May 29, 2025 • 18 mins
Anthony Bambino, founder and CEO of 3Natives, joins Zack Oates to share how he grew a 900-square-foot juice bar into a 50+ location health-focused brand. With no outside investment, Anthony emphasizes why slow, steady, and personal growth beats fast cash. He shares insights on creating memorable guest experiences, leading a tight-knit team, and empowering employees to deliver service that stands out.
Zack and Anthony discuss:
- How 3Natives grew with zero private equity
- The secret to keeping franchise culture strong
- Why happy employees create loyal customers
- What Anthony learned from Unreasonable Hospitality
- Why handwritten notes still matter in 2025
Thanks, Anthony!
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-bambino-a60b45315/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/3natives/
https://www.instagram.com/3natives/
https://www.3natives.com/
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 powered byOvation, the feedback and
operations platform built formulti-unit restaurants.
It gives you all the answersyou need with none of the
(00:21):
annoying questions for yourguests.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And today we have a gentlemanwho's got a name and a face
right out of the movies.
His name is Anthony Bambino or,as his Nona called him, tiny
Tony.
I'm kidding about that, by theway, he didn't have a Nona.
Apparently no one ever callshim Tony, but he is the CEO and
(00:43):
founder of Three Natives, which,interestingly, began as a 900
square foot juice bar in Florida.
It now has over 40 locationsaround the country with a whole
menu of better for you food anddrink and bowls.
And Anthony, welcome to thepodcast man.
Thanks, Zach Excited to be here,and truly, though, your name is
just legendary.
(01:03):
I mean, when I saw that I wasgoing to have a podcast with
Anthony Bambino, I'm like Ibetter call in some backup here,
but it's great to have you on.
I'm sure you get that all thetime, though.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, thank you, anthony Michael, bambino, good
Irish boy, oh my.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I love that, mcanthony.
All right, here we go.
So tell us a little bit aboutThree Natives.
What inspired you to start it?
And I know it was in MissionBeach and I just kind of used
that as my hub.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I was a traveling sales rep and I would sit there
with my laptop and my cell phoneand in between calls and emails
, you know, just watchingcustomers come in and out, and
this little bowl shop he workedat.
They had like an extensivecoffee and pastry menu but
nobody was coming in for thecoffee and pastries.
They had one acai bowl andpeople were in and out all day
(02:07):
long having this one bowl.
So after working for two yearsand just kind of seeing, I guess
, the trend of the way people inFlorida were viewing food and
health and wellness, I made adecision.
This is something that I reallywanted to try on my own and
luckily at the time I mean howyoung I was.
If it didn't work I would haveenough time to rebound and go
(02:28):
into something else in life andif it did work, I think Florida
was a great place to really rollthese out.
As for the longest time,florida just had greasy spoon
diners, kind of chain barbecuerestaurants, and I know I'm
going to make fun of my italianheritage, but really bad italian
food.
so it's kind of good bagels yes,bagels yep, yep, yep, then good
(02:51):
bagels.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So it was a no-brainer to give it a shot and
when you started it 900 squarefeet what was your vision?
Was it like, hey, I want thisto be a successful location.
Or were you thinking in thebeginning, I want this to be a
franchised nationwide brand.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
No at first, because it was such a risk and so new, I
just wanted to pay rent.
So if we could pay rent, thenit was hey, we could go to the
next step After our I'd say,first seven months.
That's when it really hit melike wow, we're on to something,
I want to try this again.
And then we started looking forour second location about seven
(03:29):
months in.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Wow, that's really fast.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Very fast, very nerve wracking, probably pushed my
body to the limit because, asmost people who have done
anything was a multi-unit youcannot duplicate yourself.
So you got to learn really,really, really quick how to be a
leader, how to delegate, how toget people to respond.
It was tough, it was a verychallenging I would say six to
eight months of my life, butvery thankful we did it, because
(03:55):
then it turned into a thirdlocation and then turned into
franchising.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
In the last two years you've doubled your footprint,
so talk to me about thechallenges that you've
experienced in that growth.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So I would say three natives mantra.
We've kind of like slow andsteady wins the race.
There's a lot of other brandsout there that have expanded
really, really fast.
