Send me a Text Message. I'd love to hear from you.
"Do you know your business well enough to change it?" In an era of economic uncertainty, this thought-provoking inquiry challenges all leaders to deeply understand their operations before attempting transformation.
Ever wondered what happens to all that used cooking oil from your favorite restaurants? Alissa Partee, COO of Restaurant Technologies, pulls back the curtain on an innovative solution that's transforming restaurant kitchens nationwide.
What began as a leap of faith joining a restaurant services company during COVID has evolved into a fascinating leadership journey. Alissa shares how Restaurant Technologies delivers fresh cooking oil while simultaneously removing used oil from 50,000 customers across the country - all with the push of a button. This closed-loop system not only prevents dangerous burns and slip-and-fall accidents but also creates environmental sustainability by recycling used cooking oil into biodiesel.
The conversation takes a compelling turn when Alissa reveals her transition from Chief People Officer to COO, highlighting how taking chances on talent can transform organizations. "We need less pirate ship and more Navy ship," she explains, describing her initiative to standardize operations across 41 locations that were previously doing things 41 different ways.
Through the creation of a specialized Operations Excellence team, Restaurant Technologies has reduced service visits by 40% while dramatically improving customer experience. The results speak volumes - one pilot location rose from bottom-third performance to runner-up for Depot of the Year within just 12 months of implementing standardized processes.
Resources:
P.S. Ready to take your restaurant to the next level? Here are 3 ways I can support you:
- One-on-One Coaching - Work directly with me to tackle your biggest leadership challenges and scale your operations with confidence. Learn more at christinmarvin.com
- Multi-Unit Mastery Book - Get the complete Independent Restaurant Framework that's helped countless owners build thriving multi-location brands. Grab your copy at https://www.IRFbook.com
- Group Coaching & Leadership Workshops - Join other passionate restaurant leaders in transformative group sessions designed to elevate your entire team. Details at christinmarvin.com
Podcast Production: https://www.lconnorvoice.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Alyssa, thank you so much for being here today and
taking the time to share yourstory with our listeners and
really, you know I'm excited totake a deep dive into your
leadership today and just learnmore about you.
Restaurant Technologies hasjust been such a fabulous
company to partner with, and soI'm excited to give people the
opportunity to kind of peekbehind the curtain even more.
(00:24):
So welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Absolutely.
Thanks for having me.
I'm excited to be here Good.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Well, before we kick off, I don't know about you, I'm
the worst at celebratinganything.
I do, Anything good thathappens.
It takes me.
I take about two seconds andthen I move on.
But can we take a moment tocelebrate your 2025 women in
business award?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, thank you.
Yeah, it's.
It is hard.
It's like I I don't do any ofwhat I do for those things and
occasionally when they comealong it's nice, um, but it's
hard.
It's hard to kind of accept itor, you know, like kind of let
yourself get wrapped up in itand I appreciate it.
(01:07):
I'm glad people do it, but Irecognize more of like the value
of it to remind me that I haveto do that type of appreciation
to the team.
So I don't necessarily need it,want it or look for it, but I
know there's members of our teamwho do need that type of kind
of shot in the arm and so it's agood reminder.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I love that.
So this was presented to you bythe Minneapolis St Paul
Business Journal.
Is this something that you'veknown about for a while or a
while?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
They do this every year.
Yeah, they have nominationsevery year for it, and then you
know, it's just something Idon't think we really have
focused on necessarily, but I dowatch it, and what's cool about
it is when you see thesenomination classes come up.
The talent within the pool isremarkable, and so it's almost a
(02:00):
forced connection point thatyou meet people who are really
big movers and shakers, whetherit's in the industry that I live
and breathe in or in themarkets that we get to serve.
And every once in a while yougot to get out of your home, you
got to get out of your office,you got to get out of your place
of business and meet people.
And then that's where the poweris.
(02:20):
The power is through theconnections that those platforms
create.
So first time for me, obviously, but also I recognize that the
women in this particular group.
It's just remarkable whatthey've been able to accomplish,
so it's fun to see andcelebrate that as well.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I love it.
Well, well, well-deservedCongratulations.
Very, very exciting stuff.
So let's talk about restauranttechnology.
So you joined the team in 2020as the chief people officer,
right yeah, how did you, how didyour journey kind of land you
to that position with restauranttechnologies?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
So fully full disclosure here, total
transparency.
I did not know about restauranttechnologies until I was
approached for the role.
I was aware that there weresolutions out there for what we
did, but not like we do it.
And I think that you know Godworks in really mysterious ways
(03:19):
because, if you remember, wherewe were in 2020, I was also with
another.
I was with a restaurant company.
Where we were in 2020, I wasalso with another.
I was with a restaurant company.
I was with Caribou Coffee andEinstein Brothers Bagels had a
couple other brands incorporatedinto the breakfast side of the
industry or of the company.
But you know, like the littletap on the shoulder, like hey,
do you want to join a restaurantservices company in the depth
(03:39):
of COVID?
And it's like like I'm not sosure.
But one thing that restauranttechnology does for me like
personally I'm a big proponentof if you don't love what your
company does, I don't know ifyou'll ever bring enough passion
forward to build the brand.
Like you have to truly lovewhat we do.
(04:01):
And when I had the luxury ofyou know, taking a look at RT
and saying, wow, this isremarkable.
It combined things that I'mdeeply passionate about.
I actually am a, I could nerdout a little bit on how things
work.
Okay.
So this is a company that has areally cool service solution
(04:22):
and how we do it is fascinating.
And then it marries up to mydeep love and commitment for the
food industry, the food serviceindustry, and I have said this
for years, I've said it in othercircles of conversation.
I said for thousands of yearsfood has brought people together
.
It brings us together in thebest of times and it brings us
(04:46):
together in the worst of times,and I think most of life happens
with food involved.
And so when I had a chance tomarry up this love of how things
work for an industry that I'mextremely passionate about,
which is the food serviceindustry, restaurant technology
has brought it right togetherand it's how things work in the
(05:09):
restaurant industry.
Not only that, it's a serviceorientation.
We get to serve an industrythat serves others.
And I've grown up to I've grownup in a position of saying you
need to serve others, you haveto find a way to give your, get
your talents and pursuit ofhelping others.
(05:29):
And if you're not helping, whatare you doing here?
So it just was it kind ofrocked me to my core of saying I
remember talking to my husband,I was like I have to do this.
He's like it's restaurantservices company in the heat of
COVID Alyssa, like are, like,are you sure?
And then I met the leadershipteam.
I met some members of the teamand I just said, yeah, this is
(05:51):
where I want to be.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
That's awesome.
If you are feeling the pressureof rising costs and staffing
shortages or supply chain chaos,you are not alone.
The truth is, the economicforecast may be shifting, but
your restaurant still needs tokeep moving forward.
That's why I'm headed to the2025 National Restaurant
Association show, happening May17th through the 20th in Chicago
(06:15):
.
This show is built foroperators like you, offering
real solutions for realchallenges, from cost-saving
equipment to strategies fornavigating today's tough labor
market.
Plus, you'll get access tocutting-edge technology, menu
innovation and expert-ledsessions that'll help you stay
resilient no matter what themarket throws your way, and I'll
(06:39):
be there, and I'd love to seeyou too.
Here's a bonus for you to usemy promo code, kristen 25 at
checkout and get $25 off yourexpo show badge.
All you have to do is go tonationalrestaurantshowcom to
register and grab your ticket.
Don't wait, though, becausethis offer expires May 9th.
(06:59):
The 2025 show is where thefuture of food service comes to
life.
Don't miss it, and I hope tosee you there.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
So it's been five years in two different roles now
.
But the company itself we cantalk about that whenever you're
ready, but what we do personally, why I chose it, is because
it's something I'm like duallypassionate about.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yeah, talk a little bit more about what you guys so
that's so different from otherservice providers.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So we are the premier solution for closed loop
cooking oil management solutions.
That's our primary product.
We have an autonomous solutionas well, which is around keeping
clean hoods and flues clean.
It's an auto cleaning solutionor service, but our main product
line is our total oilmanagement solution and what
(07:52):
we're able to do is in 41different operating locations
across the country.
