May 27, 2025 • 21 mins
Josh Boshard, COO of Savory Fund, joins Zack Oates to talk about what it really takes to scale great restaurant brands. With a background in tech and an obsession for operations, Josh shares how momentum, team empowerment, and data-driven decisions shape unforgettable guest experiences. From system-wide A/B testing to feedback-fueled growth, this episode is a masterclass in modern hospitality leadership.
Zack and Josh discuss:
- Why momentum is the most underrated part of guest experience
- How tech can elevate—not replace—hospitality
- The difference between one-off issues and systemic problems
- Why Savory uses guest data to empower, not punish, teams
- The importance of real-time visibility in multi-unit operations
Thanks, Josh!
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshboshard/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/savoryfund/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Give an Ovation, the restaurant guest
experience podcast.
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 sponsored byOvation, the operations and
guest feedback platform builtfor multi-unit restaurants.
It gives you all the insightsyou need without annoying your
(00:21):
guests with all the questions.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And today we have someone whois not just an expert in the
industry but a hero of hair theCOO of the Savory Fund, josh
Beauchard.
Welcome to the podcast, man.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Zach so nice to be on .
Speaker 1 (00:40):
And this is so funny because, for those who listen to
this podcast, they might bethinking wait, hasn't Josh been
on?
It's like, yeah, I've talkedabout Josh on the podcast, and
Josh and I have talked so muchthat we were at RLC recently and
I was like, hey, you get at-shirt because you were on the
podcast.
And he's like I haven't been onthe podcast.
I was like there's no possibleway that you haven't been on the
(01:00):
podcast already, because I justget the privilege to talk to
you quite a bit, and so I feellike I'm always infused with
your wisdom, which is one of thebenefits of this podcast.
But I'm grateful that you'refinally here, josh.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I am the most patient person.
I've just been waiting and Ifinally got this invite.
I'm so excited, so this is likethe pinnacle of my career being
on Ovation's podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, the pinnacle of a quite illustrious career.
I mean, you've done someincredible things and you don't
have the traditional restaurantoperations background.
You actually come from a techbackground well, and exotic cars
, but you also have thisinsurance background, tech
background.
I would love to get yourthoughts on what, from your tech
(01:47):
background, do you think hashelped you be successful as the
COO of Savory Fund.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
You know, what's interesting is, we're always
trying to create that experience, whether it's for the customer
or for the guest or for ouremployees.
It's all about that experience,and the only way that I know
how to do that with scale andnumber of stores is with tech.
And so you take really goodproducts and you build the
(02:14):
infrastructure that allows foryour employees to succeed, from
sourcing, onboarding tocompliance, but then enabling
them to just be next level withour guests.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And when you look at next level, how do you
constantly push your team to getto that next level?
Because a lot of times you'recreating great experiences.
The brands you have areincredible.
You buy brands and you investin brands that have this
seedling and have somethingthat's already going and then
you take that to the next level.
But how do you constantly pushto that next and next and next.
(02:48):
And is that exhausting or isthat exciting?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
No for me.
I'm a developer, I'm amaximizer, and in those two
things there's alwaysopportunity for improvement.
So, as we started our careerhere in restaurant for
improvement, so as we startedour career here in restaurant,
we were franchisees and a lot ofpeople started that way.
And so, as franchisees aresaying, oh, I wish the
franchisor would do this, and ifthey only did this, we could be
(03:14):
that much better Well, we madethat shift to the Savory Fund
and we started partnering withfounders and then we started
hearing from them theirexpectations, and now we've
added this franchisor verticalto Savory, where we actually
have to make it happen on ourside.
(03:34):
And that's an interesting placeto be, because now we're saying
we should be doing this becauseour franchisees expect that.
So there's never a stoppingpart at Savory.
It's always progression.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
And when you look at that progression, what are some
things that you do in terms ofand the reason I want to really
dig into this is because youguys really do push the envelope
and constantly look for newways to make things better.
Is there like a meeting thatyou have like an innovation
meeting?
Is there a philosophy, aquestion that you ask to help
(04:10):
spark and push that things toprogress forward?
How would someone take thatpiece of your culture and say,
like I want to do that in myrestaurant.
What would you recommend tothem?