A lot of other brands.
They've already tapped into theprivate equity funds to grow
faster.
Even though we're a franchise,I still look at us as a very mom
and pop brand.
Me and my father are the onlyowners we have no, outside no
(04:28):
way.
Yeah, there's no outsideinvestment, there's no board
meetings.
This is still a brand that ifsomeone is involved, your voice
is heard.
If you look at our menu, a lotof this stuff that comes on our
menu, especially LTO items, thatall comes from franchise
feedback.
So the one thing I will saywith us in the last two years,
when we doubled our size, whichI think was about 16 stores that
(04:52):
we added my team has been withme for nine years it was not
nearly as daunting as a task asgoing from one to two or from
two or three.
It just felt right, we're allready for it.
We were like we're ready forthe next step.
Let's add a couple of corporatestores in here, let's add some
more franchise and let'scontinue to expand throughout
Florida.
And we, I think, out of thattranche of stores we did, we're
(05:14):
opening the last three to four,which will put us over 50 stores
.
And we're now back to where wewere two years ago where signing
a bunch of LOIs, signing leases, attracting new franchisees,
looking at new corporate storesto the goal is to go from 50 to
75 to 80.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, I love that.
That's awesome, and the factthat you've done it slow and
steady, the fact that you'vebeen building and learning as
you go, as opposed to when youget a lot of money.
A lot of times it's easier tomake the mistakes that you would
learn at a less risky time ofthe business.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
I think one of the things I started Three Natives
is I wanted a healthy outlet forpeople on the go, and stress is
a big factor in everyone's life.
And there was a big thing forus is we could go out there, we
could raise a bunch of money, wecould have a bunch of people
sitting at a board telling uswhat we need to do, but at the
(06:12):
end of the day it's noise andit's stress and we just want to
be able to manage having ahealthy business where people
can come take their little 15minute oasis from their day to
day and for us, you know, peaceof mind.
That's the same people thatwork for us.
Their family, they've been withus from day one, so we don't
want to overboard anybody.
It's also once you have aculture.
I will say it's really, reallyhard to hire people from the
(06:33):
outside that have maybe had muchmore experience at another
level or at another restaurant,another concept, and then bring
them into your culture.
So we found it's easier to justgrow organically, even on our
corporate level.
It's all people that havestarted One of the guys who's
ahead of my development.
He was a dishwasher when hehired.
Then he went to delivery driveFrom delivery driver to running
(06:54):
a store.
It just so, I would say, thereis a little bit of a struggle to
try to bring some outside moneyin when everything we've done
has just been so mom and popsand grassroots.
But with that being said, samestore sales continue to grow.
So I do think there is a lot tobe said about just focusing at
one thing and being very, verygood at it.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, love that.
And one of the things thatobviously you're very good at is
your guest experience.
I mean, that's what this allboils down to, so I'd love to
understand your philosophy onguest experience.
What do you think is the mostimportant aspect of guest
experience nowadays?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
So I'm a firm believer, even though we're
doing a podcast.
I had made a joke beforehand.
You had asked me a question andI'm like I'm sorry, I don't
have social media.
I'm kind of a caveman withtechnology.
So I'm the biggest believerthat people buy from who they
like and it doesn't matter ifit's a restaurant, whatever
industry you're in.
So as we've grown,unfortunately I can no longer be
(07:50):
the face of the restaurantwhich I was for the first eight
years.
But now my managers and my staff, they understand that their
presence is the first thing acustomer comes in.
Before they even get a bite ofthe food.
They're eating with their eyesand they're eating with their
nose first.
So customer service is it'sjust everything.
And in this space there is somuch competition and it's funny
(08:14):
we get franchisees who get alittle nervous.
They're like, oh, this brand'sopening up or this brand was
here first.
And I'm like guys,competition's a good thing.
People want quick service, fast, healthy food.
That's the space we're in Now.
You just got to win people withkindness, doing that little bit
extra that our competitorsaren't is what separates us.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And it shows I mean, your online reviews are great.
You've got some stores that youknow, over a hundred reviews
and 4.9, but 4.8, 4.6, likeyou've got customers that love
your brand and I think that goesto show that you're really
putting the guest first and Ithink that's really powerful.
