March 3, 2025 • 18 mins
Zack welcomes Julie Zucker, CMO and Partner at Branded Strategic Hospitality and producer of the Hospitality Hangout podcast. With years of experience in restaurant marketing and guest experience, Julie shares invaluable insights into building genuine guest connections, leveraging technology, and fostering a hospitality-driven culture.
Zack and Julie discuss:
- The power of personalized guest interactions
- How technology enhances hospitality without replacing it
- The role of staff engagement in brand growth
- Why guest feedback is crucial for restaurant success
- Julie’s journey from restaurant marketing to industry leadership
Follow Julie and Branded Strategic Hospitality:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-zucker-41895b2/
https://brandedstrategic.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, 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 have someone who'snot just a friend but someone
who's been a mentor and just anincredible human bringing this
industry up, and she is the tidethat lifts all boats.
I feel like she's a CMO andpartner at Branded Strategic
Hospitality and the chief partyplanner, and she also manages
(00:42):
the Hospitality Hangout podcast.
But, julie, welcome to thepodcast.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Thank you, Zach.
I'm so honored to be here andwhen you texted me say, Julie,
we got to get you on I was superexcited.
As you mentioned, I produce theHospitality Hangout podcast, so
I'm usually behind the scenesbooking guests, writing scripts,
doing post-production.
So to have the opportunity tobe on camera with someone like
yourself, who is a friend and apartner, it means a lot.
(01:06):
So thrilled to be here, and I'malso a huge fan of your podcast
and what gets me every time andI've told you this before is I
get a ton of emails.
Everyone gets a ton of emails.
Your emails get my attentionand I'm like, hopefully that's
emailing me and I love the wayyou recap your episodes and I
still listen to them becauseyou're giving me enough to be
like, okay, I know what I'mabout to listen to, but you
didn't give me everything that Ireally want to take a listen.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, well, that's the goal, right?
It's like let's give them alittle bit, so that way, if they
want to read the email andstill get some points out of it,
that's great.
I don't want you to have tolisten to the podcast and by the
(01:49):
time they get to work, thepodcast is wrapped up.
So that's the goal here.
Now, julie, you know everyonein this industry.
I mean, everyone knows you.
You know everyone, and you'renot just coming at this from a
non-restaurant perspective,because in the branded portfolio
there are restaurants.
You work with those restaurantsas well.
If you were to sit down with agrowing brand and they said
(02:14):
Julie, what are some things thatI should look at to make sure
that I'm growing my brandcorrectly?
What would you have them focuson?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Great question and I do want to take a one before I
answer that question.
To sidebar, a lot of peopledon't realize this about me is
that I started off my time atbranded I've been here, which
just celebrated 13 years.
I ran all of our marketing forall of our restaurants before
branded hospitality ventures,when we were just branded
restaurants.
So I did transition alongsideChatsy and Jimmy.
And now I remember when we wereconceptualizing branded and
(02:43):
building out the company, Ibuilt the first website and
Jimmy was standing over myshoulder with Chatsy at his desk
and we were coming up with ourtagline.
So branded really does mean somuch for me because I've grown
with it.
But back to my restaurant days.
I literally started off.
I was in charge of allmarketing for all of our New
York City restaurants and thatalso was at the time when we
started tech implementation.
(03:04):
So I also was in charge ofmaking sure, when we added new
technologies, that our managersknew about it, our servers knew
about it and also Zach.
One of the first things Ialways did when I started was
reviews.
So I personally responded toevery single review.
that came into our restaurants,and I think that there was a few
platforms that aggregated themand you could respond in one
(03:25):
place.
But no, why would I make mylife easier?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I literally would go into.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yelp and respond directly in Yelp, and go into
Google and respond directly inGoogle.
We use a service called RewardsNetwork.
So I really strongly havealways believed in customer
communication and feedback.
So I kind of then going back toyour question of me, I really
think that's the most importantthing, that any restaurant
operator I don't care what sizeyou are you could be a one
(03:53):
location, small one, you couldbe multi-unit, you can be
franchised If you are notcommunicating with your guests,
then what are you doing?
That is the key to success,right?
Because we don't open uprestaurants to serve our family.
Well, we do serve our familyand our friends and our other
employees and staff, but we doit for our customers who become
our guests.
So if you're not gettingfeedback in the right ways and
(04:15):
being able to not only get thatfeedback but not take it
personally and use it tocustomize your experience and
help your experience goingforward, I think that's the one
thing.
