March 17, 2025 • 19 mins
Zack sits down with David Scott Peters, restaurant coach, speaker, and author of Restaurant Prosperity Formula, to break down how independent restaurant owners can create financial and operational freedom. He shares why delegation without documentation leads to failure, how to build a system that works without you, and why great guest experiences start with operational excellence.
Zack and David discuss:
- Why most restaurant owners fail to delegate effectively
- The simple way to document systems without extra work
- How anticipating guest needs creates better hospitality
- The key to stepping back from daily operations and making more money
Follow David Scott Peters:
DavidScottPeters.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
(00:22):
questions.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And today we have David ScottPeters, the only man with three
names that I know.
With decades of experience inoperations of restaurants, he is
a restaurant coach, he's arestaurant expert, he's a
sought-after speaker, he's theauthor of Restaurant Prosperity
Formula and he is now gracing uswith his presence.
(00:44):
David, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I appreciate you having me my friend very much.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
This is long overdue for a repeat and we don't have
very many guests on multipletimes, but you have just such a
wealth of experience andunderstanding, and maybe just
for people who might have missedone of your sessions at a show
or haven't heard you speak, whatis David Scott Peters?
It's an entity in and of itself, but who do you help?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Well, basically we're a restaurant training coaching
company for independentrestaurant owners.
The whole piece of it is mybook, is Restaurant Prosperity
Formula what SuccessfulRestaurateurs Do, and the whole
purpose is now restaurantprosperity is freedom for your
restaurant and the financialfreedom you deserve.
If I can get you freedom fromyour restaurant via implementing
systems, processes, ways.
(01:32):
We have managers, supervisors,people who are doing those
things.
You learn to delegate.
When that is happening, youhave a life.
When that is happening, you'remaking money.
You're running off of budgets,You're running off of systems.
In other words, you're in aposition where you get to impose
your will without being there.
They're doing things your waywhen you're there, but
especially when you're not,which allows you to say, hey, I
(01:54):
can become an owner, which iswork on budgets, marketing, lead
the team, develop my managers,hold them accountable, work
strategically on the business,move it forward, not be the best
host or cook that I have and itreally changes your role and
gives you your life back.
Beautiful part is it also meansyou make money.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
There we go.
I mean, right, I love makingfood, but everyone loves making
money.
So what are some of the commonmistakes that you see?
When a new client comes to youand they say, hey, I don't know
what's going on in my restaurant, but I just feel like I'm still
working in the business and Ican't ever get myself out enough
to work on the business, whatare some things that you look at
(02:35):
initially to say, hey, here'ssome low-hanging fruit that
you're probably doing or notdoing.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I think the biggest and hardest thing that a
restaurateur needs to learn ishow to delegate.
I mean, it's really saying,okay, I can do everything myself
.
That's horrible.
You've created a prison foryourself, like I'm the only one
who can write the schedule asthe owner, I'm the only place in
order as the owner, I'm theonly one, I'm the only one.
I've tried to give it to people, and you go through this
(03:02):
process and you never learnedhow to delegate successfully.
Instead, you advocated, yougave it to somebody, turned your
head and said please, please,get it right, but ultimately
they fail you every single timebecause you didn't teach them
your system, your process, yourway.
You didn't make sure they coulddo it on their own without you
being over their shoulder.
So there's this gray area, orwhat we like to call in the
(03:23):
restaurant business, somethingcalled common sense, which is
not exist.
And so the biggest thing is youthink that adding a manager
means I have freedom.
No, if you didn't teach themyour system, your process, your
way, there is no freedom.
Ah, do you have a system, aprocess away?
And it's not that, it's in yourhead.
Follow me for three days, goodluck after that.
That's how I was trained in therestaurant business.
(03:45):
I don't know about you, but Iwas literally said follow me for
three days how you open andclose, and every day I'd walk in
and it was like now I'm a GenXer, so we don't do this today,
but we used to potty trainpuppies by.
When they did a BM on thecarpet, you'd stick their nose
in it, roll up a newspaper, hitthem in the nose and go bad dog.
Well, that's what it's likelearning how to become a manager
(04:07):
for an independent restaurant.
Follow me and every day you walkin and you're told what you're
doing wrong.
Who wants to work in thatenvironment?
And today, with millennials andyounger, that doesn't work.
They'll ghost your ass.