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I think for us, partnering with founders who
created these brands is a hugepiece to what we do, and so if
you listen to those partners whosay we have to have a surfboard
that's touched Hawaiian waters,that we buy from a shop in
Hawaii because that's a part ofthe experience, that's something
(04:42):
that I could never.
Never put in a Moe Betos right,for instance.
That's something that I couldnever say.
I've never even been to Hawaii,so someone who's from Hawaii no
, isn't that crazy?
Seriously, yeah, seriously.
Never been to Hawaii.
We go to Mexico.
My wife's from Florida, and sowe go to 38 all the time.
(05:03):
That's where we go, but neverHawaii.
I'm patiently waiting here wego.
It is about those founders whocare about their brand more than
anyone else, and that is asecret sauce at Savory.
And when we partner with thosefounders, they tell us what
needs to happen, they tell usthe experience that needs to be
there, and then we just go findgreat tech, we find partners in
(05:24):
the industry to go make thathappen.
They tell us the experiencethat needs to be there, and then
we just go find great tech, wefind partners in the industry to
go make that happen.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
And that's something where you've always done a good
job of making sure that thetechnology does not get in the
way of the employees and theguests, but making sure that it
enhances the employee and theguest experience.
And so I'd love to understand,as you're thinking about the
moves that you make and theguest experience what do you
(05:51):
think is the most importantaspect of guest experience
nowadays?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
The most important part of guest experience is
momentum, and I'll tell you why.
When I went skydiving for thefirst time, I realized something
unexpected the most terrifyingpart of skydiving isn't the free
fall.
No, yeah, that's true, it's.
Yeah, you wear helmets, you'regood.
No, but it wasn't the free fall.
It was actually standing at theedge of the door hesitating
(06:17):
right.
So once you jump, momentumtakes over.
Every second after that feelsnatural, it feels exhilarating,
right and free.
It's the same in our guestexperience today.
So the hardest part isn'tserving the food or delivering
the service, it's getting theexperience started with energy,
(06:37):
and you do this really well,zach.
But you have to have clarity,you have to have connection.
It's the greeting at the door.
If that's awkward or slow,you've lost all the momentum.
You're not going to haveconnection.
It's the greeting at the door.
If that's awkward or slow,you've lost all the momentum.
You're not going to have thatcustomer experience.
But if you start strong, itstarts with a smile, it starts
with a first welcome.
You create that momentum thatcarries that experience forward
(06:57):
in a positive way.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
That's awesome, because it's totally right that
when you are looking at what weneed to do to get things started
, when you walk in the door andyou're greeted by someone, it
will affect how you are.
We had a group of friends andevery time that somebody would
walk into our apartment, wewould all applaud and we just
(07:21):
like we literally gave them anovation.
It was just so fun because theywould come in and it was just
like we literally gave them anovation.
It was just so fun because theywould come in and it was just
like it would change the dayduring COVID.
For like the first six monthsof COVID, whenever I got on a
meeting with someone, I wouldstart the meeting off by like
chanting their name, like Josh,josh, josh, josh, just because I
knew that everyone was having atough time everyone.
(07:45):
And to just have like eventhough it was a little tacky, to
have that little bump of energy, like feels good.
And if you walk into a placeand they're like welcome to
Moe's and it feels inauthentic,it's almost worse than not
saying anything, right.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
So you got to go for it.
Yeah, If you ever walk into arestaurant and there's no music,
you're like what is off?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Isn't that so weird?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I'm not doing something and that makes the big
difference.
So in that, if you're creatingthat with the energy and the
positivity and the momentum onthat side of things, with your
employees, you're winning.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So that is such a unique answer and it makes so
much sense.
I think a lot of that startswith your pre-shift meeting.
Doing that is a great way toget people excited and get them
pumped up.
I remember when I did summersales before we went out Did you
ever do summer sales?
The door to door knocking.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Oh, good for you.
That's because you probablylove it.
I did insurance, that was notthe way to go going Well.
Well, it led you to Andrew,which is great, right, but
before you go out there and getdoor slammed in your face and
get yelled at all day, we had ameeting and we would like chant
and pump each other up and again, it was a little bit tacky, but
(08:59):
it was so good to have thatstart to the day and then use
that as it got depletedthroughout the rest of the day
from getting yelled at.
So what an interesting conceptof momentum.
And think about that guestwalking in for the first time
and what do they feel beforethey get the food, before they
really experience the service,right, and that's really
(09:23):
interesting momentum.
I love that.