Of course there's good food.
Of course there's good service,right.
But how are you going to knowthat the good food and good
service if someone isn't goingto tell you?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, and I think that, as you look at this, one
of the things that you do sowell is just caring about the
individual people, and when youlook at hospitality, it is a
hand-to-hand combat event.
It is not something that you'respeaking to a big audience of
people, but it's a thousandmicro moments and you have to
(04:53):
make sure when I'm making a cake, for example.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Chocolate or vanilla.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Oh, neither I'm like a banana cake kind of guy.
I know, I know it's weird.
I love banana cake and it's myfavorite cake.
So anyway, as I'm making thebanana cake, my wife is like
you're like so OCD with thefrosting.
I was like, yes, but I knowthat people are going to come
over, we're going to give themthat cake and I want every
single bite to like.
(05:17):
Make sure that they know that Icared about every single bite
and that's how it is in therestaurant industry.
When I worked in restaurants,it was about the individuals
there and if you're not ready todo hand-to-hand combat, it's
probably not a good place foryou to be right.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah, I was always sharing this story when I can.
It was my first job that I everhad.
I worked as a waitress at aHilton in my town.
They had a patio, bar and grillin the summertime and either it
was locals who would come and,instead of belonging to a
country club, or, if you didn'thave a pool, you could belong to
the Hilton pool.
I was an outdoor pool serverand I was 16 years old and I was
(05:57):
on the younger end of all theservers there.
But I remember being calledinto the corporate Hilton
manager's office and beingaccused of stealing tips because
they could not, for the life ofthem, understand how I was
getting double, triple theamount of tips than any other
server working there.
And first of all, 16 year oldJulie was like oh my God, what's
happening right now?
But then also and I do thinkthat what makes me me and I
(06:19):
don't want to look at it as abad trait, but a good trait is
I'm a little ignorant in thefact that I always look in the
positives.
For everybody and in everysituation something bad may
happen and I'm going to be glasshalf full, that like, well,
maybe something was this orsomething was happening there,
but it was an outdoor pool, itwas hot out.
I, before I even go to anytable, would just show up with
(06:41):
ice waters, because if you're ata hot pool, the first thing you
want is water.
I'd also remember the regulars'names.
I'd remember facts about theirchildren, facts about their
families, and I would also talkto them and make myself a real
human.
And I think that's kind of whenyou humanize the experience.
I think that was my firstrealizing that internally I'm
built with hospitality in me and, as a server, seeing that I was
(07:04):
able to spread my gregarity andmy love of this industry to our
customers really helped.
And no, I wasn't stealing tips.
And, yes, they understood and Ididn't get in trouble.
But uh, you know, now everyoneknows why it was a better day.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Well, but that is so awesome because that's the heart
of what we're talking about.
And the question is then how doyou translate that into your
guests?
Right Cause, it's into yourstaff, because it's so hard when
you know that it's you wereborn with it.
You were born with hospitality.
When an owner walks into arestaurant, they care so much
(07:38):
about what's going on and aboutevery single guest.
How do you translate that intothe staff?
And that's one of the thingswhere we found that technology
comes into play so well, becauseI'll talk to businesses who
they're using Ovation, forexample, and I'll see them at a
conference and they'll say thegood thing is I don't need to
worry about how my guest isbeing treated, because I know
(08:00):
that if anything goes wrong,that they can just communicate
with me and I can handle itright off the bat.
So it's nice to have that andto leverage technology not to
replace that feeling, but toenhance it and to scale it right
.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, and I think a lot of the onus is on the
managers.
Back to my marketing days atthe restaurant.
So I remember I could come upwith the most creative LTO.
I can come up with creative,awesome, fun campaigns to get
new customers, whether marketing, in-house, they're influencers.
But if I didn't get my staff onboard, I'm not in all six
restaurants at all.
Six times I'm sitting in acorporate office and they're
(08:37):
like who's this girl that popsher head in an hour a day, right
, you have to earn respect ofyour employees, and it was the
same thing as I would go spendtime at each of our stores.
I learned Spanish so I couldspeak to our kitchen staff,
which was a part of my language.
You know it was kitchen Spanish.
I learned kitchen Spanish, sodon't go crazy on me, but either
way, again, it was getting toknow them, finding out do they
(08:58):
have children?
What sports team do they like?
