July 15, 2025 • 17 mins
Drew Kimball, Relationship Manager at SpotOn, joins Zack Oates to talk about what it really takes to build lasting relationships in hospitality. With over 15 years in B2B sales and a background in restaurants, Drew shares stories from his work with operators, his time as a game store owner, and how he helps brands improve guest experience, efficiency, and revenue.
Zack and Drew discuss:
- Why relationship-building is Drew’s business superpower
- The four “core” pillars every restaurant should focus on
- Real-world examples of improving table turn and guest feedback
- How to provide value through authentic, personal connection
- What a board game store has to do with hospitality
Thanks, Drew!
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drew-kimball-844a1912/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/spoton/
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 you can
use to create a five-star guestexperience.
This podcast is powered byOvation, the feedback and
operations platform built formulti-unit restaurants.
Learn what is actuallyhappening at your restaurants
(00:23):
and how to improve without along survey.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And today I've got one of mygood buddies, drew Kimball, on.
Today.
He's a relationship manager atSpotOn.
He's been there for 15 years.
He's got an amazing socialmedia game.
He is a world-renownednetworker.
I mean, this guy just knowseveryone is just so great at
(00:45):
giving up his time and histhoughts and he's also part
owner in a game store.
But anyway, most of all, he'sjust like a good, straight up
guy.
So, drew, welcome to thepodcast man.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Thank you.
Thank you, Zach.
You have such good energy andperfect hair and your style is
so good.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I just dig your whole vibe and aura is like oh, I
want to be like zach when I growup.
Oh, geez, well, you know whatin like 30 years, when you look
as old as I do, you, uh maydecide what you want to do.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I got the greys just up, though I'm hiding them, yeah
well, drew, you've got such afascinating background.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
You're doing so many cool things, but one of the
things I especially want to diginto is your ability to connect
with people, because you arelike hospitality through and
through.
You care about the people thatyou work with, and so I'd love
to just get your take on.
What is your philosophy onbuilding relationships
(01:45):
philosophy on buildingrelationships?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Oh man, that's my favorite question.
Thanks for starting with that.
So everyone has their strengths.
My superpower is making friendsand it all stems back to 2004.
I decided to go serve an LBSchurch mission.
I went to Houston, Texas,southwest Louisiana.
I cleaned up homes afterHurricane Katrina, hurricane
Rita.
I just love talking to peopleand making connections and
making new friends and servingpeople.
(02:07):
It's all in our blood and ourculture here in Utah.
But after that I went and diddoor-to-door sales for a summer
sales company called First LineSecurity and it was in that
office that I started recruitingand learning the power of
managing and being a mentor andtraining people out on the doors
.
Because I was having success.
I was the top first year salesrep for that company as a
(02:28):
fortune, I think, 500 companyand I ended up being their top
first year sales rep that yearin 07.
And I don't know, I just afterdoor to door sales because
everyone's like, oh, that's sucha grind.
It is a grind, say what youwill about door to door people,
but it builds character and Ijust it was a means to an end.
I basically left that industryin 08.
They basically the recessioncame and destroyed a lot of the
(02:51):
companies so I didn't get backin checks properly.
This is a roundabout way toanswer your question, but I
ended up going into B2B sales.
I've been in restaurants mywhole life.
So I started out under thetable 13 year old kid going to a
place called Hein Mike's poolbilliards in Sandy, utah and I
would wash dishes andessentially clean up after the
chef and I ended up loving thatwork there until I was about 15.
(03:15):
And then they closed and Iended up going to work as a
server dishwasher host forfrontier pies, if you remember
that.
Oh yeah, I think they still haveone in Idaho.
I've worked every position in arestaurant except line cook and
manager owner, but I love it,love the guest experience, so
we'll get into that.
But when I went into B2B salesI was a food broker and
(03:36):
distributor for a group calledthe Nutty Guys.