They won't even show back upbecause that's not how they want
to work.
So, as owners, I have to makesure I have my system, my
process, my way that I train mypeople.
(04:27):
And then I'm there not only tocoach them but be willing to
hold them accountable.
And therein lies the rub havethe system, train them and be
willing to hold them accountable.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I think that's so great, because oftentimes we
ping pong back and forth betweendo, delegate, do delegate, do
delegate, and what happens iswhen you remove that
accountability and you removethe opportunity to document and
you remove the opportunity foryou to dream up of what's new,
(05:00):
then you get frustrated.
And I talked to restaurantowners time and time.
And keep in mind, this is abusiness problem, right, we're
not talking restaurant problemsright now, we're talking
business problems.
We had this innovation where wewould do and then, as we
started to hire more and morepeople, as we grew more and more
, the people weren't doing itthe right way and then we
(05:22):
realized that we were skippingthat step of documenting.
So it's instead of do delegate,it's do, document, delegate
with accountability and thendream and dream up of what that
better world looks like and thenstart doing that stuff and then
document what you're doing andthen delegate with
accountability and then dream upnew stuff.
The problem is, when you getcaught in that rat trap of do
(05:46):
and delegate, you never get todream, but it's because it's so
annoying to document right.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So here's the deal.
We have technology today.
It makes life easy for us.
You touched on in the beginningI do everything myself and I
delegate.
I fail with delegation and it'sthis vicious cycle.
And you said okay, well, youneed to document.
The last thing a restaurantowner ever thinks about is man,
I want to sit in front of acomputer, whether it's a Google
Doc or Word, and I want to sitthere and I want to freaking
type this stuff out.
(06:14):
You got to be kidding me.
It's like I don't even havetime in my day to do the things
I want to do to market, letalone sit there and say I've got
to say this is how you countout a bar drawer.
Well, here's the beautiful part, zach.
What I teach people is you'vegot a cell phone in your pocket.
I call it a 4K camera.
Every time you train somebodyto do something it's the first
(06:35):
time you're training them onsomething you grab your phone,
you hand it to them.
You say hit record Now.
I don't give a rat's ass aboutlighting, professional sound
quality.
I don't care if you drop theF-bomb 30 times.
You say I'm 35.
Don't care when you're doneteaching them how to do the
drawer.
When you're done walkingthrough the restaurant, when
(06:55):
you're done teaching them how towrite a schedule, name the item
, you say hit, stop.
Now you say thank you and youtell them I'm going to upload
this into the internet, whetherit's any kind of online drive.
You're going to make it aprivate folder so that the only
people that can open that fileis the person you send it to,
that you've added to it.
So I'm going to add thismanager.
I'm saying I'm going to emailyou the file.
(07:21):
So you click on the link let'ssay it's in Google Docs.
The video comes up.
I can watch it.
Your job, by the way, is todocument everything I just
taught you.
Not only did I just show youhow to do it, but I want you to
actually type it up.
You, the manager, type it up.
And then I'm a Gen Xer, Don'temail me, that son of a bitch.
No, you want to print it off.
You're going to hand it to meand I'm going to grab a red pen,
like an eighth grade Englishteacher, and go nope, wrong,
(07:42):
wrong, fix.
I'm going to hand it back tothem and they're going to make
the changes and then they'regoing to give it back to me, and
when it's good to go, I'm goingto three-hole punch that puppy,
throw it into a binder.
And now I've got my operatingsystems, my SOPs, my operations
manual, don't care what you callit.
Each one of the things that Iteach them, that they document
(08:02):
it, goes in here.
So now I'm building my systems.
By the way, I didn't have to doit.
I did what I had to do anyway,which was teach them visually.
Now, from there, what I'm goingto do, I'm going to get a
hundred dollar droid tablet, putbaby bumpers on that thing and
I'm going to say okay, train thenext person I'm going to show
you.
Then I'm going to say by theway, when you forget, here is
(08:23):
the written manual part of it.
And if you want, here's thishundred dollar droid tablet,
push, play the video.
So not only do I stay with themuntil they can do it on their
own, but if they forget threenights later, whatever it may be
, they've got a step-by-stepguide and they've got a video
they can watch.
And all of a sudden, I did whatI always do I showed somebody,
(08:45):
but they actually did the work.
