June 13, 2025 • 14 mins
Russ Hawkins, CEO of Agilence, joins Zack Oates to break down how restaurant operators can use data to improve guest experience, boost loyalty, and align teams. With a background spanning telecom, retail, and hospitality, Russ shares practical strategies for avoiding waste, tracking behavior, and turning missed expectations into long-term relationships.
Zack and Russ discuss:
- Why personalization is the new loyalty
- How to align the boardroom with the back-of-house
- Using data to improve staff training and performance
- What operators can learn from both QSR and fine dining
- Why small moments—like remembering a name—still matter
Thanks, Russ!
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/russhawkins/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/agilence-inc/
https://www.instagram.com/agilence_inc/
https://www.agilenceinc.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.
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.
Get all the insights you needto improve without an annoying
(00:22):
survey for your guests.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And we are here with RussHawkins, the CEO of Agilent, and
you have just had such anincredible career, ranging
hospitality.
You even survived living in myhome state of New Jersey, which
in and of itself is impressive.
(00:42):
You have been in data and inhospitality and telco and, like
you've had such an amazingcareer, you've even acquired
companies with Agilent, and soI'm really excited to chat with
you, russ.
Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well, thanks for having me.
People love to hate New Jersey,but I loved my time there.
I don't live there anymore, butI lived there for more than 30
years and I loved every minuteof it.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Russ, you're not supposed to tell people you like
Jersey.
No, we're the ones that startedthe whole, like don't come to
Jersey, it's so bad Right right?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
No, I know People love to hate it.
Yeah, that makes a better forthe rest of us.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Exactly right.
I mean, jersey is a great state.
So, russ, for a little bit ofbackground and context for this
podcast.
Tell us a little bit aboutAgilent.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
So Agilent is a data analytics company.
We focus on essentiallywrangling the data that is being
generated by the varioussystems that are operating in
businesses and make it availableto people, to the experts, to
the people that are runningthese businesses to ask
questions of very complexdatabase.
And what our big key is is notrequiring you to be a data
(01:50):
scientist.
The idea is to democratize itand make it available to
everyone.
We have more than 20 restaurantchains, mostly in the US and in
the UK, and then we also dowork with retailers and with
supermarkets as well.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
And you help restaurants to avoid fraud,
theft, waste and complianceissues.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Right, well, that's where it all started, but
actually we do a lot more thanthat.
What we've learned is that andmost of this is because our
customers have taught us whatwe've learned is that data can
solve a lot of problems and datacan create a lot of
opportunities that data cansolve a lot of problems and data
can create a lot ofopportunities.
And so, while we started tryingto identify leakage and losses,
(02:33):
we do a lot about aroundrevenue, enrichment and looking
at the effectiveness ofpromotions, LTOs, loyalty
programs.
We do, as I mentioned, the costand expense control, which is
really loss prevention, and thencompliance making sure that
when you're running a bigoperation, that everybody
understands what the objectivesare.
I like to call it alignmentfrom the boardroom down to the
stockroom or boardroom down tothe backroom.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, and I think that's so important because we
could sit up in our ivory towertalking about deals and LTOs and
all this stuff, but when itcomes down to a customer or a
guest walking into ourrestaurant and the frontline
doesn't know what that LTO isabout or how to make it or what
the SOP is for it, it creates adisastrous experience.
(03:14):
And then, all of a sudden,marketing is actively losing you
customers because youroperations aren't aligned with
that, and I think that's superkey.
So, with the data and thecustomers that you're seeing,
talk to me about what are youseeing with guest experience?
What are guests expecting?
What are they wanting?
What are some things that arereally moving the needle to
(03:34):
improve the guest experience?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, Every guest wants to feel valued as a
customer, no matter whether therestaurant is a quick QSR
restaurant or a table servicerestaurant.
They want a personalrelationship with the business
and I think there's kind of abaseline of things that have to
happen.
They have to have confidenceand they have to be comfortable
that the restaurant is going tobe clean and it's going to be
(03:56):
sanitary and the food is goingto be high quality and fresh.
They want all that.
They want speed of service,they want the adequate staffing
to do the job and they want theoperation to run smoothly and
efficiently and quickly.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
But I think that's it .
That's it, Russ.
That seems pretty easy.
No, actually, I think let's goopen up a restaurant.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
We're going to do all that.
