June 18, 2025 • 19 mins
Alice Crowder, CMO of Krispy Krunchy Chicken, joins Zack Oates to break down how the brand grew to nearly 3,400 locations without traditional franchising. From gas stations to guest experience strategy, Alice shares how high-quality food, grassroots marketing, and authentic partnerships drive brand love and repeat visits.
Zack and Alice discuss:
- Why quality, value, and craveability win in any location
- How to grow using micro-influencers instead of ad budgets
- The power of authentic pride among convenience store operators
- Why guest experience starts with product and belief—not policy
- How to create emotional loyalty in unexpected settings
Thanks, Alice!
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicecrowder/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/krispy-krunchy-foods/
https://www.instagram.com/krispykrunchychicken/
https://www.krispykrunchy.com/
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.
I'm your host, zach Oates, andeach week I chat with industry
experts to uncover theirstrategies and tactics to help
you create a five-star guestexperience.
This podcast is powered byOvation, the feedback and
operations platform built formulti-unit restaurants.
Get all the insights you needto improve without an annoying
(00:22):
survey for your guests.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And today.
I cannot even tell you howexcited I am.
Obviously, I'm always excitedabout my guests, but today we
have Alice freaking Crowder withus.
She's the CMO of Crispy CrunchyFoods.
She was CMO of CrystalRestaurant.
She was VP of Menu Strategy andInnovation at Tropical Smoothie
Cafe and I mean she was atDenny's as well, but this was
(00:45):
something that we just talkedabout.
That was pretty fun.
She actually was the VP ofmarketing at Ovation Brands,
which is pretty fun, because Inever met anyone who's actually
worked at Ovation.
But a lot of people havethought that we are that Ovation
, but we are not.
But, alice, welcome to thepodcast.
How are you?
Yeah, thank you for having me.
I'm doing great.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And you know, alice, you do a lot of speaking.
Do you ever have you written abook yet?
No, somebody talked to me aboutthat but I was like, oh, I
don't know if I have the time.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
But I'm interested, okay, cause you're someone where
every time you get on stage,literally the first time I heard
you on stage, I was in the backof the room with a couple of
people that were with one personthat was going to be on the
panel with you and they werelike, oh my gosh, we have Alice
on the panel, which means we'vegot to really bring our game,
because Alice is always so goodon the panels.
(01:37):
And it was funny because I, youknow this guy's done dozens of
panels and he was still likeextra preparing, just knowing
that he was going to be up therewith you and you do a lot of
stuff.
But for those who aren'tfamiliar with crispy crunchy
chicken, tell us a little bitabout it and especially, if you
can talk a little bit about whatyou talked about on Meg's stage
, about your strategy around howdo you get influencers and what
(02:02):
type of influences do you goafter?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, thank you.
I'm always psyched to talkabout the best brand in the
business.
We are Crispy Crunchy Chicken.
We've been around 35 years.
A lot of folks in this industrydon't know us.
Our founder was a conveniencestore owner and he was an
amateur chef as well and he waslooking for ways to increase
(02:24):
revenue in his merchandisingsection of the store and so he
loved to fry chicken.
He was from Louisiana.
He marinated some sauce, somespices and started selling it in
his store.
And then word kind of got outand it spread, and it spread and
it spread and pretty soon hehad so many stores that wanted
to sell crispy crunchy that hegave up his convenience store.
(02:45):
And today we have about 3,400,just shy of 3,400 restaurants
across the United States.
We're in all 48 contiguousstates and our primary placement
is in gas stations andconvenience stores, primarily
independent operated guys.
So a lot of first generationAmericans, a lot of family owned
(03:07):
businesses, and they see us asan extension of their community
business and in fact we are Moreand more.
We hear people saying, oh mycrispy crunchy, or I didn't know
there was a crispy crunchyoutside of my neighborhood.
We are a part of their business, as opposed to them running a
brand that they just bought into.
(03:29):
We do use influencers veryheavily.
They're small influencers.
These are folks that usuallyhave posted about us about how
good the chicken is, howsurprising it is, and that is
something we pride ourselves on.
It is a high quality product.
You think convenience storefood and you think, man, I'm
going to get a roller dog thatI'm going to have some trouble
(03:51):
with later.
But this stuff comes in.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I know my go to my, go to our Lunchables.
You know what I mean.
Like you can't go wrong at aLunchable.
When I stop at the gas station,I'm like I'm hungry.