And what would you recommend toany restaurant owners that are
(08:55):
looking to improve their guestexperience?
What are some things that theyshould be looking at, doing some
tactics?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Number one thing and this is the number one thing I
tell my franchisees you have toinvest in your employees Because
, again, your employees are theface of your business.
So if you want a bettercustomer experience, you have to
give your employees a betterexperience, Because when they
come to work happy and energeticand excited to be there, that
radiates right to your customers.
When they come in and they feellike they're getting gypped on
(09:21):
their pay or their hours aren'twhat they should be when the
guest is there, all of that getsspewed onto them indirectly,
but everyone picks up on thatenergy.
So my biggest thing and it'svery, very easy to do with
corporate stores, it's harder todo with franchising, because it
is their business but at theend of the day, our managers
(09:42):
they are the face of our stores.
The staff members are the faceof our.
You have to empower them to dowhat's right and to make that
customer rave, Because we allknow in 2025, everybody knows
what an acai bowl is now.
It's not this item that wassought after because it was so
new and unique.
There's a lot of places thatoffer them.
(10:03):
You got to be able to offer anacai bowl, but you can have an
incredible experience to go withthat food.
And that's what we do.
We empower our employees to,hey, go above and beyond.
Make someone's day, Make itexciting.
I don't know if you saw this,but I find this really, really
(10:25):
amazing.
Starbucks, which is thebehemoth in the industry,
they're focusing now onhandwritten notes and ceramic
mugs, to go back to whatStarbucks was, which I think if
you have a brand that's that bigand their CEO is saying guys,
this is where the focus is,Every other brand doesn't matter
.
If you're a mom and pop, youneed to follow.
Customer service is thedifference maker right now.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And this day and age we cannot afford to have
somebody walk out of our doornot to come back.
We have to focus on thatrecovery and that retention
because if you make andcompetition is so steep right
now and there's so many peoplegiving discounts that if you
(11:03):
mess up, it's really easy tofall out of the rotation of
someone's top five places thatthey go to.
And when you fall out it couldtake a really long time, if ever
, for you to get back in thatrotation.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
It's very long and we've noticed too.
And this, going back to yourreviews say, for example, if
store does 200 transactions aday and two of them are really
bad, chances are you're going toget a review, but those 198
that went spectacular.
It's really hard to getsomebody to take that extra 30
seconds to write a review foryou.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
It's a whole concept of the vending machine, right?
If two candy bars come out ofthe vending machine, I'm like,
oh wow, that's really cool.
If the candy bar that I paidfor came out, I got what I paid
for.
If the candy bar doesn't comeout Anthony I know that you're
calling your cousins you'rebreaking some kneecaps of those
vending machine people.
It's a dollar, but it's not adollar.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
It's the principle, right, and that's exactly how it
is in restaurants 100% and, asthings are just, everything's
more expensive than every spaceand customers really value their
hard earned money.
And that's again that goes backto customer service.
We offer an amazing product.
I'm not going to take anythingaway from what we offer but more
importantly, we offer greatcustomer service, and that
(12:20):
allows you If you mess someone'sorder up.
Zach, if you came in and youordered a tuna wrap and I gave
you a chicken salad wrap, you'regoing to be upset at first.
But if we handle it and goabove and beyond, we give you a
gift card, we comp themealto-day motions and they
forget the little simple hey,how are you?
How was your food?
Can I get you anything else?
(12:52):
It just goes so much furtherinto the customer.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
I totally agree with that, anthony, and the way that
I look at it is what's writtenon my hat do good and eat well,
right, and that's the wholeconcept of let's be kind to
people.
Let's hire people that are kind.
Let's be kind to people.
Let's hire people that are kind.
Let's be kind to those peopleBecause, as we say on this
podcast all the time, the guestexperience cannot exceed the
employee experience, and so youneed to make sure that your team
(13:16):
members really feel empoweredto do good things, and I think
that that's amazing what you'redoing.
Love the brand, love thephilosophy Totally agree on that
recovery piece.
The philosophy totally agree onthat recovery piece.
