March 24, 2025 • 17 mins
Shaz Khan, co-founder of Tono Pizzeria + Cheesesteaks, joins Zack to share how he's built a beloved multi-unit brand without losing the feel of a local favorite. With an engineering mindset and a passion for hospitality, Shaz breaks down the systems, tech, and transparency that drive guest loyalty and operational excellence.
Zack and Shaz discuss:
- Building guest trust through transparency and truthfulness
- Balancing scale with authenticity and community feel
- How tech tools like Ovation and Marqii elevate guest feedback and insights
- Responding to every online review with empathy and intention
- Why real conversations with local restaurant owners matter most
Tune in to hear how Shaz’s integrity-first approach is shaping the future of fast casual hospitality.
Thanks, Shaz!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another edition of Give An Ovation, the
restaurant guest experiencepodcast, where I talk to
industry experts to get theirstrategies and tactics you can
use to create a five-star guestexperience.
This podcast is sponsored byOvation, an operations and guest
recovery platform formulti-unit restaurants that
gives all the answers withoutannoying guests.
With all the questions.
(00:20):
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And today we've got a guy herewho is just so impressive.
He's been doing amazing things.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
I mean, this stuff looks sogood.
(00:42):
He's an advisor to a bunch ofdifferent places, including
Toast and DoorDash.
He's also the co-founder andpresident of Frank from Philly
and Andrea Pizza.
I mean, you're all over theplace.
Welcome, shaz Kan.
How are you, shaz?
I'm doing well.
How about yourself?
Oh man, pleasure to be hereDoing great now, because I got
(01:03):
the chance to just look at allthese amazing photos from your
restaurant.
So it looks awesome.
Glad to hear it.
I mean, you got to fly over now, I know Well, next time,
because you guys are a Delta hub, aren't you up there in
Minnesota?
We sure are there, we go, so Ihave layovers there occasionally
.
So next time I just I may haveto miss the next leg of my
(01:23):
flight and go get some.
You've always been at home atTono.
There we go.
So tell me about Tono.
What was the birth of Tono?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, so it's kind of funny because I don't come from
the food industry.
My background is in engineering.
I went to school for electricalengineering.
My best friend of 20-somethingyears, Antonio Gambino there's a
joke in there somewhere.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
He's Sicilian.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
And we eventually started having talks about kind
of how to work together and whatthat would look like.
He was working at his family'sslice shop called Andrea Pizza
for many years, like out of highschool, and he wanted to kind
of step outside of that and thendo his own thing.
So he was born in Philly butobviously raised in Minnesota.
(02:08):
So we kind of talked about thisand so came our first concept
Frank and Andrea's.
It's short for Frank fromPhilly and Andrea Pizza.
Frank's his brother's name,andrea's his dad.
Like I said, his dad's fromSicily, mom's from Philly.
He was born in Philly, so thisis a dual pizza and cheese steak
concept.
Recipes go back almost acentury.
(02:29):
So, yeah, it's very authenticartisan.
So the pizza at Frank andAndrea is New York style.
We're located on the Universityof Minnesota campus in an area
called Dinkytown, and that wasour first joint venture together
and my entry into this space in2016.
Fast forward, 2019,.
We were going to open a secondone and it quickly transformed
(02:50):
into what is now Tono PizzeriaPlus Cheesesteaks.
This is brick oven pizza, so Iguess for the untrained eye it's
Neapolitan-esque.
I wouldn't call it Neapolitanby any stretch, but it's artisan
, hand-tossed brick oven pizzapaired with authentic
cheesesteaks.
So we have nine locations.
I've actually got a grandopening tomorrow for our ninth
(03:12):
location hey model tough.
Thank you.
And then location 10, 11, and12 around the corner.
So busy time of year.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
That's incredible, and it's amazing to see how much
people love your brand.
The pictures don't only lookamazing, but the reviews are
great.
People love the food, they lovethe vibe, and so you've done a
great job building somethingspecial.
And people are looking at thisand it's like you've created
such a great guest experience.