I'm looking at those rollersand I'm thinking, nah, I don't
know what that is.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
And no hate to lunch rolls, I've eaten my share.
But this stuff, our bone-in andour tenders come in fresh, it's
never frozen, it'spre-marinated in this mild blend
of Cajun seasoning and theydouble bread it back at the
house.
So they give the chicken.
We have a proprietary breader.
They bread the chicken.
We have a proprietary breader.
They bread the chicken, thenthey dip it in a cold water bath
(04:26):
, which you've heard me say thisbefore.
If I dipped you in a cold waterbath, you would kind of shrink
up, and so does the chicken, andit just holds more breader.
And so we bread it a secondtime and then we fry it.
The result is that you have alot of really yummy, crispy,
crunchy, golden browndeliciousness that you can
actually hear when you bite intoit, and that's what our
(04:47):
influencers respond to.
So a lot of our influencers areeating in the car.
You're hearing them crunch,you're seeing like a little bit
of delicious juice maybe in thecorner of their mouths, and so
we reach out to these guys andwe say, hey, we saw that you
love us.
We love what you said about us.
Would you want to taste newitem X or new promotion Y?
(05:08):
And a lot of times we just payfor their meal.
Now I send them a cuteinfluencer box with like a
bucket hat and a key chain orwhatever, but the majority of
our guys are just doing it forthe trade.
We do have some that are, havea little more population that
follows them and we may givethem a little bit, but we don't
pay the big dollars forinfluencers.
(05:30):
Our guys are our guys and theyhave followings in their
communities.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
But how do you do that, though, alice?
Because you don't have a setmarketing budget, you're not a
traditional franchisee, youactually just sell the product.
It's kind of like a WowBowmodel, but I guess WowBow is a
crispy crunchy chicken modelbecause you guys have been
around, you guys were like theoriginal ghost kitchen.
So how does that work in termsof who pays the influencers for
(05:56):
that coupon?
Like, does that just come?
So you ship them the coupon andthen the convenience store will
get reimbursed.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
No, actually, the influencer will usually buy
their meal, whatever they'regoing to buy, and it's usually
10 to $15.
And they'll send us a receiptand we'll cut them a check.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
We don't charge our stores for it, and then you
don't have to give them a couponor anything like that, you just
they buy it, you reimburse them.
That way you're guaranteed thatthey're going to actually try
it.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
That's really smart.
And then they've got to do alittle bit of work?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, wow, I like that.
And do you have like afollowing number that you're
looking for of?
Like?
If you have, over a certainamount or under a certain amount
?
Over a certain amount, they'reprobably too big.
Under a certain amount, it'snot worth it.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Not really.
It's a lot more organic thanthat.
We look for people who've goneto us posted about us.
Now some people post and it'sclear that they're looking for
somebody to sponsor them andthose aren't our guys.
There's a guy that just postedyesterday who's amazing and he
has a couple million followersand he posted about us just
yesterday.
He already has 42,000 views ofit and we had not reached out to
(07:04):
him.
He tagged us organically anddid 15 minutes on it, just
basically ate everything on themenu and was like fam, this is
the most amazing thing.
So today we're reaching out tohim saying hey, thanks, would
you like to try our new sauceflight that's coming out next
month?
A lot of times happens likethat.
We're really looking more forenthusiasm for the product and
(07:26):
the brand than the number offollowers, and then we kind of
take everybody and then wemeasure engagement.
So I don't care if you have5,000 followers, but if your
engagement numbers are 10 to 15%, I want to have a relationship
with you.
If people are responding to theway you talk about my brand, I
want to have a relationship withyou.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that and, by the way,I'm just going to throw it out
there.
If you can't tell by my shirt,I do love chicken.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I love it.
I'm going to send you a buckethat.
You send me your address so youhave a beautiful crispy country
reversible bucket hat.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I would love a crispy crunchy chicken bucket hat.
Now, thinking about the guestexperience, because I'm just so
interested in your perspectiveon this what do you think the
most important aspect of guestexperiences nowadays, especially
considering the fact that youare one step removed?
You can't make your conveniencestores do anything, you can't
(08:22):
force them to have standards,and so how do you think about
the guest experience?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, obviously we both go to a lot of conferences
and we talk about guestexperience.
I don't think it's somethingthat you can force right.
I love hearing, in fact, amy,who was Amy Holm, who was on
your podcast a few weeks ago,talked about a mentor that she
had and he only spent time withpeople who accepted feedback.