What we found in our data isthat a guest who has a negative
experience and is with properservice recovery is 24 times
(13:37):
more valuable than your averageguest.
I mean, that's bananas.
And we see people walk out thedoor who have a bad experience
and we're like, oh well, it'slike no, no, no.
Imagine 24 people just walkedout and then imagine that
there's 30 people who don't comein because of that negative
review they posted.
So now you're losing actually50 customers and thousands and
(13:59):
thousands of dollars becauseyou're not focused on that
individual and I think that'samazing and I love that that
you're doing that, anthony.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
And, as you know, it's really really simple to say
I'm sorry I messed up.
Let me fix this for you.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, I mean, is your pride worth 50 customers?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
And I will tell you this and this is for anybody
who's starting their ownbusiness because it's your baby
you're emotional.
You care about things that youprobably shouldn't care about.
You're like, oh, this is goingto eat into my food cost At the
end of the day.
Having somebody walk out ofyour restaurant upset is going
to hurt you more than makinganother item.
The joy that you bring somebody, the anger that you have taken
(14:40):
away, it goes so much fartherand it's one of those things.
It's hard to suck up your pride, but so much easier to say I'm
sorry, we made a mistake.
Let me fix this right away.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Amen.
Oh, man, anthony, love it.
By the way, for those listening, just let's all remember that's
not just good business advice,that's good life advice and
really good marriage advice and,quite frankly, it's good
parenting advice.
I recently read an articleabout parenting and this whole
concept of service recoveryparadox.
(15:11):
It's not just in business, butthey found that marriages and
even kids, parent-childrelationships if you go and you
mess up and you apologize toyour child, even a five-year-old
kid, if you say, marty, I'msorry, I shouldn't have yelled
at you, your relationship isgoing to get stronger.
(15:32):
And now we all know that.
That doesn't mean that weshould go and yell at kids to
have the apology, but it meansthat we're humans and, as that
happens, show your humanity andthat creates that connection and
that creates that love.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
You'll love this.
My wife, she's pregnant withour first.
So I'm saying hey, mazel Tov,thank you.
Thank you, I'm saying I'm sorrya lot.
Right now I don't even knowwhat I did, but I'm so sorry,
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
You know what you did , anthony, you know, anyway.
Well, anthony, who is someonethat we should be following in
the restaurant industry?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
So I want to give a shout out to Melissa.
She's the general manager of Evo.
The book behind youUnreasonable Hospitality.
She gave to me about two yearsago.
My wife makes fun of me.
She says Anthony only readschapter one.
I have a whole bunch of booksand it's hard for me.
I will tell you thisUnreasonable Hospitality I only
reads chapter one.
I have a whole bunch of booksand it's hard for me.
I will tell you thisUnreasonable Hospitality.
I've read it twice.
I've cried at the end of itboth times.
(16:34):
I think it doesn't matter ifyou're a five-star restaurant or
you're a small mom and pop.
The stuff that he talks about,about going above and beyond if
you can switch your mindset togive the customer whatever they
want.
And again in that book they goto an extreme, which is amazing.
If your customer experience isthrough the roof and they will
(16:56):
keep coming back and they'llbring their families in and
they'll bring their friends inand then you are now a part of
their life.
And that was one of the bigthings with Melissa.
She said Anthony, I've watchedpeople come in after their
baptism with their newborn tofirst communion, to graduate in
middle school, to graduate inhigh school.
She's like we are a part ofthese people's lives.
So once I read that book, itwas another way for me to just
(17:19):
hey, customer service iseverything.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Love that and I would encourage everyone to go to our
podcast and go check out theepisode I did with Will Gadara.
I have to admit I was total fanbowing out and it was probably
the worst interview I've everdone, but it was such an honor
to have him on the podcast, sogo give that a listen.
If you're not familiar with thebook, go buy it.
I love that.
Shout out, anthony.
Now how do people find andfollow you?
(17:46):
But, as you said, you're not onsocial media a whole lot, so
maybe three natives.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yes, we have Facebook .
We have Instagram.
I am new to LinkedIn, so if youwant to connect, you can find
me at LinkedIn I believe it's atAnthony Bambino and then our
social media handles it's allthree natives Very, very easy to
find and I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Thank you for having us this was a great podcast Well
, hey, you made it great.