Now I'm documenting my systemswithout creating more work for
myself.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I love that because it's not about taking the
shortcut, but it's about takingthe long way faster.
You're still doing the hardwork, but you're just getting
there as if you took a shortcut.
Because I think that's thething is that we think there's
so much going on in my brainright now that I can't possibly
take the time to sit down andtrain someone on all of this
(09:12):
because it's worthless.
Because what happened?
Shirley sat down with me andshe had me follow her around for
a couple of shifts and thenshe's like great, now you're
trained, right.
And then how did I know that Iwasn't trained on making a
strawberry shortcake sundae?
Well, when the server yelledacross the way, I need a
strawberry shortcake sundae andI didn't know what to do, I
(09:32):
literally got pushed out of theway, got yelled at for not
knowing how to do it.
And then she made it and had mewatch her.
And then I learned from theserver right, who is now late on
her table, and she wasfrustrated that I couldn't help
her out.
That's the old way of doingthings and there's easier ways
to get to the end of the road,which I think is just such a
(09:55):
great idea, man.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
And I want you to think about.
If you're a restaurant operator, everything you do in your
restaurant is a task that can bedocumented, trained and
assigned to someone other thanyou.
You are not God's gift torunning to the bank and making a
deposit.
You are not God's gift towriting a schedule.
You are just the person who hasbeen doing it and the only
person who's been doing it right.
(10:19):
And a side note we've all beentaught at some level that if you
can get somebody to do it 85%as well as you, you have hit a
home run.
They will never be you.
They don't own the restaurant,but if I can hold them
accountable, if I can continueto coach them, coddle them,
train them, doing everything Ican to make them successful, and
they can take 85% off myshoulders and it's getting done
(10:43):
you're hitting a home run.
You're giving yourself time togo get the next catering job, to
do the next menu, to work onmarketing, to work on your
budgets like the things thatmove the company forward versus
spending your day going to thebank and writing a schedule and
comping something for a guest orflipping a burger.
It just doesn't make any sensewhen we do that.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
So when you look at the guest experience because I
know we've been talking a lotabout the owner's life and what
does that take, because I thinkat the end of the day, that is
the thing that's most painful,but the reason people got into
restaurants for the most part,when you talk to them, they left
.
You know I've got friends whohave left high tech jobs where
they're making 400 a year andthey're like, yes, I'm not
(11:25):
making that money my first fewyears of working in building my
restaurant, but they get into itbecause they have hospitality
in their blood and they love theguest experience.
And so what do you think is themost important aspect of guest
experience nowadays?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I would say the most important is making sure that
you've got everything taken careof in your business that they
notice nothing else other thanthe other person they're with.
So, for instance, we thinkabout great hospitality Back in
the 80s and 90s.
80s we had Gap and hi, how areyou?
Hi, can I help you?
How are you?
We get bombarded.
You feel like, oh my gosh,leave me alone.
(12:01):
We thought that was great.
Then in the 90s we startedtalking about treat your guests
like you want to be treated.
You've got to be kidding me.
Like if I had a friend comeover and they were coming over
to my house, I'd be like dude,go get yourself a beer, love you
to death and I'm not getting up.
So we've got to change how wedo things.
And great hospitality isn'tjazz hands.
(12:22):
What it is is from the momentyour guests meet each other
outside your building.
They think nothing of nothingelse other than each other.
They walk in the door.
They didn't notice a dirtywindow or a handle that's too
hot.
I'm in Arizona Like you've gota leather binder around it so
that you don't burn your hand.
You walk in the door.
You don't notice that there'sgum on the floor or that it's
(12:45):
dirty, you don't notice thatthings are out of place.
Instead, you come to the hoststation or, if you're going to a
registered quick service, wekind of flow and we have a
conversation.
What happens is when our needsare anticipated and met for us
hey, please follow me.
The host isn't running to thetable and leaving us in the dust
.
They are literally staying withus, conversating, getting us
(13:08):
there Versus.
I go to the host station.
There's nobody there and thatinternal clock starts happening,
and then we start to look ateach other and say are we going
to get service?
Now?
Our connection with each otherhas been broken.
No-transcript to shake eachother's hands.
(13:49):
Go, man, it was great to seeyou.
We should win this place.
Great, let's do that again.
It wasn't that the server wasspectacular, it was that my
needs were met and I stayedengaged with the people I'm
there with.