Talking to the servers, becausethen if they look at me like
somebody who wants to get toknow them, right, and that's
what we want to do with ourcustomers too People just want
to feel seen, right, and inorder for your customers to be
seen, you have to see your staffand it starts at the top.
And if you're trickling downand you're saying to your staff
(09:19):
members and getting to know them, and when you have a
conversation with someone, right, and let's just say you and I
are talking and I'm telling you,zach, I really love your hat,
that is the greatest hat.
Tell me more about that hatright, then when you're going to
someone, right, then whenyou're going to someone, maybe
that sticks in your head thatday.
And then maybe you're talkingto someone and you notice
something about them and you'relike, oh you know, Julie, I
(09:39):
really love that necklace.
It's a really fabulous necklaceand it trickles down, so it's
almost in.
You know, you're a parent, I'ma parent.
It's kind of like not do what Isay, but do as I am, or do as I
act, not do what I say.
But I think that goes towardswhether we're training our staff
or whether we're interactingwith our customers.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, because at the end of the day, we are in a
human industry.
Oh yeah, and it's easy to forgetthat because, hey, people
coming in, they're churning in,churning out, churning in,
churning out, flip a table, like, turn the table, like let's go,
let's go, let's go, but at theend of the make sure it's good
(10:17):
all along the way.
I went to this restaurant theother day.
I was seated quickly, a servercame up, brought me drinks,
great refills all the waythrough and they brought me my
check and it was in the nastiest, rattiest, broken apart bill
presenter, and I'm like how doyou nail everything and miss
this?
Because it just like left mewith such a weird taste in my
(10:41):
mouth of like I don't want totouch this.
It was disgusting, but that'sthe thing.
It's like you got to look atevery single point along the way
and the guest experience is soubiquitous nowadays, so I'd love
to get your take on what do youthink the most important aspect
of guest experience is?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
I really am going to go back to the human connection,
especially in a time whererestaurants really are becoming
so automated Not all of them.
I think that there's a placefor automation and then there's
a place for fine dining.
Some in between that will mixboth.
But I think what you weresaying is, as humans, we have
questions and we want to knowthings and we want to learn
things and we want to experiencethings.
(11:19):
So when you walk into a store,let's just say you're going
shopping and there's somebodygreeting you at the door, and if
somebody's saying to you, can Ihelp you?
And you know, maybe you knowwhat you want, but you don't
need help.
But then you're shopping,you're like, oh wait, I do need
help.
You're like, oh wait, I do needhelp.
And you're like, oh, somebodyasked if they could help me,
right?
I think it's the same thing ina restaurant, I think, if you
find yourself approachable andyou can walk in and you know
(11:41):
that there's somebody there foryou who can always help you out
in whatever you need, whetherit's a menu or whether your kid
just spilled an entire thing ofwater all over themselves in the
middle of the restauranttalking for a friend, of course,
knowing that it's okay that Ijust went to a restaurant and my
three-year-old spilled anentire glass of water on himself
and Everyone was so welcomingand kind.
(12:04):
It's like, don't worry, let ushelp you.
To me that helps yourexperience as a human right,
because things happen and, likeyou said, you had the greatest
experience, but then the checkcame.
That's human error, right.
What manager missed that right?
What server didn't think tonotice that?
And I'll say one other thingtoo.
So when you'll go to arestaurant or you'll go to an
(12:24):
office and I think I first sawthis in office where there was a
sign on the bathroom that itwas like treat this bathroom
like it was your own.
If you drop a tissue at home,are you going to pick it up or
are you going to leave it there?
Right, and I think there's thisage old which is dirtier?
Women's rooms or men's rooms?
Right, and I think like women's, because there's just like
toilet paper all over the floorbecause nobody wants to touch it
(12:45):
.
Women's, because there's justlike toilet paper all over the
floor because nobody wants totouch it.
But when you're going back tothe human experience, those are
little things that make us feelcomfortable.
If you go into a restroom andyou notice that there's been
care brought to it, and thenyou're a server and you walk
into a restaurant and you'reeven using the bathroom, you
notice it's dirty, do you as aserver just say, whatever, it's
a bathroom, I'm not touchingthat, or do you find the proper
person in your restaurant who isresponsible for cleaning it up?
(13:08):
A funny sidebar on that.
I was at a birthday party withmy son.
I took him to the bathroom thisis my older son and there was
no hand towels and there was nosoap left.
So we were in the bathroom.
I had a sanitizer in my bag,but then I walked out and I went
to the manager and I said hey,just letting you know you have
no towels or you have no handsoap.
