Latest / Choppin’ It Up by Bloomberg Intelligence / Ziosk’s Howard on Lifting Sales, Ops Via Digital

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Ziosk’s Howard on Lifting Sales, Ops Via Digital · Choppin’ It Up by Bloomberg Intelligence

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Chopping It Up. I'm your host, Mike Hanlon,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the senior Restaurant and Food Service Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Our research and that at bi's five hundred analysts around
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the globe can be found exclusively on the Bloomberg terminal.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: If you enjoy the pod, I'd love it if you'd
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: leave us a review on Apple or Spotify. Today we're
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: joined by Raymond Howard, co founder and chief revenue and
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Growth officer of Xiosk. It's nice to meet you, Raymond.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Great to meet you, Mike, Thanks for having me.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Sure thing, man, So how did ziosk come to be?
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Oh? Man, I tell you. I'll give you this short version.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: There's certainly a much longer story. But you know, I'd
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: had a lot of passion about starting a business going
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: into graduate school back in the early two thousands, after
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: spending probably a decade in corporate America, and it went
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: back to SMU got my at that time, and around
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: two thousand and three, two thousand and five, and finished
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: up then and know it happened to meet a couple
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: of a couple of weather guys there and got to
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: know them and we had very similar interest just in
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: our desire to launch a business and were part of
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: a entrepreneurship class coincidentally, and this whole idea of being
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: able to pay at the table really birthed out of
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: that class. We took it on as a term project.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: We really launched the idea and try to come up
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: with something different and unique around solving a problem in
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: the industry that everybody has. We certainly experienced it as
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: professionals in corporate America who were constantly traveling impatiently trying
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: to get out of restaurants like a lot of consumers today.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: And really the whole idea of being able to pay
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: at the table, or what we think about is paying
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: on demand, really launched out of an NBA class, and
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: we really incubated the idea for the better part of
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: a year year and a half, worked on nights and
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: the weekend, sort of a year after graduating over the
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: NBA and went back and I looked around town at
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Dallas and in other places for funding and you know,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: lo and behold. Our professor at that time was a
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: guy by the name of Jack Bam who was a
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: serio entrepreneur had previously bought a concept called Kozamels from
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Brinker International and had launched and sold another restaurant brand,
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: and so we ended up partner with him and we
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: all launched the business together back in the you know,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: late two thousands and sort of the rest is history.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a cool backstory, man. I'm sure the products
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: evolved a lot over the last decade, especially post pandemic.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: It has, you know, the pandemic I think was a
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: marker for the industry. It was a marker for us.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: You know, we had we had focused a lot in
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: the early days around operational efficiency, really solving the pain
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: of giving consumers more convenience and control the experience, and
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: there was so much happening, you know, more broadly in
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: the industry in retail and other places around self service,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: and we were really trying to find a way of
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: just eliminating those friction points in the dining experience, particularly
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: around casual dining. But you know, as time has gone by,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: we really expanded the platform to really just a full
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: comprehensive Sweetest Solutions to address a lot of the pain
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: points and inefficiencies and the restaurant you know, not just
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: in casual dining, but today even beyond and to find dining,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: polished casual, and a number of places and really tackling
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: the the a lot of different digital touch points with
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: a consumer. And so even though it really started as
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: a payment on demand being the killer app, it's really
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: evolved there to become now a self service sort of
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: application for merchants to be able to digitally create and
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: change content, to make it more of a dynamic interaction
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: with their guests, to be able to drive and influence
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: you know, purchase behavior. Obviously we've extended that to include
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: you know, a lot of the things around loyalty. We
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: obviously do a great job of collecting guest insights and
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: data if you've seen some of the things that you know,
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: other publicly traded companies out back and others are talking
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: about in the industry today. So we collect you know,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: survey data from probably forty five percent of the guest
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: of the ninety percent now that are actually paying at
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: the table. And so certainly the adoption since we launch
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: the business has dramatically changed, and covid has done a
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: lot to really create more of that self service environment.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: And you know, one of the business levers and I
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: think business drivers have changed for a lot of the
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: brands over time, and certainly our focus is continuing to evolve.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: The killer app still becomes pay at the table, and
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: that's really a lot at the driver of the of
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: the platform.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Interesting the survey data is that are those your proprietary
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: surveys or do you have a third party that integrates
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: into your software.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's our survey platform, Mike, and oftentimes that's modeled
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: after what the brand is really looking to learn from
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: the restaurant. You know, there's somewhat handicapped today in that
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: most brands will only get thirty or forty responses per
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: restaurant per month. We, on the other hand, you know,
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: after going through a deployment, will will give them a
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: thousand plus and so now you start to change the
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: dynamic of the types of questions that you can ask.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: And some of our customers will have one hundred and
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: fifty questions and their bank but you know, any given
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: customer may only answer seven. And I think part of
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: that is because it's guest facing, it's real time, it's dynamic.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: We know exactly what's on the check. We can make
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: real time decisions about what we want to ask consumers
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: in the mother So when you think about brands that
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: are going through a brand transformation and they're trying to
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: re engineer a menu, and you want to get specific
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: data on an item that they're launching today, but you
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: want to have insights into that in three days, not
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: in two or three weeks. That's the kind of scale
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: that we can bring to your data and your insights.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Are any of your clients able to react fast enough
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: to those surveys to do kind of customer recovery?