It was a Utah's ownmanufacturer that would enrobe
nuts in chocolate, chocolate,cinnamon berries, yogurt,
pretzels, that kind of stuff andI ended up selling it here,
local, and distributingthroughout like mom pop
locations in Utah.
And then I ended up opening adistribution franchise or
territory for them in Houston,texas and I was their number one
(03:59):
outside distributor, sales anddistributing.
I moved a lot of product.
I just fell in love with chefsand cafes and managers in the
restaurant, retail space,hospitality space.
And I think my favorite thingabout to answer your question
more directly is I read thisbook in college called how to
win friends and influence peopleby Dale Carnegie.
(04:19):
Yeah, I love it.
There's a quote in there.
It still resonates in my mind.
He says it's more important tobe interested than interesting.
So, like when you're makingconnections, it's all about how
can I help you, not what's in itfor me and I feel like in this
day and age we have a look at meor what's in it for me attitude
, especially amongst, like,social media influencers and
(04:40):
subscribers.
And it's just like for me,working with restaurants the
passionate ones, the ones thatare successful it's all about
the guest experience.
It's all about, hey, I want toimprove what people say about my
restaurant, not just, oh, itwas cheap, or food was good or
whatever.
It's all about the whole, theambience of the restaurant, the
entire of the people that workthere, the style, the vibe,
(05:02):
everything matters, all thoselittle details, right.
So relationship management'skind of like that for me.
It's all about like, do weconnect on a personal level,
like me and you do, zach, I seelike good things in our future
with business.
And then also it's just who doyou want to know and how can I
open a door for you?
So, understanding what yourtarget market is, it helps me go
(05:22):
.
Okay, let's play the who do youknow game, but then let's make
those introductions so it's apersonality fit, not just a.
You guys should do businesstogether because of you're in
the same industry.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, and I think that's something that so many
people are like hey, we shoulddo something together or we
should like connect.
But, dude, you have been so goodat the follow-up, the texting,
making sure that we keep intouch as opposed to because you
know you and I meet a lot ofpeople, yeah, and it's just so
rare that I meet someone who'slike actually follows through on
(05:53):
, like, yeah, let's actuallylike do something.
We got our families togetherand we went to like a roller
rink slash what fun center oneof my clients, classic Classic
Fun Center.
I've been going there since 93or 94, like my whole life into
(06:26):
your store, seeing you talk topeople, seeing you engage with
your clients it's like you getthat.
It's about a great experienceand so, based on what you've
seen and based on your 15 yearsin this industry, what do you
think is the most importantaspect of guest experience
nowadays?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Oh man, that's a good question.
So you're in the review space,you understand the power of a
word of mouth, referral, rightand you understand that when you
go to a restaurant and you sayme and my wife had a great
experience, that is going tohave an impact.
If you go to your friends, theydo not go there.
It was a terrible environment,the staff was mean, they didn't
refill my drinks all thosethings.
(06:58):
That's going to resonate withyour friends too.
So we are consumers, but we arealso sales billboards for these
restaurants, right?
They?
don't understand that we word ofmouth is everything.
So to me, as a company, spot ona software tech company, it's a
system built by restaurantowners for restaurant owners and
(07:18):
I love to be a part of thatbecause their end goal is to
improve the efficiency of thebusiness, the guest experience
and overall revenue.
So my sure is it says spot oncore.
It stands for customers,operations, revenue and
employees.
It's the four components.
The core components of anyrestaurant is the customers.
First right Operations Ifyou're not getting good food
(07:40):
costs, you don't have a systemin place, you're going to fail
your revenue what do you make amonth?
But more importantly, what doyou keep?
And then employees it's hard tofind good help in this market
right now.
So how do you keep youremployees tied into the vision
of the business and the missionstatement?
And those things are soimportant.
So our company is dedicated toimproving the core, the four
(08:01):
things.
I love that, man, and not just,you know, workout shirt like
core.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I love that man and not just like make all of your
life work right.