He looks at me.
He's like you know you're thefirst person who's ever said
(13:30):
that to me or told me when we'reout of something.
He's like do you work inhospitality?
I'm like well, what the heck doI do so?
it was really interesting thathe knew that, because none of
their own staff thought to thinkabout it.
But here was someone who camein who happened to work in
hospitality.
They were the one who noticedit.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
And that is so key of helping your team realize that
they're a partner in this andhelping them feel like there's
some ownership in this for them,because it's really a
reflection of them as well.
And yeah, now, obviously, julie, like I said, you know everyone
, so I would love to hear of whois someone in the restaurant
(14:09):
industry that you feel deservesan ovation.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Who's someone that we need to be following.
Can I make it two relatedpeople?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yes, you can For you.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
For me.
For me, yes, I want to give anovation to Danny Klein and
Satine Donner.
I'm not sure exactly when thispodcast is releasing, but next
week is the Women in RestaurantLeadership Conference in
Nashville.
The two of them have really puttogether an incredible
opportunity to highlight andgive an ovation to the women in
(14:35):
the food service industry whoreally, whether they're behind
the scenes, whether they're infront of the scenes, whether
they're early in their career,late in their career, anywhere
in between, you've really givenus this opportunity to connect
with each other and kind oftaking down the barriers and
taking down the walls of thisperson does this.
This person works here andthey're bringing us together and
form this community where whatwe say matters and we can all
(14:58):
relate to each other.
So the two of them, super duper, huge ovation for putting
together this community,supporting us and including us.
Our voices matter with them andI think that's really important
to me.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
And Nashville, by the way, has one of my favorite
restaurants in the world.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Nashville's that favorite restaurants.
I'm trying to guess.
I'm trying to guess.
Give me a clue.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Well, it's not barbecue.
I know you love.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Perry's Steakhouse.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I do love Perry's.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
And you love the pork chop at Perry's.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Oh my gosh, look at this.
How do you remember this stuff,julia?
It's unreal.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I remember a lot of things about it.
I think one of my specialpowers is I remember small
details about people.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
That's really cool.
I mean, I appreciate youremembering that.
But this one is.
It's called St Vito's FocacciaRia, it's right.
By the Peg Leg Porker inNashville they have this
focaccia dough topped with cupand char pepperonis and hot
honey with some breadcrumbs.
It is unbelievable.
And they have a spaghettipomodoro.
(15:56):
I love spaghetti pomodoro.
Yeah, I mean, I've neverSpaghetti pomodoro.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
It's like, yeah, okay , cool Spaghetti yeah, don't
underestimate a really goodspaghetti pomodoro.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
This is one of the best I've ever had in my life.
Wow, Probably I can't think ofanyone where I've had it better.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I love focaccia bread .
By the way, I make really goodfocaccia bread.
Fun fact about Julie for allholidays I make a special
holiday themed focaccia.
No way I do a stuffing stylefocaccia.
I actually take the ingredientsand stuffing and bake it into
the bread and then over theholidays my family we're Jewish,
(16:31):
but we also celebrate ChristmasI make a focaccia Christmas
tree.
Really cool.
There will be heart-shapedfocaccias for Valentine's Day
tomorrow, so I go all in onfocaccia.
So you're speaking my language.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Okay.
Well, next time we see eachother you're in Jersey.
I go to Jersey all the time.
Next time I'm there, I'm goingto Thanks for calling me.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Thanks for calling me .
We do have a Jersey connection.
Fun fact, my cousin was Zach'sphys ed teacher.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yeah, phys ed teacher in high school.
Yep, I went through all theawkward conversations right
there with your cousin.
My cousin.
Well, Julie, how do people findand follow you and Branded?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Branded.
Our biggest social channel isLinkedIn.
You can look us up BrandedHospitality.
I am Julie Zucker on LinkedIn,also my personal account if you
want to get personal.
I am Pressworthy Eats onInstagram.
I post a lot of pictures of mykids and the food I eat and
photos of Zach and I atconferences.
Our selfies Zach and I atconferences.
Our selfies Zach and I.
Like who takes more selfies, meor you?
(17:27):
I?
Take more groupies yeah,because you're taller, it's a
good angle.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, long arms.
God bless me with a selfiestick.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yeah, other than brandedstrategiccom, and also
speaking of podcasts,hospitality Hangout, that's our
podcast.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
And it's a great podcast.