And so what do you think is oneof the most important aspects
(03:43):
of guest experience nowadays?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Great question.
To be honest, I'm huge ontechnology, right, like I'm a
massive tech enthusiast, as ifmy CD didn't make that evident.
But it has nothing to do withtechnology at the forefront To
me, it's integrity andtruthfulness.
Right, it's an aspect ofauthenticity, I would say so.
(04:09):
My mission that I chose toaccept was taking that history
and that family legacy and thatstory that came from Antonio's
family, translating that into aphysical space, a menu
presentation, but also combiningthis with being able to tell
that story in a fashion thatdidn't feel like people are
being sold something we don'twant to be like, oh, we're the
(04:30):
best, you know, we're authentic,come check us out.
It's more like, hey, here's astory, here we are, come on in.
And usually that refiningprocess of getting that guest
feedback it might go withoutsaying, but just using that
feedback to constantly refinethe product and that guest
experience.
And when things aren't workingwell, like I said, the
(04:51):
truthfulness piece right, you'reslammed, things are really busy
, things are late, not asexpected, maybe there's a bunch
of training shifts and and youknow things didn't go as planned
Just letting people know andoffering them that information
in a fashion that makes themunderstand that you care that
you're still giving them thathometown feel and, to be honest,
(05:11):
that's the key factor for us.
It's just the level of service.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah, and one of the things that we find is do you
know why?
Most people they want to go totheir local businesses.
They want to support local.
But if they feel like it's achain, why do people go to
chains?
Because it's consistent,because they know what they're
going to get.
But when you can fight back andyou can start to grow your
brand into the double digits andstill maintain that community
(05:38):
feel, yeah, it's like powerful.
And to your point, a lot ofpeople who complain they're not
complaining to like ruin yourbusiness, they're complaining
because they want to feel heard.
And if you fulfill that need tohelp them feel heard, then
you've won them.
And it's not just somethingwhere they're like okay, maybe
I'll come back and try it out,but that recovered guest is
(05:59):
worth 24 times the value of anaverage guest.
So it's just so powerful,exactly what you're saying.
Hey, if the shifts were off orsomeone didn't show up, be open.
Yo, I'm so sorry, Someonedidn't show up for their shift.
It was a little crazy.
Tonight.
Here's a free cheesesteak on methat goes so far to humanize
(06:22):
each location and to realizelike this is my local Tonos you
know, yeah, absolutely, we neverwant to lose that human touch,
that element.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
We never want to feel like a chain.
We're always as we've beengrowing, at the pace we've been
growing.
That's been one of mychallenges is to make sure and
to kind of get ahead of the ideathat we might be a chain, local
or not, because that hasconnotations with it and I don't
want those connotations toovercome any kind of human
element in that sense oflocality that we are very
(06:53):
adamant about having.
Now, people obviously get itwhen they show up, as evidenced
by the reviews and thatrepeatability in our customers
and that raving and ourcustomers and that raving fan
base.
But we certainly want to makesure that we're driving that
narrative not out ofmanipulation or marketing but
out of authenticity.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, I mean you don't get to 5,000 reviews and
4.7 stars without doingsomething right.
I just think that is atestament to what you're doing,
because, at the end of the day,people vote with their wallets
but they hint with their reviews.
So I think that it's importantto remember that, and you've
(07:31):
just nailed that recipe, and solet's talk about that recipe.
What are some tactics thatyou've used to improve the guest
experience?
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, this is, I would say, where the technology
piece comes in and, I guess, ourtraining and management and
leadership style.
So we leverage a number ofplatforms to acquire data.
Like you said, it's importantfor the customers to feel heard.
Well, we want them to know thatwe're listening.
It's not just about waiting forsomebody to raise their voice,
proverbially, until we hear them.
(08:01):
We want to make sure that theyknow that we're open and we want
to listen, and so, offering thecapacity to listen in the form
of customer feedback that, nomatter the platform, we respond
to every single review acrossour entire location base.