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Yes, wasn't that such a good insight?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah, and I thought that was really brilliant.
So I think, for us, theoperators that come to us and
are looking to make aninvestment in this brand, which
is an investment in theirbusiness, which is an investment
in their legacy, which is aninvestment in their business,
which is an investment in theirlegacy, which is an investment
in their family have a lot ofpride, take pride in what they
do, and so they're going todeliver that guest experience.
(09:08):
And when they don't because noone's perfect a hundred percent
of the time- we have aconversation about it.
For us, the biggest part of theguest experience is the quality
of the product.
So, like I said, people have alower expectation of the quality
of what you're going to getfrom a convenience store brand
and we turn that on its head.
We say you deserve better.
You deserve better operator,you deserve a better product to
(09:31):
offer your customers.
Consumers and my consumers havea little bit less income, a
little less education, a littlemore black, a little more brown.
They tend to get marginalizedin society and taken advantage
of.
They deserve better.
They deserve the highestquality food we can give them at
a fair price and something thattastes great.
And in fact, the three topreasons people choose Crispy
(09:54):
Crunchy and they will drive bysomebody else's gas station to
get to us is number one quality,number two value and number
three craveability.
So as long as our team issupplying that to our operator
partners, we're doing all right.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah, because you really have to look at the
sensitivity of value.
Value is something that hasbeen a conversation and,
interesting to note, last yearthe value complaints
industry-wide really took a hugeincrease.
Right, there were so many morecomplaints about value because
everything was going up and upand up in price and people were
(10:32):
complaining about shrinkflationas well, that portions were
going down and prices were goingup, and the complaint literally
300% increased complaints invalue and we have seen that
decrease, but it's still not aslow as it used to be.
Value is still a really bigpart of it, but the thing is
(10:54):
that if you don't have a greatproduct, they are willing to
spend more money to eat out lessoften and get a better quality
thing and a more consistentthing, and so I think that's
really important to remember andI love that you're talking
about not just let's make itaffordable, but let's make it
(11:14):
affordable and let's make itcraveable, because if you're
missing one of those ingredients, you're not going to be around
for long 're not.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I think sometimes we talk ourselves into things as
marketers and we become moreaccounting than we should.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I'll love my accounting friends.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
But I have a.
Our corporate chef has been mycorporate chef at three or four
brands now and we made a pactwhen we first met that we were
going to introduce anything thatwe wouldn't be proud to feed
our children and we live by that.
So, for example, I justlaunched some chicken nuggets.
We didn't have chicken nuggets.
We introduced them in February.
They are big, they are.
(11:53):
We're doing six for $4.99.
They're about as big as theboneless buffalo wings you would
get from some of our fastcasual friends.
But they're nuggets and they'renot chopped and formed.
They are whole muscle, they arewhite meat, they are high
quality.
They have this beautiful littletangy marinade and the same
thick crunch breading andthey're delicious.
(12:16):
They're big, they're meaty,they're quality, they're yummy
and you can get six, which isgood enough for even a girl like
me who clearly loves to eat.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
It's a pretty good meal for $4.99.
That sounds like a big,beautiful, not bill, what's the
word?
I'm looking for?
Meal.
There we go, a big, beautifulmeal there.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yes, well, and our tenders.
If you've seen our tenders, I'mdoing like this because if you
put one in your hands, they'rehuge.
They're just shy of four ounceseach.
You go to competitors.
Mcdonald's just launched theirstrips.
They kind of look likemozzarella sticks.
Right, they're littleMcDonald's.
I love you.
I'll eat an egg McMuffin anytime, but those strips are so
good, like my tenders are thesebeautiful tenderloins that are
(12:57):
really big and really meaty, andI challenge you to eat more
than two or three in a sitting.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Well, hey, challenge accepted, alice.
I know I just got to get off myGLP-1s first, but thinking
about some tactics thatrestaurants can use to improve
the guest experience, what wouldyou say some advice that you'd
have for other brands.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, for me it really does not to harp, but it
really does start with theoffering and then the
authenticity of how you talkabout it.
We all eat out.
We all eat out a lot.
I eat out a lot.
I always ask the server what'sgood, what's bad.
A server is not usually going totow the company line.
He or she is going to say we'repushing tilapia, but it is
nasty.
What you really want to get isblah, blah, blah, but it is
(13:43):
nasty.
What you really want to get isblah, blah, blah.