Anthony, I'm just a microphone,you're spitting the wisdom and
for giving us a masterclass oncreating a great guest
experience from the greatBambino.
Today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you for joining us onGive an Ovation.
Thanks for joining us today.
If you like this episode, leaveus a review on Apple Podcasts
or your favorite place to listen.
(18:28):
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 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 powered byOvation, the feedback and
operations platform built formulti-unit restaurants.
It gives you all the answersyou need with none of the
(00:21):
annoying questions for yourguests.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And today we have a gentlemanwho's got a name and a face
right out of the movies.
His name is Anthony Bambino or,as his Nona called him, tiny
Tony.
I'm kidding about that, by theway, he didn't have a Nona.
Apparently no one ever callshim Tony, but he is the CEO and
(00:43):
founder of Three Natives, which,interestingly, began as a 900
square foot juice bar in Florida.
It now has over 40 locationsaround the country with a whole
menu of better for you food anddrink and bowls.
And Anthony, welcome to thepodcast man.
Thanks, Zach Excited to be here,and truly, though, your name is
just legendary.
(01:03):
I mean, when I saw that I wasgoing to have a podcast with
Anthony Bambino, I'm like Ibetter call in some backup here,
but it's great to have you on.
I'm sure you get that all thetime, though.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, thank you, anthony Michael, bambino, good
Irish boy, oh my.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I love that, mcanthony.
All right, here we go.
So tell us a little bit aboutThree Natives.
What inspired you to start it?
And I know it was in MissionBeach and I just kind of used
that as my hub.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
I was a traveling sales rep and I would sit there
with my laptop and my cell phoneand in between calls and emails
, you know, just watchingcustomers come in and out, and
this little bowl shop he workedat.
They had like an extensivecoffee and pastry menu but
nobody was coming in for thecoffee and pastries.
They had one acai bowl andpeople were in and out all day
(02:07):
long having this one bowl.
So after working for two yearsand just kind of seeing, I guess
, the trend of the way people inFlorida were viewing food and
health and wellness, I made adecision.
This is something that I reallywanted to try on my own and
luckily at the time I mean howyoung I was.
If it didn't work I would haveenough time to rebound and go
(02:28):
into something else in life andif it did work, I think Florida
was a great place to really rollthese out.
As for the longest time,florida just had greasy spoon
diners, kind of chain barbecuerestaurants, and I know I'm
going to make fun of my italianheritage, but really bad italian
food.
so it's kind of good bagels yes,bagels yep, yep, yep, then good
(02:51):
bagels.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So it was a no-brainer to give it a shot and
when you started it 900 squarefeet what was your vision?
Was it like, hey, I want thisto be a successful location.
Or were you thinking in thebeginning, I want this to be a
franchised nationwide brand.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
No at first, because it was such a risk and so new, I
just wanted to pay rent.
So if we could pay rent, thenit was hey, we could go to the
next step After our I'd say,first seven months.
That's when it really hit melike wow, we're on to something,
I want to try this again.
And then we started looking forour second location about seven
(03:29):
months in.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Wow, that's really fast.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Very fast, very nerve wracking, probably pushed my
body to the limit because, asmost people who have done
anything was a multi-unit youcannot duplicate yourself.
So you got to learn really,really, really quick how to be a
leader, how to delegate, how toget people to respond.
It was tough, it was a verychallenging I would say six to
eight months of my life, butvery thankful we did it, because
(03:55):
then it turned into a thirdlocation and then turned into
franchising.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
In the last two years you've doubled your footprint,
so talk to me about thechallenges that you've
experienced in that growth.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So I would say three natives mantra.
We've kind of like slow andsteady wins the race.
There's a lot of other brandsout there that have expanded
really, really fast.
A lot of other brands.
They've already tapped into theprivate equity funds to grow
faster.
Even though we're a franchise,I still look at us as a very mom
and pop brand.
Me and my father are the onlyowners we have no, outside no
(04:28):
way.
Yeah, there's no outsideinvestment, there's no board
meetings.
This is still a brand that ifsomeone is involved, your voice
is heard.