We are able to service roughly50,000 customers from those 41
sites.
We deliver bulk cooking oilsimultaneously, picking up used
cooking oil, and at the end ofthe stage we bring that used
(08:13):
cooking oil back into the foodand fuel chain and we sell it
into biodiesel refineries.
So it's a good for people, goodfor planet business,
good-for-planet business.
Our trucks are works of art.
They are multi-oil typedelivery trucks.
We can deliver three or fourdifferent oils simultaneously on
(08:33):
our dynamic route.
We deliver to a customer whoneeds oil just when they need
oil, and then we're able tosafely handle their used cooking
oil.
What it allows a restaurant todo is stop manhandling their oil
management.
They don't have to lug aroundjibs of oil 35, 40 pound, you
(08:54):
know boxes of oil and heave theminto the fryers.
We can, and they don't have toempty oil out of their old
fryers and carry it out to arendering tank.
It's push button technology.
It's like remarkable when tosee it work.
So it's safety oriented.
It's helps actually customersuse less oil because of our
(09:17):
technology that helps themunderstand their oil usage
patterns.
And then it also is good forthe planet by recycling the used
cooking oil and it doesn'tpatterns.
And then it also is good forthe planet by recycling the used
cooking oil and it doesn't andit goes into a good purpose.
I love it.
Yeah, um, we're in restaurantsacross the country.
We've got big brands that wesupport and serve.
We also service universities,casinos, hotels, so anybody that
(09:38):
cooks with oil.
Um, generally benefits for oursystem and the employees love it
.
The employees love how easy andsafe it is and if you've ever
worked in a kitchen like I havewith Buffalo Wild Wings, or even
we didn't have the oil solution, obviously at Caribou Coffee
and Einstein's, they're tightspaces and there's slips, trips
and falls.
(09:58):
There's hundreds ofopportunities to get burned.
So we reduce, we take out thatrisk and we've been helped
companies minimize theirinsurance premiums related to
their property casualtyinsurance because we have and
workers have, excuse me, becauseit helps keep things safe.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, I love that.
Yeah, it was.
It's it's horrible to clean up,it's heavy, it's dangerous,
it's it's all the things right.
It's not a job that anybodyreally loves doing in the
restaurant.
I'd love that you guys have thesolution.
So you joined the team in 2020,took a huge leap of faith and
then this massive growthhappened right when you had a
thousand employees and youexploded to 1500.
So, 50% increase in people.
(10:40):
Was there demand for that?
Were you guys short-staffed?
I mean, what was that growthall about?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
We really had to be creative on attracting people
into our growth story.
So we needed to hire driversand technicians.
Our drivers they have thebenefit of running a 313
schedule generally or a 410schedule, so that for a lot of
people, was an attractive point.
(11:07):
They said, wow, I can have afull-time job, full benefits,
and I can also have a three orfour day weekend.
Sign me up, right.
Our technicians are either a410 or a 5.8 schedule, so a
little bit more kind of in thenorm schedule.
So we did a lot of promotion tobring in the talent who would
support the customer growth.
And we had to be creativebecause people had a lot of
(11:31):
choice coming out of COVID andin some cases we were in a very
competitive position with,especially in the trucking side
of things.
So we were creative.
We had a high referralpercentage we had at any given
month about 40% of our hirescome from internal referrals.
(11:51):
So we juiced that.
We're creative on our sign-onbonuses.
We did a market study to makesure we were as competitive with
our wages.
We did some cool things withour healthcare.
We reduced the premiums on oneof our healthcare plan to zero.
So people were like, wow, I canhave free healthcare.
Here.
We promoted the benefits of athree or four day weekend so we
(12:11):
were able to attract people inand over the last three years,
four years, we've seen aconsistent rise in our retention
as well.
So people when they come in,you know we retain 85% of our
workforce in a given year.
That's light years ahead ofkind of the industries that we
compete with.
So once we get them in, we wantto keep them and we try to have
(12:35):
them.
You know we make sure we'resupporting them, giving them
what they need.
We're opening up doors forcommunication so we can hear
directly from our frontline,learn from them, respond to them
and just keep that employeeexperience front and center.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
If we take care of them.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
they can take care of our customers, but if we're not
meeting their needs, they spendtime to figure out how to close
those gaps before they can kindof pay it forward in service.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Yeah, it sounds like you guys really care about your
people and you really arethoughtful about their lifestyle
and making sure that this, thiscareer, fits with their
lifestyle.
Where's that people focus?
Coming from within the company.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Well, it's all over?
I would say it's all over.
It definitely starts at the top, but then you also have to
inspire within.
I can't be in 41 depots at atime, so our focus is making
sure that we've got generalmanagers at each of our
locations.
Where people are like I want towork with this person, I want
(13:34):
to be part of their team.
That is a critical layer in ourorganization.
As the general managers who helpsupport each of these depots,
we have a lot of work to dostill.
To be honest, there's a lot ofgood going on, but kind of the
next evolution that we'reworking on is building out some
of those things that we haven'tyet had which is around like
(13:55):
leadership development.
Had which is around likeleadership development.
We're refreshing our.
It's called a level up program,which is a development program
that our frontline leaders orfrontline employees can go
through to level up in theorganization.
So there's a lot.
We had to kind of do some ofthe food, water, shelter, basics
first, and then the next thingis around development.
(14:15):
So a lot comes from it.
But you know, when you're ahealthy, thriving business, you
have earned the right to investback into the business, and one
of the ways we do that isthrough better quality equipment
, better quality tools, and thenthat that investment right into
(14:35):
the people through throughdevelopment and support.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I love that.
I want to have.
We should schedule another timeand talk, just for you know, 30
minutes to 45 minutes aboutthis level of program, because
it's I, that's what I focus onthe leadership development
across multi-unit locations, andwe'd love to just learn more
about that and talk about thechallenges and successes.
That's awesome, absolutely.
So you made the jump from CPOto COO.
(15:02):
Yeah, what, what made youdecide to make that leap?
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Um, first of all, I showed interest.
I I have a.
I have a deep kind of love andbackground in operations.
I've always had a moreoperations focused role, whether
I was in a chief people officerrole or kind of in my human
capital roles in the past.
It's always been a very tightconnection with that large part
of organizations.
So I certainly showed interestin it at RT.
(15:31):
And then I have to acknowledgethe fact that that's not a
common switch.
So as much as I could sit hereand say I would like to try
something different formally, Ihad to have people who also were
willing to take a chance on meand say, yeah, let's try it.
What's the worst that couldhappen?
And so we were reallyintentional about thinking
(15:55):
through that.
And I remember when I had agreat conversation with our CEO,
jeff Giesel, one day and hesaid, do you want to give it a
try?
And I was like I do and the italmost kind of re relit a little
bit of a fire in me of like,okay, I don't want to fail here,
so what do I have to dodifferently?
But the nice thing that I'vehad the luxury of having is
(16:20):
being able to bring in or kindof recreate the leadership team
that I get to work with on theoperations side.
And they are.
They are fantastic.
So I have the privilege ofworking with them.
I had the chance to try it.
I had somebody who was willingto take that chance.
I take chances on talent a lot.
(16:40):
Right, I say, let's try it.
What's the worst that we canhave?
What can happen here?
And so I had.
I had somebody who was willingto take a chance.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Hi everybody, we're taking a quick break to offer
you an exciting opportunity.
If you're a restaurant owner ormanager looking to enhance your
leadership skills, I invite youto join my 12-day leadership
challenge.
In just 12 days, you'll receivea guided packet with actionable
strategies to transform yourleadership in less than five
(17:15):
minutes a day.
Join the challenge and thecommunity and grab your copy at
kristinmarvincom slash 12 days.
Now let's get back to the show.
I love that.
I love when you said, when Jeffasked you like, is this
something that you want to do?
There was no hesitation in yourvoice, there were no kind of
(17:35):
nerves.
You just showed up reallyconfidently.
Were you excited?
Were you scared?
Were you confident?
And what were the emotions?
I love it.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I love what our operations team does.
So it was almost like let me atit, like, yes, I want it
because I'm passionate about it.
If I didn't love what we do,honestly, kristen, I probably
wouldn't be here.