Now you've done a lot of thingsbecause the savory fund you
guys have what a dozen brands.
Now you're building arestaurant empire.
I mean, like it's crazy.
And so you've obviouslyimplemented a lot of tactics
with a lot of different brands.
What are some tactics that youwould use to improve the guest
(09:45):
experience nowadays?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
It's interesting, Zach, in our acquisition model
we're acquiring brands, we'remeeting with tons of restaurants
who are trying to figure outthe next steps, and when they
come onto the Savory platform,we partner with them.
No-transcript me look good justbecause we're trying and
(10:35):
testing and seeing.
So I do have to say if I'mlooking at something that's
going to improve the guestexperience, it's Ovation, and I
don't mean that to be a plug,but I have to say I think I'm a
power user in the system and Isee things very differently than
a lot of people.
We have eight brands that areon Ovation and I compare and
(10:56):
contrast every single one ofthose brands in the platform and
I'm looking at things that aremaking a difference in our
brands.
It's pretty interesting for meto see how Ovations changed our
business.
When you look at someone likeVia 303 that implemented Ovation
and they went from a 4.1 to a4.7 in Google rating.
(11:17):
That's what everyone wants inthe restaurant industry.
And then the biggest part thereis the number of guests saved.
Biggest part there is thenumber of guests saved.
That's huge for us, and so ifyou look at even via stats,
they're saving 11 guests perlocation every month.
Wow, I mean that's mind blowing.
And so for me, as I dive intothe systems that we use, I start
(11:40):
pulling out and seeing patterns, and so like a pattern for me
is number of guest feedback thatcomes in at those day parts and
I'm saying, are we executing inthe morning versus afternoon,
versus evening, and what do weneed to do to shift so that we
can have consistent feedback inpositive ways?
(12:01):
Or let's go fix the feedbackthat's coming in where we see it
right.
So it's just an interestingplace for me.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Wow, I mean well, first of all, thank you.
I'm like you've encapsulatedwhat the dream is of someone to
like, take this data and thentake action on it.
And yeah, there's going to besome great benefits to what
happens with things like yourGoogle score.
But I always say, we're nothere to make bad restaurants
good, we're here to make greatrestaurants better, and I think
(12:29):
that what a great restauranttakes is it takes people that
care.
It takes people that arewilling to swing the hammer and
it takes people that are willingto look at the nail right,
because if you're not going tolook, because there are people
you know, one of the things thatwe find is like at the pizza
expo, whenever we go there, thatis the place, more than any
(12:51):
other place, that I hear I don'teven care what they're saying.
I'm not, I don't want to look.
I don't want to look.
I don't care what they'resaying.
Like, if they don't like mypizza, go someplace else.
Screw all the reviews.
And there are people like thatthat don't even want to look at
what needs to get fixed.
But you're not building aone-off.
(13:15):
You're building numerous brandsacross the country now with
franchising, and you have tounderstand what's actually going
on in your individual locationsand how to fix that, and then
do the work to fix it.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
If you're not looking at how fast your team is
responding to customer feedbackand the specifics to go orders,
if you're missing it every timeon I don't know paperware or
whatever it is, or making surethat they get every single item
and you're not going back andfixing those things, you're just
letting sales walk out the door.
(13:45):
Going back and fixing thosethings, you're just letting
sales walk out the door.
So for us, that's the piecewhere we have to get so detailed
and dialed in on all the dataand then execute on that.
When you see something, saysomething.
When you see something dosomething right.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Are there any specific changes that you could
point to and say like, oh, wedidn't know about that and then,
once we heard about it, we madethis change when?
Speaker 2 (14:08):
you look at what's most important in negative
reviews.
Most of your reviews are foodand service right, and so if
you're focusing on those, theservice to me is the most
important in the review processas customers come back to you
(14:29):
process, as customers come backto you, and just a piece that
came up this week when we havemanagers who are leaving early
and leaving the stores kind ofleaderless, that's a problem,
obviously, and you see sales dipwhen you have a system like
Ovation that can tell you thatand then you can take action on
that.
To go back to your GMs, becausea lot of times you don't hear
what's happening in the storelevel and so when you start
(14:49):
seeing those metrics, then youcan actually take action and go
Ooh, okay, now we need to belooking at clock in and clock
outs and let's see how much timethey're actually spending there
.