If you look at our menu, a lotof this stuff that comes on our
menu, especially LTO items, thatall comes from franchise
feedback.
So the one thing I will saywith us in the last two years,
when we doubled our size, whichI think was about 16 stores that
(04:52):
we added my team has been withme for nine years it was not
nearly as daunting as a task asgoing from one to two or from
two or three.
It just felt right, we're allready for it.
We were like we're ready forthe next step.
Let's add a couple of corporatestores in here, let's add some
more franchise and let'scontinue to expand throughout
Florida.
And we, I think, out of thattranche of stores we did, we're
(05:14):
opening the last three to four,which will put us over 50 stores
.
And we're now back to where wewere two years ago where signing
a bunch of LOIs, signing leases, attracting new franchisees,
looking at new corporate storesto the goal is to go from 50 to
75 to 80.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, I love that.
That's awesome, and the factthat you've done it slow and
steady, the fact that you'vebeen building and learning as
you go, as opposed to when youget a lot of money.
A lot of times it's easier tomake the mistakes that you would
learn at a less risky time ofthe business.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
I think one of the things I started Three Natives
is I wanted a healthy outlet forpeople on the go, and stress is
a big factor in everyone's life.
And there was a big thing forus is we could go out there, we
could raise a bunch of money, wecould have a bunch of people
sitting at a board telling uswhat we need to do, but at the
(06:12):
end of the day it's noise andit's stress and we just want to
be able to manage having ahealthy business where people
can come take their little 15minute oasis from their day to
day and for us, you know, peaceof mind.
That's the same people thatwork for us.
Their family, they've been withus from day one, so we don't
want to overboard anybody.
It's also once you have aculture.
I will say it's really, reallyhard to hire people from the
(06:33):
outside that have maybe had muchmore experience at another
level or at another restaurant,another concept, and then bring
them into your culture.
So we found it's easier to justgrow organically, even on our
corporate level.
It's all people that havestarted One of the guys who's
ahead of my development.
He was a dishwasher when hehired.
Then he went to delivery driveFrom delivery driver to running
(06:54):
a store.
It just so, I would say, thereis a little bit of a struggle to
try to bring some outside moneyin when everything we've done
has just been so mom and popsand grassroots.
But with that being said, samestore sales continue to grow.
So I do think there is a lot tobe said about just focusing at
one thing and being very, verygood at it.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, love that.
And one of the things thatobviously you're very good at is
your guest experience.
I mean, that's what this allboils down to, so I'd love to
understand your philosophy onguest experience.
What do you think is the mostimportant aspect of guest
experience nowadays?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
So I'm a firm believer, even though we're
doing a podcast.
I had made a joke beforehand.
You had asked me a question andI'm like I'm sorry, I don't
have social media.
I'm kind of a caveman withtechnology.
So I'm the biggest believerthat people buy from who they
like and it doesn't matter ifit's a restaurant, whatever
industry you're in.
So as we've grown,unfortunately I can no longer be
(07:50):
the face of the restaurantwhich I was for the first eight
years.
But now my managers and my staff, they understand that their
presence is the first thing acustomer comes in.
Before they even get a bite ofthe food.
They're eating with their eyesand they're eating with their
nose first.
So customer service is it'sjust everything.
And in this space there is somuch competition and it's funny
(08:14):
we get franchisees who get alittle nervous.
They're like, oh, this brand'sopening up or this brand was
here first.
And I'm like guys,competition's a good thing.
People want quick service, fast, healthy food.
That's the space we're in Now.
You just got to win people withkindness, doing that little bit
extra that our competitorsaren't is what separates us.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
And it shows I mean, your online reviews are great.
You've got some stores that youknow, over a hundred reviews
and 4.9, but 4.8, 4.6, likeyou've got customers that love
your brand and I think that goesto show that you're really
putting the guest first and Ithink that's really powerful.
And what would you recommend toany restaurant owners that are
(08:55):
looking to improve their guestexperience?
What are some things that theyshould be looking at, doing some
tactics?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Number one thing and this is the number one thing I
tell my franchisees you have toinvest in your employees Because
, again, your employees are theface of your business.