I've had the privilege of beingon it a couple of times on the
road, and you put on a greatshow there and make sure that
the guys stay focused.
So good job Well, julie, forreminding us all about the
humanity of hospitality and thatthe coolest borough in New York
City really is Jersey.
Today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you for joining us onGive an Ovation.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
All right, thanks, zach.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
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 have someone who'snot just a friend but someone
who's been a mentor and just anincredible human bringing this
industry up, and she is the tidethat lifts all boats.
I feel like she's a CMO andpartner at Branded Strategic
Hospitality and the chief partyplanner, and she also manages
(00:42):
the Hospitality Hangout podcast.
But, julie, welcome to thepodcast.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Thank you, Zach.
I'm so honored to be here andwhen you texted me say, Julie,
we got to get you on I was superexcited.
As you mentioned, I produce theHospitality Hangout podcast, so
I'm usually behind the scenesbooking guests, writing scripts,
doing post-production.
So to have the opportunity tobe on camera with someone like
yourself, who is a friend and apartner, it means a lot.
(01:06):
So thrilled to be here, and I'malso a huge fan of your podcast
and what gets me every time andI've told you this before is I
get a ton of emails.
Everyone gets a ton of emails.
Your emails get my attentionand I'm like, hopefully that's
emailing me and I love the wayyou recap your episodes and I
still listen to them becauseyou're giving me enough to be
like, okay, I know what I'mabout to listen to, but you
didn't give me everything that Ireally want to take a listen.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, well, that's the goal, right?
It's like let's give them alittle bit, so that way, if they
want to read the email andstill get some points out of it,
that's great.
I don't want you to have tolisten to the podcast and by the
(01:49):
time they get to work, thepodcast is wrapped up.
So that's the goal here.
Now, julie, you know everyonein this industry.
I mean, everyone knows you.
You know everyone, and you'renot just coming at this from a
non-restaurant perspective,because in the branded portfolio
there are restaurants.
You work with those restaurantsas well.
If you were to sit down with agrowing brand and they said
(02:14):
Julie, what are some things thatI should look at to make sure
that I'm growing my brandcorrectly?
What would you have them focuson?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Great question and I do want to take a one before I
answer that question.
To sidebar, a lot of peopledon't realize this about me is
that I started off my time atbranded I've been here, which
just celebrated 13 years.
I ran all of our marketing forall of our restaurants before
branded hospitality ventures,when we were just branded
restaurants.
So I did transition alongsideChatsy and Jimmy.
And now I remember when we wereconceptualizing branded and
(02:43):
building out the company, Ibuilt the first website and
Jimmy was standing over myshoulder with Chatsy at his desk
and we were coming up with ourtagline.
So branded really does mean somuch for me because I've grown
with it.
But back to my restaurant days.
I literally started off.
I was in charge of allmarketing for all of our New
York City restaurants and thatalso was at the time when we
started tech implementation.
(03:04):
So I also was in charge ofmaking sure, when we added new
technologies, that our managersknew about it, our servers knew
about it and also Zach.
One of the first things Ialways did when I started was
reviews.
So I personally responded toevery single review.
that came into our restaurants,and I think that there was a few
platforms that aggregated themand you could respond in one
(03:25):
place.
But no, why would I make mylife easier?
Speaker 1 (03:28):
I literally would go into.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yelp and respond directly in Yelp, and go into
Google and respond directly inGoogle.
We use a service called RewardsNetwork.
So I really strongly havealways believed in customer
communication and feedback.
So I kind of then going back toyour question of me, I really
think that's the most importantthing, that any restaurant
operator I don't care what sizeyou are you could be a one
(03:53):
location, small one, you couldbe multi-unit, you can be
franchised If you are notcommunicating with your guests,
then what are you doing?
That is the key to success,right?
Because we don't open uprestaurants to serve our family.
Well, we do serve our familyand our friends and our other
employees and staff, but we doit for our customers who become
our guests.
So if you're not gettingfeedback in the right ways and
(04:15):
being able to not only get thatfeedback but not take it
personally and use it tocustomize your experience and
help your experience goingforward, I think that's the one
thing.
Of course there's good food.
Of course there's good service,right.
But how are you going to knowthat the good food and good
service if someone isn't goingto tell you?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, and I think that, as you look at this, one
of the things that you do sowell is just caring about the
individual people, and when youlook at hospitality, it is a
hand-to-hand combat event.