And so you have to, as arestaurateur or marketer, have a
product that you're confidentin of and that you're proud of,
and then the people who arecharged with delivering it to
your end user are going toreflect and magnify that pride.
If you tell me to go sellsomething crappy, I'll go sell
it, but I'm not going to don'tbe effusive about it.
(14:05):
I'll be like I have to sell youthis.
I mean, if you want to buy it,I wouldn't buy it.
But if you give me somethingI'm really proud of, I'm like,
dude, you got to chase thesenuggets.
It is going to change your lifefrom a nugget standpoint.
And so I think that, asmarketers, we have to think
about that and think about thepeople we're asking to deliver
our message, because they're notmotivated they're not, I mean,
(14:25):
they're getting minimum wagethey're not motivated to try to
sell something they don'tbelieve in.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah, and I think especially because one of the
benefits is like you've gotpeople that they really care
about their local conveniencestore right.
They care about it because theyknow that their community, 90%
of their business, is comingfrom right around them and so
they have to care and they haveto create good products and if
they can create, if they havesomething like crispy, crunchy
(14:52):
chicken that someone's pickingup on the way home for dinner,
that gives them another reasonto stop at their place.
But I love and I heard you talkabout that before about getting
those family dinners and beinga part of that routine is really
important.
Driving that regularity.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
You're reminding me of something I'm supposed to say
in every interview and I alwaysforget.
But when people put in a crispycrunchy, they're not just
making the money from the crispycrunchy.
We see that when an operatorputs in a crispy crunchy, their
overall merchandise sales andtheir overall traffic go up,
because people see that as anoccasion and they see that as a
(15:30):
reason to add on a gallon ofmilk or a six pack of Mountain
Dew or what have you.
And that's really important.
My own brother, who you know,I've been with this brand almost
three years.
He's a plant manager inGastonia, north Carolina, and
last year he called me and saidhey, I checked out Crispy
Crunchy and I was like dude,it's been two years.
Thank God my salary is notbased on your adoption rate.
(15:51):
But he said it's so good.
And I was like I told you itwas so good.
And he's like I know, but youknow how you are, you get
whatever you're doing, you loveit.
And so every Monday now he goesto the same little convenience
store owned by this elderlycouple and the woman knows him
and she's like oh, your fourdrumsticks and a biscuit.
And he's like I'm here for myfour drums, but he's always
picking up a lottery ticket orsome fix, a flat or whatever
(16:13):
else he's going to pick up.
And now they have this regularguest based on this taste
experience that they can offer.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
I love that.
Now, alice, this is going to bethe hardest question of your
day, because you know everyone,but who is someone in the
restaurant industry thatdeserves an ovation?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Some people have heard me talk about this before,
but I have been involved inbusiness with a guy named Jason
Abelkop for a long time.
I worked for him for a longtime.
He was a mentor of mine.
He's also now just a friend ofmine and we use his agency,
plain Air.
I think Plain Air in particular,and Jason especially,
understand the restaurantindustry better than anybody
(16:51):
else.
They do a lot of stuff, butthey specialize in restaurants
small and mid-sized restaurants.
They understand and theyunderstand the economics and the
insights that drive it, andwhenever I'm thinking through a
thorny problem or have an idea,I call Jason and say this is
what I'm thinking and he helpsme contextualize it the way he
does for all his clients.
He also has a head of analyticsand a lot of marketers don't
(17:15):
embrace analytics the way I wishthey would or actually I hope
they don't because it's at theirperil A name, karen Anderson,
who's particularly brilliant andhelps you understand your
pricing position and how yourdigital side works or doesn't
work, and helps you just get themath right, and I think more
people should talk to them.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
That is the only as I tell people it's called, it's
Plain Air and that is the onlyIPA that I take, because that is
a love, what they do, greatgroup.
I'm actually fortunate enoughto occasionally be able to hang
out with them on a podcast thatwe host.
So Jason, his co-CEO, abhinavKapoor, and I we do a podcast
talking about the industrytrends and anyway, it's fun to
(17:58):
connect and learn from himbecause, yes, totally agree, him
and his plein airs isphenomenal.
Now, the easiest question thatyou will get all week, alice, is
where do we go to find andfollow you?
And Crispy Crunchy Chicken?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, so we're all over the socials.
It's at Crispy Crunchy Chickenwe're also.
You can go to our website,which is crispycrunchycom.
There's a great store locatoron there.
If you don't know where yourlocal one is, we're happy to
direct you on it and pleasefollow us.