We're things in there to helpimprove things that have always
been done.
From the beginning ofrestaurant history in ancient
Rome right To today, you havethe same basic things.
It's just a matter of howquickly, how efficiently and how
much visibility do you haveinto what's actually happening,
and that's where technologycomes in.
A matter of how quickly, howefficiently and how much
visibility do you have intowhat's actually happening, and
that's where technology comes in.
(08:49):
And nowadays, a lot of this istable stakes, right.
But when you look at yourclients, what have you seen of
who's producing a great guestexperience and what are some
tactics that you've seen thatcreate that great guest
experience?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Well, a restaurant I took you to I'm going to
highlight Zach is Pat's Barbecuein Salt Lake City, utah.
This is a staple barbecuerestaurant.
It's a one location currently.
They had multiple butpre-pandemic changed owners and
they've done a phenomenal job ofinteracting with the
communities.
They host a Connect Utah toSalt Lake networking group there
on Thursdays.
(09:23):
They just do a lot of catering.
So what I've seen is they wentfrom toast to spot on and, from
a point of sale providerperspective is they really
wanted to cut down the wait timefrom running around with a
handheld and taking people'scredit cards, and so we put QR
code ordering checkoutexperience on the receipts.
(09:44):
So you make an order, zach, yougot your receipt and you had to
dip and get back to SpanishFork, which that mean coming up
here to eat lunch with me wasawesome, and then you probably
scanned Apple Pay on thatreceipt and bounced yeah and
didn't have to ask forpermission.
You're not a hostage at therestaurant, you're a guest.
You could do that, and so ourfeedback from them was everyone
(10:04):
likes that, they like to to beable to pay and go, and a big
group of 60 people there forlunch.
They all run businesses,they're self-employed and so
they don't have every minutecounts.
They don't want to wait in lineto check out.
So efficiency is key whenrunning any business.
But for them, table turn meansmore revenue, so we have to
figure out ways to kind ofimprove that from every aspect.
(10:27):
I think another great thingabout working with them is Biz,
the GM there.
She's constantly interested infeedback and reviews, which is
kind of where you come in, andso making these connections from
my network is like if I can'tdo everything for the business,
I know the professionals thatcan.
So plug for Ovation it's like,hey, you need to talk to Zach,
(10:47):
and so you'll get that meetinghere shortly.
My friends are your friends, soit's all about for me like, hey
, what keeps you up at night,what's running the business
right, what's hurting thebusiness?
And taking that puzzle apartand just having a second set of
eyes to be like I have somepeople that could help, and then
making introductions.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
I appreciate that man , because you get this and your
ability to make thoseconnections, because you know so
many people, you're constantlylike hey, can I help here?
Can I help here, like in insuch a helpful way that people
can't help but just be like manwe love drew.
Not only you, nice guy, butyou're someone who's very
(11:24):
helpful and I think that'sincredible to the point that you
got involved in a game storeand I'd love to just like dive
in quickly to that story.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah.
So I have a lot of clients thatI manage and I'm vertical
agnostic.
So restaurants are my mainfocus and vertical especially
for spot on.
But I have a lot of like whatwe call retail or non-restaur
restaurant accounts with spot on.
And being in relationshipmanagement for 15 years in B2B
sales, what I've learned is youhave to provide massive value
(11:57):
with more than going above andbeyond the same, with
restaurants going above andbeyond the experience.
So to get in the game store, Ihave to tell you this story.
I have a client from Pakistanand she would always ask me for
referrals and most of them shewould send running because she
was a really skilled negotiator.
I think it's a cultural thing,but she loved to haggle, so they
I would kind of prep my network.
(12:17):
Hey, go in, but you're notgoing to get the cell on the
first visit.
You have to learn her needs andyou have to be budget conscious
to her bottom line, because shewill never pay full price for
anything.
I ended up networking with herso well and understanding her
buying mentality so well thateveryone I would send her she
would call me and be Drew.