(08:27):
So, all of those 5,000 or maybemore reviews, there's a response
to each and every one of themin a timely fashion and in a
fashion that demonstrates theempathy that we truly hold, as
well as letting others who maysee those responses know we care
.
We're not AI driven right.
It's not like, oh, just get thetext out there.
I understand that's a solutionfor brands.
(08:49):
I just personally don'tentirely believe in that.
I fully leverage AI where it'sbest suited for us, but at this
point in the evolution of ouraccessibility to those tools, I
don't know that that's the placeI want to deploy it at its
maximum.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Who do you use to respond to your reviews?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
We use a platform called Marquee at the moment.
Yeah, yeah, so MarqueeInnovation, like together.
It's like I don't know thedream team.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
It's Stockton Malone, jordan Pippen, right, I don't
know who's who, but they'regreat.
We love our friends over atMarquee.
In fact, they're the onlycompany that we currently resell
, and we're pretty open aboutthat.
When we talk about our reviewmanagement services, it's
powered by Marquee because theyhave such a great tool and I can
go out there and reinvent thewheel or I can get some really
(09:37):
cheap solution and slap it inthere, but we wanted it to be
something that works and so,yeah, we also use Marquee and
they're amazing great team,great support.
So, yeah, anytime I hearsomeone that like talks about it
, I'm like I'm assuming thatthey're using Marquee, but
(09:58):
anyway, awesome.
I think that's so great and Ithink that what you've talked
about and the things that you'redoing are amazing.
And I'd love to just ask you,when it comes to Ovation how has
Ovation been helpful for yourbrands?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, great question.
I think before Ovation thingswere just disjointed.
I knew I mean, first andforemost, the impetus has to be
there on the part of leadershipof a restaurant brand for them
to want to listen.
I know we're talking aboutlistening a lot, right, and like
actively listening.
But even when you want to, it'slike, okay, how do I do this?
Right, and some point of salemanufacturers offer tools to be
(10:27):
able to get that guest feedback.
We'll call it.
There are other third-partytools available to acquire that.
But then getting data frommultiple sources and having it
live in multiple places acrossdifferent databases, call it.
That's a task in and of itselfto be able to aggregate that and
put it all together and makesense of it and interpret it
into some kind of actionableitem so that you can actually
(10:49):
derive what your customers aresaying at large or issues that
need to be addressed, challengesthat are being posed, and so
Ovation provides that.
It consolidates everything intoone place, gives us an
analytics dashboard, allows usto see, in the form of both a
word cloud and graphs andnumbers and text, just what our
customers are saying and wherethe opportunities of improvement
(11:11):
are, what locations they're at,what times of day they're at.
That consolidation is massive.
I'm all about efficiency andOvation has made that process
efficient.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
That was not a sales pitch.
No, I love hearing that, becausewe always talk at Ovation is
we're great.
Restaurants get better and toyour point of like, the
leadership has to be on board.
You have to actually want tohear.
If I'm talking to someone andI'm saying I talk to my wife
every Sunday and I ask her, hey,what's something I could do to
improve, and if she tells mesomething and I don't do it and
(11:45):
then every single week she'stelling me the same thing, it's
like she's going to eventually Ijust don't want to listen.
But that's how you build theserelationships, because we all
know that we're not perfect butwe're so afraid to hear why.
But the beautiful thing is isif you ask it frequently right,
and normally in marriages with alot of my friends it's like the
only time they ask that is inmarriage counseling it's like a
(12:06):
big thing.
But if you, I ask it every weekand then it's little things,
and then it helps just kind oflike course correct with ovation
, right, it helps you kind ofsee the real picture of what's
going on, as opposed to gettinga really detailed list from a
couple of people or just kind ofclosing your eyes and hoping
you're doing the right thing,which sometimes feels easier,
(12:26):
right Chaz.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I can understand why that may be the case, but,
honestly, no longer does it feeleasier Like the first question
in my mind, whether it's arestaurant or just in my
personal life too.
It's right.
It's that very question of whatis it that I'm not considering?
What might I not know?