So that was just one example ofhow we used it.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
That's really interesting because when you
have 120% employee turnover and80% manager turnover, it's
really hard to run a businesswhen you don't have all of that
information in real time.
And you got to make sure thatthe tools aren't there to get
people in trouble.
The tools are there to helpthem improve and help you have
(15:26):
the visibility so that, at theend of the day, we're all
working towards the same thing,which is a better guest
experience.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
If you're doing it that way, you're in a winning
position.
And when you take that approach, you've all of a sudden created
this partnership with youremployees where they're saying,
(15:53):
okay, you're giving me things tohelp my business run better,
sales increase, which makeslabor easier, that you're
actually helping improve theirlife when you spot those trends,
those pieces that you need tobe fixing in your restaurants.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
I love that because it's so much more than just a
single point of data, and Ithink this is one of the
benefits about hearing from alot of your guests is that you
can differentiate between aone-off that just needs an
apology, needs to handlesomething, but it was just like
a totally random thing that isnot a systemic issue, is not a
(16:27):
systemic issue and what are theconsistent problems that are
bubbling up?
And you need to treat those twothings differently.
But to start, you need to treatthem the same, which is like
understand that that individualguest needs to feel heard and
seen, but then understand thatdon't fixate on the one loud
person.
Understand what are the thingsthat need to be improved
(16:49):
generally, at each location,down to the employee and the
manager, and I think it'sawesome that you're taking that
data and really doing thingswith it to improve and it shows
I mean, your scores arephenomenal innovation, your
response rates are amazingpeople.
As I said, it's obvious thatyou've created a culture where
(17:10):
it's cool to care, as WillGadara would say.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I'm going to steal that one.
Cool to care.
That's what we want to be.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Yeah, now, knowing all the people that you know, I
want you to think about who issomeone that deserves an ovation
, who is someone that we shouldbe following Hands down.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Ovation goes to Chef Joey Maggiore, and the reason I
say that is yes, he's ourpartner in Sicilian Butcher and
that brand is phenomenal, it'sblowing up, it's doing great
things.
But Joey is a creator and it'sso hard to build brands, it's so
hard to build something aroundthat brand and he's done a
(17:48):
really good job with theMexicano Hash Kitchen.
Everything that he builds isactually it's like larger than
life, but it's still incrediblypersonal.
It's personal to him.
He talks about his family.
His families are in therestaurant.
They're eating there weekly.
He knows how to invest inpeople, into the culture, into
the community.
He's building restaurants rightand it's fun being a partner
(18:11):
with someone like that becausewe can add some of our secret
sauce on scale and growth andout of heritage markets and what
we're doing.
But we hold on to him beingthat like foundation.
So in that sense of hospitality, the way that he thinks about
it, guests not only show up butthey remember the experience.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I love that because the remembering of it, right,
that's the impression.
Flavor profiles fade, but, man,how you feel that sticks with
you.
I love that.
And Josh, how do people findand follow you?
And the Savory Fund Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
so we have a couple of different ways.
Restaurantology we do aconference every single year.
It's our way to give back toaspiring entrepreneurs, those
who are building theirrestaurants.
So it's for restaurants who aretwo to 20 units, and it's a day
of action-packed, just feedbackhow to hire, how to fire
someone.
I mean, it's just tactical.
(19:05):
So come see us atrestaurantology.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And, by the way, I do have to say I have consistently
heard from restaurants that isthe best conference of the
entire year.
So what?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Zach, that's Coming from the person who's been to
every conference.
That's like the nicest thingI've ever heard.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yes, but vendors if any vendors are listening it is
a non-sponsored, vendor notallowed conference.
This is straight restaurantsand just learning and you with
your peers.
It's unlike any conferencethere is because every other
conference is trying to make aton of money.
Restaurantology is there toteach you to network, to learn.
(19:44):
It really is, I mean, like hugeplug just for the fact that I
have so many people that speakso incredibly highly of
restaurantology and so, from theindustry, thank you for doing
it.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
No, that's really nice.
Then you can find me onLinkedIn and then go to our
website, savoryfundcom, see whatwe're all about.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
And if someone is interested in learning, if
they're kind of in the savoryfund sweet sweet spot.
What does Savory Fund tend toinvest in and acquire?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
We want an established brand.