That's just table stakes.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And the pun is intended there.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I'm intending that pun.
The reality is is that intoday's world, I think the
biggest differentiator now isthe personalization.
What you're delivering ispredicated on speed and quality
and efficiency.
If you're a table servicerestaurant, especially a
high-end table servicerestaurant, you really want to
create a unique diningexperience for people, and so
all of it can be come together,in my view, under this idea of
(04:56):
personalization and seamlessconvenience.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah, and we talk about this on the podcast all
the time.
But it starts with convenience,right, it starts with making it
easy to spend money with us.
Then it goes up to consistency,where it's if they're spending
money with us, they want to makesure that they can trust us to
deliver that same experienceevery time.
But obviously we're all humans,and so the top, the highest,
(05:20):
the most valued rung of loyaltyisn't about convenience or
consistency.
It's about that connection, andwhat you're talking about is
that personalization to formthat relationship, because that,
russ, is how you go fromsomeone coming in every month or
so to someone telling all oftheir friends about it, to
having you cater their wedding,to something that is really
(05:42):
special.
They need to feel thatconnection, and I think that a
lot of times I hear fromexecutives I can't train my
people to scale that and I'mthinking well then you don't
have a business that's going tolast, right?
You?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
have to have that right.
You can train them.
It's just very hard to do andit's very hard to deal with.
In today's environment, withthe kind of turnover that we're
all experiencing, it's very,very difficult to maintain those
quality standards.
But it's possible.
It absolutely is possible, anddata can help there as well.
I mean being able to directyour team's attention to
experiences and the performancethat you've had with prior
(06:17):
clients, with prior guests.
Then you can educate them veryquickly, I think.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I love that.
What would you say?
What are some tactics thatyou've seen to improve the guest
experience?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Well, I like to think of it in two different formats.
I kind of already mentionedthat, I think.
If you're in a quick servicerestaurant, I think the tactics
can be very different than in atable service environment.
Certainly, in today's world, onthe quick service side the
proliferation of mobile orderingcapabilities, the third-party
ordering and delivery systemsthese are ways of cementing
(06:48):
relationships while you gathermore data because you're
gathering very detailed dataabout what that particular
client enjoys, what they want toeat you can do very targeted
marketing.
You can notice, as you alreadymentioned earlier.
You can notice when they don'tshow up and then give them some
incentive to come back right.
So loyalty programs play inthat Increasingly.
We're seeing people usingAI-driven personalization,
(07:11):
recommendations for individualguests, planning staff planning
for peak hours, looking at allof the various ways that
contribute to delivering thatexperience to the customer.
I think there's tons of moredata.
Right, it's really my businessis all about data and every day
that goes by, there's more andmore data.
On the table service side, it'skind of the same thing, but I
(07:33):
think a little bit more nuanced.
You have a little bit more time, you have, hopefully, an
experience that's worthy of yourguests and you can do little
things.
You can remember small gestures, remember their name, remember
their prior experience, whattheir prior orders might have
been, what things that appealedto them.
Obviously, for a long time,special occasions have been a
big driver of table servicerestaurants.
(07:54):
You have to think about it, as,in my view, entertainment right
In the table service kind of endof the business it's not.
I want to come in and get outlike in a quick service
restaurant.
There's a richer, broader setof things that you can work with
when you're in a table serviceenvironment, and in both cases
staff training is very important, as you've already noted.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, I mean staff training is absolutely key.
I can think about we helped BigChicken Shaq's chicken concept.
They were having issues withsauce in bag, forgetting the
sauce in the bag for to-goorders.
Everybody forgets sauce in thebag but a lot of people don't
realize they forget it, and sothey were able to track that,
train their staff and reducethat by almost 50%, reduce
(08:32):
complaints for sauce in bag byover 50%, these little things
like that.
I think it's getting back toyour initial point about.
It's about helping the guestsfeel valued.
And if you forget my sauce,yeah, I love a chicken tender,
but a chicken tender without asauce it's like a three-piece
suit without a jacket, it's likeit just looks a little off, you
(08:53):
know.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Absolutely right, and I'm a big chicken tender fan.
To be honest with you, my wifethinks I'm still a 10-year-old
because I try them all over theplace.
I love Shack's, I love theexperience and I absolutely have
to have my sauces.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, and that's the thing A lot of these chicken
places.