I would.
I would look for something thatI I felt that deep connection
with.
So there's a heart and soulthat exists in operations and,
(18:05):
yeah, I'm just, I feel reallylucky to be part of it.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
I love it.
So, when you moved into thethis COO role, what were some of
the you know?
I want to talk about the, thisnine person ops excellence team
that you put together, like whatwere some of the challenges
that you really identified, andthen talk us through the
strategy that you used to putthis team together.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
So this was about two years ago.
We were enjoying some of thebenefits that we had of
installing a commercialexcellence team.
So commercial ops is what wecall it.
It's on our commercial side ofthe organization and we did that
.
They built out about four yearsago, so what their purpose was
(18:50):
was essentially to make it aseasy as our as possible for our
sales team to grow and find findnew customers and onboard new
customers.
And we went through like atwo-year learning cycle with
commercial ops that helped usredefine, standardize and codify
(19:10):
our go-to-market strategy.
And, as that was off andrunning, at the same time we
were doing some big investmentsinto our service technology,
which is Salesforce ServiceCloud.
And as a follow on to that, Iremember I spent a lot of time
out in the depots and what washard was we have our operators,
(19:32):
who were born and bred intorunning their own territory,
doing it with 41 depots doing it41 different ways.
And I remember saying, hey, ifwe're going to grow and scale as
an organization, we can't have41 depots doing it 41 different
ways.
And I remember being at one ofour leadership meetings national
(19:55):
business meetings and I said weneed less pirate ship and more
Navy ship, which means we needless kind of everybody doing it
their own way and we need morestandards, because the standards
allow us to build on verysimilar to.
Everybody does it the same way,so we can train to the one best
way.
We've adopted the one best wayand then we're going to benefit
(20:18):
from doing it one best way.
And so we sat down and we kindof hashed through what this
could look like on theoperations side and we're not
the first company to do it, butit was a unique setup to put it
under the human capital side ofthe business, because that's
where I was.
I was sitting in HR, stillknowing that if I was going to
move into operations I'd take itwith me.
(20:38):
But we built out our operationsexcellence team and it was
focused on ops technology,operations process and
eventually it will take onoperations training.
And that team is a team ofwe've got a mix of former
general managers and servicemanagers, different people in
the business, and we infusedsome talent from the outside as
(20:59):
well and their sole job was toidentify the variability in the
business, identify the one bestway, create the process in any
program that would get us to alloperating under the same you
know kind of course and trainingpeople to it.
We're about 18 months into itnow.
(21:22):
It is unbelievable what we'vebeen able to accomplish, not
only to make it easier on someof our own teams, but also it's
showing up in our what we callour customer in metrics.
It's actually having a directimpact on the service model that
we have with our customers.
It's actually having a directimpact on the service model that
we have with our customers, sothe customers benefit from it as
well, makes it easier on ourinternal teams, makes it better
(21:45):
for our customers and we kind ofbenefit from having it.
And a big thing about it islike what, if we went to
McDonald's and McDonald's waslike, well, if you go to this
location in Boston, you're goingto get curly fries, if you go
to this location in SanFrancisco, you're going to get
shoestring fries, people wouldbe like, well, what's the
benefit of McDonald's likenational brand?
Yeah, we, that's what we'reheaded towards is, when you
(22:06):
experience restauranttechnologies, whether you're in
the Boston market, you're in theLA market, you're in the
Minneapolis market, you're goingto have the same type of
experience.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
And that's what we're going to grow upon.
I love that.
How did you choose those ninepeople?
Did you know specifically whatroles you wanted to create?
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yep, we did.
We wanted to have somebody whoreally understood how our
operations technology works.
Eventually we'll do thetraining side that right now is
still sitting in the humancapital side, and then the
operations excellence, businesspartners.
That's actually.
We plucked out our highestperforming general manager.
(22:45):
We said you're going to be amember of the team.
Then another individual on thatteam, josh.
He was kind of an expert in howwork gets done at restaurant
technology, so we plucked himout of that role and put him in
this.
And then we brought two otherpeople in from the outside who
are very, very process-drivenlean management principals.
(23:09):
And then one of our otherdirector of business process.
She's on the team as well.
They're complimentary in termsof their skillset.
You got the experts in how wedo it today.
You had the best and brightestwhen it comes to one of our
highest performing generalmanagers who kind of keeps it
real with us and then when theywork, they're constantly using
(23:31):
general managers from across thecountry to calibrate the work.
It's built by operations foroperations, because we're not
going to just create somethingand say, hey, this is a best
practice, go do this, and thenwe get it out into the field and
the field's like this doesn'twork for us.
So that we needed to havepeople who were excellent
(23:51):
collaborators, people who couldstill balance what good looks
like but understand therealities of the situation that
we were in.
And the team formed together andthen our senior director of
operations excellence.
He's been there and done that.
He came from the outside.
He's at an organization thatwas 10 years ahead of us in this
(24:13):
pursuit and his kind ofstrategic direction for the team
was complimentary.
We had to give them grace andspace to to try some new stuff
on right.
Try it on.
It doesn't work, that's okay,we'll pivot.
But the intention was wasreally clear from the beginning.
It also helped that we told alot of people about it.
I said, hey, this is what thisfunction is going to do and this
(24:34):
is what we expect out of it.
So it was like self-calibratingto make sure it came true.
We did partner with anexcellent company called Beckway
to also help mature ourthinking faster in it.
So they came in from theoutside and said, hey, we've
helped organizations stand thistype of workup, but they were a
great partner.
(24:54):
They really greased our skidsand then let us run with it and
we've taken it from there.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
I love it.
I was going to ask you how didyou come up with this idea?
Was this something that you'ddone before, or, and then, what
was the first step in kind ofputting it together?
Speaker 2 (25:08):
When we I haven't done exactly operations
excellence before.
There's something that we didin when I was in operations in
Marvin which was taking ourmassive 2.2 million square foot
plant and building it into whatis more like a cellular
manufacturing arrangement whichtakes all of our processes and
breaks them down into bite-sizedpieces and standardizes them
(25:31):
from cell to cell.
Data is really important,process was really important,
and then codifying it with anyother type of technology.
So the concept I was reallyfamiliar with, but the buy-in
for it was actually quite easy.
I mean, it was a conversation Iwas having with the senior
executive team, jeff the CEO.
He was like absolutely We'veseen the benefits on the
(25:53):
commercial side of theorganization.
I see how it can benefit itfrom the operation side.
And again, it was maybe a littlebit of a leap of faith but we
started by bringing in thatfirst leader, joe, our senior
director of operations.
Excellence gave him the rightand the grace to build out his
team and I would say 18 monthsin and I think the results kind
(26:16):
of speak for themselves andwe've cut our service visits by
about 40%.
By having a more completeservice visit We've had
increased our first time rightfor our installations, which
means our new customers startoff with us on a really good
foot, like there's some basicthings that we just had to
codify.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yeah, I love that.
That's amazing Congratulations,yeah, thanks.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Thanks, a lot of had to codify.
Yeah, I love that.
That's amazing Congratulations.
Yeah, thanks, thanks, it's alot of credit to the team.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Did you, did you play with this?
Cause?
I've been in, I've worked fororganizations before where we've
kind of put together side sideboards of employees for
sustainability or for communitypractices, but it was.
They were on a part-time basisthat you know.
They still did their regularfull-time.
So did you guys kind of playaround with?
Is this a full-time group ofpeople or do we?
Speaker 2 (27:02):
do this part-time.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Yeah.
So that is a great question,because RT has tried this in
different ways before, but itwas always side jobs and so we
had to jump into the deep endright and fully commit to the
practice of it and it is allthey focus on.
It's 100% of their time isfocused on that standardization,
(27:26):
reducing the variability,training, process, orientation
because there's that much workto do first of all.
There's that much work to dofirst of all.
And then the day job wasn'tpulling them away from the
continuous improvement mindsetthat you want everybody to have.
There was really big buildingblocks that we had to put in
(27:47):
place and it's just hard to you.
Maybe eventually could getthere, but it's going to take
you many, many more years.
You don't see and experiencethe progress fast enough and it
dies out.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yeah, totally, and I'm assuming you're direct,
you're working directly with Joeon the initiatives.