We have a lot of fun.
We don't take ourselvesseriously and would love to
share more of who we are withpeople.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
However, they want to engage with us.
Awesome.
Well, thanks, alice, and forgiving us a bit of crispy
happiness on the way home.
Today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you for joining us onGive an Ovation.
Thank you, matt, I reallyappreciate it.
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
(18:53):
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.
I'm your host, zach Oates, andeach week I chat with industry
experts to uncover theirstrategies and tactics to help
you create a five-star guestexperience.
This podcast is powered byOvation, the feedback and
operations platform built formulti-unit restaurants.
Get all the insights you needto improve without an annoying
(00:22):
survey for your guests.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And today.
I cannot even tell you howexcited I am.
Obviously, I'm always excitedabout my guests, but today we
have Alice freaking Crowder withus.
She's the CMO of Crispy CrunchyFoods.
She was CMO of CrystalRestaurant.
She was VP of Menu Strategy andInnovation at Tropical Smoothie
Cafe and I mean she was atDenny's as well, but this was
(00:45):
something that we just talkedabout.
That was pretty fun.
She actually was the VP ofmarketing at Ovation Brands,
which is pretty fun, because Inever met anyone who's actually
worked at Ovation.
But a lot of people havethought that we are that Ovation
, but we are not.
But, alice, welcome to thepodcast.
How are you?
Yeah, thank you for having me.
I'm doing great.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And you know, alice, you do a lot of speaking.
Do you ever have you written abook yet?
No, somebody talked to me aboutthat but I was like, oh, I
don't know if I have the time.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
But I'm interested, okay, cause you're someone where
every time you get on stage,literally the first time I heard
you on stage, I was in the backof the room with a couple of
people that were with one personthat was going to be on the
panel with you and they werelike, oh my gosh, we have Alice
on the panel, which means we'vegot to really bring our game,
because Alice is always so goodon the panels.
(01:37):
And it was funny because I, youknow this guy's done dozens of
panels and he was still likeextra preparing, just knowing
that he was going to be up therewith you and you do a lot of
stuff.
But for those who aren'tfamiliar with crispy crunchy
chicken, tell us a little bitabout it and especially, if you
can talk a little bit about whatyou talked about on Meg's stage
, about your strategy around howdo you get influencers and what
(02:02):
type of influences do you goafter?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, thank you.
I'm always psyched to talkabout the best brand in the
business.
We are Crispy Crunchy Chicken.
We've been around 35 years.
A lot of folks in this industrydon't know us.
Our founder was a conveniencestore owner and he was an
amateur chef as well and he waslooking for ways to increase
(02:24):
revenue in his merchandisingsection of the store and so he
loved to fry chicken.
He was from Louisiana.
He marinated some sauce, somespices and started selling it in
his store.
And then word kind of got outand it spread, and it spread and
it spread and pretty soon hehad so many stores that wanted
to sell crispy crunchy that hegave up his convenience store.
(02:45):
And today we have about 3,400,just shy of 3,400 restaurants
across the United States.
We're in all 48 contiguousstates and our primary placement
is in gas stations andconvenience stores, primarily
independent operated guys.
So a lot of first generationAmericans, a lot of family owned
(03:07):
businesses, and they see us asan extension of their community
business and in fact we are Moreand more.
We hear people saying, oh mycrispy crunchy, or I didn't know
there was a crispy crunchyoutside of my neighborhood.
We are a part of their business, as opposed to them running a
brand that they just bought into.
(03:29):
We do use influencers veryheavily.
They're small influencers.
These are folks that usuallyhave posted about us about how
good the chicken is, howsurprising it is, and that is
something we pride ourselves on.
It is a high quality product.
You think convenience storefood and you think, man, I'm
going to get a roller dog thatI'm going to have some trouble
(03:51):
with later.
But this stuff comes in.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I know my go to my, go to our Lunchables.
You know what I mean.
Like you can't go wrong at aLunchable.
When I stop at the gas station,I'm like I'm hungry.
I'm looking at those rollersand I'm thinking, nah, I don't
know what that is.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
And no hate to lunch rolls, I've eaten my share.
But this stuff, our bone-in andour tenders come in fresh, it's
never frozen, it'spre-marinated in this mild blend
of Cajun seasoning and theydouble bread it back at the
house.
So they give the chicken.
We have a proprietary breader.
They bread the chicken.
We have a proprietary breader.