That's how memories are created, so make sure all the basics
are done.
You've got to execute onRestaurant 101.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
And it's tough right, Because when you look at it,
there's a thousand places wheresomething can go wrong.
We're not the main course asthe restaurant.
We are the dish and theexperience.
99% of the time is the reasonthat people are coming in is to
experience something with theother person.
(14:31):
It's not to sit there.
And yes, there's someexperiential restaurants.
Yes, there's some that havelike the pizzazz.
Yes, I come here because I wantto be fed, but at the end of the
day, I think about a coach thatI worked with.
She's a CEO coach of mine tothis day.
She was living in Brooklyn andthere were two coffee shops one
that was great and 30 secondscloser, one that was good and 30
(14:56):
seconds farther.
And she said, which one did Igo to?
And I'm like, well, obviouslythe great one that was closer
and she goes.
No, I went to the one wherethey knew my name because at the
end of the day, it's like Iwant to feel something, I want
to know that I'm cared about andthe attention to detail.
Those little things matter somuch, because you can't fake the
little things.
(15:16):
I could fake the one big grandgesture, but all of these little
things together where youbecome invisible and you can
just feel at home, right, andnot feel like, oh, it smells
weird in here, it looks weirdover there, oh, there's paint
chips over there.
But just being the experiencein the moment, that's so
powerful.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
I love that man, let's just be very clear.
You're not in the restaurantbusiness, you're in the
hospitality business.
We don't have in the foodbusiness.
If you were in the foodbusiness, we're competing with a
gas station.
I get food there.
So by creating memories and, oh, by the way, we have the
privilege of creating memoriesThink about it.
Whether it's somebody'sanniversary, it's their 35th
(15:56):
birthday, they met each otherthere, they're just going out
because they want to releasesome steam, it does not matter
what the purpose is.
When you deliver on yourpromise of great hospitality,
man, you'll be rememberedforever.
It is much harder to do if youdo a lot of things wrong.
When you do a lot of thingsright, you're not noticed.
(16:17):
In fact, it seems seamless.
It is less about again, jazzhands.
Look how great we are to man.
Let's make sure we meet theirneeds.
We anticipate and meet ourguests' needs versus letting
them go.
I need, hey, can I get, can Ihave more?
It's the little things thatmake a huge difference, things
like as simple as if you've gotbottomless non-alcoholic
(16:41):
beverages, sodas, coffees, teas,why do you need to walk up and
say do you want another one?
Just bring one, because whenit's halfway full, there's two
sips left, that's it.
So when your server comes byand goes, oh well, they're
halfway full, I got plenty oftime.
No, bring another one, take thehalf empty one away.
Don't say a damn word.
Make it so that I'm never like,oh man, I'm thirsty, I really
(17:03):
hope somebody brings me a drink.
Just anticipate the need, meetit.
Make sure that we stay engaged.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Man powerful, I'm pumped.
I'm ready to open up arestaurant.
Man, let's go, David.
Okay, look, we're running shorton time.
This has been just such a greatpod.
You know so many people.
Who is someone that we shouldbe following?
Who's someone that deserves anovation in the restaurant
industry?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Probably somebody you know very well.
It's Matt Plapp, America's BestRestaurants.
I think he is trailblazing anew direction when it comes to
restaurant marketing fromgrabbing people at the beginning
to taking them through loyaltyand keeping them all the way
through.
It's been amazing to watch him.
He has more energy than anybodyI've ever met in my life.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
He's amazing.
I literally was just talking tohim, not 24 hours ago, and your
name just came up organicallybecause we both just are such
big fans of yours, and heactually is the one who sent me
this neon pizza sign behind me.
So that's pretty cool.
He's such a cool guy.
Love him.
He is a must follow.
Now, mr Peters, where canpeople go to follow you?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Well, I would go several places.
It depends on what you want.
You can go to my site,davidscottpeterscom, if you want
to learn about what we do.
Otherwise, I've got places thatyou can learn for free.
No, no, no commitment needed.
Go to my YouTube channel, whichis David Scott Peters, or look
up my podcast where you and Italked recently, and that is
Restaurant Prosperity Formula,found on all the popular
(18:33):
podcasting services.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
And a great podcast.
It is Appreciate you showing methe ropes, teaching me how to
do a podcast, and so glad wefinally got you on for a sequel.
