Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast with Zack Oates

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Mike Bausch is the Owner of the 17-year-old Andolini's Pizzeria, which was recently voted one of the top 10 Pizzerias in the United States by Tripadvisor. He also wrote the book, "Unsliced: How To Stay Whole In The Pizzeria Industry", is the VP of World Pizza Champion Team, and is a successful public speaker! On this episode, Mike shared his expertise on the following topics: 

• Loyalty can be fortuitous or "death"
• The discipline of organization
• Defining why employees would want to work for you
• Guest experience
• Doing more of what's working

Thanks Mike!

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Warwick McLaren is the VP of Omnichannel Marketing at Global Franchise Group, which includes brands such as Round Table Pizza, Marble Slab Creamery, and Pretzelmaker. He oversees the development and execution of digital strategies across GFG's portfolio, and has learned a lot about digital customer engagement over throughout the pandemic. Lucky for us, he shared a few of his main takeaways from the last year about digital restaurants: 

• Frictionless digital customer experience
• Online ordering is still up despite restrictions loosening
• Meeting your customers where they are
• Getting comfortably uncomfortable

Thanks Warwick!

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Bill Stavrou is the founder of Foodhaul, a Chicago-based restaurant group that provides under-utilized kitchens with ghost concepts created by notable chefs. Bill's family business has been in operation for over 50 years, and he's now bringing his 30 years of hospitality experience to help restaurants with branding, staffing and costing! Here were a few of Bill's main points on this episode: 

• Leveraging under-utilized kitchen space
• Ghost kitchens are about stories
• Hospitality means love, even virtually
• The world has changed, so change with it

Thanks Bill!

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Alonso Castañeda is the VP of Brand Development and Strategy at Savory Restaurant Fund, a group that partners with small restaurant concepts and takes them to the next level. He has also run operations at Cafe Rio, Paradise Bakery Cafe, and is an all around great guy! 
Here are some of the main topics he discussed with host Zack Oates: 

• Customer expectations
• Digital systems of the future
• Collecting contact info
• Keeping customers on 1st party channels

Thanks Alonso! 

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To put it simply, Preston Junger is the real deal. He's the VP of Sales and the Head of US Operations at 7shifts, the practically ubiquitous employee scheduling software of the restaurant industry. His background includes VP at Yelp as well as great tenures at Yahoo, Expedia, and Apple. He's the co-founder of Mile Square Labs, a consulting group for high-growth tech companies, and was also named one of The Software Report's Top 25 Software Sales Executives of 2021. On this episode he and Zack discuss: 

• Collaboration
• Team Alignment
• Dynamic Roles
• Culture

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Alan Magee is the VP of Digital Marketing and Technology at Church's Chicken, a national chicken chain. He is also one of the Brand Innovators 40 under 40 and has led brand marketing at Moe's Southwest Grill and InterContinental Hotels Group.
Alan developed the digital marketing channel at Church's and through some small tweaks increased their mobile conversions by 25%! Find out how he did it in this episode. Thanks Alan!

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Kyle Inserra is a restaurant growth strategist, thought leader, and current advisor with Sabre Real Estate Advisors. He started his career in the corporate finance and advertising industry, but changed careers and found his passion in the restaurant business (like many do!) After attending the French Culinary Institute and cooking around the world, he opened his own restaurant in 2007 and is now the host of the National Restaurant Owners podcast.

On this episode he and Zack discuss: 

• Following your passion
• The fundamentals and not following every trend
• Ghost kitchens and online marketing
• Delivery
• More

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Edward Zimmerman has over 40 years in the food and hospitality industry and currently uses all of that experience as President of The Food Connector, a company that develops marketing plans for small to mid-size food manufacturers and distributors. He is also the former President of pizza.com, Successfoods Marketing, and has done business in all 50 states (yes, even North Dakota.) On this value-packed episode he explains the power of group purchasing and the benefits it can bring to restaurant owners. Thanks Edward!

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David Bloom is the Chief Development and Operating Officer at Capriotti's Sandwich Shop and Wing Zone, where he is focused on growing those brands to national names.  With 40+ robust years in the hospitality industry and experience at locations like Quiznos, Hurricane Grill and Wings, and Famous Brands International, David had amazing things to say on this episode! 
He and Zack discuss: 

• The process of growing a restaurant 
• Corporate alignment
• Restaurant technology
• The guest experience
• More

Thanks David! 

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Andrew Martino is the founder of Ghost Truck Kitchen, the world's first digital food truck lot. He's on year three of running the 12 concept concept out of his 800 square foot location, is the owner of Martino Hospitality Services, is starting a New Jersey co-op, and knew Zack in high school. What a guy!

There was a lot of great info on this episode, but here are a few of the main points: 

• Finding Gaps In The Market
• Minimizing Food Waste
• Co-ops
• 3rd Party DSP's 
• Owning Customer Data