So 40, 41 locations a lot ofyou know.
You said they're doingeverything differently.
How do you help Joe stayfocused on what the priorities
are to make the biggest impact?
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Joe, there's a lot of buy-in from the general
managers.
We pilot a lot of our stuff ina handful of depots.
This is just kind of a littlebit of proof point that we were
able to highlight at our lastnational business meeting.
One of the things that he doesreally well is when he pilots it
.
He has good kind of trackingmechanisms of the befores and
(28:36):
afters.
He took one of our closer tohome depots, which is our
Minneapolis depot, and they werethe full pilot for all of our
first steps on ops excellencenew work like new process or
anything like that and I want to.
The numbers are not exactlyspecific, but I want to say
Minneapolis, in our stackranking of you know, different
(28:59):
performance metrics, wassomewhere in the bottom third
prior to being our guinea pigfor operations excellence.
Within 12 months, minneapoliswas runner up for Depot of the
year.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
So then you find the platform to say, hey, listen,
this actually works.
It actually helps not only thatdepot perform better, but
there's less kind of aggravationof having to figure it out on
their own and it pays off withbetter performance.
So then all the GMs are likelet me at it right.
So I remember at the NationalEpiscopal Museum they're like
(29:35):
why does Colin only get tobenefit from all of these things
?
We're at the national businessand they're like why does?
Why does colin only get tobenefit from all of these things
?
Well, that when you have, whenyou, when you get to grandstand
or put on stage, you're a guineapig, um who, who went through a
lot to go through it.
Right he was.
He had to try a lot of stuff onfor size and like see if it
worked.
And then it works.
And then you're like let'scelebrate it and then inspire
(29:57):
other people to try somethingdifferent, because we have
incredible retention of ourgeneral managers, but they've
been kind of doing it their ownway for a long time, so you had
to give them a reason to believe.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah, and and how do you I mean that shift from them
being able to do what theywanted to do 41 different ways?
There's empowerment there, butthen when you start to put this
structure in was there anyfriction there between the GMs
going?
This feels different, or Idon't know if I like this
direction or I'm losing some ofmy voice here.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Yeah, I would say a little, a little bit Um, and and
you know I'm a realistic personI'm more like hey, I get it, I
get it, it's different.
I don't always love changemyself too.
Um, but what?
I've also heard from them quitea bit, and this is a very
specific example.
We had a big kickoff meetingwhen we first brought operations
(30:49):
excellence on and we kind ofpreviewed with them what we
thought would be the best thingsto focus on first, and one of
them was how we install our oilsystem.
So we put like seven of our GMsin a corner of a room with
seven other GMs working on adifferent charter and I'm like
kind of circling the room alittle bit and I walked back
(31:10):
into the install process, onethe group who's mapping this out
on the wall, and I think it wasWilliam Turner, our Chicago GM,
and I think Andre Valdez, ourMiami GM.
I walk over I was like, hey,guys, how's it going?
And he goes.
One of them goes hey, alyssa,it's clear what we need, cause
(31:33):
we're they're struggling throughthis.
I was like, well, what is it?
He goes.
We just need more training.
I'm like, oh well, are we goingto train to the Miami way?
Or are we going to train to theChicago way?
Or are we going to train to theBoston way?
Like who's what should I buildmy training around?
And then all of a sudden theywere like, oh, like the light
(31:53):
bulb moment.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah, the light bulb goes off.
So I was like hey there,podcast friends, I hope you're
enjoying these impactfulconversations and leadership
insights I'm bringing you eachweek.
Before we dive back intotoday's episode, I want to take
a moment and reach out and ask asmall favor.
That would go a long way insupporting the show.
If you've been loving thecontent I'm providing, please
(32:15):
take a moment to leave a ratingand review.
Wherever you listen to yourpodcast, not only does it make
my day, but it also plays apivotal role in helping the show
grow.
Your reviews boost myvisibility, attract new
listeners and encourage excitingguests to join me on the mic.
So if you want to be part of myshow's growth journey, hit that
(32:38):
review button and let me knowwhat you think.
Thanks a million for beingawesome listeners.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
This is a perfect proof point.
I said we don't have enoughtraining resources to train it
to 41 different ways if we'regoing to be a national company.
And that kind of light bulbopened the door to saying there
is, there is something here thatis beneficial for the greater
good.
And yeah, we ran with some ofthat.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I love that you uh do a lot of those exercises to
letting them work through ittogether and try to communicate
it, but I love that you showedthem.
You didn't just tell them whatthe needs were, but you showed
them and let them work throughit.
That was just that's incredible.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
How do you bring them along?
Right yeah, you just got tobring them along and we learn a
lot from them.
They learn a lot about kind oftheir own operations through it
as well.
Like, do you know your businesswell enough to change it?
And a lot of people don't,actually, and I'm a big
(33:43):
proponent of know your businessinside and out, so when you
start to see something working,you can attribute it to why, and
when something's not working,you have that depth of
understanding to react to it anddo something about it.
But when you surface level knowyour business, you don't.
(34:04):
You don't, you don't know itwell enough.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
You'll make mistakes.
It's so I just wrote that down.
Do you know your business wellenough to change it?
I think there's so muchuncertainty right now in in the
world and what's going on andwe've been talking a lot about
that with clients and coachesand and restaurant consultants
of do what do you?
What do you know that's workingin your business?
Like I done it.
If you don't have it identified, identify it right now so you
(34:28):
can just double down on that.
You know, make sure yourexperience is top notch right
now, make sure you're nurturingyour guests as much as you
possibly can, and then figureout what's not working and
figure out if you need to letthat part of your business go or
if now is the time to invest init.
That's so important, love, thatyou brought that up.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I remember a time it's a little bit of a different
thing, but it's relevant forrestaurants.
I remember when I was at withEinstein's and Einstein Brother
Bagel.
So most of their businesshappens before 10 AM.
The breakfast concept Okay, sothat's really where where we
make the money and serve theguests right Is in the morning.
(35:08):
Well, morning before COVIDespecially, people were really
sensitive to how long it wouldtake to get their morning
breakfast.
They're usually on route totheir work.
It can't be late.
They have dropped the kids offat a certain time.
They needed to havepredictability about how long it
would take to get a bagel and acoffee.
(35:31):
So we were tracking guestservice time.
How long does it take, how muchof the wait in line, whether
it's the drive through or theycome in, what is that dwell time
throughout the process?
How long do they wait after theorder is placed?
When do they get there?
When do they pay, when do theyleave?
And so these time studies holdus a lot, knowing that we're in
(35:53):
a time sensitive part of the day.
Most people don't have as muchof a concern at the end of the
day, but they're very timesensitive in the morning, right.
So we did a time study, andwhat we noticed was years and
years of technical debt hadshown up on the POS system, the
point of sale system, and so ourbaristas and our um, our, our
(36:17):
employee team members would haveto sort through pages of the
POS that weren't relevant.
Oh time offerings, uh, uh,ingredients that we don't have
anymore, combos that we didn'thave anymore, and I remember
going through the experiencewith them because we did
side-by-side studies with themand it was like, hey, order this
, and so you're, you're on theclock, right.
(36:37):
You're like, okay, I have to dothis as fast as possible, but I
have to make sure I don't hitthis button, because if I hit
this button, the whole POSsystem just blows up.
It just stops working.
We had to reset it, you know.
So our first ask of the IT teamwas clean it up, simply just
clean it up.
And we did.
We asked all of our generalmanagers, you know over 1100 GMs
(37:00):
.
We said what is the one thingyou need from corporate?
They said clean up the POS.
Wow, okay.
So we did.
Well, we took like minutes offof the guest check time simply
because our team could.
They only had the buttons thatthey could push.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Yeah, I love it.
Wow, superb.
I feel that energy.
I was in breakfast for sevenyears and it and it was very
high volume and same thing.
Yeah, it's you make or breaksomebody's day and if you you
have to cancel their food order,they they won't come back.
You know it's awful.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
And the last thing I need is I need we cannot make
somebody late for their job,right, we cannot.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Yeah, yeah, I love that.
It's amazing.