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's a great question. You know, today we're
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: not signaling to the brands in all cases. I will
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: say some brands are taking advantage of that where we
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: can message someone in the restaurant when we see a
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: one or two or low score. You can recover those.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: You know, different brands, like I said, are leveraging the
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: platform in different ways. So it really just depends on
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: how they've implemented. There's a lot of flexibility there to
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: unlock value where brands want to take advantage of that.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's cool. It's a great opportunity. How much faster
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: are your clients earning their tables?
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: You know, it ranges. We I would say on the
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: low end, we're definitely seeing five minutes plus, and a
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: number of our brands have been very public about that,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: you know, I think out back most recently, you know,
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: mentioned five minutes. We've historically seen you know, upwards of
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: seven minutes from some of even our customers that went
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: on the platform in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen. Dard was
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: one of those that was public about some of the
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: early results. And in some cases we've seen nine minutes.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: And so it kind of depends on the profile of
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: the customer and how they operate today as to how
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: much of the inefficiencies we can take out of the process.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: But for us, you know, that's always a win. You know,
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: with some of our more recent products, with the handheld
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: devices that were dropping off at the table as opposed
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: to the tabletop devices that sit on the table, you know,
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: because it's not on demand, you're still waiting on an
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: employee or server to drop that device off. Your GENA
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: typically see a few minutes us, but it's still, you know,
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: for a lot of brands, very meaningful impact to operational efficiency.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: And those drop off as that more geared towards.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Some of the fine dining, it is, yes, you know,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: are you know, we're finding some fine dining brands like
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: the notion of having servers have tablets they can use
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: for ordering, But in many cases they don't want to
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: lose the hospitality and that fine dining feel of the
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: eye contact and so they but they still want to
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: have a digital payment experience where they can then still
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: get data and still be able to capture sort of
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: payment in the moment when the guest is ready to leave.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: And so you know, you're still going to see an
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: impact there, just not to the extent that you would
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: with a device on the table.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Interesting, uh, and I'd imagine tips and guest satisfaction gets
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: a boost.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Tips, Yes, So we certainly see a tip tip increase
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: in the brands that we're in. The guest satisfaction you know,
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: my well, I would tell you since COVID has probably
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: been an even bigger dynamic because the labor constraints and
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: even I think the talent pool has been, you know,
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: in a much more challenging place for most brands, and
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: so in you know, in a pre COVID scenario where
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: we were very much playing a role in labor savings,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: and obviously we continue to see wages increase in certain
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: places today, we're becoming more and more I would say,
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: not an ancillary part of the dining experience has shifted
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: more into a necessary part of the dining experience, because
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: brands know that they need to be able to improve
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: the guest satisfaction because that's a future indicator of sales.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: And we've proven time and time again that attentiveness improves,
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: you know, server attentiveness improves, your overall dining experience improves,
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: and so we're no, we're making an impact on guest satisfaction.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: And you kind of touched on this, but are many
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: of your customers eliminating servers after installing their CIS tablets?