They differentiate themselvesmostly by the sauces, right?
Anyway, that's just one smallexample of how do you make sure
that your operations are helpingyour guests feel valued,
because it's hard sometimes toto get your team to like
remember everyone's name, but ifyou train them on that and you
(09:29):
celebrate that and you help themunderstand that that's part of
who we are, because, at the endof the day, you cannot afford to
run a big brand withoutfocusing on the individuals that
are coming in your door.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
That is where the money comes from and it starts
with the first person talking tothe guest when they arrive,
that first experience.
You know they say that firstimpressions are lasting that is
absolutely one of the thingsthat makes you keep coming back.
I mean I've had experiencesrecently.
I was in Columbus, ohio, and Iwent to a McDonald's right and
the person behind the cashregister was so friendly and so
(10:05):
happy and so welcoming.
It made me happy to go backthere.
I wanted to go Same thing in atable service restaurant.
I mean I want to engage with myservers.
I want to hear what they like,what their favorite thing on the
menu is, and the attitude makesa big, big, big difference, no
question.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, absolutely.
As they say, right, yourattitude determines your
altitude, and I think that, withwhat we're doing right now in
the restaurant industry and withwhere the market's going, we
cannot afford to lose any guests, and so we got to hold on to
the ones we have.
Real tight, let's just put itthis way in terms of breaking up
with a guest, the dating sceneis not that great out there.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
There's so many options for restaurants, so we
had to make sure we stayed thereAbsolutely.
And there's new ones every day.
I mean, who knew we neededanother chicken finger place and
we needed another burger place?
I mean the reality is that theyjust keep coming.
It's a lot easier to keep aclient than it is to find new
ones sometimes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
So, russ, who is someone that we should be
following?
Who's someone who deserves anovation?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Well, I actually have a couple of people that may be
against your rules, but one ofthe guys We'll let it slide for
you, Russ.
One of the guys that actuallyinspired me and inspired our
business is a guy by the name ofDamian Mogivero.
I don't know if you ever heardof Damien Mogivero.
He ran a company called Averofor many times, which is the
last oh, yeah, I know Avero.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
So Damien ran that company for 17 years.
He really pioneered the use ofdata in terms of both the guest
experience and operationaleffectiveness.
He's been referred to as thedata dining king.
I learned a tremendous amountfrom him and from reading his
book.
He's been referred to as thedata dining king.
I learned a tremendous amountfrom him and from reading his
book.
He wrote a book called theUnderground Culinary Tour and
it's something that he does now.
(11:46):
Every year he gets veryhigh-end, top-level chefs and
influencers and they go aroundand they visit a series of
restaurants and note theinnovations that they're doing.
This guy is now an award winner.
He's a consultant and I highlyrecommend him.
And then more recently I had anopportunity to hear a fellow by
the name of Will Guadar speak.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Oh, will Guadar, that's his book right there
there.
It is, yes, reasonable.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Hospitality.
I mean, that guy was justdynamic.
He was at a trade show that Iattended.
He was one of the featuredspeakers and he was a co-owner
and general manager of 11 PennMadison Park and he's all about
exceptional service and abouteven taking bad situations.
You mentioned sometimes badexperience, forgetting the sauce
.
One of the things he likes todo is to figure out a way of
(12:29):
turning a bad experience into agood experience by kind of
overcompensating.
I think he's a great guy and Iwould recommend following him.
But yeah, you got his book.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
That's good.
Oh, man, and if you are notfamiliar with Will and you want
to jump into kind of high level,check out his podcast that he
and I did.
So, yeah, he came on to give anovation.
It was an honor to have him.
I was kind of fanboying out,but he's just so good.
I love his book, love hisideology and I love the impact
he's had on our industry.
So that's awesome.
(12:57):
Great shout outs there.
Russ, totally agree with them.
Well, russ, how do people findand follow you?
And also Agilence.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Agilence.
Agile Intelligence, agilence,and that's what we're all about
is being very agile with thedata and turning it into
intelligence for the averageperson.
It's Agilence Inc dot com andI'm R Hawkins at Agilence Inc
dot com, and I'd love to hearfrom some of your listeners.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Awesome Well, russ, for reminding us that the true
value of hospitality is helpingthe guests feel valued.
Today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you for joining us onGive an Ovation.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Well, thanks for having me.
I appreciate it.