Where are my blind spots andhow can I ask others to help me
identify those in a fashion thatlets them know that I truly
(12:48):
want to offer that for them andI want to be better.
Right, I want this brand to berepresentative of that kind of
psyche of we're looking to bebetter, we want to improve, we
want to be the best, and to dothat we can't just make our own
assessments and assumptions onwhat that looks like and means,
because that would be fluid too.
That might change over time.
I'd rather take it from thecustomers and say where can we
(13:10):
improve, what do you like, whatdon't you like, and in the
process let them know likethat's a great idea, for example
, but we're just not there yet.
And that transparency beingable to have those conversations
it creates trust.
I mean, I trust somebody that'stelling me what time it is with
them, right, versus somebodywho's telling me everything's
all good and great, and myexperience is telling me
(13:34):
otherwise.
So we're managing expectationsby being that transparent.
I love that Managing thoseexpectations.
If we close that gap betweenreality and that expectation,
that's where we want to live,right there.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
I think that's spot on and I think it makes a ton of
sense.
And as I look at what thingsare operationally, because
you're a man of efficiency, arethere any things that Ovation's
allowed you to change in thelast year about operations that
you didn't know about beforehand?
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Oh, absolutely.
I think as we've scaled, Imyself personally have you lose
a little bit of visibility intosome aspects of your
organization.
It's not like when you had oneunit or when you were visiting
the store frequently and ofcourse you're always going to
look at things from theperspective that your brain is
kind of predisposed to.
So, like I'm bringing, likethat engineer look to things and
(14:25):
whatnot, right?
So for me personally too, it'skind of given me some of that
visibility back so I can noticethings like oh, that's
interesting, at 4 pm at thisparticular location there is an
increase or uptick in commentsabout temperature of the food.
Right, what's going on there?
Is there a shift switch that'shappening at that moment?
Is there information that's notbeing translated from the
(14:49):
earlier shift to the later shift?
How do we document that andidentify where that opportunity
is?
So it's given us moreopportunities to find solutions
that we didn't think of or wedidn't know were needed.
For that I'm grateful.
I mean, anytime I get moreinformation, the better it is.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
That's great and again, I appreciate you being
the type of restaurateur whoreally cares about the guest
experience enough not just toinvest in collecting it, but
also taking action on it andmaking your brand better because
of it.
I was looking before ourpodcast and you had some stores
or some months where you're at4.9 of your average online
(15:31):
ratings.
I mean, that's bananas.
It's super cool to see, reallyimpressive and again, a
testament to what you're doing.
So one thing that I want to askyou.
Last question is I got a secondto last technically, but who's
someone in the restaurantindustry that we should be
following?
You know a lot of people onthese advisory boards and stuff.
Who's someone that you thinkdeserves an ovation?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Honestly, it's not a singular person, it's the
restaurateur next door.
I encourage every restaurateureveryone who remotely touches
hospitality, cares about it as acustomer or as a business owner
to have conversations withtheir local restaurant owners.
Have conversations with theirlocal restaurant owners Because
(16:13):
I mean, first of all, theydeserve a round of applause Just
doing what they do.
Everything's changingconstantly from a regulatory and
customer and environmentalstandpoint.
But also it humanizes thoseconversations.
It allows people to empathizewith challenges that they didn't
know existed, as well asunderstand what moves and
(16:34):
motivates those business ownersto do what they do.
So, from that perspective, Ithink that that's who we should
be talking to.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Love that man.
Well, shaz, where can people goto find and follow you and your
brands?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, we're on TikTok , so it's underscore Tono MN.
So that's Tono T-O-N-O and MNis in Minnesota.
We're on Instagram with thesame handle underscore Tono MN,
and you can find us on LinkedInTono Pizzeria plus Cheesesteaks.
Come check us out sometime Ifyou're ever in Minnesota.
We want to see you.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Love it Well, Shaz, for using your engineering
background to engineer anamazing restaurant brand.
Today's Ovation goes to you.
Thank you so much for joiningus on Give an Ovation.
Thank you, Pleasure.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Thanks for joining us today.
