I was just looking at some numbers just the other day and just last week we had 41 storesthat were double digits up in catering for the week and we've got
53 stores, that's over half of the system that are up double digits in catering for theperiod.

(23:03):
So that's the last month.
And really the fourth quarter has not been our biggest period of catering.
That's usually reserved for April and May.
So we see tremendous growth opportunities for us in the fourth quarter of 2025, especiallyif we can get a loyalty program.

(23:25):
integrated in that.
So it's going to be.
that doesn't happen by accident.
It's really sales and marketing working hand in hand, right?
Marketing has to get the phone to ring and sales has to convert them to first timecustomers and then earn their business because there's so many options out there.
Like if you drop the ball, you know, Hey, thanks, we're off someplace else.

(23:48):
So that's a testament to everybody, right?
The marketing team, execution, the store managers, it's a,
It's not easy, but if you do it well, there's a big payoff for sure.
So about this loyalty thing, I know different people do things and this is sort of funny.
Are you going to let people get to Ziki pickleball paddles sets?

(24:13):
Yeah.
So I like to play pickleball.
and I've got, I've got paddles down in Florida and, Nashville and I needed two moreNashville paddles.
Cause if my kids come to town, we need four.
And I had two and I saw that.
that I could buy with my tickets at TASCON.
I'm I'm buying the pickleball paddle.
So I have two extra when people come to town.

(24:34):
Do you play pickleball?
I have never played.
actually have paddles and I've never played.
think so.
Yeah, I did.
I took lessons a couple of summers.
So yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
could take you out on the pickleball court and in five minutes you'd be great.
It's, I think it's, it's my favorite.

(24:57):
Well, compared to any other sport that you could learn in five to 10 minutes, you'd bevery good compared to if I tried to teach a golf, well, I'm the wrong guy to teach anybody
golf, not even goofy golf.
but yeah, that was, y'all had some good merch there.
That was a lot of fun.

(25:21):
So if you look back, and we don't have to stick with Taziki's, we can go anywhere.
What would you say looking back as your most successful marketing campaign that you lookback in?
It could have been maybe not the most money.
It could have just been grassroots.
Is there anything you look back on your career and go, man, that was a cool promotion andwe really hit it out of the park for what it was.

(25:45):
There are a couple of things back in my yogurt mountain days that kind of stick out.
One was personally gratifying.
Part of my responsibilities with yogurt mountain were over product development as well asthe marketing arm.
And I was in charge of doing all the flavors and toppings and

(26:10):
you know, coming up with the new yogurt flavors.
And I'd always wanted to do a pound cake flavor of yogurt.
I thought it was...
Well, no.
Well, yeah, kind of, but I wanted to do like a homemade, like sour cream pound cake.

(26:32):
And my grandmother had always made when I was growing up a fantastic pound cake.
And it was...
It was like the really dense.
It was really good.
So sometimes when we were working with the dairy in order to have them completely emulatea flavor that we wanted, we would send them a recipe so they could get the ingredients.

(26:57):
And I sent them the recipe from my grandmother's pound cake.
They sent back a sample yogurt and we ran it through the machines and it just was notquite right.
So my mom made up a batch of the pound cake that my grandmother's recipe.
We sent it to the dairy in Arkansas.
They made a batch of the yogurt, sent it back down to us.

(27:20):
We tasted it this time and it was spot on.
It was like, okay, this is perfect.
Well, it was actually my grandmother's aunt Ida.
It was her recipe.
So this was like my great, great aunt, I think.
So we ended up calling the flavor
Aunt Ida's pound cake.
That's what we called it and the flavor on the the label we actually took the recipe cardthat was my grandmother's handwriting and that was the flavor label on it which I don't

(27:53):
have today.
I don't even have a picture of it which I wish I did.
So we serve that in all of the 50 something yogurt mountains around the country and
a year or so after we debuted it, it was a proprietary flavor for us.
I distinctly remember being in Baltimore, Maryland and just, you know, walking through oneof the yogurt mountain restaurants and somebody standing there looking at the yogurt wall

(28:22):
saying, oh, they don't have aunt Ida's today.
I wish they had that yet.
And I was like, oh, that's my, that's my flavor.
That is my flavor.
And that was probably the most professionally gratifying thing that had ever happened likepersonally, but yeah, that was really neat.

(28:49):
from a sales standpoint, we did something with our rewards program back then that reallymoved the needle.
Because we had discovered that we had a certain percentage of guests that were only comingin
a small percentage of, well, they were only coming in one time.

(29:09):
I can't remember the exact specifics, it was several summers ago, probably close to 10years ago now.
But we had it figured out basically how many guests had come in at what cadence throughoutthis promotional period from the last summer.
So we wanted to increase everybody's frequency from the previous summer to this summerthroughout the promotional period.

(29:33):
And so we designed a campaign that was going to incentivize customers to increase theirfrequency and it worked and we did.
We got them to increase their visits throughout the promotional campaign window, whichsummertime, obviously with frozen yogurt, that was the window.
You had to capitalize that on that.