Five years, five units is oursweet spot, but we've been
outside of that and we wantsomeone who's passionate about
their brand and wants to grow it, but needs capital, needs
structure, needs contracts,needs the expertise to help them
get to the next level.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Awesome, Well, josh, for helping us push to the next
level and for reminding us thatskydiving is really just one
scary step.
Today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you for joining us onGive an Ovation.
Thanks, zach.
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
(20:52):
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 Give an Ovation, the restaurant guest
experience podcast.
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 sponsored byOvation, the operations and
guest feedback platform builtfor multi-unit restaurants.
It gives you all the insightsyou need without annoying your
(00:21):
guests with all the questions.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And today we have someone whois not just an expert in the
industry but a hero of hair theCOO of the Savory Fund, josh
Beauchard.
Welcome to the podcast, man.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Zach so nice to be on .
Speaker 1 (00:40):
And this is so funny because, for those who listen to
this podcast, they might bethinking wait, hasn't Josh been
on?
It's like, yeah, I've talkedabout Josh on the podcast, and
Josh and I have talked so muchthat we were at RLC recently and
I was like, hey, you get at-shirt because you were on the
podcast.
And he's like I haven't been onthe podcast.
I was like there's no possibleway that you haven't been on the
(01:00):
podcast already, because I justget the privilege to talk to
you quite a bit, and so I feellike I'm always infused with
your wisdom, which is one of thebenefits of this podcast.
But I'm grateful that you'refinally here, josh.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I am the most patient person.
I've just been waiting and Ifinally got this invite.
I'm so excited, so this is likethe pinnacle of my career being
on Ovation's podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, the pinnacle of a quite illustrious career.
I mean, you've done someincredible things and you don't
have the traditional restaurantoperations background.
You actually come from a techbackground well, and exotic cars
, but you also have thisinsurance background, tech
background.
I would love to get yourthoughts on what, from your tech
(01:47):
background, do you think hashelped you be successful as the
COO of Savory Fund.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
You know, what's interesting is, we're always
trying to create that experience, whether it's for the customer
or for the guest or for ouremployees.
It's all about that experience,and the only way that I know
how to do that with scale andnumber of stores is with tech.
And so you take really goodproducts and you build the
(02:14):
infrastructure that allows foryour employees to succeed, from
sourcing, onboarding tocompliance, but then enabling
them to just be next level withour guests.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And when you look at next level, how do you
constantly push your team to getto that next level?
Because a lot of times you'recreating great experiences.
The brands you have areincredible.
You buy brands and you investin brands that have this
seedling and have somethingthat's already going and then
you take that to the next level.
But how do you constantly pushto that next and next and next.
(02:48):
And is that exhausting or isthat exciting?
Speaker 2 (02:53):
No for me.
I'm a developer, I'm amaximizer, and in those two
things there's alwaysopportunity for improvement.
So, as we started our careerhere in restaurant for
improvement, so as we startedour career here in restaurant,
we were franchisees and a lot ofpeople started that way.
And so, as franchisees aresaying, oh, I wish the
franchisor would do this, and ifthey only did this, we could be
(03:14):
that much better Well, we madethat shift to the Savory Fund
and we started partnering withfounders and then we started
hearing from them theirexpectations, and now we've
added this franchisor verticalto Savory, where we actually
have to make it happen on ourside.
(03:34):
And that's an interesting placeto be, because now we're saying
we should be doing this becauseour franchisees expect that.
So there's never a stoppingpart at Savory.
It's always progression.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
And when you look at that progression, what are some
things that you do in terms ofand the reason I want to really
dig into this is because youguys really do push the envelope
and constantly look for newways to make things better.
Is there like a meeting thatyou have like an innovation
meeting?
Is there a philosophy, aquestion that you ask to help
(04:10):
spark and push that things toprogress forward?
How would someone take thatpiece of your culture and say,
like I want to do that in myrestaurant.
What would you recommend tothem?
Speaker 2 (04:21):
I think for us, partnering with founders who
created these brands is a hugepiece to what we do, and so if
you listen to those partners whosay we have to have a surfboard
that's touched Hawaiian waters,that we buy from a shop in
Hawaii because that's a part ofthe experience, that's something
(04:42):
that I could never.
Never put in a Moe Betos right,for instance.
That's something that I couldnever say.
I've never even been to Hawaii,so someone who's from Hawaii no
, isn't that crazy?
Seriously, yeah, seriously.
Never been to Hawaii.