It's the little things, right,I think there is.
It's all about.
I love how you're sointentional about creating
successful change in yourbusiness and it's about
empowering people and testingthings through.
You know, like you're doingthrough piloting, but rolling it
out and then constantlymonitoring it and getting
feedback.
I think there's there's a lotof times people put so much into
(38:01):
the rollout and then they kindof they're like, okay, we've
rolled it out and step away, andthen it's like no, no, no, no,
you've got to continue to have asystem in place to monitor that
Um, whether that's people or orautomation or whatever it is.
That's incredible.
So what, what are you mostproud of with this new role?
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Gosh.
I think it's just the amount ofchange the organization has
been able to go through withsuccessful results.
I mean, it's truly like payingoff, and when I say, how does it
pay off, a lot of people say,well, it's just padding your
pockets.
But no, no, no, no.
It allows us to make otherinvestments, okay.
(38:44):
So, as I was saying, it's funto see.
I think what I'm most proud ofis that I'm not a person who's
been
Alyssa, thank you so much for being here today and
taking the time to share yourstory with our listeners and
really, you know I'm excited totake a deep dive into your
leadership today and just learnmore about you.
Restaurant Technologies hasjust been such a fabulous
company to partner with, and soI'm excited to give people the
opportunity to kind of peekbehind the curtain even more.
(00:24):
So welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Absolutely.
Thanks for having me.
I'm excited to be here Good.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Well, before we kick off, I don't know about you, I'm
the worst at celebratinganything.
I do, Anything good thathappens.
It takes me.
I take about two seconds andthen I move on.
But can we take a moment tocelebrate your 2025 women in
business award?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, thank you.
Yeah, it's.
It is hard.
It's like I I don't do any ofwhat I do for those things and
occasionally when they comealong it's nice, um, but it's
hard.
It's hard to kind of accept itor, you know, like kind of let
yourself get wrapped up in itand I appreciate it.
(01:07):
I'm glad people do it, but Irecognize more of like the value
of it to remind me that I haveto do that type of appreciation
to the team.
So I don't necessarily need it,want it or look for it, but I
know there's members of our teamwho do need that type of kind
of shot in the arm and so it's agood reminder.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I love that.
So this was presented to you bythe Minneapolis St Paul
Business Journal.
Is this something that you'veknown about for a while or a
while?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
They do this every year.
Yeah, they have nominationsevery year for it, and then you
know, it's just something Idon't think we really have
focused on necessarily, but I dowatch it, and what's cool about
it is when you see thesenomination classes come up.
The talent within the pool isremarkable, and so it's almost a
(02:00):
forced connection point thatyou meet people who are really
big movers and shakers, whetherit's in the industry that I live
and breathe in or in themarkets that we get to serve.
And every once in a while yougot to get out of your home, you
got to get out of your office,you got to get out of your place
of business and meet people.
And then that's where the poweris.
(02:20):
The power is through theconnections that those platforms
create.
So first time for me, obviously, but also I recognize that the
women in this particular group.
It's just remarkable whatthey've been able to accomplish,
so it's fun to see andcelebrate that as well.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
I love it.
Well, well, well-deservedCongratulations.
Very, very exciting stuff.
So let's talk about restauranttechnology.
So you joined the team in 2020as the chief people officer,
right yeah, how did you, how didyour journey kind of land you
to that position with restauranttechnologies?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
So fully full disclosure here, total
transparency.
I did not know about restauranttechnologies until I was
approached for the role.
I was aware that there weresolutions out there for what we
did, but not like we do it.
And I think that you know Godworks in really mysterious ways
(03:19):
because, if you remember, wherewe were in 2020, I was also with
another.
I was with a restaurant company.
Where we were in 2020, I wasalso with another.
I was with a restaurant company.
I was with Caribou Coffee andEinstein Brothers Bagels had a
couple other brands incorporatedinto the breakfast side of the
industry or of the company.
But you know, like the littletap on the shoulder, like hey,
do you want to join a restaurantservices company in the depth
(03:39):
of COVID?
And it's like like I'm not sosure.
But one thing that restauranttechnology does for me like
personally I'm a big proponentof if you don't love what your
company does, I don't know ifyou'll ever bring enough passion
forward to build the brand.
Like you have to truly lovewhat we do.
(04:01):
And when I had the luxury ofyou know, taking a look at RT
and saying, wow, this isremarkable.
It combined things that I'mdeeply passionate about.
I actually am a, I could nerdout a little bit on how things
work.
Okay.
So this is a company that has areally cool service solution
(04:22):
and how we do it is fascinating.
And then it marries up to mydeep love and commitment for the
food industry, the food serviceindustry, and I have said this
for years, I've said it in othercircles of conversation.
I said for thousands of yearsfood has brought people together
.
It brings us together in thebest of times and it brings us
(04:46):
together in the worst of times,and I think most of life happens
with food involved.
And so when I had a chance tomarry up this love of how things
work for an industry that I'mextremely passionate about,
which is the food serviceindustry, restaurant technology
has brought it right togetherand it's how things work in the
(05:09):
restaurant industry.
Not only that, it's a serviceorientation.
We get to serve an industrythat serves others.
And I've grown up to I've grownup in a position of saying you
need to serve others, you haveto find a way to give your, get
your talents and pursuit ofhelping others.
(05:29):
And if you're not helping, whatare you doing here?
So it just was it kind ofrocked me to my core of saying I
remember talking to my husband,I was like I have to do this.
He's like it's restaurantservices company in the heat of
COVID Alyssa, like are, like,are you sure?
And then I met the leadershipteam.
I met some members of the teamand I just said, yeah, this is
(05:51):
where I want to be.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
That's awesome.
If you are feeling the pressureof rising costs and staffing
shortages or supply chain chaos,you are not alone.
The truth is, the economicforecast may be shifting, but
your restaurant still needs tokeep moving forward.
That's why I'm headed to the2025 National Restaurant
Association show, happening May17th through the 20th in Chicago
(06:15):
.
This show is built foroperators like you, offering
real solutions for realchallenges, from cost-saving
equipment to strategies fornavigating today's tough labor
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Plus, you'll get access tocutting-edge technology, menu
innovation and expert-ledsessions that'll help you stay
resilient no matter what themarket throws your way, and I'll
(06:39):
be there, and I'd love to seeyou too.
Here's a bonus for you to usemy promo code, kristen 25 at
checkout and get $25 off yourexpo show badge.
All you have to do is go tonationalrestaurantshowcom to
register and grab your ticket.
Don't wait, though, becausethis offer expires May 9th.
(06:59):
The 2025 show is where thefuture of food service comes to
life.
Don't miss it, and I hope tosee you there.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
So it's been five years in two different roles now
.
But the company itself we cantalk about that whenever you're
ready, but what we do personally, why I chose it, is because
it's something I'm like duallypassionate about.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yeah, talk a little bit more about what you guys so
that's so different from otherservice providers.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So we are the premier solution for closed loop
cooking oil management solutions.
That's our primary product.
We have an autonomous solutionas well, which is around keeping
clean hoods and flues clean.
It's an auto cleaning solutionor service, but our main product
line is our total oilmanagement solution and what
(07:52):
we're able to do is in 41different operating locations
across the country.
We are able to service roughly50,000 customers from those 41
sites.
We deliver bulk cooking oilsimultaneously, picking up used
cooking oil, and at the end ofthe stage we bring that used
(08:13):
cooking oil back into the foodand fuel chain and we sell it
into biodiesel refineries.
So it's a good for people, goodfor planet business,
good-for-planet business.
Our trucks are works of art.
They are multi-oil typedelivery trucks.
We can deliver three or fourdifferent oils simultaneously on
(08:33):
our dynamic route.
We deliver to a customer whoneeds oil just when they need
oil, and then we're able tosafely handle their used cooking
oil.
What it allows a restaurant todo is stop manhandling their oil
management.
They don't have to lug aroundjibs of oil 35, 40 pound, you
(08:54):
know boxes of oil and heave theminto the fryers.
We can, and they don't have toempty oil out of their old
fryers and carry it out to arendering tank.
It's push button technology.
It's like remarkable when tosee it work.
So it's safety oriented.