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: You know, it varies by brand and certainly by geography. Frankly,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: so if you're really focused on let's say the West Coast,
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: you know, we now have brands on the platform that
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: are very deliberate about having a tablet in the hand
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: of the server that's specifically focused on ordering and moving,
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: and really that frees them up to really focus on
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: hospitality and what I would say are high value engagements
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: with the guest where they're building relationship and they're building
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: check But then they've separated the things that are more
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: transactional that the guests quite frankly, are more than happy
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: and prefer just to do themselves at scale, which is
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: around payment, loyalty survey, ordering another round of drinks. And
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: so we're seeing more and more in high labor markets
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: that those processes are being bifurcated. Now a low labor markets,
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: you still have some states that are two fifteen, you know,
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: three dollars an hour. Most of those brands we see
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: are leaning more toward one of the other solution, and
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: obviously high favorability toward tabletop because of the you know,
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: the business model of the ROI that we can provide.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: So it really depends by geography and by brand.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: I'd imagine there's some upsell opportunities too, right, I'd imagine,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: you know, drink sales would probably increase, right.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, yes, And you know, it's part of the beauty
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: of bringing digital to the table as opposed to some
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: of the more static things that are historically been in dining,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: which are bar books or table tents, you know, in
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: some respects, then the fact that we're now bringing a
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: self service content management platform to marketers is a dream
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: for them because now they can not just take static images,
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: they can create video that helps to create a compelling
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: story in a very enticing, appetitive pill for drinks or
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: appetizers or desserts. And it's not just about delivering it.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: It's about delivering with the right message at the right time.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: So breakfast you may have, you know, one specific promotion.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Lunch and dinner you may have different promotions. Happy hours
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: you may have different promotions. But even beyond just the
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: day part, we can get granular even during that forty
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: or fifty minute experience, so that you're only really focused
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: on seeing desserts during the latter thirty minutes of the experience.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: And so now we're getting very specific about what we're
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: trying to drive to create impulse purchase and stimulate sales
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: during that fifty minute experience. And so, you know, the
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: CMO of Miller's Hell House, you know, was recently talking
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: about that and some of the recent press release, and
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: you know, those kind of things are game changers for
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: a marketer when you can give them that kind of
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: latitude down to a day part or down to a
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: restaurant to make it very specific. And I think that's
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: just the beginning when you start thinking about personalization and
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: the journey to personalization, which everybody's on today. How do
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: you now start to think about marketing to certain types
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: of personas and individuals as opposed to everybody universally just
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: inside the full walls of an individual restaurant. And so
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: that's kind of the journey that we're on.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Very cool, and it sounds like you've touched on some
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: of them. But how does the differentiate itself in an
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: increasingly crowded restaurant tech space.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: It's you know, it's interesting. We are we're highly differentiated
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: than what we do. Certainly, you know, from the idea
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: of being guest facing technology that's always available. We're very
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: differentiated from mobile. You know. I heard it said once
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: when we started the business from a CEO of a
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: very large, publicly traded brand. You said, you know, when
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: it comes to digital, I would rather control the brand
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: experience at the table then relegate it to the consumer
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: to control and opt in on their mobile phone, because
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: we'll never win that battle. And I think he's right,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: and so I think the screen at the table and
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: on the table really does a great job of engaging
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: the consumer and certainly allow them to opt in in
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: the way that's meaningful for them. But it gives brand
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: the brand the tools to be able to deliver the
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: right message at the right time to the consumers in
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: such a way that they can control that brand message.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: So that's highly differentiated, you know, I would say the
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: other thing is we're very much agnostic to partners. You know,
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: we're not the point of cell system, but we partner
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: with all the point of cell systems. We partner with
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: processors in gateways and loyalty platforms, and so we're not
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: trying to walk into a brand today and change their
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: whole tech stack. We're trying to approach them in a
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: way that's very frictionless and easy just to plug into
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: their existing tech stack to minimize the amount of disruption
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: that they're to incur to be able to opt to
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: a platform like ours that's smart.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Pos changes cause a lot of disruption, so I know
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: restaurant tours try to avoid it at all costs.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: It's it's a big lift, you know, as you know,
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: and some brands depend on you know who they are,
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: you know, they oftentimes can view those types of platforms
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: as an expense. And I think what's interesting about our
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: platform is, you know, we can demonstrate that we can
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: drive sales, that we can improve operational efficiencies, we can
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: give you a great guest experience, we can deliver a
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: feedback and a scalable way that you just can't get
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: at any other place. But we're also a revenue producing platform,
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: and that we create opportunities to drive revenue through our
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: own entertainment offerings, and that becomes a revenue that we
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: then share back with the brands to subsidize the platform cost,
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: to lower the hurdle for them on an ongoing basis.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: And so it makes a very very partnership discussion, which
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: we always view ourselves as a partner to our you know,
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: our to our customer, to our customers and to the
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: restaurant merchants as opposed to having a vendor vendor conversation.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: What are the biggest revenue growth opportunities this year and next.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we've you know, we've been very focused, Michael historically,
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: which is probably a typical for startup frankly, on a
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: lot of enterprise brands. And today I think we've got
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: six of the top ten already on the platform, and
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: obviously you know a number of those will continue to
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: add over the next twelve to twenty four months, and
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: so there's still a lot of enterprise growth for us.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: You know, we have continued to expand our offerings into
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: fine dining, polish casual, you know, not just focused then
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: on one sector of casual dying, but expanding into adjacent