We go to Mexico.
My wife's from Florida, and sowe go to 38 all the time.
(05:03):
That's where we go, but neverHawaii.
I'm patiently waiting here wego.
It is about those founders whocare about their brand more than
anyone else, and that is asecret sauce at Savory.
And when we partner with thosefounders, they tell us what
needs to happen, they tell usthe experience that needs to be
there, and then we just go findgreat tech, we find partners in
(05:24):
the industry to go make thathappen.
They tell us the experiencethat needs to be there, and then
we just go find great tech, wefind partners in the industry to
go make that happen.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
And that's something where you've always done a good
job of making sure that thetechnology does not get in the
way of the employees and theguests, but making sure that it
enhances the employee and theguest experience.
And so I'd love to understand,as you're thinking about the
moves that you make and theguest experience what do you
(05:51):
think is the most importantaspect of guest experience
nowadays?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
The most important part of guest experience is
momentum, and I'll tell you why.
When I went skydiving for thefirst time, I realized something
unexpected the most terrifyingpart of skydiving isn't the free
fall.
No, yeah, that's true, it's.
Yeah, you wear helmets, you'regood.
No, but it wasn't the free fall.
It was actually standing at theedge of the door hesitating
(06:17):
right.
So once you jump, momentumtakes over.
Every second after that feelsnatural, it feels exhilarating,
right and free.
It's the same in our guestexperience today.
So the hardest part isn'tserving the food or delivering
the service, it's getting theexperience started with energy,
(06:37):
and you do this really well,zach.
But you have to have clarity,you have to have connection.
It's the greeting at the door.
If that's awkward or slow,you've lost all the momentum.
You're not going to haveconnection.
It's the greeting at the door.
If that's awkward or slow,you've lost all the momentum.
You're not going to have thatcustomer experience.
But if you start strong, itstarts with a smile, it starts
with a first welcome.
You create that momentum thatcarries that experience forward
(06:57):
in a positive way.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
That's awesome, because it's totally right that
when you are looking at what weneed to do to get things started
, when you walk in the door andyou're greeted by someone, it
will affect how you are.
We had a group of friends andevery time that somebody would
walk into our apartment, wewould all applaud and we just
(07:21):
like we literally gave them anovation.
It was just so fun because theywould come in and it was just
like we literally gave them anovation.
It was just so fun because theywould come in and it was just
like it would change the dayduring COVID.
For like the first six monthsof COVID, whenever I got on a
meeting with someone, I wouldstart the meeting off by like
chanting their name, like Josh,josh, josh, josh, just because I
knew that everyone was having atough time everyone.
(07:45):
And to just have like eventhough it was a little tacky, to
have that little bump of energy, like feels good.
And if you walk into a placeand they're like welcome to
Moe's and it feels inauthentic,it's almost worse than not
saying anything, right.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
So you got to go for it.
Yeah, If you ever walk into arestaurant and there's no music,
you're like what is off?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Isn't that so weird?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I'm not doing something and that makes the big
difference.
So in that, if you're creatingthat with the energy and the
positivity and the momentum onthat side of things, with your
employees, you're winning.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
So that is such a unique answer and it makes so
much sense.
I think a lot of that startswith your pre-shift meeting.
Doing that is a great way toget people excited and get them
pumped up.
I remember when I did summersales before we went out Did you
ever do summer sales?
The door to door knocking.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Oh, good for you.
That's because you probablylove it.
I did insurance, that was notthe way to go going Well.
Well, it led you to Andrew,which is great, right, but
before you go out there and getdoor slammed in your face and
get yelled at all day, we had ameeting and we would like chant
and pump each other up and again, it was a little bit tacky, but
(08:59):
it was so good to have thatstart to the day and then use
that as it got depletedthroughout the rest of the day
from getting yelled at.
So what an interesting conceptof momentum.
And think about that guestwalking in for the first time
and what do they feel beforethey get the food, before they
really experience the service,right, and that's really
(09:23):
interesting momentum.
I love that.
Now you've done a lot of thingsbecause the savory fund you
guys have what a dozen brands.
Now you're building arestaurant empire.
I mean, like it's crazy.
And so you've obviouslyimplemented a lot of tactics
with a lot of different brands.
What are some tactics that youwould use to improve the guest
(09:45):
experience nowadays?