I enjoyed myself.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
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 based actionableguest feedback platform built
for multi-unit restaurants.
If you'd like to learn how wecan help you measure and create
a better guest experience, visitus at OvationUpcom.
Welcome to another edition of Give an Ovation, the
restaurant guest experiencepodcast.
I'm your host, zach Oates, andeach week I chat with industry
experts to uncover theirstrategies and tactics to help
you create a five-star guestexperience.
This podcast is powered byOvation, the feedback and
operations platform built formulti-unit restaurants.
Get all the insights you needto improve without an annoying
(00:22):
survey for your guests.
Learn more at OvationUpcom.
And we are here with RussHawkins, the CEO of Agilent, and
you have just had such anincredible career, ranging
hospitality.
You even survived living in myhome state of New Jersey, which
in and of itself is impressive.
(00:42):
You have been in data and inhospitality and telco and, like
you've had such an amazingcareer, you've even acquired
companies with Agilent, and soI'm really excited to chat with
you, russ.
Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well, thanks for having me.
People love to hate New Jersey,but I loved my time there.
I don't live there anymore, butI lived there for more than 30
years and I loved every minuteof it.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Russ, you're not supposed to tell people you like
Jersey.
No, we're the ones that startedthe whole, like don't come to
Jersey, it's so bad Right right?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
No, I know People love to hate it.
Yeah, that makes a better forthe rest of us.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Exactly right.
I mean, jersey is a great state.
So, russ, for a little bit ofbackground and context for this
podcast.
Tell us a little bit aboutAgilent.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
So Agilent is a data analytics company.
We focus on essentiallywrangling the data that is being
generated by the varioussystems that are operating in
businesses and make it availableto people, to the experts, to
the people that are runningthese businesses to ask
questions of very complexdatabase.
And what our big key is is notrequiring you to be a data
(01:50):
scientist.
The idea is to democratize itand make it available to
everyone.
We have more than 20 restaurantchains, mostly in the US and in
the UK, and then we also dowork with retailers and with
supermarkets as well.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
And you help restaurants to avoid fraud,
theft, waste and complianceissues.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Right, well, that's where it all started, but
actually we do a lot more thanthat.
What we've learned is that andmost of this is because our
customers have taught us whatwe've learned is that data can
solve a lot of problems and datacan create a lot of
opportunities that data cansolve a lot of problems and data
can create a lot ofopportunities.
And so, while we started tryingto identify leakage and losses,
(02:33):
we do a lot about aroundrevenue, enrichment and looking
at the effectiveness ofpromotions, LTOs, loyalty
programs.
We do, as I mentioned, the costand expense control, which is
really loss prevention, and thencompliance making sure that
when you're running a bigoperation, that everybody
understands what the objectivesare.
I like to call it alignmentfrom the boardroom down to the
stockroom or boardroom down tothe backroom.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Yeah, and I think that's so important because we
could sit up in our ivory towertalking about deals and LTOs and
all this stuff, but when itcomes down to a customer or a
guest walking into ourrestaurant and the frontline
doesn't know what that LTO isabout or how to make it or what
the SOP is for it, it creates adisastrous experience.
(03:14):
And then, all of a sudden,marketing is actively losing you
customers because youroperations aren't aligned with
that, and I think that's superkey.
So, with the data and thecustomers that you're seeing,
talk to me about what are youseeing with guest experience?
What are guests expecting?
What are they wanting?
What are some things that arereally moving the needle to
(03:34):
improve the guest experience?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Yeah, Every guest wants to feel valued as a
customer, no matter whether therestaurant is a quick QSR
restaurant or a table servicerestaurant.
They want a personalrelationship with the business
and I think there's kind of abaseline of things that have to
happen.
They have to have confidenceand they have to be comfortable
that the restaurant is going tobe clean and it's going to be
(03:56):
sanitary and the food is goingto be high quality and fresh.
They want all that.
They want speed of service,they want the adequate staffing
to do the job and they want theoperation to run smoothly and
efficiently and quickly.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
But I think that's it .
That's it, Russ.
That seems pretty easy.
No, actually, I think let's goopen up a restaurant.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
We're going to do all that.
That's just table stakes.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And the pun is intended there.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I'm intending that pun.
The reality is is that intoday's world, I think the
biggest differentiator now isthe personalization.
What you're delivering ispredicated on speed and quality
and efficiency.