If you liked this episode,leave us a review on Apple
Podcasts or your favorite placeto listen.
We're all about feedback here.
Again, this episode wassponsored by Ovation, a
two-question, sms-basedactionable guest feedback
platform built for multi-unitrestaurants.
If you'd like to learn how wecan help you measure and create
a better guest experience, visitus at OvationUpcom.
Welcome to another edition of Give An Ovation, the
restaurant guest experiencepodcast, where I talk to
industry experts to get theirstrategies and tactics you can
use to create a five-star guestexperience.
This podcast is sponsored byOvation, an operations and guest
recovery platform formulti-unit restaurants that
gives all the answers withoutannoying guests.
With all the questions.
(00:20):
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And today we've got a guy herewho is just so impressive.
He's been doing amazing things.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
I mean, this stuff looks sogood.
(00:42):
He's an advisor to a bunch ofdifferent places, including
Toast and DoorDash.
He's also the co-founder andpresident of Frank from Philly
and Andrea Pizza.
I mean, you're all over theplace.
Welcome, shaz Kan.
How are you, shaz?
I'm doing well.
How about yourself?
Oh man, pleasure to be hereDoing great now, because I got
(01:03):
the chance to just look at allthese amazing photos from your
restaurant.
So it looks awesome.
Glad to hear it.
I mean, you got to fly over now, I know Well, next time,
because you guys are a Delta hub, aren't you up there in
Minnesota?
We sure are there, we go, so Ihave layovers there occasionally
.
So next time I just I may haveto miss the next leg of my
(01:23):
flight and go get some.
You've always been at home atTono.
There we go.
So tell me about Tono.
What was the birth of Tono?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, so it's kind of funny because I don't come from
the food industry.
My background is in engineering.
I went to school for electricalengineering.
My best friend of 20-somethingyears, Antonio Gambino there's a
joke in there somewhere.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
He's Sicilian.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
And we eventually started having talks about kind
of how to work together and whatthat would look like.
He was working at his family'sslice shop called Andrea Pizza
for many years, like out of highschool, and he wanted to kind
of step outside of that and thendo his own thing.
So he was born in Philly butobviously raised in Minnesota.
(02:08):
So we kind of talked about thisand so came our first concept
Frank and Andrea's.
It's short for Frank fromPhilly and Andrea Pizza.
Frank's his brother's name,andrea's his dad.
Like I said, his dad's fromSicily, mom's from Philly.
He was born in Philly, so thisis a dual pizza and cheese steak
concept.
Recipes go back almost acentury.
(02:29):
So, yeah, it's very authenticartisan.
So the pizza at Frank andAndrea is New York style.
We're located on the Universityof Minnesota campus in an area
called Dinkytown, and that wasour first joint venture together
and my entry into this space in2016.
Fast forward, 2019,.
We were going to open a secondone and it quickly transformed
(02:50):
into what is now Tono PizzeriaPlus Cheesesteaks.
This is brick oven pizza, so Iguess for the untrained eye it's
Neapolitan-esque.
I wouldn't call it Neapolitanby any stretch, but it's artisan
, hand-tossed brick oven pizzapaired with authentic
cheesesteaks.
So we have nine locations.
I've actually got a grandopening tomorrow for our ninth
(03:12):
location hey model tough.
Thank you.
And then location 10, 11, and12 around the corner.
So busy time of year.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
That's incredible, and it's amazing to see how much
people love your brand.
The pictures don't only lookamazing, but the reviews are
great.
People love the food, they lovethe vibe, and so you've done a
great job building somethingspecial.
And people are looking at thisand it's like you've created
such a great guest experience.
And so what do you think is oneof the most important aspects
(03:43):
of guest experience nowadays?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Great question.
To be honest, I'm huge ontechnology, right, like I'm a
massive tech enthusiast, as ifmy CD didn't make that evident.
But it has nothing to do withtechnology at the forefront To
me, it's integrity andtruthfulness.
Right, it's an aspect ofauthenticity, I would say so.