This was fantastic, this personhelped me I grew my business or
(12:42):
got someone for my home.
She's like you're like mypersonal Angie's List, I don't
go to Google.
I don't go to Google, I don'tgo to Angie's List or Facebook
Marketplace.
I call you and say Drew, who doyou know?
I know you got a guy or a galfor this.
So Zig Ziglar said it this wayand I like this quote.
It's my favorite quote you canhave anything in this world you
want if you'll help enoughpeople get what they want.
So it's all about the law ofreciprocity, right?
(13:04):
So with the game store actuallya kind of funny story I've done
Jeff's merchant accounts forhis storage units for years with
Spot On and he loved doingbusiness with me.
We built a friendship and it wasduring the pandemic.
Our church was sendingmissionaries international from
Utah and other states, but thosecountries were essentially
shutting down and it was so muchunknown, Right?
(13:26):
So lots of missionaries gotsent home from Brazil and the
Philippines and Mexico andessentially our church was
putting them in hotels.
So I offered them a chance tolive with the Kimball's, which
my wife still hates me for thatbut they ended up.
Here's my dog.
They ended up moving into thebasement for a year and every
night because they couldn'treally go out they would finish
(13:47):
their like missionary work.
We would play like settlers ofkatan, or we would play like
exploding kittens or doomlingsor just like they would play
magic the gathering.
And so jeff would come over,play games and be like dude.
We should start a game store.
And then I'm like, yeah, that'sa great idea, there's no money
in that.
So he no, the community isalive and well in Utah.
(14:08):
He started a company called GameHaven and sold it after they
got to multiple locations andhad a nice exit from that and
then essentially opened a storeand I set up the merchant
account for him and then endedup.
He needed some money and so Iinvested in it and been a part
of it, so it's called Galaxy ofGames, or in Harriman Utah.
We in it and been a part of it,so it's called Galaxy of Games
(14:28):
or in Harriman Utah.
We started in West Jordan andwe were in a 3000 square foot
building and I would do a lot ofnetworking there and expose
people to the store thatotherwise wouldn't know about
the story, like are naturallyinterested in those things.
But it's such a fun community Idon't take a paycheck on the
store right now, but we'rereinvesting all the profit into
the store.
It's going great.
We just built a location inHarriman, 6,000 square feet.
So we're doing the ribboncutting August 23rd.
(14:50):
So everyone listening and Zach,you guys got to mark your
calendars.
August 23rd all day, raffles,ribbon cutting, food trucks the
whole nine August 23rd.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
I just put that down on my desk now because I want to
remember that Drew, who issomeone that deserves an ovation
on my desk now, because I wantto remember that drew, who is
someone that deserves an ovation.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Who's someone that we should be following?
I would say pat's barbecue andI would say donut star, donut
star.
One best of state for theircronuts.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Those are good and a donut.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, and dave and his wife bless her heart, she's
gone through cancer I just love,love, love the way Dave goes to
market.
He is in his business makingthose donuts.
He's got two locations Draperin South Jordan and I mean he's
one of the hardest workers Iknow.
I've worked with him throughall the challenges and the tech
issues, from internet to pointof sale outages, to all the
(15:42):
frustrating things of running abusiness, and Dave remains
consistent and has always beenloyal to me and I just from the
bottom of my heart when helistens to this, like go to
Donut Star, get yourself somedonuts, get a Cronut.
You'll thank me later.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
There we go Love that man Drew.
How can people find and followyou?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
I have a YouTube channel now it's called Drew
Kimble and I have a Dr Strangeprofile picture that all my
friends are nerds and they say Ilook like Dr Strange, so we
went full Dr Strange headshotfor that.
And then, obviously, facebook,instagram Drew underscore
Kimball.
Linkedin we weren't connectedon LinkedIn, now we are, so I
(16:22):
can't believe that.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Well, good, I know we righted a deep wrong.