It's helps actually customersuse less oil because of our
(09:17):
technology that helps themunderstand their oil usage
patterns.
And then it also is good forthe planet by recycling the used
cooking oil and it doesn'tpatterns.
And then it also is good forthe planet by recycling the used
cooking oil and it doesn't andit goes into a good purpose.
I love it.
Yeah, um, we're in restaurantsacross the country.
We've got big brands that wesupport and serve.
We also service universities,casinos, hotels, so anybody that
(09:38):
cooks with oil.
Um, generally benefits for oursystem and the employees love it
.
The employees love how easy andsafe it is and if you've ever
worked in a kitchen like I havewith Buffalo Wild Wings, or even
we didn't have the oil solution, obviously at Caribou Coffee
and Einstein's, they're tightspaces and there's slips, trips
and falls.
(09:58):
There's hundreds ofopportunities to get burned.
So we reduce, we take out thatrisk and we've been helped
companies minimize theirinsurance premiums related to
their property casualtyinsurance because we have and
workers have, excuse me, becauseit helps keep things safe.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, I love that.
Yeah, it was.
It's it's horrible to clean up,it's heavy, it's dangerous,
it's it's all the things right.
It's not a job that anybodyreally loves doing in the
restaurant.
I'd love that you guys have thesolution.
So you joined the team in 2020,took a huge leap of faith and
then this massive growthhappened right when you had a
thousand employees and youexploded to 1500.
So, 50% increase in people.
(10:40):
Was there demand for that?
Were you guys short-staffed?
I mean, what was that growthall about?
Speaker 2 (10:46):
We really had to be creative on attracting people
into our growth story.
So we needed to hire driversand technicians.
Our drivers they have thebenefit of running a 313
schedule generally or a 410schedule, so that for a lot of
people, was an attractive point.
(11:07):
They said, wow, I can have afull-time job, full benefits,
and I can also have a three orfour day weekend.
Sign me up, right.
Our technicians are either a410 or a 5.8 schedule, so a
little bit more kind of in thenorm schedule.
So we did a lot of promotion tobring in the talent who would
support the customer growth.
And we had to be creativebecause people had a lot of
(11:31):
choice coming out of COVID andin some cases we were in a very
competitive position with,especially in the trucking side
of things.
So we were creative.
We had a high referralpercentage we had at any given
month about 40% of our hirescome from internal referrals.
(11:51):
So we juiced that.
We're creative on our sign-onbonuses.
We did a market study to makesure we were as competitive with
our wages.
We did some cool things withour healthcare.
We reduced the premiums on oneof our healthcare plan to zero.
So people were like, wow, I canhave free healthcare.
Here.
We promoted the benefits of athree or four day weekend so we
(12:11):
were able to attract people inand over the last three years,
four years, we've seen aconsistent rise in our retention
as well.
So people when they come in,you know we retain 85% of our
workforce in a given year.
That's light years ahead ofkind of the industries that we
compete with.
So once we get them in, we wantto keep them and we try to have
(12:35):
them.
You know we make sure we'resupporting them, giving them
what they need.
We're opening up doors forcommunication so we can hear
directly from our frontline,learn from them, respond to them
and just keep that employeeexperience front and center.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
If we take care of them.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
they can take care of our customers, but if we're not
meeting their needs, they spendtime to figure out how to close
those gaps before they can kindof pay it forward in service.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Yeah, it sounds like you guys really care about your
people and you really arethoughtful about their lifestyle
and making sure that this, thiscareer, fits with their
lifestyle.
Where's that people focus?
Coming from within the company.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Well, it's all over?
I would say it's all over.
It definitely starts at the top, but then you also have to
inspire within.
I can't be in 41 depots at atime, so our focus is making
sure that we've got generalmanagers at each of our
locations.
Where people are like I want towork with this person, I want
(13:34):
to be part of their team.
That is a critical layer in ourorganization.
As the general managers who helpsupport each of these depots,
we have a lot of work to dostill.
To be honest, there's a lot ofgood going on, but kind of the
next evolution that we'reworking on is building out some
of those things that we haven'tyet had which is around like
(13:55):
leadership development.
Had which is around likeleadership development.
We're refreshing our.
It's called a level up program,which is a development program
that our frontline leaders orfrontline employees can go
through to level up in theorganization.
So there's a lot.
We had to kind of do some ofthe food, water, shelter, basics
first, and then the next thingis around development.
(14:15):
So a lot comes from it.
But you know, when you're ahealthy, thriving business, you
have earned the right to investback into the business, and one
of the ways we do that isthrough better quality equipment
, better quality tools, and thenthat that investment right into
(14:35):
the people through throughdevelopment and support.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
I love that.
I want to have.
We should schedule another timeand talk, just for you know, 30
minutes to 45 minutes aboutthis level of program, because
it's I, that's what I focus onthe leadership development
across multi-unit locations, andwe'd love to just learn more
about that and talk about thechallenges and successes.
That's awesome, absolutely.
So you made the jump from CPOto COO.
(15:02):
Yeah, what, what made youdecide to make that leap?
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Um, first of all, I showed interest.
I I have a.
I have a deep kind of love andbackground in operations.
I've always had a moreoperations focused role, whether
I was in a chief people officerrole or kind of in my human
capital roles in the past.
It's always been a very tightconnection with that large part
of organizations.
So I certainly showed interestin it at RT.
(15:31):
And then I have to acknowledgethe fact that that's not a
common switch.
So as much as I could sit hereand say I would like to try
something different formally, Ihad to have people who also were
willing to take a chance on meand say, yeah, let's try it.
What's the worst that couldhappen?
And so we were reallyintentional about thinking
(15:55):
through that.
And I remember when I had agreat conversation with our CEO,
jeff Giesel, one day and hesaid, do you want to give it a
try?
And I was like I do and the italmost kind of re relit a little
bit of a fire in me of like,okay, I don't want to fail here,
so what do I have to dodifferently?
But the nice thing that I'vehad the luxury of having is
(16:20):
being able to bring in or kindof recreate the leadership team
that I get to work with on theoperations side.
And they are.
They are fantastic.
So I have the privilege ofworking with them.
I had the chance to try it.
I had somebody who was willingto take that chance.
I take chances on talent a lot.
(16:40):
Right, I say, let's try it.
What's the worst that we canhave?
What can happen here?
And so I had.
I had somebody who was willingto take a chance.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Hi everybody, we're taking a quick break to offer
you an exciting opportunity.
If you're a restaurant owner ormanager looking to enhance your
leadership skills, I invite youto join my 12-day leadership
challenge.
In just 12 days, you'll receivea guided packet with actionable
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(17:15):
minutes a day.
Join the challenge and thecommunity and grab your copy at
kristinmarvincom slash 12 days.
Now let's get back to the show.
I love that.
I love when you said, when Jeffasked you like, is this
something that you want to do?
There was no hesitation in yourvoice, there were no kind of
(17:35):
nerves.
You just showed up reallyconfidently.
Were you excited?
Were you scared?
Were you confident?
And what were the emotions?
I love it.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I love what our operations team does.
So it was almost like let me atit, like, yes, I want it
because I'm passionate about it.
If I didn't love what we do,honestly, kristen, I probably
wouldn't be here.
I would.
I would look for something thatI I felt that deep connection
with.
So there's a heart and soulthat exists in operations and,
(18:05):
yeah, I'm just, I feel reallylucky to be part of it.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
I love it.
So, when you moved into thethis COO role, what were some of
the you know?
I want to talk about the, thisnine person ops excellence team
that you put together, like whatwere some of the challenges
that you really identified, andthen talk us through the
strategy that you used to putthis team together.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
So this was about two years ago.
We were enjoying some of thebenefits that we had of
installing a commercialexcellence team.
So commercial ops is what wecall it.
It's on our commercial side ofthe organization and we did that
.
They built out about four yearsago, so what their purpose was
(18:50):
was essentially to make it aseasy as our as possible for our
sales team to grow and find findnew customers and onboard new
customers.
And we went through like atwo-year learning cycle with
commercial ops that helped usredefine, standardize and codify
(19:10):
our go-to-market strategy.