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: markets so that that will be that will create new
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: opportunities for us. We're obviously have a huge focus on
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: you know, middle market small business, and so that's creating
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: a lot of opportunity for us for growth as well
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: and hasn't been a huge focus for us historically, but certainly,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: you know, we think that we can improve the operational
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: efficiency for all restaurants, regardless of size, and so we're
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: absolutely doubling down on and being very focused about that growth.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: And then I think, you know, just beyond the tabletop
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: and the dining room, we've got handheld solutions now to
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: really position ourselves to be able to take and improve
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: the experience of guests and the team member behind the
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: bar for curbside and so really trying to address all
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: the friction points around payment, loyalty survey regardless of where
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: you are in the front of the house. And so
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: it's really a comprehensive suite of front of house those solutions,
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: and so that's that's happening in real time. There's a
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: lot that we're working on relative to AI, tokenization and personalization.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: You know, there is a lot of interest and we
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: constantly hear feedback from brand saying, how can you help
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: us get more data? How can we understand more about
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: who our guests are? And so we have historically focused
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: on enabling and enhancing I would say, the loyalty members
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: for a brand, which is typically twenty five percent of
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: their guest, Well, what about the other seventy five percent
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: that you don't know who they are? And so now
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: we're very focused on helping them establish a digital relationship
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: with the other seventy five percent because we think that's
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: the growth engine for traffic going forward. And how because
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: we're sitting in front of the guest, can we help
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: you unlock and understand and build profiles around who those
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: consumers are to enable those brands to be able to
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: target and drive personalized offers to them.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Operations and market a great place to play. Man, it's
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: two of the most important things in the restaurant space.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: And you're seeing a lot of chains that have struggled
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: over the last decade or so really focus on those
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: two to turn things around.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they really have. And you know, I would say
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: probably the big one of the big stories of that
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: recently obviously is Chili's and they've done a tremendous job
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: really marketing and getting people into the restaurant. But you know,
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: I think even they would say, marketing's job is to
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: get them to the restaurant, but then you have to
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: satisfy them and deliver on the promise when they get there,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: to make sure they come back. And that's really where
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: operations comes in. And I would say what's interesting about
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: our position is we're really catering to both of those.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: We're really trying to help them improve the experience of
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: the consumer while they're there, but we're also trying to
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: help marketing understand who their consumers are so they can
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: help get them back more often.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Good stuff and certainty was a term commonly heard on
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: first quarter earning calls. Have Chains pulled back on their
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: tech investments this year?
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, I won't speak for everyone, I will
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: tell you it hasn't been pulled back from our point
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: of view. You know, this has been a year of
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: tremendous growth for US as was last year, and I
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: think from where we're sitting even looking at to next year,
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: you know, we're looking at a very promising you know,
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: next twelve to twenty four months. So you know, I
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: think relative to you know, some types of technology that
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: are less proven, I just think they're having to be
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: very prescriptive and a bit more decisive to know exactly
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: where they're going to make the investments to know they're
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: getting the returns. But you know, for platform like hours
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: that you know, we've got lots of proof points out
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: there now, and lots of brands like Texas Roadhouse and
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: Miller's l House and Chili's and you know, probably four
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: Garden's brands out there today, and we've got a lot
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: that we can point to where you know, many that
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: those brands are performing well. And I think many of
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: the brands that are in a more challenging situation or
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: looking to them and saying, boy, what are we doing different?
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: How are they moving forward and getting ahead? And so
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: I think it's creating an opportunity for us, frankly, but
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: I can't speak for I can't say that for everyone or.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Your biggest competitors, both for your hospitality platform and more
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: generally for restaurant CAPEX dollars.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you know, the POS business obviously is
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: a big investment for brands, and naturally that creates both
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: opportunity for the restaurants, but I think it just creates
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: a lot of change management when then they're building, and
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: so you know, oftentimes we find if they're going through
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: a POS transition, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're not
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: wanting to engage and leverage our platform. It just means
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: that they can only undergo so much change at any
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: given time, and so oftentimes it's as much about sequencing
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: and it doesn't mean not ever, It just probably means
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: not now, and so that ends up being a lot
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: of the conversations that we're having today. You know, there
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: was a point in time where I think we were
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: really evaluating where does mobile fit and where does QR
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: fit and some of those other technologies in a post
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: COVID environment. But I think where we are today, most
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: companies have sort of pulled back on QR strategies and
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: even APP strategies, because if you think about trying to
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: make an impact to your operation, it really comes down
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: to adoption and if you can't get adoption, then the
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: amount of impact you can have to your overall brand
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: and inside the four walls of the restaurant is minimized.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: And because we've been able to get to you know,
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: ninety and in some cases, you know, like Chile's most
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: recently ninety five percent plus adoption now delivering hospitality at scale,
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: and so that that's that's something we feel good about.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: That you know, was a big advantage for us. But
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: I would say typically it's as much sequencing around pos
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: and change management as anything.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: Okay, national force full service brands like Chili's, like we
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: just spoke about, are kind of making a comeback this year.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Chili's is skewing the data, you know, but Texas Roadhouse,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Cracker Barrel, Cheesecake Factory, they all outperformed QSR by a
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: sizable margin in the first quarter, you know, outside of
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: the easier sales comparisons. You know, what do you attribute
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: their better result?