Well, drew, for not just beingone in a hundred, but for being
one in a million, today'sovation goes to you.
Thank you for joining us onGive an Ovation.
Thanks, man.
Thanks for joining us today.
If you like this episode, leaveus a review on Apple Podcasts
or your favorite place to listen.
We're all about feedback here.
Again, this episode wassponsored by Ovation, a
(16:49):
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 you can
use to create a five-star guestexperience.
This podcast is powered byOvation, the feedback and
operations platform built formulti-unit restaurants.
Learn what is actuallyhappening at your restaurants
(00:23):
and how to improve without along survey.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And today I've got one of mygood buddies, drew Kimball, on.
Today.
He's a relationship manager atSpotOn.
He's been there for 15 years.
He's got an amazing socialmedia game.
He is a world-renownednetworker.
I mean, this guy just knowseveryone is just so great at
(00:45):
giving up his time and histhoughts and he's also part
owner in a game store.
But anyway, most of all, he'sjust like a good, straight up
guy.
So, drew, welcome to thepodcast man.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Thank you.
Thank you, Zach.
You have such good energy andperfect hair and your style is
so good.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I just dig your whole vibe and aura is like oh, I
want to be like zach when I growup.
Oh, geez, well, you know whatin like 30 years, when you look
as old as I do, you, uh maydecide what you want to do.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I got the greys just up, though I'm hiding them, yeah
well, drew, you've got such afascinating background.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
You're doing so many cool things, but one of the
things I especially want to diginto is your ability to connect
with people, because you arelike hospitality through and
through.
You care about the people thatyou work with, and so I'd love
to just get your take on.
What is your philosophy onbuilding relationships
(01:45):
philosophy on buildingrelationships?
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Oh man, that's my favorite question.
Thanks for starting with that.
So everyone has their strengths.
My superpower is making friendsand it all stems back to 2004.
I decided to go serve an LBSchurch mission.
I went to Houston, Texas,southwest Louisiana.
I cleaned up homes afterHurricane Katrina, hurricane
Rita.
I just love talking to peopleand making connections and
making new friends and servingpeople.
(02:07):
It's all in our blood and ourculture here in Utah.
But after that I went and diddoor-to-door sales for a summer
sales company called First LineSecurity and it was in that
office that I started recruitingand learning the power of
managing and being a mentor andtraining people out on the doors
.
Because I was having success.
I was the top first year salesrep for that company as a
(02:28):
fortune, I think, 500 companyand I ended up being their top
first year sales rep that yearin 07.
And I don't know, I just afterdoor to door sales because
everyone's like, oh, that's sucha grind.
It is a grind, say what youwill about door to door people,
but it builds character and Ijust it was a means to an end.
I basically left that industryin 08.
They basically the recessioncame and destroyed a lot of the
(02:51):
companies so I didn't get backin checks properly.
This is a roundabout way toanswer your question, but I
ended up going into B2B sales.
I've been in restaurants mywhole life.
So I started out under thetable 13 year old kid going to a
place called Hein Mike's poolbilliards in Sandy, utah and I
would wash dishes andessentially clean up after the
chef and I ended up loving thatwork there until I was about 15.
(03:15):
And then they closed and Iended up going to work as a
server dishwasher host forfrontier pies, if you remember
that.
Oh yeah, I think they still haveone in Idaho.
I've worked every position in arestaurant except line cook and
manager owner, but I love it,love the guest experience, so
we'll get into that.
But when I went into B2B salesI was a food broker and
(03:36):
distributor for a group calledthe Nutty Guys.
It was a Utah's ownmanufacturer that would enrobe
nuts in chocolate, chocolate,cinnamon berries, yogurt,
pretzels, that kind of stuff andI ended up selling it here,
local, and distributingthroughout like mom pop
locations in Utah.
And then I ended up opening adistribution franchise or
territory for them in Houston,texas and I was their number one
(03:59):
outside distributor, sales anddistributing.