If you're a table servicerestaurant, especially a
high-end table servicerestaurant, you really want to
create a unique diningexperience for people, and so
all of it can be come together,in my view, under this idea of
(04:56):
personalization and seamlessconvenience.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah, and we talk about this on the podcast all
the time.
But it starts with convenience,right, it starts with making it
easy to spend money with us.
Then it goes up to consistency,where it's if they're spending
money with us, they want to makesure that they can trust us to
deliver that same experienceevery time.
But obviously we're all humans,and so the top, the highest,
(05:20):
the most valued rung of loyaltyisn't about convenience or
consistency.
It's about that connection, andwhat you're talking about is
that personalization to formthat relationship, because that,
russ, is how you go fromsomeone coming in every month or
so to someone telling all oftheir friends about it, to
having you cater their wedding,to something that is really
(05:42):
special.
They need to feel thatconnection, and I think that a
lot of times I hear fromexecutives I can't train my
people to scale that and I'mthinking well then you don't
have a business that's going tolast, right?
You?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
have to have that right.
You can train them.
It's just very hard to do andit's very hard to deal with.
In today's environment, withthe kind of turnover that we're
all experiencing, it's very,very difficult to maintain those
quality standards.
But it's possible.
It absolutely is possible, anddata can help there as well.
I mean being able to directyour team's attention to
experiences and the performancethat you've had with prior
(06:17):
clients, with prior guests.
Then you can educate them veryquickly, I think.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I love that.
What would you say?
What are some tactics thatyou've seen to improve the guest
experience?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Well, I like to think of it in two different formats.
I kind of already mentionedthat, I think.
If you're in a quick servicerestaurant, I think the tactics
can be very different than in atable service environment.
Certainly, in today's world, onthe quick service side the
proliferation of mobile orderingcapabilities, the third-party
ordering and delivery systemsthese are ways of cementing
(06:48):
relationships while you gathermore data because you're
gathering very detailed dataabout what that particular
client enjoys, what they want toeat you can do very targeted
marketing.
You can notice, as you alreadymentioned earlier.
You can notice when they don'tshow up and then give them some
incentive to come back right.
So loyalty programs play inthat Increasingly.
We're seeing people usingAI-driven personalization,
(07:11):
recommendations for individualguests, planning staff planning
for peak hours, looking at allof the various ways that
contribute to delivering thatexperience to the customer.
I think there's tons of moredata.
Right, it's really my businessis all about data and every day
that goes by, there's more andmore data.
On the table service side, it'skind of the same thing, but I
(07:33):
think a little bit more nuanced.
You have a little bit more time, you have, hopefully, an
experience that's worthy of yourguests and you can do little
things.
You can remember small gestures, remember their name, remember
their prior experience, whattheir prior orders might have
been, what things that appealedto them.
Obviously, for a long time,special occasions have been a
big driver of table servicerestaurants.
(07:54):
You have to think about it, as,in my view, entertainment right
In the table service kind of endof the business it's not.
I want to come in and get outlike in a quick service
restaurant.
There's a richer, broader setof things that you can work with
when you're in a table serviceenvironment, and in both cases
staff training is very important, as you've already noted.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, I mean staff training is absolutely key.
I can think about we helped BigChicken Shaq's chicken concept.
They were having issues withsauce in bag, forgetting the
sauce in the bag for to-goorders.
Everybody forgets sauce in thebag but a lot of people don't
realize they forget it, and sothey were able to track that,
train their staff and reducethat by almost 50%, reduce
(08:32):
complaints for sauce in bag byover 50%, these little things
like that.
I think it's getting back toyour initial point about.
It's about helping the guestsfeel valued.
And if you forget my sauce,yeah, I love a chicken tender,
but a chicken tender without asauce it's like a three-piece
suit without a jacket, it's likeit just looks a little off, you
(08:53):
know.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Absolutely right, and I'm a big chicken tender fan.
To be honest with you, my wifethinks I'm still a 10-year-old
because I try them all over theplace.
I love Shack's, I love theexperience and I absolutely have
to have my sauces.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, and that's the thing A lot of these chicken
places.
They differentiate themselvesmostly by the sauces, right?