So if you want a bettercustomer experience, you have to
give your employees a betterexperience, Because when they
come to work happy and energeticand excited to be there, that
radiates right to your customers.
When they come in and they feellike they're getting gypped on
(09:21):
their pay or their hours aren'twhat they should be when the
guest is there, all of that getsspewed onto them indirectly,
but everyone picks up on thatenergy.
So my biggest thing and it'svery, very easy to do with
corporate stores, it's harder todo with franchising, because it
is their business but at theend of the day, our managers
(09:42):
they are the face of our stores.
The staff members are the faceof our.
You have to empower them to dowhat's right and to make that
customer rave, Because we allknow in 2025, everybody knows
what an acai bowl is now.
It's not this item that wassought after because it was so
new and unique.
There's a lot of places thatoffer them.
(10:03):
You got to be able to offer anacai bowl, but you can have an
incredible experience to go withthat food.
And that's what we do.
We empower our employees to,hey, go above and beyond.
Make someone's day, Make itexciting.
I don't know if you saw this,but I find this really, really
(10:25):
amazing.
Starbucks, which is thebehemoth in the industry,
they're focusing now onhandwritten notes and ceramic
mugs, to go back to whatStarbucks was, which I think if
you have a brand that's that bigand their CEO is saying guys,
this is where the focus is,Every other brand doesn't matter
.
If you're a mom and pop, youneed to follow.
Customer service is thedifference maker right now.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And this day and age we cannot afford to have
somebody walk out of our doornot to come back.
We have to focus on thatrecovery and that retention
because if you make andcompetition is so steep right
now and there's so many peoplegiving discounts that if you
(11:03):
mess up, it's really easy tofall out of the rotation of
someone's top five places thatthey go to.
And when you fall out it couldtake a really long time, if ever
, for you to get back in thatrotation.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
It's very long and we've noticed too.
And this, going back to yourreviews say, for example, if
store does 200 transactions aday and two of them are really
bad, chances are you're going toget a review, but those 198
that went spectacular.
It's really hard to getsomebody to take that extra 30
seconds to write a review foryou.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
It's a whole concept of the vending machine, right?
If two candy bars come out ofthe vending machine, I'm like,
oh wow, that's really cool.
If the candy bar that I paidfor came out, I got what I paid
for.
If the candy bar doesn't comeout Anthony I know that you're
calling your cousins you'rebreaking some kneecaps of those
vending machine people.
It's a dollar, but it's not adollar.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
It's the principle, right, and that's exactly how it
is in restaurants 100% and, asthings are just, everything's
more expensive than every spaceand customers really value their
hard earned money.
And that's again that goes backto customer service.
We offer an amazing product.
I'm not going to take anythingaway from what we offer but more
importantly, we offer greatcustomer service, and that
(12:20):
allows you If you mess someone'sorder up.
Zach, if you came in and youordered a tuna wrap and I gave
you a chicken salad wrap, you'regoing to be upset at first.
But if we handle it and goabove and beyond, we give you a
gift card, we comp themealto-day motions and they
forget the little simple hey,how are you?
How was your food?
Can I get you anything else?
(12:52):
It just goes so much furtherinto the customer.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
I totally agree with that, anthony, and the way that
I look at it is what's writtenon my hat do good and eat well,
right, and that's the wholeconcept of let's be kind to
people.
Let's hire people that are kind.
Let's be kind to people.
Let's hire people that are kind.
Let's be kind to those peopleBecause, as we say on this
podcast all the time, the guestexperience cannot exceed the
employee experience, and so youneed to make sure that your team
(13:16):
members really feel empoweredto do good things, and I think
that that's amazing what you'redoing.
Love the brand, love thephilosophy Totally agree on that
recovery piece.
The philosophy totally agree onthat recovery piece.
What we found in our data isthat a guest who has a negative
experience and is with properservice recovery is 24 times
(13:37):
more valuable than your averageguest.
I mean, that's bananas.
And we see people walk out thedoor who have a bad experience
and we're like, oh well, it'slike no, no, no.
Imagine 24 people just walkedout and then imagine that
there's 30 people who don't comein because of that negative
review they posted.