It is not something that you'respeaking to a big audience of
people, but it's a thousandmicro moments and you have to
(04:53):
make sure when I'm making a cake, for example.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Chocolate or vanilla.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Oh, neither I'm like a banana cake kind of guy.
I know, I know it's weird.
I love banana cake and it's myfavorite cake.
So anyway, as I'm making thebanana cake, my wife is like
you're like so OCD with thefrosting.
I was like, yes, but I knowthat people are going to come
over, we're going to give themthat cake and I want every
single bite to like.
(05:17):
Make sure that they know that Icared about every single bite
and that's how it is in therestaurant industry.
When I worked in restaurants,it was about the individuals
there and if you're not ready todo hand-to-hand combat, it's
probably not a good place foryou to be right.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yeah, I was always sharing this story when I can.
It was my first job that I everhad.
I worked as a waitress at aHilton in my town.
They had a patio, bar and grillin the summertime and either it
was locals who would come and,instead of belonging to a
country club, or, if you didn'thave a pool, you could belong to
the Hilton pool.
I was an outdoor pool serverand I was 16 years old and I was
(05:57):
on the younger end of all theservers there.
But I remember being calledinto the corporate Hilton
manager's office and beingaccused of stealing tips because
they could not, for the life ofthem, understand how I was
getting double, triple theamount of tips than any other
server working there.
And first of all, 16 year oldJulie was like oh my God, what's
happening right now?
But then also and I do thinkthat what makes me me and I
(06:19):
don't want to look at it as abad trait, but a good trait is
I'm a little ignorant in thefact that I always look in the
positives.
For everybody and in everysituation something bad may
happen and I'm going to be glasshalf full, that like, well,
maybe something was this orsomething was happening there,
but it was an outdoor pool, itwas hot out.
I, before I even go to anytable, would just show up with
(06:41):
ice waters, because if you're ata hot pool, the first thing you
want is water.
I'd also remember the regulars'names.
I'd remember facts about theirchildren, facts about their
families, and I would also talkto them and make myself a real
human.
And I think that's kind of whenyou humanize the experience.
I think that was my firstrealizing that internally I'm
built with hospitality in me and, as a server, seeing that I was
(07:04):
able to spread my gregarity andmy love of this industry to our
customers really helped.
And no, I wasn't stealing tips.
And, yes, they understood and Ididn't get in trouble.
But uh, you know, now everyoneknows why it was a better day.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Well, but that is so awesome because that's the heart
of what we're talking about.
And the question is then how doyou translate that into your
guests?
Right Cause, it's into yourstaff, because it's so hard when
you know that it's you wereborn with it.
You were born with hospitality.
When an owner walks into arestaurant, they care so much
(07:38):
about what's going on and aboutevery single guest.
How do you translate that intothe staff?
And that's one of the thingswhere we found that technology
comes into play so well, becauseI'll talk to businesses who
they're using Ovation, forexample, and I'll see them at a
conference and they'll say thegood thing is I don't need to
worry about how my guest isbeing treated, because I know
(08:00):
that if anything goes wrong,that they can just communicate
with me and I can handle itright off the bat.
So it's nice to have that andto leverage technology not to
replace that feeling, but toenhance it and to scale it right
.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, and I think a lot of the onus is on the
managers.
Back to my marketing days atthe restaurant.
So I remember I could come upwith the most creative LTO.
I can come up with creative,awesome, fun campaigns to get
new customers, whether marketing, in-house, they're influencers.
But if I didn't get my staff onboard, I'm not in all six
restaurants at all.
Six times I'm sitting in acorporate office and they're
(08:37):
like who's this girl that popsher head in an hour a day, right
, you have to earn respect ofyour employees, and it was the
same thing as I would go spendtime at each of our stores.
I learned Spanish so I couldspeak to our kitchen staff,
which was a part of my language.
You know it was kitchen Spanish.
I learned kitchen Spanish, sodon't go crazy on me, but either
way, again, it was getting toknow them, finding out do they
(08:58):
have children?
What sports team do they like?
Talking to the servers, becausethen if they look at me like
somebody who wants to get toknow them, right, and that's
what we want to do with ourcustomers too People just want
to feel seen, right, and inorder for your customers to be
seen, you have to see your staffand it starts at the top.
And if you're trickling downand you're saying to your staff
(09:19):
members and getting to know them, and when you have a
conversation with someone, right, and let's just say you and I
are talking and I'm telling you,zach, I really love your hat,
that is the greatest hat.