They bread the chicken, thenthey dip it in a cold water bath
(04:26):
, which you've heard me say thisbefore.
If I dipped you in a cold waterbath, you would kind of shrink
up, and so does the chicken, andit just holds more breader.
And so we bread it a secondtime and then we fry it.
The result is that you have alot of really yummy, crispy,
crunchy, golden browndeliciousness that you can
actually hear when you bite intoit, and that's what our
(04:47):
influencers respond to.
So a lot of our influencers areeating in the car.
You're hearing them crunch,you're seeing like a little bit
of delicious juice maybe in thecorner of their mouths, and so
we reach out to these guys andwe say, hey, we saw that you
love us.
We love what you said about us.
Would you want to taste newitem X or new promotion Y?
(05:08):
And a lot of times we just payfor their meal.
Now I send them a cuteinfluencer box with like a
bucket hat and a key chain orwhatever, but the majority of
our guys are just doing it forthe trade.
We do have some that are, havea little more population that
follows them and we may givethem a little bit, but we don't
pay the big dollars forinfluencers.
(05:30):
Our guys are our guys and theyhave followings in their
communities.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
But how do you do that, though, alice?
Because you don't have a setmarketing budget, you're not a
traditional franchisee, youactually just sell the product.
It's kind of like a WowBowmodel, but I guess WowBow is a
crispy crunchy chicken modelbecause you guys have been
around, you guys were like theoriginal ghost kitchen.
So how does that work in termsof who pays the influencers for
(05:56):
that coupon?
Like, does that just come?
So you ship them the coupon andthen the convenience store will
get reimbursed.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
No, actually, the influencer will usually buy
their meal, whatever they'regoing to buy, and it's usually
10 to $15.
And they'll send us a receiptand we'll cut them a check.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
We don't charge our stores for it, and then you
don't have to give them a couponor anything like that, you just
they buy it, you reimburse them.
That way you're guaranteed thatthey're going to actually try
it.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
That's really smart.
And then they've got to do alittle bit of work?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, wow, I like that.
And do you have like afollowing number that you're
looking for of?
Like?
If you have, over a certainamount or under a certain amount
?
Over a certain amount, they'reprobably too big.
Under a certain amount, it'snot worth it.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Not really.
It's a lot more organic thanthat.
We look for people who've goneto us posted about us.
Now some people post and it'sclear that they're looking for
somebody to sponsor them andthose aren't our guys.
There's a guy that just postedyesterday who's amazing and he
has a couple million followersand he posted about us just
yesterday.
He already has 42,000 views ofit and we had not reached out to
(07:04):
him.
He tagged us organically anddid 15 minutes on it, just
basically ate everything on themenu and was like fam, this is
the most amazing thing.
So today we're reaching out tohim saying hey, thanks, would
you like to try our new sauceflight that's coming out next
month?
A lot of times happens likethat.
We're really looking more forenthusiasm for the product and
(07:26):
the brand than the number offollowers, and then we kind of
take everybody and then wemeasure engagement.
So I don't care if you have5,000 followers, but if your
engagement numbers are 10 to 15%, I want to have a relationship
with you.
If people are responding to theway you talk about my brand, I
want to have a relationship withyou.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that and, by the way,I'm just going to throw it out
there.
If you can't tell by my shirt,I do love chicken.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I love it.
I'm going to send you a buckethat.
You send me your address so youhave a beautiful crispy country
reversible bucket hat.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I would love a crispy crunchy chicken bucket hat.
Now, thinking about the guestexperience, because I'm just so
interested in your perspectiveon this what do you think the
most important aspect of guestexperiences nowadays, especially
considering the fact that youare one step removed?
You can't make your conveniencestores do anything, you can't
(08:22):
force them to have standards,and so how do you think about
the guest experience?
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, obviously we both go to a lot of conferences
and we talk about guestexperience.
I don't think it's somethingthat you can force right.
I love hearing, in fact, amy,who was Amy Holm, who was on
your podcast a few weeks ago,talked about a mentor that she
had and he only spent time withpeople who accepted feedback.
Right.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Yes, wasn't that such a good insight?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Yeah, and I thought that was really brilliant.
So I think, for us, theoperators that come to us and
are looking to make aninvestment in this brand, which
is an investment in theirbusiness, which is an investment
in their legacy, which is aninvestment in their business,
which is an investment in theirlegacy, which is an investment
in their family have a lot ofpride, take pride in what they
do, and so they're going todeliver that guest experience.