I moved a lot of product.
I just fell in love with chefsand cafes and managers in the
restaurant, retail space,hospitality space.
And I think my favorite thingabout to answer your question
more directly is I read thisbook in college called how to
win friends and influence peopleby Dale Carnegie.
(04:19):
Yeah, I love it.
There's a quote in there.
It still resonates in my mind.
He says it's more important tobe interested than interesting.
So, like when you're makingconnections, it's all about how
can I help you, not what's in itfor me and I feel like in this
day and age we have a look at meor what's in it for me attitude
, especially amongst, like,social media influencers and
(04:40):
subscribers.
And it's just like for me,working with restaurants the
passionate ones, the ones thatare successful it's all about
the guest experience.
It's all about, hey, I want toimprove what people say about my
restaurant, not just, oh, itwas cheap, or food was good or
whatever.
It's all about the whole, theambience of the restaurant, the
entire of the people that workthere, the style, the vibe,
(05:02):
everything matters, all thoselittle details, right.
So relationship management'skind of like that for me.
It's all about like, do weconnect on a personal level,
like me and you do, zach, I seelike good things in our future
with business.
And then also it's just who doyou want to know and how can I
open a door for you?
So, understanding what yourtarget market is, it helps me go
(05:22):
.
Okay, let's play the who do youknow game, but then let's make
those introductions so it's apersonality fit, not just a.
You guys should do businesstogether because of you're in
the same industry.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, and I think that's something that so many
people are like hey, we shoulddo something together or we
should like connect.
But, dude, you have been so goodat the follow-up, the texting,
making sure that we keep intouch as opposed to because you
know you and I meet a lot ofpeople, yeah, and it's just so
rare that I meet someone who'slike actually follows through on
(05:53):
, like, yeah, let's actuallylike do something.
We got our families togetherand we went to like a roller
rink slash what fun center oneof my clients, classic Classic
Fun Center.
I've been going there since 93or 94, like my whole life into
(06:26):
your store, seeing you talk topeople, seeing you engage with
your clients it's like you getthat.
It's about a great experienceand so, based on what you've
seen and based on your 15 yearsin this industry, what do you
think is the most importantaspect of guest experience
nowadays?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Oh man, that's a good question.
So you're in the review space,you understand the power of a
word of mouth, referral, rightand you understand that when you
go to a restaurant and you sayme and my wife had a great
experience, that is going tohave an impact.
If you go to your friends, theydo not go there.
It was a terrible environment,the staff was mean, they didn't
refill my drinks all thosethings.
(06:58):
That's going to resonate withyour friends too.
So we are consumers, but we arealso sales billboards for these
restaurants, right?
They?
don't understand that we word ofmouth is everything.
So to me, as a company, spot ona software tech company, it's a
system built by restaurantowners for restaurant owners and
(07:18):
I love to be a part of thatbecause their end goal is to
improve the efficiency of thebusiness, the guest experience
and overall revenue.
So my sure is it says spot oncore.
It stands for customers,operations, revenue and
employees.
It's the four components.
The core components of anyrestaurant is the customers.
First right Operations Ifyou're not getting good food
(07:40):
costs, you don't have a systemin place, you're going to fail
your revenue what do you make amonth?
But more importantly, what doyou keep?
And then employees it's hard tofind good help in this market
right now.
So how do you keep youremployees tied into the vision
of the business and the missionstatement?
And those things are soimportant.
So our company is dedicated toimproving the core, the four
(08:01):
things.
I love that, man, and not just,you know, workout shirt like
core.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
I love that man and not just like make all of your
life work right.
We're things in there to helpimprove things that have always
been done.
From the beginning ofrestaurant history in ancient
Rome right To today, you havethe same basic things.
It's just a matter of howquickly, how efficiently and how
much visibility do you haveinto what's actually happening,
and that's where technologycomes in.
A matter of how quickly, howefficiently and how much
visibility do you have intowhat's actually happening, and
that's where technology comes in.