The first episode was amazing.
This even better, mr DavidScott Peters, for showing us how
to make the long way short andthe hard way easy.
Today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you for joining us onGive an.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Ovation.
Thank you, my friend.
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
(19:16):
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
(00:22):
questions.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And today we have David ScottPeters, the only man with three
names that I know.
With decades of experience inoperations of restaurants, he is
a restaurant coach, he's arestaurant expert, he's a
sought-after speaker, he's theauthor of Restaurant Prosperity
Formula and he is now gracing uswith his presence.
(00:44):
David, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I appreciate you having me my friend very much.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
This is long overdue for a repeat and we don't have
very many guests on multipletimes, but you have just such a
wealth of experience andunderstanding, and maybe just
for people who might have missedone of your sessions at a show
or haven't heard you speak, whatis David Scott Peters?
It's an entity in and of itself, but who do you help?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Well, basically we're a restaurant training coaching
company for independentrestaurant owners.
The whole piece of it is mybook, is Restaurant Prosperity
Formula what SuccessfulRestaurateurs Do, and the whole
purpose is now restaurantprosperity is freedom for your
restaurant and the financialfreedom you deserve.
If I can get you freedom fromyour restaurant via implementing
systems, processes, ways.
(01:32):
We have managers, supervisors,people who are doing those
things.
You learn to delegate.
When that is happening, youhave a life.
When that is happening, you'remaking money.
You're running off of budgets,You're running off of systems.
In other words, you're in aposition where you get to impose
your will without being there.
They're doing things your waywhen you're there, but
especially when you're not,which allows you to say, hey, I
(01:54):
can become an owner, which iswork on budgets, marketing, lead
the team, develop my managers,hold them accountable, work
strategically on the business,move it forward, not be the best
host or cook that I have and itreally changes your role and
gives you your life back.
Beautiful part is it also meansyou make money.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
There we go.
I mean, right, I love makingfood, but everyone loves making
money.
So what are some of the commonmistakes that you see?
When a new client comes to youand they say, hey, I don't know
what's going on in my restaurant, but I just feel like I'm still
working in the business and Ican't ever get myself out enough
to work on the business, whatare some things that you look at
(02:35):
initially to say, hey, here'ssome low-hanging fruit that
you're probably doing or notdoing.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I think the biggest and hardest thing that a
restaurateur needs to learn ishow to delegate.
I mean, it's really saying,okay, I can do everything myself
.
That's horrible.
You've created a prison foryourself, like I'm the only one
who can write the schedule asthe owner, I'm the only place in
order as the owner, I'm theonly one, I'm the only one.
I've tried to give it to people, and you go through this
(03:02):
process and you never learnedhow to delegate successfully.
Instead, you advocated, yougave it to somebody, turned your
head and said please, please,get it right, but ultimately
they fail you every single timebecause you didn't teach them
your system, your process, yourway.
You didn't make sure they coulddo it on their own without you
being over their shoulder.
So there's this gray area, orwhat we like to call in the
(03:23):
restaurant business, somethingcalled common sense, which is
not exist.
And so the biggest thing is youthink that adding a manager
means I have freedom.
No, if you didn't teach themyour system, your process, your
way, there is no freedom.
Ah, do you have a system, aprocess away?
And it's not that, it's in yourhead.
Follow me for three days, goodluck after that.
That's how I was trained in therestaurant business.
(03:45):
I don't know about you, but Iwas literally said follow me for
three days how you open andclose, and every day I'd walk in
and it was like now I'm a GenXer, so we don't do this today,
but we used to potty trainpuppies by.
When they did a BM on thecarpet, you'd stick their nose
in it, roll up a newspaper, hitthem in the nose and go bad dog.
Well, that's what it's likelearning how to become a manager
(04:07):
for an independent restaurant.
Follow me and every day you walkin and you're told what you're
doing wrong.
Who wants to work in thatenvironment?
And today, with millennials andyounger, that doesn't work.
They'll ghost your ass.
They won't even show back upbecause that's not how they want
to work.
So, as owners, I have to makesure I have my system, my
process, my way that I train mypeople.
(04:27):
And then I'm there not only tocoach them but be willing to
hold them accountable.