(04:09):
My mission that I chose toaccept was taking that history
and that family legacy and thatstory that came from Antonio's
family, translating that into aphysical space, a menu
presentation, but also combiningthis with being able to tell
that story in a fashion thatdidn't feel like people are
being sold something we don'twant to be like, oh, we're the
(04:30):
best, you know, we're authentic,come check us out.
It's more like, hey, here's astory, here we are, come on in.
And usually that refiningprocess of getting that guest
feedback it might go withoutsaying, but just using that
feedback to constantly refinethe product and that guest
experience.
And when things aren't workingwell, like I said, the
(04:51):
truthfulness piece right, you'reslammed, things are really busy
, things are late, not asexpected, maybe there's a bunch
of training shifts and and youknow things didn't go as planned
Just letting people know andoffering them that information
in a fashion that makes themunderstand that you care that
you're still giving them thathometown feel and, to be honest,
(05:11):
that's the key factor for us.
It's just the level of service.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah, and one of the things that we find is do you
know why?
Most people they want to go totheir local businesses.
They want to support local.
But if they feel like it's achain, why do people go to
chains?
Because it's consistent,because they know what they're
going to get.
But when you can fight back andyou can start to grow your
brand into the double digits andstill maintain that community
(05:38):
feel, yeah, it's like powerful.
And to your point, a lot ofpeople who complain they're not
complaining to like ruin yourbusiness, they're complaining
because they want to feel heard.
And if you fulfill that need tohelp them feel heard, then
you've won them.
And it's not just somethingwhere they're like okay, maybe
I'll come back and try it out,but that recovered guest is
(05:59):
worth 24 times the value of anaverage guest.
So it's just so powerful,exactly what you're saying.
Hey, if the shifts were off orsomeone didn't show up, be open.
Yo, I'm so sorry, Someonedidn't show up for their shift.
It was a little crazy.
Tonight.
Here's a free cheesesteak on methat goes so far to humanize
(06:22):
each location and to realizelike this is my local Tonos you
know, yeah, absolutely, we neverwant to lose that human touch,
that element.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
We never want to feel like a chain.
We're always as we've beengrowing, at the pace we've been
growing.
That's been one of mychallenges is to make sure and
to kind of get ahead of the ideathat we might be a chain, local
or not, because that hasconnotations with it and I don't
want those connotations toovercome any kind of human
element in that sense oflocality that we are very
(06:53):
adamant about having.
Now, people obviously get itwhen they show up, as evidenced
by the reviews and thatrepeatability in our customers
and that raving and ourcustomers and that raving fan
base.
But we certainly want to makesure that we're driving that
narrative not out ofmanipulation or marketing but
out of authenticity.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yeah, I mean you don't get to 5,000 reviews and
4.7 stars without doingsomething right.
I just think that is atestament to what you're doing,
because, at the end of the day,people vote with their wallets
but they hint with their reviews.
So I think that it's importantto remember that, and you've
(07:31):
just nailed that recipe, and solet's talk about that recipe.
What are some tactics thatyou've used to improve the guest
experience?
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, this is, I would say, where the technology
piece comes in and, I guess, ourtraining and management and
leadership style.
So we leverage a number ofplatforms to acquire data.
Like you said, it's importantfor the customers to feel heard.
Well, we want them to know thatwe're listening.
It's not just about waiting forsomebody to raise their voice,
proverbially, until we hear them.
(08:01):
We want to make sure that theyknow that we're open and we want
to listen, and so, offering thecapacity to listen in the form
of customer feedback that, nomatter the platform, we respond
to every single review acrossour entire location base.
(08:27):
So, all of those 5,000 or maybemore reviews, there's a response
to each and every one of themin a timely fashion and in a
fashion that demonstrates theempathy that we truly hold, as
well as letting others who maysee those responses know we care
.
We're not AI driven right.
It's not like, oh, just get thetext out there.
I understand that's a solutionfor brands.
(08:49):
I just personally don'tentirely believe in that.