And, as that was off andrunning, at the same time we
were doing some big investmentsinto our service technology,
which is Salesforce ServiceCloud.
And as a follow on to that, Iremember I spent a lot of time
out in the depots and what washard was we have our operators,
(19:32):
who were born and bred intorunning their own territory,
doing it with 41 depots doing it41 different ways.
And I remember saying, hey, ifwe're going to grow and scale as
an organization, we can't have41 depots doing it 41 different
ways.
And I remember being at one ofour leadership meetings national
(19:55):
business meetings and I said weneed less pirate ship and more
Navy ship, which means we needless kind of everybody doing it
their own way and we need morestandards, because the standards
allow us to build on verysimilar to.
Everybody does it the same way,so we can train to the one best
way.
We've adopted the one best wayand then we're going to benefit
(20:18):
from doing it one best way.
And so we sat down and we kindof hashed through what this
could look like on theoperations side and we're not
the first company to do it, butit was a unique setup to put it
under the human capital side ofthe business, because that's
where I was.
I was sitting in HR, stillknowing that if I was going to
move into operations I'd take itwith me.
(20:38):
But we built out our operationsexcellence team and it was
focused on ops technology,operations process and
eventually it will take onoperations training.
And that team is a team ofwe've got a mix of former
general managers and servicemanagers, different people in
the business, and we infusedsome talent from the outside as
(20:59):
well and their sole job was toidentify the variability in the
business, identify the one bestway, create the process in any
program that would get us to alloperating under the same you
know kind of course and trainingpeople to it.
We're about 18 months into itnow.
(21:22):
It is unbelievable what we'vebeen able to accomplish, not
only to make it easier on someof our own teams, but also it's
showing up in our what we callour customer in metrics.
It's actually having a directimpact on the service model that
we have with our customers.
It's actually having a directimpact on the service model that
we have with our customers, sothe customers benefit from it as
well, makes it easier on ourinternal teams, makes it better
(21:45):
for our customers and we kind ofbenefit from having it.
And a big thing about it islike what, if we went to
McDonald's and McDonald's waslike, well, if you go to this
location in Boston, you're goingto get curly fries, if you go
to this location in SanFrancisco, you're going to get
shoestring fries, people wouldbe like, well, what's the
benefit of McDonald's likenational brand?
Yeah, we, that's what we'reheaded towards is, when you
(22:06):
experience restauranttechnologies, whether you're in
the Boston market, you're in theLA market, you're in the
Minneapolis market, you're goingto have the same type of
experience.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
And that's what we're going to grow upon.
I love that.
How did you choose those ninepeople?
Did you know specifically whatroles you wanted to create?
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Yep, we did.
We wanted to have somebody whoreally understood how our
operations technology works.
Eventually we'll do thetraining side that right now is
still sitting in the humancapital side, and then the
operations excellence, businesspartners.
That's actually.
We plucked out our highestperforming general manager.
(22:45):
We said you're going to be amember of the team.
Then another individual on thatteam, josh.
He was kind of an expert in howwork gets done at restaurant
technology, so we plucked himout of that role and put him in
this.
And then we brought two otherpeople in from the outside who
are very, very process-drivenlean management principals.
(23:09):
And then one of our otherdirector of business process.
She's on the team as well.
They're complimentary in termsof their skillset.
You got the experts in how wedo it today.
You had the best and brightestwhen it comes to one of our
highest performing generalmanagers who kind of keeps it
real with us and then when theywork, they're constantly using
(23:31):
general managers from across thecountry to calibrate the work.
It's built by operations foroperations, because we're not
going to just create somethingand say, hey, this is a best
practice, go do this, and thenwe get it out into the field and
the field's like this doesn'twork for us.
So that we needed to havepeople who were excellent
(23:51):
collaborators, people who couldstill balance what good looks
like but understand therealities of the situation that
we were in.
And the team formed together andthen our senior director of
operations excellence.
He's been there and done that.
He came from the outside.
He's at an organization thatwas 10 years ahead of us in this
(24:13):
pursuit and his kind ofstrategic direction for the team
was complimentary.
We had to give them grace andspace to to try some new stuff
on right.
Try it on.
It doesn't work, that's okay,we'll pivot.
But the intention was wasreally clear from the beginning.
It also helped that we told alot of people about it.
I said, hey, this is what thisfunction is going to do and this
(24:34):
is what we expect out of it.
So it was like self-calibratingto make sure it came true.
We did partner with anexcellent company called Beckway
to also help mature ourthinking faster in it.
So they came in from theoutside and said, hey, we've
helped organizations stand thistype of workup, but they were a
great partner.
(24:54):
They really greased our skidsand then let us run with it and
we've taken it from there.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
I love it.
I was going to ask you how didyou come up with this idea?
Was this something that you'ddone before, or, and then, what
was the first step in kind ofputting it together?
Speaker 2 (25:08):
When we I haven't done exactly operations
excellence before.
There's something that we didin when I was in operations in
Marvin which was taking ourmassive 2.2 million square foot
plant and building it into whatis more like a cellular
manufacturing arrangement whichtakes all of our processes and
breaks them down into bite-sizedpieces and standardizes them
(25:31):
from cell to cell.
Data is really important,process was really important,
and then codifying it with anyother type of technology.
So the concept I was reallyfamiliar with, but the buy-in
for it was actually quite easy.
I mean, it was a conversation Iwas having with the senior
executive team, jeff the CEO.
He was like absolutely We'veseen the benefits on the
(25:53):
commercial side of theorganization.
I see how it can benefit itfrom the operation side.
And again, it was maybe a littlebit of a leap of faith but we
started by bringing in thatfirst leader, joe, our senior
director of operations.
Excellence gave him the rightand the grace to build out his
team and I would say 18 monthsin and I think the results kind
(26:16):
of speak for themselves andwe've cut our service visits by
about 40%.
By having a more completeservice visit We've had
increased our first time rightfor our installations, which
means our new customers startoff with us on a really good
foot, like there's some basicthings that we just had to
codify.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Yeah, I love that.
That's amazing Congratulations,yeah, thanks.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Thanks, a lot of had to codify.
Yeah, I love that.
That's amazing Congratulations.
Yeah, thanks, thanks, it's alot of credit to the team.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Did you, did you play with this?
Cause?
I've been in, I've worked fororganizations before where we've
kind of put together side sideboards of employees for
sustainability or for communitypractices, but it was.
They were on a part-time basisthat you know.
They still did their regularfull-time.
So did you guys kind of playaround with?
Is this a full-time group ofpeople or do we?
Speaker 2 (27:02):
do this part-time.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Yeah.
So that is a great question,because RT has tried this in
different ways before, but itwas always side jobs and so we
had to jump into the deep endright and fully commit to the
practice of it and it is allthey focus on.
It's 100% of their time isfocused on that standardization,
(27:26):
reducing the variability,training, process, orientation
because there's that much workto do first of all.
There's that much work to dofirst of all.
And then the day job wasn'tpulling them away from the
continuous improvement mindsetthat you want everybody to have.
There was really big buildingblocks that we had to put in
(27:47):
place and it's just hard to you.
Maybe eventually could getthere, but it's going to take
you many, many more years.
You don't see and experiencethe progress fast enough and it
dies out.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yeah, totally, and I'm assuming you're direct,
you're working directly with Joeon the initiatives.
So 40, 41 locations a lot ofyou know.
You said they're doingeverything differently.
How do you help Joe stayfocused on what the priorities
are to make the biggest impact?
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Joe, there's a lot of buy-in from the general
managers.
We pilot a lot of our stuff ina handful of depots.
This is just kind of a littlebit of proof point that we were
able to highlight at our lastnational business meeting.
One of the things that he doesreally well is when he pilots it
.
He has good kind of trackingmechanisms of the befores and
(28:36):
afters.
He took one of our closer tohome depots, which is our
Minneapolis depot, and they werethe full pilot for all of our
first steps on ops excellencenew work like new process or
anything like that and I want to.
The numbers are not exactlyspecific, but I want to say
Minneapolis, in our stackranking of you know, different
(28:59):
performance metrics, wassomewhere in the bottom third
prior to being our guinea pigfor operations excellence.