Anyway, that's just one smallexample of how do you make sure
that your operations are helpingyour guests feel valued,
because it's hard sometimes toto get your team to like
remember everyone's name, but ifyou train them on that and you
(09:29):
celebrate that and you help themunderstand that that's part of
who we are, because, at the endof the day, you cannot afford to
run a big brand withoutfocusing on the individuals that
are coming in your door.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
That is where the money comes from and it starts
with the first person talking tothe guest when they arrive,
that first experience.
You know they say that firstimpressions are lasting that is
absolutely one of the thingsthat makes you keep coming back.
I mean I've had experiencesrecently.
I was in Columbus, ohio, and Iwent to a McDonald's right and
the person behind the cashregister was so friendly and so
(10:05):
happy and so welcoming.
It made me happy to go backthere.
I wanted to go Same thing in atable service restaurant.
I mean I want to engage with myservers.
I want to hear what they like,what their favorite thing on the
menu is, and the attitude makesa big, big, big difference, no
question.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, absolutely.
As they say, right, yourattitude determines your
altitude, and I think that, withwhat we're doing right now in
the restaurant industry and withwhere the market's going, we
cannot afford to lose any guests, and so we got to hold on to
the ones we have.
Real tight, let's just put itthis way in terms of breaking up
with a guest, the dating sceneis not that great out there.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
There's so many options for restaurants, so we
had to make sure we stayed thereAbsolutely.
And there's new ones every day.
I mean, who knew we neededanother chicken finger place and
we needed another burger place?
I mean the reality is that theyjust keep coming.
It's a lot easier to keep aclient than it is to find new
ones sometimes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
So, russ, who is someone that we should be
following?
Who's someone who deserves anovation?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Well, I actually have a couple of people that may be
against your rules, but one ofthe guys We'll let it slide for
you, Russ.
One of the guys that actuallyinspired me and inspired our
business is a guy by the name ofDamian Mogivero.
I don't know if you ever heardof Damien Mogivero.
He ran a company called Averofor many times, which is the
last oh, yeah, I know Avero.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
So Damien ran that company for 17 years.
He really pioneered the use ofdata in terms of both the guest
experience and operationaleffectiveness.
He's been referred to as thedata dining king.
I learned a tremendous amountfrom him and from reading his
book.
He's been referred to as thedata dining king.
I learned a tremendous amountfrom him and from reading his
book.
He wrote a book called theUnderground Culinary Tour and
it's something that he does now.
(11:46):
Every year he gets veryhigh-end, top-level chefs and
influencers and they go aroundand they visit a series of
restaurants and note theinnovations that they're doing.
This guy is now an award winner.
He's a consultant and I highlyrecommend him.
And then more recently I had anopportunity to hear a fellow by
the name of Will Guadar speak.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Oh, will Guadar, that's his book right there
there.
It is, yes, reasonable.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Hospitality.
I mean, that guy was justdynamic.
He was at a trade show that Iattended.
He was one of the featuredspeakers and he was a co-owner
and general manager of 11 PennMadison Park and he's all about
exceptional service and abouteven taking bad situations.
You mentioned sometimes badexperience, forgetting the sauce
.
One of the things he likes todo is to figure out a way of
(12:29):
turning a bad experience into agood experience by kind of
overcompensating.
I think he's a great guy and Iwould recommend following him.
But yeah, you got his book.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
That's good.
Oh, man, and if you are notfamiliar with Will and you want
to jump into kind of high level,check out his podcast that he
and I did.
So, yeah, he came on to give anovation.
It was an honor to have him.
I was kind of fanboying out,but he's just so good.
I love his book, love hisideology and I love the impact
he's had on our industry.
So that's awesome.
(12:57):
Great shout outs there.
Russ, totally agree with them.
Well, russ, how do people findand follow you?
And also Agilence.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Agilence.
Agile Intelligence, agilence,and that's what we're all about
is being very agile with thedata and turning it into
intelligence for the averageperson.
It's Agilence Inc dot com andI'm R Hawkins at Agilence Inc
dot com, and I'd love to hearfrom some of your listeners.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Awesome Well, russ, for reminding us that the true
value of hospitality is helpingthe guests feel valued.
Today's ovation goes to you.
Thank you for joining us onGive an Ovation.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Well, thanks for having me.
I appreciate it.
I enjoyed myself.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
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 based actionableguest feedback platform built
for multi-unit restaurants.
If you'd like to learn how wecan help you measure and create
a better guest experience, visitus at OvationUpcom.
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