(29:54):
And we did and we increased sales, increased visits and traffic that summer.
And that was.
That was great.
That was a really good campaign that successful.
We had just built in certain offers.
So if you came in, I think it was like if you came in twice, then you got something.

(30:18):
And I can't remember what the something was.
And then if you came in four times, you got something else.
then, so we had it built with, yeah, with a certain cadence that
the more times you came in and we knew based on what everybody's frequency was, what thetriggers needed to be based on what their previous visits had been the summer before.

(30:44):
So, and I don't really get involved, obviously, in restaurant marketing the way I used to,and I did it for one or two units.
And I don't know if this exists, or if you see this coming down the pike where incentiveswill be more personalized, like AI will be able to say, okay, this is Julie's pattern, and
based on her pattern, this is the rewards program I'm gonna put out to her because I knowwhat her motivations are, and I think I could get her in 25 % more next year.

(31:13):
with this type of promotion where Michael has a different cadence or a different buyinghabit.
Is that out there?
Do you see that coming down the pike?
that is totally out there.
Yeah, we don't have that right now, but that is a thing.
the starting point of that is, and our current email marketing program that we have, notattached to our loyalty program, but just the email marketing that we do, can tell that.

(31:45):
And everybody has a different lapse guess threshold.
You know, we might have a guest that comes in every single day.
And if they miss a day or two, all of a sudden they become a lapsed guest.
Well, we have somebody else that comes in once a month.
So it may take them skipping two months to become a lapsed guest.

(32:08):
So we send them a lapsed guest email, obviously at a different place.
We can't send everybody a lapsed guest email at 90 days out because that guy
have missed people they would have forgotten you in 90 days if they came in every day.
yeah, he's moved three states away in 90 days and we'll see him again or whatever.

(32:31):
So yeah, there's all kinds of smart things like that and those systems are expensive, butyeah, they're definitely there.
And that's something we're dedicated to building next year is more AI and person Iinterviewed yesterday from a podcast I was talking about.

(32:52):
It's not just how long it's been since someone's ordered.
It's measuring velocity.
So like maybe you used to order for 30 people.
Now you're ordering for 20 people.
So, you know, your check average has gone down 33%.
I need to know why you're ordering less.
or less frequently, right?
It could be frequency, could be you're spending less per person.

(33:15):
Your boss has said, Julie, you don't get 25 ahead to spend, you get 20.
So now you've spent 20 % less.
So by being able to analyze those things and then figure out what to do with those, andthen analyzing the people on the phones and the technology's already there.
It's like, how do we build it into our ecosystem?

(33:35):
Like,
You can't listen to a thousand catering calls a day, but you do want to hear the oneswhere there's a cuss word or someone's raised their voice.
Or maybe you have selling scripts that you use keywords.
Like, you know, when I was selling catering and I taught my team, there's certain thingsthat helps sell upsell by the way, like, oh, we have a drink pack.

(33:56):
It includes two drinks a person is by the gallon, blah, blah.
Or you can run down to Kroger and carry a 10 pound bag of ice and two liters back to theoffice.
And the minute you say that, they're picturing themselves, I really don't want to becarrying drinks from Kroger.
Yeah, just go ahead and throw the drinks in, right?
So that kind of stuff.
Yeah, we've deployed AI into our call centers this year.

(34:18):
I don't Yeah, we realized back early in the year, we started analyzing our call centerdata for the first time and seeing how many dropped calls we had.
Completely missed calls.
How many people went to voicemail, all of that.
And to try to stop the completely dropped calls.

(34:43):
we employed a AI system where it can answer about 20 of the most common questions.
So in our call center, anybody that doesn't have a human pickup during regular businesshours, it eventually rolls to this AI bot or whatever it is.

(35:09):
And it's Olive that picks up.
and olive or maybe it's oliver i think that's what it is i think it's a guy it's oliverand he will answer like can you deliver for catering and is there a fee for delivery and
just you know we identified i think it is about 20 of the most common questions that areasked and then as you ask them then he can answer those questions for you and it's

(35:43):
I think it's helped and it's not perfect.
We would like to get to a place where then he can roll you to a voicemail or somethingelse.
But right now.
happens if I call at 10 o'clock tonight?
If I call a store, will I get olive?
If Oliver, if I, how do I get hold of it?
door, it's the call center.

(36:04):
So I'd have to look up to Zeke's catering line and call.
Now I'm gonna do that just to see how.
So at the end, once it answers all my questions, does it direct me online to place anorder?
Does it take a message?
Does it go to a live after hours call center?
I can't remember exactly what it does at the end.

(36:24):
Travis is the one that set all that up.
So next time you talk to him, ask him exactly what it does.
I know eventually AI will be able to take all the calls for you and sound like exactlywhat you want them to sound like.
That's.
I talked to several different AI companies and this is the one that sounded the mostrealistic.
So it doesn't sound like thank you for calling to Zeekies.