And therein lies the rub havethe system, train them and be
willing to hold them accountable.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
I think that's so great, because oftentimes we
ping pong back and forth betweendo, delegate, do delegate, do
delegate, and what happens iswhen you remove that
accountability and you removethe opportunity to document and
you remove the opportunity foryou to dream up of what's new,
(05:00):
then you get frustrated.
And I talked to restaurantowners time and time.
And keep in mind, this is abusiness problem, right, we're
not talking restaurant problemsright now, we're talking
business problems.
We had this innovation where wewould do and then, as we
started to hire more and morepeople, as we grew more and more
, the people weren't doing itthe right way and then we
(05:22):
realized that we were skippingthat step of documenting.
So it's instead of do delegate,it's do, document, delegate
with accountability and thendream and dream up of what that
better world looks like and thenstart doing that stuff and then
document what you're doing andthen delegate with
accountability and then dream upnew stuff.
The problem is, when you getcaught in that rat trap of do
(05:46):
and delegate, you never get todream, but it's because it's so
annoying to document right.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So here's the deal.
We have technology today.
It makes life easy for us.
You touched on in the beginningI do everything myself and I
delegate.
I fail with delegation and it'sthis vicious cycle.
And you said okay, well, youneed to document.
The last thing a restaurantowner ever thinks about is man,
I want to sit in front of acomputer, whether it's a Google
Doc or Word, and I want to sitthere and I want to freaking
type this stuff out.
(06:14):
You got to be kidding me.
It's like I don't even havetime in my day to do the things
I want to do to market, letalone sit there and say I've got
to say this is how you countout a bar drawer.
Well, here's the beautiful part, zach.
What I teach people is you'vegot a cell phone in your pocket.
I call it a 4K camera.
Every time you train somebodyto do something it's the first
(06:35):
time you're training them onsomething you grab your phone,
you hand it to them.
You say hit record Now.
I don't give a rat's ass aboutlighting, professional sound
quality.
I don't care if you drop theF-bomb 30 times.
You say I'm 35.
Don't care when you're doneteaching them how to do the
drawer.
When you're done walkingthrough the restaurant, when
(06:55):
you're done teaching them how towrite a schedule, name the item
, you say hit, stop.
Now you say thank you and youtell them I'm going to upload
this into the internet, whetherit's any kind of online drive.
You're going to make it aprivate folder so that the only
people that can open that fileis the person you send it to,
that you've added to it.
So I'm going to add thismanager.
I'm saying I'm going to emailyou the file.
(07:21):
So you click on the link let'ssay it's in Google Docs.
The video comes up.
I can watch it.
Your job, by the way, is todocument everything I just
taught you.
Not only did I just show youhow to do it, but I want you to
actually type it up.
You, the manager, type it up.
And then I'm a Gen Xer, Don'temail me, that son of a bitch.
No, you want to print it off.
You're going to hand it to meand I'm going to grab a red pen,
like an eighth grade Englishteacher, and go nope, wrong,
(07:42):
wrong, fix.
I'm going to hand it back tothem and they're going to make
the changes and then they'regoing to give it back to me, and
when it's good to go, I'm goingto three-hole punch that puppy,
throw it into a binder.
And now I've got my operatingsystems, my SOPs, my operations
manual, don't care what you callit.
Each one of the things that Iteach them, that they document
(08:02):
it, goes in here.
So now I'm building my systems.
By the way, I didn't have to doit.
I did what I had to do anyway,which was teach them visually.
Now, from there, what I'm goingto do, I'm going to get a
hundred dollar droid tablet, putbaby bumpers on that thing and
I'm going to say okay, train thenext person I'm going to show
you.
Then I'm going to say by theway, when you forget, here is
(08:23):
the written manual part of it.
And if you want, here's thishundred dollar droid tablet,
push, play the video.
So not only do I stay with themuntil they can do it on their
own, but if they forget threenights later, whatever it may be
, they've got a step-by-stepguide and they've got a video
they can watch.
And all of a sudden, I did whatI always do I showed somebody,
(08:45):
but they actually did the work.
Now I'm documenting my systemswithout creating more work for
myself.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
I love that because it's not about taking the
shortcut, but it's about takingthe long way faster.
You're still doing the hardwork, but you're just getting
there as if you took a shortcut.
Because I think that's thething is that we think there's
so much going on in my brainright now that I can't possibly
take the time to sit down andtrain someone on all of this
(09:12):
because it's worthless.