Speaker 2 (09:47):
It's interesting, Zach, in our acquisition model
we're acquiring brands, we'remeeting with tons of restaurants
who are trying to figure outthe next steps, and when they
come onto the Savory platform,we partner with them.
No-transcript me look good justbecause we're trying and
(10:35):
testing and seeing.
So I do have to say if I'mlooking at something that's
going to improve the guestexperience, it's Ovation, and I
don't mean that to be a plug,but I have to say I think I'm a
power user in the system and Isee things very differently than
a lot of people.
We have eight brands that areon Ovation and I compare and
(10:56):
contrast every single one ofthose brands in the platform and
I'm looking at things that aremaking a difference in our
brands.
It's pretty interesting for meto see how Ovations changed our
business.
When you look at someone likeVia 303 that implemented Ovation
and they went from a 4.1 to a4.7 in Google rating.
(11:17):
That's what everyone wants inthe restaurant industry.
And then the biggest part thereis the number of guests saved.
Biggest part there is thenumber of guests saved.
That's huge for us, and so ifyou look at even via stats,
they're saving 11 guests perlocation every month.
Wow, I mean that's mind blowing.
And so for me, as I dive intothe systems that we use, I start
(11:40):
pulling out and seeing patterns, and so like a pattern for me
is number of guest feedback thatcomes in at those day parts and
I'm saying, are we executing inthe morning versus afternoon,
versus evening, and what do weneed to do to shift so that we
can have consistent feedback inpositive ways?
(12:01):
Or let's go fix the feedbackthat's coming in where we see it
right.
So it's just an interestingplace for me.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Wow, I mean well, first of all, thank you.
I'm like you've encapsulatedwhat the dream is of someone to
like, take this data and thentake action on it.
And yeah, there's going to besome great benefits to what
happens with things like yourGoogle score.
But I always say, we're nothere to make bad restaurants
good, we're here to make greatrestaurants better, and I think
(12:29):
that what a great restauranttakes is it takes people that
care.
It takes people that arewilling to swing the hammer and
it takes people that are willingto look at the nail right,
because if you're not going tolook, because there are people
you know, one of the things thatwe find is like at the pizza
expo, whenever we go there, thatis the place, more than any
(12:51):
other place, that I hear I don'teven care what they're saying.
I'm not, I don't want to look.
I don't want to look.
I don't care what they'resaying.
Like, if they don't like mypizza, go someplace else.
Screw all the reviews.
And there are people like thatthat don't even want to look at
what needs to get fixed.
But you're not building aone-off.
(13:15):
You're building numerous brandsacross the country now with
franchising, and you have tounderstand what's actually going
on in your individual locationsand how to fix that, and then
do the work to fix it.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
If you're not looking at how fast your team is
responding to customer feedbackand the specifics to go orders,
if you're missing it every timeon I don't know paperware or
whatever it is, or making surethat they get every single item
and you're not going back andfixing those things, you're just
letting sales walk out the door.
(13:45):
Going back and fixing thosethings, you're just letting
sales walk out the door.
So for us, that's the piecewhere we have to get so detailed
and dialed in on all the dataand then execute on that.
When you see something, saysomething.
When you see something dosomething right.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Are there any specific changes that you could
point to and say like, oh, wedidn't know about that and then,
once we heard about it, we madethis change when?
Speaker 2 (14:08):
you look at what's most important in negative
reviews.
Most of your reviews are foodand service right, and so if
you're focusing on those, theservice to me is the most
important in the review processas customers come back to you
(14:29):
process, as customers come backto you, and just a piece that
came up this week when we havemanagers who are leaving early
and leaving the stores kind ofleaderless, that's a problem,
obviously, and you see sales dipwhen you have a system like
Ovation that can tell you thatand then you can take action on
that.
To go back to your GMs, becausea lot of times you don't hear
what's happening in the storelevel and so when you start
(14:49):
seeing those metrics, then youcan actually take action and go
Ooh, okay, now we need to belooking at clock in and clock
outs and let's see how much timethey're actually spending there
.
So that was just one example ofhow we used it.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
That's really interesting because when you
have 120% employee turnover and80% manager turnover, it's
really hard to run a businesswhen you don't have all of that
information in real time.
And you got to make sure thatthe tools aren't there to get
people in trouble.