(36:47):
You know, I mean, it sounds really, it sounds like a human.
It was really good.
it's headed.
When we could figure out how to add it in Katorzen, we'll definitely add it because it'salways the human element that's the toughest in business.
Whether it's recruiting them, training them, keeping them, that's always the toughest.

(37:08):
But we do have answering machines in all of our call centers.
So, you know, if you call at 10 o'clock at night, it's going to immediately go to theanswering service or the whatever call center that you call.
So they talk to a live human or it leaves a voicemail.
leaves a voicemail at 10 o'clock at night.

(37:30):
Yeah, and somebody will call you back in the morning.
If I were to put you in another chain tomorrow, they have no catering.
They're starting from scratch and you only get to pick three tools like top threestrategies to build a catering sales.
Where do you start?
Good, branded packaging is number one.

(37:54):
Good online ordering system is number two.
Good sales team number three.
Those are three good ones.
Yeah, gotta have them.
So, and are we allowed to talk about, have y'all launched the full service catering, likethe new decor and stuff?

(38:19):
Is that official or not official that y'all were, am I allowed to ask you about that?
So we talked about it TASCON.
Is that what you're talking about?
Yeah, what Travis set up.
yeah, that's not really official official out in the the universe yet Okay

(38:39):
do have a call in to Travis about an event.
So I'm happy to be a guinea pig.
Looking down the road, what marketing innovations or technologies are you most excitedabout?
We talked about AI and you might have already, that might be it, but is there anythingelse that you see out there that gets you pumped up as a marketer?

(39:07):
Yeah, just the constant integrations of everything, how everything talks to everythingelse.
One kind of gaping hole that we've had for a while is folks that are not in our loyaltyprogram, how do we talk to them?
How do we reach them?

(39:29):
And we recently launched a test in a few of our
stores here in Birmingham with our wi-fi system and that's going to be an additional waythat we're going to be able to talk to some of those guests that they're coming into our
restaurant but they may not be involved in our rewards program yet and I'm real excited tosee what kind of results we can get from that.

(39:55):
Is that where you collect their email to let them log into your Wi-Fi network?
It is, it is, but it's part of a much larger network.
So if somebody's logged into, uh, yeah, some other restaurant in Panama city, Florida, orthey've gone to something in Nashville and they've logged in there.

(40:17):
And so then they, they walk into our restaurant, it captures cause they've done a geofence around our restaurant.
So it pings them.
We know that they have walked into our restaurant.
and then we have the ability to reach out to them from there.
And you know, a lot of people hate, you know, big brothers watching.

(40:37):
I sort of like it because if I log on, I want to ads that are relevant to me.
I don't want to get something that I don't really care about.
You know, help I fall and I can't get up.
I've got a while before I need to worry about a first alert.
That's very cool because I go, there's a place down here and I log in.
I never thought that that network, but I think Zoom info does that as well.

(41:00):
Cause I've, I've always wondered like,
Zoom info, how do they get people's cell phone numbers?
And my understanding is they're scraping email signatures and somehow like when you workin their network, they're pulling it off other people's emails and that's how they're
getting it.
So I don't know if you become a client, they scrape that data off your email.

(41:21):
I don't know what they do, but that makes perfect sense.
They've done a pretty good job.
I mean, it's not 100%, but you're getting more.
Okay, as we're sort of wrapping up, what's the next big thing you see for you and Taziki'smoving forward the next couple of years?

(41:43):
We are going to pay some serious attention to our rewards program.
Not really on the, I mean we are going to work on the catering side of it, but more on theindividual order side.
So right now our rewards program is pretty basic.
It's the old buy X, get Y, and you know, trade it in for Z model.

(42:09):
And that's just
very tried and true formula, but there's so much more that can be done like you werealluding to before personalization and tying that into email marketing and gamification

(42:29):
and the app and just the technology.
There's so, so much that can be done and that's what I'm really excited about.
diving into in 2025.
We've looked at a couple of partners.
We've really been investigating this for probably the better part of two years and justhaven't been able to put it all together to be able to update what we've needed to from a

(42:55):
consumer standpoint.
So I really hope that all comes to fruition in 2025, at least a pilot and a market or twoto test it out and see how our customers.
respond to it.
You know, that's the exciting thing about marketing.
You know, you have the tried and true like concepts, but as technologies change and mediaschange, you know, it's never dull.

(43:24):
That's what's exciting about being in the marketing world.
you know, whatever you're doing today, five years from now, it's gonna be somethingtotally different and it's gonna get you pumped and excited because it's gonna allow you
to do more with what you have.
So it's never a bad time to be in marketing.
No, it's fun.
I love it.
It's, yeah, it's always changing.

(43:45):
That's for sure.
Well, I appreciate your time today.
This has been a great interview and I know that everybody listening is gonna take a lot ofgreat stuff away from this.
So I hope as we close out the year, I hope nothing but the best, happy, healthy andprosperous new year and thanks for joining us today.

(44:06):
You're welcome.
Thanks for having me, Michael.
Of course.
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