Tell me more about that hatright, then when you're going to
someone, right, then whenyou're going to someone, maybe
that sticks in your head thatday.
And then maybe you're talkingto someone and you notice
something about them and you'relike, oh you know, Julie, I
(09:39):
really love that necklace.
It's a really fabulous necklaceand it trickles down, so it's
almost in.
You know, you're a parent, I'ma parent.
It's kind of like not do what Isay, but do as I am, or do as I
act, not do what I say.
But I think that goes towardswhether we're training our staff
or whether we're interactingwith our customers.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, because at the end of the day, we are in a
human industry.
Oh yeah, and it's easy to forgetthat because, hey, people
coming in, they're churning in,churning out, churning in,
churning out, flip a table, like, turn the table, like let's go,
let's go, let's go, but at theend of the make sure it's good
(10:17):
all along the way.
I went to this restaurant theother day.
I was seated quickly, a servercame up, brought me drinks,
great refills all the waythrough and they brought me my
check and it was in the nastiest, rattiest, broken apart bill
presenter, and I'm like how doyou nail everything and miss
this?
Because it just like left mewith such a weird taste in my
(10:41):
mouth of like I don't want totouch this.
It was disgusting, but that'sthe thing.
It's like you got to look atevery single point along the way
and the guest experience is soubiquitous nowadays, so I'd love
to get your take on what do youthink the most important aspect
of guest experience is?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
I really am going to go back to the human connection,
especially in a time whererestaurants really are becoming
so automated Not all of them.
I think that there's a placefor automation and then there's
a place for fine dining.
Some in between that will mixboth.
But I think what you weresaying is, as humans, we have
questions and we want to knowthings and we want to learn
things and we want to experiencethings.
(11:19):
So when you walk into a store,let's just say you're going
shopping and there's somebodygreeting you at the door, and if
somebody's saying to you, can Ihelp you?
And you know, maybe you knowwhat you want, but you don't
need help.
But then you're shopping,you're like, oh wait, I do need
help.
You're like, oh wait, I do needhelp.
And you're like, oh, somebodyasked if they could help me,
right?
I think it's the same thing ina restaurant, I think, if you
find yourself approachable andyou can walk in and you know
(11:41):
that there's somebody there foryou who can always help you out
in whatever you need, whetherit's a menu or whether your kid
just spilled an entire thing ofwater all over themselves in the
middle of the restauranttalking for a friend, of course,
knowing that it's okay that Ijust went to a restaurant and my
three-year-old spilled anentire glass of water on himself
and Everyone was so welcomingand kind.
(12:04):
It's like, don't worry, let ushelp you.
To me that helps yourexperience as a human right,
because things happen and, likeyou said, you had the greatest
experience, but then the checkcame.
That's human error, right.
What manager missed that right?
What server didn't think tonotice that?
And I'll say one other thingtoo.
So when you'll go to arestaurant or you'll go to an
(12:24):
office and I think I first sawthis in office where there was a
sign on the bathroom that itwas like treat this bathroom
like it was your own.
If you drop a tissue at home,are you going to pick it up or
are you going to leave it there?
Right, and I think there's thisage old which is dirtier?
Women's rooms or men's rooms?
Right, and I think like women's, because there's just like
toilet paper all over the floorbecause nobody wants to touch it
(12:45):
.
Women's, because there's justlike toilet paper all over the
floor because nobody wants totouch it.
But when you're going back tothe human experience, those are
little things that make us feelcomfortable.
If you go into a restroom andyou notice that there's been
care brought to it, and thenyou're a server and you walk
into a restaurant and you'reeven using the bathroom, you
notice it's dirty, do you as aserver just say, whatever, it's
a bathroom, I'm not touchingthat, or do you find the proper
person in your restaurant who isresponsible for cleaning it up?
(13:08):
A funny sidebar on that.
I was at a birthday party withmy son.
I took him to the bathroom thisis my older son and there was
no hand towels and there was nosoap left.
So we were in the bathroom.
I had a sanitizer in my bag,but then I walked out and I went
to the manager and I said hey,just letting you know you have
no towels or you have no handsoap.
He looks at me.
He's like you know you're thefirst person who's ever said
(13:30):
that to me or told me when we'reout of something.
He's like do you work inhospitality?
I'm like well, what the heck doI do so?
it was really interesting thathe knew that, because none of
their own staff thought to thinkabout it.