Because what happened?
Shirley sat down with me andshe had me follow her around for
a couple of shifts and thenshe's like great, now you're
trained, right.
And then how did I know that Iwasn't trained on making a
strawberry shortcake sundae?
Well, when the server yelledacross the way, I need a
strawberry shortcake sundae andI didn't know what to do, I
(09:32):
literally got pushed out of theway, got yelled at for not
knowing how to do it.
And then she made it and had mewatch her.
And then I learned from theserver right, who is now late on
her table, and she wasfrustrated that I couldn't help
her out.
That's the old way of doingthings and there's easier ways
to get to the end of the road,which I think is just such a
(09:55):
great idea, man.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
And I want you to think about.
If you're a restaurant operator, everything you do in your
restaurant is a task that can bedocumented, trained and
assigned to someone other thanyou.
You are not God's gift torunning to the bank and making a
deposit.
You are not God's gift towriting a schedule.
You are just the person who hasbeen doing it and the only
person who's been doing it right.
(10:19):
And a side note we've all beentaught at some level that if you
can get somebody to do it 85%as well as you, you have hit a
home run.
They will never be you.
They don't own the restaurant,but if I can hold them
accountable, if I can continueto coach them, coddle them,
train them, doing everything Ican to make them successful, and
they can take 85% off myshoulders and it's getting done
(10:43):
you're hitting a home run.
You're giving yourself time togo get the next catering job, to
do the next menu, to work onmarketing, to work on your
budgets like the things thatmove the company forward versus
spending your day going to thebank and writing a schedule and
comping something for a guest orflipping a burger.
It just doesn't make any sensewhen we do that.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
So when you look at the guest experience because I
know we've been talking a lotabout the owner's life and what
does that take, because I thinkat the end of the day, that is
the thing that's most painful,but the reason people got into
restaurants for the most part,when you talk to them, they left
.
You know I've got friends whohave left high tech jobs where
they're making 400 a year andthey're like, yes, I'm not
(11:25):
making that money my first fewyears of working in building my
restaurant, but they get into itbecause they have hospitality
in their blood and they love theguest experience.
And so what do you think is themost important aspect of guest
experience nowadays?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I would say the most important is making sure that
you've got everything taken careof in your business that they
notice nothing else other thanthe other person they're with.
So, for instance, we thinkabout great hospitality Back in
the 80s and 90s.
80s we had Gap and hi, how areyou?
Hi, can I help you?
How are you?
We get bombarded.
You feel like, oh my gosh,leave me alone.
(12:01):
We thought that was great.
Then in the 90s we startedtalking about treat your guests
like you want to be treated.
You've got to be kidding me.
Like if I had a friend comeover and they were coming over
to my house, I'd be like dude,go get yourself a beer, love you
to death and I'm not getting up.
So we've got to change how wedo things.
And great hospitality isn'tjazz hands.
(12:22):
What it is is from the momentyour guests meet each other
outside your building.
They think nothing of nothingelse other than each other.
They walk in the door.
They didn't notice a dirtywindow or a handle that's too
hot.
I'm in Arizona Like you've gota leather binder around it so
that you don't burn your hand.
You walk in the door.
You don't notice that there'sgum on the floor or that it's
(12:45):
dirty, you don't notice thatthings are out of place.
Instead, you come to the hoststation or, if you're going to a
registered quick service, wekind of flow and we have a
conversation.
What happens is when our needsare anticipated and met for us
hey, please follow me.
The host isn't running to thetable and leaving us in the dust
.
They are literally staying withus, conversating, getting us
(13:08):
there Versus.
I go to the host station.
There's nobody there and thatinternal clock starts happening,
and then we start to look ateach other and say are we going
to get service?
Now?
Our connection with each otherhas been broken.
No-transcript to shake eachother's hands.
(13:49):
Go, man, it was great to seeyou.
We should win this place.
Great, let's do that again.
It wasn't that the server wasspectacular, it was that my
needs were met and I stayedengaged with the people I'm
there with.
That's how memories are created, so make sure all the basics
are done.
You've got to execute onRestaurant 101.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
And it's tough right, Because when you look at it,
there's a thousand places wheresomething can go wrong.
We're not the main course asthe restaurant.
We are the dish and theexperience.