(08:49):
And nowadays, a lot of this istable stakes, right.
But when you look at yourclients, what have you seen of
who's producing a great guestexperience and what are some
tactics that you've seen thatcreate that great guest
experience?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Well, a restaurant I took you to I'm going to
highlight Zach is Pat's Barbecuein Salt Lake City, utah.
This is a staple barbecuerestaurant.
It's a one location currently.
They had multiple butpre-pandemic changed owners and
they've done a phenomenal job ofinteracting with the
communities.
They host a Connect Utah toSalt Lake networking group there
on Thursdays.
(09:23):
They just do a lot of catering.
So what I've seen is they wentfrom toast to spot on and, from
a point of sale providerperspective is they really
wanted to cut down the wait timefrom running around with a
handheld and taking people'scredit cards, and so we put QR
code ordering checkoutexperience on the receipts.
(09:44):
So you make an order, zach, yougot your receipt and you had to
dip and get back to SpanishFork, which that mean coming up
here to eat lunch with me wasawesome, and then you probably
scanned Apple Pay on thatreceipt and bounced yeah and
didn't have to ask forpermission.
You're not a hostage at therestaurant, you're a guest.
You could do that, and so ourfeedback from them was everyone
(10:04):
likes that, they like to to beable to pay and go, and a big
group of 60 people there forlunch.
They all run businesses,they're self-employed and so
they don't have every minutecounts.
They don't want to wait in lineto check out.
So efficiency is key whenrunning any business.
But for them, table turn meansmore revenue, so we have to
figure out ways to kind ofimprove that from every aspect.
(10:27):
I think another great thingabout working with them is Biz,
the GM there.
She's constantly interested infeedback and reviews, which is
kind of where you come in, andso making these connections from
my network is like if I can'tdo everything for the business,
I know the professionals thatcan.
So plug for Ovation it's like,hey, you need to talk to Zach,
(10:47):
and so you'll get that meetinghere shortly.
My friends are your friends, soit's all about for me like, hey
, what keeps you up at night,what's running the business
right, what's hurting thebusiness?
And taking that puzzle apartand just having a second set of
eyes to be like I have somepeople that could help, and then
making introductions.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
I appreciate that man , because you get this and your
ability to make thoseconnections, because you know so
many people, you're constantlylike hey, can I help here?
Can I help here, like in insuch a helpful way that people
can't help but just be like manwe love drew.
Not only you, nice guy, butyou're someone who's very
(11:24):
helpful and I think that'sincredible to the point that you
got involved in a game storeand I'd love to just like dive
in quickly to that story.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah.
So I have a lot of clients thatI manage and I'm vertical
agnostic.
So restaurants are my mainfocus and vertical especially
for spot on.
But I have a lot of like whatwe call retail or non-restaur
restaurant accounts with spot on.
And being in relationshipmanagement for 15 years in B2B
sales, what I've learned is youhave to provide massive value
(11:57):
with more than going above andbeyond the same, with
restaurants going above andbeyond the experience.
So to get in the game store, Ihave to tell you this story.
I have a client from Pakistanand she would always ask me for
referrals and most of them shewould send running because she
was a really skilled negotiator.
I think it's a cultural thing,but she loved to haggle, so they
I would kind of prep my network.
(12:17):
Hey, go in, but you're notgoing to get the cell on the
first visit.
You have to learn her needs andyou have to be budget conscious
to her bottom line, because shewill never pay full price for
anything.
I ended up networking with herso well and understanding her
buying mentality so well thateveryone I would send her she
would call me and be Drew.
This was fantastic, this personhelped me I grew my business or
(12:42):
got someone for my home.
She's like you're like mypersonal Angie's List, I don't
go to Google.
I don't go to Google, I don'tgo to Angie's List or Facebook
Marketplace.
I call you and say Drew, who doyou know?
I know you got a guy or a galfor this.