Within 12 months, minneapoliswas runner up for Depot of the
year.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
So then you find the platform to say, hey, listen,
this actually works.
It actually helps not only thatdepot perform better, but
there's less kind of aggravationof having to figure it out on
their own and it pays off withbetter performance.
So then all the GMs are likelet me at it right.
So I remember at the NationalEpiscopal Museum they're like
(29:35):
why does Colin only get tobenefit from all of these things
?
We're at the national businessand they're like why does?
Why does colin only get tobenefit from all of these things
?
Well, that when you have, whenyou, when you get to grandstand
or put on stage, you're a guineapig, um who, who went through a
lot to go through it.
Right he was.
He had to try a lot of stuff onfor size and like see if it
worked.
And then it works.
And then you're like let'scelebrate it and then inspire
(29:57):
other people to try somethingdifferent, because we have
incredible retention of ourgeneral managers, but they've
been kind of doing it their ownway for a long time, so you had
to give them a reason to believe.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah, and and how do you I mean that shift from them
being able to do what theywanted to do 41 different ways?
There's empowerment there, butthen when you start to put this
structure in was there anyfriction there between the GMs
going?
This feels different, or Idon't know if I like this
direction or I'm losing some ofmy voice here.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Yeah, I would say a little, a little bit Um, and and
you know I'm a realistic personI'm more like hey, I get it, I
get it, it's different.
I don't always love changemyself too.
Um, but what?
I've also heard from them quitea bit, and this is a very
specific example.
We had a big kickoff meetingwhen we first brought operations
(30:49):
excellence on and we kind ofpreviewed with them what we
thought would be the best thingsto focus on first, and one of
them was how we install our oilsystem.
So we put like seven of our GMsin a corner of a room with
seven other GMs working on adifferent charter and I'm like
kind of circling the room alittle bit and I walked back
(31:10):
into the install process, onethe group who's mapping this out
on the wall, and I think it wasWilliam Turner, our Chicago GM,
and I think Andre Valdez, ourMiami GM.
I walk over I was like, hey,guys, how's it going?
And he goes.
One of them goes hey, alyssa,it's clear what we need, cause
(31:33):
we're they're struggling throughthis.
I was like, well, what is it?
He goes.
We just need more training.
I'm like, oh well, are we goingto train to the Miami way?
Or are we going to train to theChicago way?
Or are we going to train to theBoston way?
Like who's what should I buildmy training around?
And then all of a sudden theywere like, oh, like the light
(31:53):
bulb moment.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah, the light bulb goes off.
So I was like hey there,podcast friends, I hope you're
enjoying these impactfulconversations and leadership
insights I'm bringing you eachweek.
Before we dive back intotoday's episode, I want to take
a moment and reach out and ask asmall favor.
That would go a long way insupporting the show.
If you've been loving thecontent I'm providing, please
(32:15):
take a moment to leave a ratingand review.
Wherever you listen to yourpodcast, not only does it make
my day, but it also plays apivotal role in helping the show
grow.
Your reviews boost myvisibility, attract new
listeners and encourage excitingguests to join me on the mic.
So if you want to be part of myshow's growth journey, hit that
(32:38):
review button and let me knowwhat you think.
Thanks a million for beingawesome listeners.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
This is a perfect proof point.
I said we don't have enoughtraining resources to train it
to 41 different ways if we'regoing to be a national company.
And that kind of light bulbopened the door to saying there
is, there is something here thatis beneficial for the greater
good.
And yeah, we ran with some ofthat.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I love that you uh do a lot of those exercises to
letting them work through ittogether and try to communicate
it, but I love that you showedthem.
You didn't just tell them whatthe needs were, but you showed
them and let them work throughit.
That was just that's incredible.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
How do you bring them along?
Right yeah, you just got tobring them along and we learn a
lot from them.
They learn a lot about kind oftheir own operations through it
as well.
Like, do you know your businesswell enough to change it?
And a lot of people don't,actually, and I'm a big
(33:43):
proponent of know your businessinside and out, so when you
start to see something working,you can attribute it to why, and
when something's not working,you have that depth of
understanding to react to it anddo something about it.
But when you surface level knowyour business, you don't.
(34:04):
You don't, you don't know itwell enough.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
You'll make mistakes.
It's so I just wrote that down.
Do you know your business wellenough to change it?
I think there's so muchuncertainty right now in in the
world and what's going on andwe've been talking a lot about
that with clients and coachesand and restaurant consultants
of do what do you?
What do you know that's workingin your business?
Like I done it.
If you don't have it identified, identify it right now so you
(34:28):
can just double down on that.
You know, make sure yourexperience is top notch right
now, make sure you're nurturingyour guests as much as you
possibly can, and then figureout what's not working and
figure out if you need to letthat part of your business go or
if now is the time to invest init.
That's so important, love, thatyou brought that up.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I remember a time it's a little bit of a different
thing, but it's relevant forrestaurants.
I remember when I was at withEinstein's and Einstein Brother
Bagel.
So most of their businesshappens before 10 AM.
The breakfast concept Okay, sothat's really where where we
make the money and serve theguests right Is in the morning.
(35:08):
Well, morning before COVIDespecially, people were really
sensitive to how long it wouldtake to get their morning
breakfast.
They're usually on route totheir work.
It can't be late.
They have dropped the kids offat a certain time.
They needed to havepredictability about how long it
would take to get a bagel and acoffee.
(35:31):
So we were tracking guestservice time.
How long does it take, how muchof the wait in line, whether
it's the drive through or theycome in, what is that dwell time
throughout the process?
How long do they wait after theorder is placed?
When do they get there?
When do they pay, when do theyleave?
And so these time studies holdus a lot, knowing that we're in
(35:53):
a time sensitive part of the day.
Most people don't have as muchof a concern at the end of the
day, but they're very timesensitive in the morning, right.
So we did a time study, andwhat we noticed was years and
years of technical debt hadshown up on the POS system, the
point of sale system, and so ourbaristas and our um, our, our
(36:17):
employee team members would haveto sort through pages of the
POS that weren't relevant.
Oh time offerings, uh, uh,ingredients that we don't have
anymore, combos that we didn'thave anymore, and I remember
going through the experiencewith them because we did
side-by-side studies with themand it was like, hey, order this
, and so you're, you're on theclock, right.
(36:37):
You're like, okay, I have to dothis as fast as possible, but I
have to make sure I don't hitthis button, because if I hit
this button, the whole POSsystem just blows up.
It just stops working.
We had to reset it, you know.
So our first ask of the IT teamwas clean it up, simply just
clean it up.
And we did.
We asked all of our generalmanagers, you know over 1100 GMs
(37:00):
.
We said what is the one thingyou need from corporate?
They said clean up the POS.
Wow, okay.
So we did.
Well, we took like minutes offof the guest check time simply
because our team could.
They only had the buttons thatthey could push.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Yeah, I love it.
Wow, superb.
I feel that energy.
I was in breakfast for sevenyears and it and it was very
high volume and same thing.
Yeah, it's you make or breaksomebody's day and if you you
have to cancel their food order,they they won't come back.
You know it's awful.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
And the last thing I need is I need we cannot make
somebody late for their job,right, we cannot.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Yeah, yeah, I love that.
It's amazing.
It's the little things, right,I think there is.
It's all about.
I love how you're sointentional about creating
successful change in yourbusiness and it's about
empowering people and testingthings through.
You know, like you're doingthrough piloting, but rolling it
out and then constantlymonitoring it and getting
feedback.
I think there's there's a lotof times people put so much into
(38:01):
the rollout and then they kindof they're like, okay, we've
rolled it out and step away, andthen it's like no, no, no, no,
you've got to continue to have asystem in place to monitor that
Um, whether that's people or orautomation or whatever it is.
That's incredible.
So what, what are you mostproud of with this new role?
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Gosh.
I think it's just the amount ofchange the organization has
been able to go through withsuccessful results.
I mean, it's truly like payingoff, and when I say, how does it
pay off, a lot of people say,well, it's just padding your
pockets.
But no, no, no, no.
It allows us to make otherinvestments, okay.
(38:44):
So, as I was saying, it's funto see.
I think what I'm most proud ofis that I'm not a person who's
been
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