99% of the time is the reasonthat people are coming in is to
experience something with theother person.
(14:31):
It's not to sit there.
And yes, there's someexperiential restaurants.
Yes, there's some that havelike the pizzazz.
Yes, I come here because I wantto be fed, but at the end of the
day, I think about a coach thatI worked with.
She's a CEO coach of mine tothis day.
She was living in Brooklyn andthere were two coffee shops one
that was great and 30 secondscloser, one that was good and 30
(14:56):
seconds farther.
And she said, which one did Igo to?
And I'm like, well, obviouslythe great one that was closer
and she goes.
No, I went to the one wherethey knew my name because at the
end of the day, it's like Iwant to feel something, I want
to know that I'm cared about andthe attention to detail.
Those little things matter somuch, because you can't fake the
little things.
(15:16):
I could fake the one big grandgesture, but all of these little
things together where youbecome invisible and you can
just feel at home, right, andnot feel like, oh, it smells
weird in here, it looks weirdover there, oh, there's paint
chips over there.
But just being the experiencein the moment, that's so
powerful.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
I love that man, let's just be very clear.
You're not in the restaurantbusiness, you're in the
hospitality business.
We don't have in the foodbusiness.
If you were in the foodbusiness, we're competing with a
gas station.
I get food there.
So by creating memories and, oh, by the way, we have the
privilege of creating memoriesThink about it.
Whether it's somebody'sanniversary, it's their 35th
(15:56):
birthday, they met each otherthere, they're just going out
because they want to releasesome steam, it does not matter
what the purpose is.
When you deliver on yourpromise of great hospitality,
man, you'll be rememberedforever.
It is much harder to do if youdo a lot of things wrong.
When you do a lot of thingsright, you're not noticed.
(16:17):
In fact, it seems seamless.
It is less about again, jazzhands.
Look how great we are to man.
Let's make sure we meet theirneeds.
We anticipate and meet ourguests' needs versus letting
them go.
I need, hey, can I get, can Ihave more?
It's the little things thatmake a huge difference, things
like as simple as if you've gotbottomless non-alcoholic
(16:41):
beverages, sodas, coffees, teas,why do you need to walk up and
say do you want another one?
Just bring one, because whenit's halfway full, there's two
sips left, that's it.
So when your server comes byand goes, oh well, they're
halfway full, I got plenty oftime.
No, bring another one, take thehalf empty one away.
Don't say a damn word.
Make it so that I'm never like,oh man, I'm thirsty, I really
(17:03):
hope somebody brings me a drink.
Just anticipate the need, meetit.
Make sure that we stay engaged.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Man powerful, I'm pumped.
I'm ready to open up arestaurant.
Man, let's go, David.
Okay, look, we're running shorton time.
This has been just such a greatpod.
You know so many people.
Who is someone that we shouldbe following?
Who's someone that deserves anovation in the restaurant
industry?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Probably somebody you know very well.
It's Matt Plapp, America's BestRestaurants.
I think he is trailblazing anew direction when it comes to
restaurant marketing fromgrabbing people at the beginning
to taking them through loyaltyand keeping them all the way
through.
It's been amazing to watch him.
He has more energy than anybodyI've ever met in my life.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
He's amazing.
I literally was just talking tohim, not 24 hours ago, and your
name just came up organicallybecause we both just are such
big fans of yours, and heactually is the one who sent me
this neon pizza sign behind me.
So that's pretty cool.
He's such a cool guy.
Love him.
He is a must follow.
Now, mr Peters, where canpeople go to follow you?
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Well, I would go several places.
It depends on what you want.
You can go to my site,davidscottpeterscom, if you want
to learn about what we do.
Otherwise, I've got places thatyou can learn for free.
No, no, no commitment needed.
Go to my YouTube channel, whichis David Scott Peters, or look
up my podcast where you and Italked recently, and that is
Restaurant Prosperity Formula,found on all the popular
(18:33):
podcasting services.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
And a great podcast.
It is Appreciate you showing methe ropes, teaching me how to
do a podcast, and so glad wefinally got you on for a sequel.
The first episode was amazing.
This even better, mr DavidScott Peters, for showing us how
to make the long way short andthe hard way easy.
Today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you for joining us onGive an.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Ovation.
Thank you, my friend.
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
(19:16):
a better guest experience, visitus at OvationUpcom.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.