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great question. You know. I think they've
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: done a very good job of executing inside of the
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: four walls and really coupled with marketing. I mean, if
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: you look at Texas Roadhouse, they're not as active in
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: their marketing. But they've been very consistent on delivering a
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: a value proposition over the years, and they continue, I
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: think to win with their guests and really knowing who
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: their guests are. And so, you know, I have a
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: lot of admiration for that group because they really deliver
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: on the promise that they communicate to their guests and
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: their value proposition, and I think they're well positioned to
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: continue to perform, for sure, you know. And in Chili's case,
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: you know, they've just they've put together a great plan
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: I think to really attract consumers, especially those that are
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: looking for value, and the value that they're providing is
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: really delivering on that. They've done a great job execution,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: I think, on that promise that they're making to their consumers,
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: and I think they'll continue to win.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, those two have been fun to follow, for sure.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: What trends are you watching most closely in restaurant technology
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: over the next two or three years?
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I think there's I think we're still early
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: days an AI. Obviously, you know, we're investing in it,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: we're leveraging AI. Uh, but there's so much innovation happening
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: in AI, and it'll be interesting to see what use
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: cases when I think we're living in an age right
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: now similar to almost what you did in the you know,
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: the dot com days. Everything was dot com and today
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: everybody's attaching AI to everything that they're doing. And so
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: I think it's going to come down to real world
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: use cases that can unlock real value out of the
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: insight that you can deliver. Yeah, I think where we're
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: positioned is really interesting because AI is almost a necessity
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: to consume all of the data that we can collect
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: on behalf of the restaurants at scale, and so you know,
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: it becomes a necessary ingredient to what we're doing. So
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: that's one of the reasons why we're super excited about it.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: But you know, we'll invest in that even beyond just
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: a lot of the survey data to drive some of
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: the insights. So AI's got a tremendous amount of potential opportunity.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: And I would say the other you know, we continue
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: to hear more and more about guest data profile. How
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: do I learn more about the consumers that are not
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: part of your standard pointspace loyalty platforms, and how do
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: I continue to build a picture in an understanding of
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: who those guests are so I can drive repeat traffic,
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: and so a lot of focus being placed on data
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: where it can help them drive consumer behavior and repeat visits.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: And what's your vision for a smart table experience maybe
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: five years down the road.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's that's always a fun one. Lots of
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: ideas there. You know, we we're thinking about AI in
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: a few different ways. You know, it's not just about
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: automating the experience. It's really about taking some of the
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: information that we can get out of the data at
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: scale and creating what we think about as human and
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: tell legence. So how can we make the servers smarter
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: about who's sitting at the table before they even approach
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: the table, and anything you can do there to make
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: guests feel like they are known and they're a regular,
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: even though they may not be a regular that goes
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: to a restaurant every single week, we think just adds
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: to the special occasion that they want to have in
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: the sense that they want to be known and understood.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: And we think that's got a tremendous amount of opportunity
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: where our platforms, whether it's handheld or tabletop, can all
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: communicate to create an ecosystem where the guest and the
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: team members are sharing information to create that kind of
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: dynamic inside of the restaurant.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that. Man. Everybody wants to go to
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: a place where you're treated like a regular.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: For sure. Absolutely, this is great.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Thanks for doing this, Raymond.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you so much for having us. Mike, you
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: got it.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: I want to also thank the audience for tuning in.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: If you'd like to learn more about Ziosco to ziosk
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: dot com, z I O s K, and if you
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: liked our discussion, please share with your friends and colleagues.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Check back soon for an interview with Mike Lukianoff, the
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: founder and CEO of Signal Flare AI