I fully leverage AI where it'sbest suited for us, but at this
point in the evolution of ouraccessibility to those tools, I
don't know that that's the placeI want to deploy it at its
maximum.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Who do you use to respond to your reviews?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
We use a platform called Marquee at the moment.
Yeah, yeah, so MarqueeInnovation, like together.
It's like I don't know thedream team.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
It's Stockton Malone, jordan Pippen, right, I don't
know who's who, but they'regreat.
We love our friends over atMarquee.
In fact, they're the onlycompany that we currently resell
, and we're pretty open aboutthat.
When we talk about our reviewmanagement services, it's
powered by Marquee because theyhave such a great tool and I can
go out there and reinvent thewheel or I can get some really
(09:37):
cheap solution and slap it inthere, but we wanted it to be
something that works and so,yeah, we also use Marquee and
they're amazing great team,great support.
So, yeah, anytime I hearsomeone that like talks about it
, I'm like I'm assuming thatthey're using Marquee, but
(09:58):
anyway, awesome.
I think that's so great and Ithink that what you've talked
about and the things that you'redoing are amazing.
And I'd love to just ask you,when it comes to Ovation how has
Ovation been helpful for yourbrands?
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, great question.
I think before Ovation thingswere just disjointed.
I knew I mean, first andforemost, the impetus has to be
there on the part of leadershipof a restaurant brand for them
to want to listen.
I know we're talking aboutlistening a lot, right, and like
actively listening.
But even when you want to, it'slike, okay, how do I do this?
Right, and some point of salemanufacturers offer tools to be
(10:27):
able to get that guest feedback.
We'll call it.
There are other third-partytools available to acquire that.
But then getting data frommultiple sources and having it
live in multiple places acrossdifferent databases, call it.
That's a task in and of itselfto be able to aggregate that and
put it all together and makesense of it and interpret it
into some kind of actionableitem so that you can actually
(10:49):
derive what your customers aresaying at large or issues that
need to be addressed, challengesthat are being posed, and so
Ovation provides that.
It consolidates everything intoone place, gives us an
analytics dashboard, allows usto see, in the form of both a
word cloud and graphs andnumbers and text, just what our
customers are saying and wherethe opportunities of improvement
(11:11):
are, what locations they're at,what times of day they're at.
That consolidation is massive.
I'm all about efficiency andOvation has made that process
efficient.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
That was not a sales pitch.
No, I love hearing that, becausewe always talk at Ovation is
we're great.
Restaurants get better and toyour point of like, the
leadership has to be on board.
You have to actually want tohear.
If I'm talking to someone andI'm saying I talk to my wife
every Sunday and I ask her, hey,what's something I could do to
improve, and if she tells mesomething and I don't do it and
(11:45):
then every single week she'stelling me the same thing, it's
like she's going to eventually Ijust don't want to listen.
But that's how you build theserelationships, because we all
know that we're not perfect butwe're so afraid to hear why.
But the beautiful thing is isif you ask it frequently right,
and normally in marriages with alot of my friends it's like the
only time they ask that is inmarriage counseling it's like a
(12:06):
big thing.
But if you, I ask it every weekand then it's little things,
and then it helps just kind oflike course correct with ovation
, right, it helps you kind ofsee the real picture of what's
going on, as opposed to gettinga really detailed list from a
couple of people or just kind ofclosing your eyes and hoping
you're doing the right thing,which sometimes feels easier,
(12:26):
right Chaz.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I can understand why that may be the case, but,
honestly, no longer does it feeleasier Like the first question
in my mind, whether it's arestaurant or just in my
personal life too.
It's right.
It's that very question of whatis it that I'm not considering?
What might I not know?
Where are my blind spots andhow can I ask others to help me
identify those in a fashion thatlets them know that I truly
(12:48):
want to offer that for them andI want to be better.
Right, I want this brand to berepresentative of that kind of
psyche of we're looking to bebetter, we want to improve, we
want to be the best, and to dothat we can't just make our own
assessments and assumptions onwhat that looks like and means,
because that would be fluid too.
That might change over time.