(09:08):
And when they don't because noone's perfect a hundred percent
of the time- we have aconversation about it.
For us, the biggest part of theguest experience is the quality
of the product.
So, like I said, people have alower expectation of the quality
of what you're going to getfrom a convenience store brand
and we turn that on its head.
We say you deserve better.
You deserve better operator,you deserve a better product to
(09:31):
offer your customers.
Consumers and my consumers havea little bit less income, a
little less education, a littlemore black, a little more brown.
They tend to get marginalizedin society and taken advantage
of.
They deserve better.
They deserve the highestquality food we can give them at
a fair price and something thattastes great.
And in fact, the three topreasons people choose Crispy
(09:54):
Crunchy and they will drive bysomebody else's gas station to
get to us is number one quality,number two value and number
three craveability.
So as long as our team issupplying that to our operator
partners, we're doing all right.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Yeah, because you really have to look at the
sensitivity of value.
Value is something that hasbeen a conversation and,
interesting to note, last yearthe value complaints
industry-wide really took a hugeincrease.
Right, there were so many morecomplaints about value because
everything was going up and upand up in price and people were
(10:32):
complaining about shrinkflationas well, that portions were
going down and prices were goingup, and the complaint literally
300% increased complaints invalue and we have seen that
decrease, but it's still not aslow as it used to be.
Value is still a really bigpart of it, but the thing is
(10:54):
that if you don't have a greatproduct, they are willing to
spend more money to eat out lessoften and get a better quality
thing and a more consistentthing, and so I think that's
really important to remember andI love that you're talking
about not just let's make itaffordable, but let's make it
(11:14):
affordable and let's make itcraveable, because if you're
missing one of those ingredients, you're not going to be around
for long 're not.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I think sometimes we talk ourselves into things as
marketers and we become moreaccounting than we should.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I'll love my accounting friends.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
But I have a.
Our corporate chef has been mycorporate chef at three or four
brands now and we made a pactwhen we first met that we were
going to introduce anything thatwe wouldn't be proud to feed
our children and we live by that.
So, for example, I justlaunched some chicken nuggets.
We didn't have chicken nuggets.
We introduced them in February.
They are big, they are.
(11:53):
We're doing six for $4.99.
They're about as big as theboneless buffalo wings you would
get from some of our fastcasual friends.
But they're nuggets and they'renot chopped and formed.
They are whole muscle, they arewhite meat, they are high
quality.
They have this beautiful littletangy marinade and the same
thick crunch breading andthey're delicious.
(12:16):
They're big, they're meaty,they're quality, they're yummy
and you can get six, which isgood enough for even a girl like
me who clearly loves to eat.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
It's a pretty good meal for $4.99.
That sounds like a big,beautiful, not bill, what's the
word?
I'm looking for?
Meal.
There we go, a big, beautifulmeal there.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yes, well, and our tenders.
If you've seen our tenders, I'mdoing like this because if you
put one in your hands, they'rehuge.
They're just shy of four ounceseach.
You go to competitors.
Mcdonald's just launched theirstrips.
They kind of look likemozzarella sticks.
Right, they're littleMcDonald's.
I love you.
I'll eat an egg McMuffin anytime, but those strips are so
good, like my tenders are thesebeautiful tenderloins that are
(12:57):
really big and really meaty, andI challenge you to eat more
than two or three in a sitting.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Well, hey, challenge accepted, alice.
I know I just got to get off myGLP-1s first, but thinking
about some tactics thatrestaurants can use to improve
the guest experience, what wouldyou say some advice that you'd
have for other brands.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, for me it really does not to harp, but it
really does start with theoffering and then the
authenticity of how you talkabout it.
We all eat out.
We all eat out a lot.
I eat out a lot.
I always ask the server what'sgood, what's bad.
A server is not usually going totow the company line.
He or she is going to say we'repushing tilapia, but it is
nasty.
What you really want to get isblah, blah, blah, but it is
(13:43):
nasty.
What you really want to get isblah, blah, blah.
And so you have to, as arestaurateur or marketer, have a
product that you're confidentin of and that you're proud of,
and then the people who arecharged with delivering it to
your end user are going toreflect and magnify that pride.
If you tell me to go sellsomething crappy, I'll go sell
it, but I'm not going to don'tbe effusive about it.
(14:05):
I'll be like I have to sell youthis.
I mean, if you want to buy it,I wouldn't buy it.