So Zig Ziglar said it this wayand I like this quote.
It's my favorite quote you canhave anything in this world you
want if you'll help enoughpeople get what they want.
So it's all about the law ofreciprocity, right?
(13:04):
So with the game store actuallya kind of funny story I've done
Jeff's merchant accounts forhis storage units for years with
Spot On and he loved doingbusiness with me.
We built a friendship and it wasduring the pandemic.
Our church was sendingmissionaries international from
Utah and other states, but thosecountries were essentially
shutting down and it was so muchunknown, Right?
(13:26):
So lots of missionaries gotsent home from Brazil and the
Philippines and Mexico andessentially our church was
putting them in hotels.
So I offered them a chance tolive with the Kimball's, which
my wife still hates me for thatbut they ended up.
Here's my dog.
They ended up moving into thebasement for a year and every
night because they couldn'treally go out they would finish
(13:47):
their like missionary work.
We would play like settlers ofkatan, or we would play like
exploding kittens or doomlingsor just like they would play
magic the gathering.
And so jeff would come over,play games and be like dude.
We should start a game store.
And then I'm like, yeah, that'sa great idea, there's no money
in that.
So he no, the community isalive and well in Utah.
(14:08):
He started a company called GameHaven and sold it after they
got to multiple locations andhad a nice exit from that and
then essentially opened a storeand I set up the merchant
account for him and then endedup.
He needed some money and so Iinvested in it and been a part
of it, so it's called Galaxy ofGames, or in Harriman Utah.
We in it and been a part of it,so it's called Galaxy of Games
(14:28):
or in Harriman Utah.
We started in West Jordan andwe were in a 3000 square foot
building and I would do a lot ofnetworking there and expose
people to the store thatotherwise wouldn't know about
the story, like are naturallyinterested in those things.
But it's such a fun community Idon't take a paycheck on the
store right now, but we'rereinvesting all the profit into
the store.
It's going great.
We just built a location inHarriman, 6,000 square feet.
So we're doing the ribboncutting August 23rd.
(14:50):
So everyone listening and Zach,you guys got to mark your
calendars.
August 23rd all day, raffles,ribbon cutting, food trucks the
whole nine August 23rd.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
I just put that down on my desk now because I want to
remember that Drew, who issomeone that deserves an ovation
on my desk now, because I wantto remember that drew, who is
someone that deserves an ovation.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Who's someone that we should be following?
I would say pat's barbecue andI would say donut star, donut
star.
One best of state for theircronuts.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Those are good and a donut.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, and dave and his wife bless her heart, she's
gone through cancer I just love,love, love the way Dave goes to
market.
He is in his business makingthose donuts.
He's got two locations Draperin South Jordan and I mean he's
one of the hardest workers Iknow.
I've worked with him throughall the challenges and the tech
issues, from internet to pointof sale outages, to all the
(15:42):
frustrating things of running abusiness, and Dave remains
consistent and has always beenloyal to me and I just from the
bottom of my heart when helistens to this, like go to
Donut Star, get yourself somedonuts, get a Cronut.
You'll thank me later.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
There we go Love that man Drew.
How can people find and followyou?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
I have a YouTube channel now it's called Drew
Kimble and I have a Dr Strangeprofile picture that all my
friends are nerds and they say Ilook like Dr Strange, so we
went full Dr Strange headshotfor that.
And then, obviously, facebook,instagram Drew underscore
Kimball.
Linkedin we weren't connectedon LinkedIn, now we are, so I
(16:22):
can't believe that.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Well, good, I know we righted a deep wrong.
Well, drew, for not just beingone in a hundred, but for being
one in a million, today'sovation goes to you.
Thank you for joining us onGive an Ovation.
Thanks, man.
Thanks for joining us today.
If you like this episode, leaveus a review on Apple Podcasts
or your favorite place to listen.
We're all about feedback here.
Again, this episode wassponsored by Ovation, a
(16:49):
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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