I'd rather take it from thecustomers and say where can we
(13:10):
improve, what do you like, whatdon't you like, and in the
process let them know likethat's a great idea, for example
, but we're just not there yet.
And that transparency beingable to have those conversations
it creates trust.
I mean, I trust somebody that'stelling me what time it is with
them, right, versus somebodywho's telling me everything's
all good and great, and myexperience is telling me
(13:34):
otherwise.
So we're managing expectationsby being that transparent.
I love that Managing thoseexpectations.
If we close that gap betweenreality and that expectation,
that's where we want to live,right there.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
I think that's spot on and I think it makes a ton of
sense.
And as I look at what thingsare operationally, because
you're a man of efficiency, arethere any things that Ovation's
allowed you to change in thelast year about operations that
you didn't know about beforehand?
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Oh, absolutely.
I think as we've scaled, Imyself personally have you lose
a little bit of visibility intosome aspects of your
organization.
It's not like when you had oneunit or when you were visiting
the store frequently and ofcourse you're always going to
look at things from theperspective that your brain is
kind of predisposed to.
So, like I'm bringing, likethat engineer look to things and
(14:25):
whatnot, right?
So for me personally too, it'skind of given me some of that
visibility back so I can noticethings like oh, that's
interesting, at 4 pm at thisparticular location there is an
increase or uptick in commentsabout temperature of the food.
Right, what's going on there?
Is there a shift switch that'shappening at that moment?
Is there information that's notbeing translated from the
(14:49):
earlier shift to the later shift?
How do we document that andidentify where that opportunity
is?
So it's given us moreopportunities to find solutions
that we didn't think of or wedidn't know were needed.
For that I'm grateful.
I mean, anytime I get moreinformation, the better it is.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
That's great and again, I appreciate you being
the type of restaurateur whoreally cares about the guest
experience enough not just toinvest in collecting it, but
also taking action on it andmaking your brand better because
of it.
I was looking before ourpodcast and you had some stores
or some months where you're at4.9 of your average online
(15:31):
ratings.
I mean, that's bananas.
It's super cool to see, reallyimpressive and again, a
testament to what you're doing.
So one thing that I want to askyou.
Last question is I got a secondto last technically, but who's
someone in the restaurantindustry that we should be
following?
You know a lot of people onthese advisory boards and stuff.
Who's someone that you thinkdeserves an ovation?
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Honestly, it's not a singular person, it's the
restaurateur next door.
I encourage every restaurateureveryone who remotely touches
hospitality, cares about it as acustomer or as a business owner
to have conversations withtheir local restaurant owners.
Have conversations with theirlocal restaurant owners Because
(16:13):
I mean, first of all, theydeserve a round of applause Just
doing what they do.
Everything's changingconstantly from a regulatory and
customer and environmentalstandpoint.
But also it humanizes thoseconversations.
It allows people to empathizewith challenges that they didn't
know existed, as well asunderstand what moves and
(16:34):
motivates those business ownersto do what they do.
So, from that perspective, Ithink that that's who we should
be talking to.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Love that man.
Well, shaz, where can people goto find and follow you and your
brands?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Yeah, we're on TikTok , so it's underscore Tono MN.
So that's Tono T-O-N-O and MNis in Minnesota.
We're on Instagram with thesame handle underscore Tono MN,
and you can find us on LinkedInTono Pizzeria plus Cheesesteaks.
Come check us out sometime Ifyou're ever in Minnesota.
We want to see you.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Love it Well, Shaz, for using your engineering
background to engineer anamazing restaurant brand.
Today's Ovation goes to you.
Thank you so much for joiningus on Give an Ovation.
Thank you, Pleasure.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Thanks for joining us today.
If you liked this episode,leave us a review on Apple
Podcasts or your favorite placeto listen.
We're all about feedback here.
Again, this episode wassponsored by Ovation, a
two-question, sms-basedactionable guest feedback
platform built for multi-unitrestaurants.
If you'd like to learn how wecan help you measure and create
a better guest experience, visitus at OvationUpcom.
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