But here was someone who camein who happened to work in
hospitality.
They were the one who noticedit.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
And that is so key of helping your team realize that
they're a partner in this andhelping them feel like there's
some ownership in this for them,because it's really a
reflection of them as well.
And yeah, now, obviously, julie, like I said, you know everyone
, so I would love to hear of whois someone in the restaurant
(14:09):
industry that you feel deservesan ovation.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Who's someone that we need to be following.
Can I make it two relatedpeople?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yes, you can For you.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
For me.
For me, yes, I want to give anovation to Danny Klein and
Satine Donner.
I'm not sure exactly when thispodcast is releasing, but next
week is the Women in RestaurantLeadership Conference in
Nashville.
The two of them have really puttogether an incredible
opportunity to highlight andgive an ovation to the women in
(14:35):
the food service industry whoreally, whether they're behind
the scenes, whether they're infront of the scenes, whether
they're early in their career,late in their career, anywhere
in between, you've really givenus this opportunity to connect
with each other and kind oftaking down the barriers and
taking down the walls of thisperson does this.
This person works here andthey're bringing us together and
form this community where whatwe say matters and we can all
(14:58):
relate to each other.
So the two of them, super duper, huge ovation for putting
together this community,supporting us and including us.
Our voices matter with them andI think that's really important
to me.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
And Nashville, by the way, has one of my favorite
restaurants in the world.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Nashville's that favorite restaurants.
I'm trying to guess.
I'm trying to guess.
Give me a clue.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Well, it's not barbecue.
I know you love.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Perry's Steakhouse.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I do love Perry's.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
And you love the pork chop at Perry's.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Oh my gosh, look at this.
How do you remember this stuff,julia?
It's unreal.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I remember a lot of things about it.
I think one of my specialpowers is I remember small
details about people.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
That's really cool.
I mean, I appreciate youremembering that.
But this one is.
It's called St Vito's FocacciaRia, it's right.
By the Peg Leg Porker inNashville they have this
focaccia dough topped with cupand char pepperonis and hot
honey with some breadcrumbs.
It is unbelievable.
And they have a spaghettipomodoro.
(15:56):
I love spaghetti pomodoro.
Yeah, I mean, I've neverSpaghetti pomodoro.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
It's like, yeah, okay , cool Spaghetti yeah, don't
underestimate a really goodspaghetti pomodoro.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
This is one of the best I've ever had in my life.
Wow, Probably I can't think ofanyone where I've had it better.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I love focaccia bread .
By the way, I make really goodfocaccia bread.
Fun fact about Julie for allholidays I make a special
holiday themed focaccia.
No way I do a stuffing stylefocaccia.
I actually take the ingredientsand stuffing and bake it into
the bread and then over theholidays my family we're Jewish,
(16:31):
but we also celebrate ChristmasI make a focaccia Christmas
tree.
Really cool.
There will be heart-shapedfocaccias for Valentine's Day
tomorrow, so I go all in onfocaccia.
So you're speaking my language.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Okay.
Well, next time we see eachother you're in Jersey.
I go to Jersey all the time.
Next time I'm there, I'm goingto Thanks for calling me.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Thanks for calling me .
We do have a Jersey connection.
Fun fact, my cousin was Zach'sphys ed teacher.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yeah, phys ed teacher in high school.
Yep, I went through all theawkward conversations right
there with your cousin.
My cousin.
Well, Julie, how do people findand follow you and Branded?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Branded.
Our biggest social channel isLinkedIn.
You can look us up BrandedHospitality.
I am Julie Zucker on LinkedIn,also my personal account if you
want to get personal.
I am Pressworthy Eats onInstagram.
I post a lot of pictures of mykids and the food I eat and
photos of Zach and I atconferences.
Our selfies Zach and I atconferences.
Our selfies Zach and I.
Like who takes more selfies, meor you?
(17:27):
I?
Take more groupies yeah,because you're taller, it's a
good angle.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, long arms.
God bless me with a selfiestick.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yeah, other than brandedstrategiccom, and also
speaking of podcasts,hospitality Hangout, that's our
podcast.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
And it's a great podcast.
I've had the privilege of beingon it a couple of times on the
road, and you put on a greatshow there and make sure that
the guys stay focused.
So good job Well, julie, forreminding us all about the
humanity of hospitality and thatthe coolest borough in New York
City really is Jersey.
Today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you for joining us onGive an Ovation.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
All right, thanks, zach.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
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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