The tools are there to helpthem improve and help you have
(15:26):
the visibility so that, at theend of the day, we're all
working towards the same thing,which is a better guest
experience.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
If you're doing it that way, you're in a winning
position.
And when you take that approach, you've all of a sudden created
this partnership with youremployees where they're saying,
(15:53):
okay, you're giving me things tohelp my business run better,
sales increase, which makeslabor easier, that you're
actually helping improve theirlife when you spot those trends,
those pieces that you need tobe fixing in your restaurants.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
I love that because it's so much more than just a
single point of data, and Ithink this is one of the
benefits about hearing from alot of your guests is that you
can differentiate between aone-off that just needs an
apology, needs to handlesomething, but it was just like
a totally random thing that isnot a systemic issue, is not a
(16:27):
systemic issue and what are theconsistent problems that are
bubbling up?
And you need to treat those twothings differently.
But to start, you need to treatthem the same, which is like
understand that that individualguest needs to feel heard and
seen, but then understand thatdon't fixate on the one loud
person.
Understand what are the thingsthat need to be improved
(16:49):
generally, at each location,down to the employee and the
manager, and I think it'sawesome that you're taking that
data and really doing thingswith it to improve and it shows
I mean, your scores arephenomenal innovation, your
response rates are amazingpeople.
As I said, it's obvious thatyou've created a culture where
(17:10):
it's cool to care, as WillGadara would say.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I'm going to steal that one.
Cool to care.
That's what we want to be.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Yeah, now, knowing all the people that you know, I
want you to think about who issomeone that deserves an ovation
, who is someone that we shouldbe following Hands down.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Ovation goes to Chef Joey Maggiore, and the reason I
say that is yes, he's ourpartner in Sicilian Butcher and
that brand is phenomenal, it'sblowing up, it's doing great
things.
But Joey is a creator and it'sso hard to build brands, it's so
hard to build something aroundthat brand and he's done a
(17:48):
really good job with theMexicano Hash Kitchen.
Everything that he builds isactually it's like larger than
life, but it's still incrediblypersonal.
It's personal to him.
He talks about his family.
His families are in therestaurant.
They're eating there weekly.
He knows how to invest inpeople, into the culture, into
the community.
He's building restaurants rightand it's fun being a partner
(18:11):
with someone like that becausewe can add some of our secret
sauce on scale and growth andout of heritage markets and what
we're doing.
But we hold on to him beingthat like foundation.
So in that sense of hospitality, the way that he thinks about
it, guests not only show up butthey remember the experience.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I love that because the remembering of it, right,
that's the impression.
Flavor profiles fade, but, man,how you feel that sticks with
you.
I love that.
And Josh, how do people findand follow you?
And the Savory Fund Okay.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
so we have a couple of different ways.
Restaurantology we do aconference every single year.
It's our way to give back toaspiring entrepreneurs, those
who are building theirrestaurants.
So it's for restaurants who aretwo to 20 units, and it's a day
of action-packed, just feedbackhow to hire, how to fire
someone.
I mean, it's just tactical.
(19:05):
So come see us atrestaurantology.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
And, by the way, I do have to say I have consistently
heard from restaurants that isthe best conference of the
entire year.
So what?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Zach, that's Coming from the person who's been to
every conference.
That's like the nicest thingI've ever heard.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Yes, but vendors if any vendors are listening it is
a non-sponsored, vendor notallowed conference.
This is straight restaurantsand just learning and you with
your peers.
It's unlike any conferencethere is because every other
conference is trying to make aton of money.
Restaurantology is there toteach you to network, to learn.
(19:44):
It really is, I mean, like hugeplug just for the fact that I
have so many people that speakso incredibly highly of
restaurantology and so, from theindustry, thank you for doing
it.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
No, that's really nice.
Then you can find me onLinkedIn and then go to our
website, savoryfundcom, see whatwe're all about.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
And if someone is interested in learning, if
they're kind of in the savoryfund sweet sweet spot.
What does Savory Fund tend toinvest in and acquire?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
We want an established brand.
Five years, five units is oursweet spot, but we've been
outside of that and we wantsomeone who's passionate about
their brand and wants to grow it, but needs capital, needs
structure, needs contracts,needs the expertise to help them
get to the next level.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Awesome, Well, josh, for helping us push to the next
level and for reminding us thatskydiving is really just one
scary step.
Today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you for joining us onGive an Ovation.
Thanks, zach.
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
(20:52):
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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