But if you give me somethingI'm really proud of, I'm like,
dude, you got to chase thesenuggets.
It is going to change your lifefrom a nugget standpoint.
And so I think that, asmarketers, we have to think
about that and think about thepeople we're asking to deliver
our message, because they're notmotivated they're not, I mean,
(14:25):
they're getting minimum wagethey're not motivated to try to
sell something they don'tbelieve in.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah, and I think especially because one of the
benefits is like you've gotpeople that they really care
about their local conveniencestore right.
They care about it because theyknow that their community, 90%
of their business, is comingfrom right around them and so
they have to care and they haveto create good products and if
they can create, if they havesomething like crispy, crunchy
(14:52):
chicken that someone's pickingup on the way home for dinner,
that gives them another reasonto stop at their place.
But I love and I heard you talkabout that before about getting
those family dinners and beinga part of that routine is really
important.
Driving that regularity.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
You're reminding me of something I'm supposed to say
in every interview and I alwaysforget.
But when people put in a crispycrunchy, they're not just
making the money from the crispycrunchy.
We see that when an operatorputs in a crispy crunchy, their
overall merchandise sales andtheir overall traffic go up,
because people see that as anoccasion and they see that as a
(15:30):
reason to add on a gallon ofmilk or a six pack of Mountain
Dew or what have you.
And that's really important.
My own brother, who you know,I've been with this brand almost
three years.
He's a plant manager inGastonia, north Carolina, and
last year he called me and saidhey, I checked out Crispy
Crunchy and I was like dude,it's been two years.
Thank God my salary is notbased on your adoption rate.
(15:51):
But he said it's so good.
And I was like I told you itwas so good.
And he's like I know, but youknow how you are, you get
whatever you're doing, you loveit.
And so every Monday now he goesto the same little convenience
store owned by this elderlycouple and the woman knows him
and she's like oh, your fourdrumsticks and a biscuit.
And he's like I'm here for myfour drums, but he's always
picking up a lottery ticket orsome fix, a flat or whatever
(16:13):
else he's going to pick up.
And now they have this regularguest based on this taste
experience that they can offer.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
I love that.
Now, alice, this is going to bethe hardest question of your
day, because you know everyone,but who is someone in the
restaurant industry thatdeserves an ovation?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Some people have heard me talk about this before,
but I have been involved inbusiness with a guy named Jason
Abelkop for a long time.
I worked for him for a longtime.
He was a mentor of mine.
He's also now just a friend ofmine and we use his agency,
plain Air.
I think Plain Air in particular,and Jason especially,
understand the restaurantindustry better than anybody
(16:51):
else.
They do a lot of stuff, butthey specialize in restaurants
small and mid-sized restaurants.
They understand and theyunderstand the economics and the
insights that drive it, andwhenever I'm thinking through a
thorny problem or have an idea,I call Jason and say this is
what I'm thinking and he helpsme contextualize it the way he
does for all his clients.
He also has a head of analyticsand a lot of marketers don't
(17:15):
embrace analytics the way I wishthey would or actually I hope
they don't because it's at theirperil A name, karen Anderson,
who's particularly brilliant andhelps you understand your
pricing position and how yourdigital side works or doesn't
work, and helps you just get themath right, and I think more
people should talk to them.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
That is the only as I tell people it's called, it's
Plain Air and that is the onlyIPA that I take, because that is
a love, what they do, greatgroup.
I'm actually fortunate enoughto occasionally be able to hang
out with them on a podcast thatwe host.
So Jason, his co-CEO, abhinavKapoor, and I we do a podcast
talking about the industrytrends and anyway, it's fun to
(17:58):
connect and learn from himbecause, yes, totally agree, him
and his plein airs isphenomenal.
Now, the easiest question thatyou will get all week, alice, is
where do we go to find andfollow you?
And Crispy Crunchy Chicken?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, so we're all over the socials.
It's at Crispy Crunchy Chickenwe're also.
You can go to our website,which is crispycrunchycom.
There's a great store locatoron there.
If you don't know where yourlocal one is, we're happy to
direct you on it and pleasefollow us.
We have a lot of fun.
We don't take ourselvesseriously and would love to
share more of who we are withpeople.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
However, they want to engage with us.
Awesome.
Well, thanks, alice, and forgiving us a bit of crispy
happiness on the way home.
Today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you for joining us onGive an Ovation.
Thank you, matt, I reallyappreciate it.
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
(18:53):
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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