So now you're losing actually50 customers and thousands and
(13:59):
thousands of dollars becauseyou're not focused on that
individual and I think that'samazing and I love that that
you're doing that, anthony.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
And, as you know, it's really really simple to say
I'm sorry I messed up.
Let me fix this for you.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, I mean, is your pride worth 50 customers?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
And I will tell you this and this is for anybody
who's starting their ownbusiness because it's your baby
you're emotional.
You care about things that youprobably shouldn't care about.
You're like, oh, this is goingto eat into my food cost At the
end of the day.
Having somebody walk out ofyour restaurant upset is going
to hurt you more than makinganother item.
The joy that you bring somebody, the anger that you have taken
(14:40):
away, it goes so much fartherand it's one of those things.
It's hard to suck up your pride, but so much easier to say I'm
sorry, we made a mistake.
Let me fix this right away.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Amen.
Oh, man, anthony, love it.
By the way, for those listening, just let's all remember that's
not just good business advice,that's good life advice and
really good marriage advice and,quite frankly, it's good
parenting advice.
I recently read an articleabout parenting and this whole
concept of service recoveryparadox.
(15:11):
It's not just in business, butthey found that marriages and
even kids, parent-childrelationships if you go and you
mess up and you apologize toyour child, even a five-year-old
kid, if you say, marty, I'msorry, I shouldn't have yelled
at you, your relationship isgoing to get stronger.
(15:32):
And now we all know that.
That doesn't mean that weshould go and yell at kids to
have the apology, but it meansthat we're humans and, as that
happens, show your humanity andthat creates that connection and
that creates that love.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
You'll love this.
My wife, she's pregnant withour first.
So I'm saying hey, mazel Tov,thank you.
Thank you, I'm saying I'm sorrya lot.
Right now I don't even knowwhat I did, but I'm so sorry,
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
You know what you did , anthony, you know, anyway.
Well, anthony, who is someonethat we should be following in
the restaurant industry?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
So I want to give a shout out to Melissa.
She's the general manager of Evo.
The book behind youUnreasonable Hospitality.
She gave to me about two yearsago.
My wife makes fun of me.
She says Anthony only readschapter one.
I have a whole bunch of booksand it's hard for me.
I will tell you thisUnreasonable Hospitality I only
reads chapter one.
I have a whole bunch of booksand it's hard for me.
I will tell you thisUnreasonable Hospitality.
I've read it twice.
I've cried at the end of itboth times.
(16:34):
I think it doesn't matter ifyou're a five-star restaurant or
you're a small mom and pop.
The stuff that he talks about,about going above and beyond if
you can switch your mindset togive the customer whatever they
want.
And again in that book they goto an extreme, which is amazing.
If your customer experience isthrough the roof and they will
(16:56):
keep coming back and they'llbring their families in and
they'll bring their friends inand then you are now a part of
their life.
And that was one of the bigthings with Melissa.
She said Anthony, I've watchedpeople come in after their
baptism with their newborn tofirst communion, to graduate in
middle school, to graduate inhigh school.
She's like we are a part ofthese people's lives.
So once I read that book, itwas another way for me to just
(17:19):
hey, customer service iseverything.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Love that and I would encourage everyone to go to our
podcast and go check out theepisode I did with Will Gadara.
I have to admit I was total fanbowing out and it was probably
the worst interview I've everdone, but it was such an honor
to have him on the podcast, sogo give that a listen.
If you're not familiar with thebook, go buy it.
I love that.
Shout out, anthony.
Now how do people find andfollow you?
(17:46):
But, as you said, you're not onsocial media a whole lot, so
maybe three natives.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yes, we have Facebook .
We have Instagram.
I am new to LinkedIn, so if youwant to connect, you can find
me at LinkedIn I believe it's atAnthony Bambino and then our
social media handles it's allthree natives Very, very easy to
find and I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Thank you for having us this was a great podcast Well
, hey, you made it great.
Anthony, I'm just a microphone,you're spitting the wisdom and
for giving us a masterclass oncreating a great guest
experience from the greatBambino.
Today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you for joining us onGive an Ovation.
Thanks for joining us today.
If you like this episode, leaveus a review on Apple Podcasts
or your favorite place to listen.
(18:28):
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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