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Tech vs. Hospitality: Finding the Right Balance | The GrowthPro Edge · The GrowthPro Edge

• 0:00
  Speaker: Welcome to the Growth Pro Edge.
• 0:02
  Speaker: We're here to help scale your
• 0:04
  Speaker: business, build stronger teams
• 0:06
  Speaker: and sharpen your leadership
• 0:08
  Speaker: skills.
• 0:08
  Speaker: I'm your host Denise Killian
• 0:10
  Speaker: with the Growth Pro Group and
• 0:12
  Speaker: trainer Tainment.
• 0:13
  Speaker: Technology is everywhere in a
• 0:15
  Speaker: customer's journey, but is it
• 0:17
  Speaker: actually making the experience
• 0:18
  Speaker: better, or are we creating more
• 0:20
  Speaker: friction in the name of
• 0:22
  Speaker: convenience?
• 0:23
  Speaker: Today on the Growth Pro Edge, I'm talking with John Keys from
• 0:26
  Speaker: Center Edge about finding the right balance between technology
• 0:30
  Speaker: and hospitality, and why the little things can make a huge
• 0:34
  Speaker: difference, and empowering our teams to create experiences
• 0:38
  Speaker: technology simply can't replace.
• 0:41
  Speaker: Let's sharpen your edge.
• 0:46
  Speaker: John Keys, welcome to the Growth Pro Edge.
• 0:51
  Speaker: Hey, Denise, how are you today?
• 0:53
  Speaker: Ah, it's always a pleasure when I get to talk to you, John,
• 0:55
  Speaker: because one, you're just fun.
• 0:58
  Speaker: And two, you have such insight that you share with me.
• 1:02
  Speaker: And that's why I was excited to have you on to talk today about
• 1:08
  Speaker: that balance of customer service and what's good for the customer
• 1:14
  Speaker: and what's good for the company.
• 1:16
  Speaker: Yes.
• 1:16
  Speaker: And how those things can often collide.
• 1:20
  Speaker: Yes.
• 1:20
  Speaker: And there's sometimes they work together and sometimes you have
• 1:24
  Speaker: a little bit of, of your own friction of trying to figure out
• 1:26
  Speaker: how do you balance those.
• 1:28
  Speaker: That's right, that's right.
• 1:29
  Speaker: So John, to start us off, you are with Center Edge.
• 1:33
  Speaker: So tell us a little bit about
• 1:34
  Speaker: you and what you do there at
• 1:36
  Speaker: center edge and what center edge
• 1:37
  Speaker: is.
• 1:38
  Speaker: Well, center edge, we really try to put together a solution for
• 1:43
  Speaker: family entertainment centers, uh, beyond just point of sale
• 1:46
  Speaker: that we can do point of sale, we can do on everything online
• 1:49
  Speaker: through a web store.
• 1:51
  Speaker: We've got a cashless component.
• 1:52
  Speaker: We can track wavers, memberships, etc.. Uh, my role
• 1:56
  Speaker: is I am the sales director, uh, for center I have an amazing
• 2:01
  Speaker: team that has longevity ranging from five to twenty one years.
• 2:06
  Speaker: And really we started as an F a C operator.
• 2:11
  Speaker: And so I think our approach is
• 2:12
  Speaker: really from an operator
• 2:14
  Speaker: standpoint.
• 2:15
  Speaker: So technology is only a tool to
• 2:18
  Speaker: help solve problems or
• 2:20
  Speaker: challenges for for the
• 2:23
  Speaker: operation.
• 2:25
  Speaker: Excellent, excellent.
• 2:26
  Speaker: Okay, so we have talked about
• 2:29
  Speaker: this a few times about and, and,
• 2:32
  Speaker: you know, my theories on this
• 2:34
  Speaker: technology can be a wonderful
• 2:35
  Speaker: thing.
• 2:36
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 2:37
  Speaker: I love being able to walk into a store or a restaurant or getting
• 2:45
  Speaker: my hair cut and just whipping out my phone that's already
• 2:48
  Speaker: probably in my hand, tapping it.
• 2:50
  Speaker: Moving on.
• 2:51
  Speaker: I'm done.
• 2:52
  Speaker: That's lovely.
• 2:54
  Speaker: Yep.
• 2:55
  Speaker: If I have to get an app or fill
• 3:00
  Speaker: out a form that includes my
• 3:02
  Speaker: third grade teacher and blood
• 3:04
  Speaker: type, and it takes me eight
• 3:05
  Speaker: minutes or ten minutes or twelve
• 3:07
  Speaker: minutes.
• 3:08
  Speaker: Now I'm really frustrated and I'm done right.
• 3:11
  Speaker: So figuring out friction is a
• 3:16
  Speaker: word that is used a lot in the
• 3:17
  Speaker: consumer journey.
• 3:19
  Speaker: Yes.
• 3:19
  Speaker: That we want to eliminate friction and that technology can
• 3:22
  Speaker: help us do that.
• 3:24
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 3:24
  Speaker: But it can also create more friction, right.
• 3:27
  Speaker: Well, there's there's a balance.
• 3:29
  Speaker: You're trying to capture the information that is needed.
• 3:32
  Speaker: And let's say with a financial transaction, you have certain
• 3:35
  Speaker: required required fields.
• 3:37
  Speaker: But then also from a marketing standpoint, you're trying to
• 3:40
  Speaker: collect that information too.
• 3:43
  Speaker: But the challenge is, is whether you're standing in line and
• 3:47
  Speaker: having those question asked, or more importantly, when you're
• 3:50
  Speaker: trying to, let's say, sign up for a membership or sign up to
• 3:54
  Speaker: you want to buy tickets?
• 3:56
  Speaker: Well, do I need my third grade teacher's name?
• 3:59
  Speaker: No. Um, and it used to be from a
• 4:01
  Speaker: marketing standpoint, you wanted
• 4:02
  Speaker: your name, address, phone
• 4:04
  Speaker: number, address, everything
• 4:05
  Speaker: else.
• 4:06
  Speaker: And I think what's happening now is people are saying, what is
• 4:09
  Speaker: the minimum that we need to complete the transaction?
• 4:14
  Speaker: What do we need to, to
• 4:15
  Speaker: effectively manage to process
• 4:17
  Speaker: that transaction?
• 4:18
  Speaker: What can we capture?
• 4:19
  Speaker: And also what does, what is the customer willing to offer?
• 4:24
  Speaker: And if you think about it, if you've done stuff online, uh,
• 4:28
  Speaker: there's a lot of times I always like if I'm going to book a
• 4:30
  Speaker: party for my grandkids, uh, kids are grown up now.
• 4:33
  Speaker: I'm dealing with grandkids.
• 4:34
  Speaker: Um, is I want to be able to book
• 4:37
  Speaker: that party during the commercial
• 4:40
  Speaker: while I'm watching my favorite
• 4:42
  Speaker: TV show.
• 4:43
  Speaker: It should be that easy and that effortless.
• 4:45
  Speaker: And if you're not, you're going to see that drop rate where
• 4:48
  Speaker: people just say, I'm done.
• 4:49
  Speaker: I'll just, I'll call or I'll do it.
• 4:52
  Speaker: Otherwise, well, that you may
• 4:53
  Speaker: not end up calling that same
• 4:55
  Speaker: group.
• 4:56
  Speaker: Uh, so I think you really have to.
• 4:58
  Speaker: I think it's important for us,
• 5:00
  Speaker: not only in our industry, but
• 5:02
  Speaker: definitely in our industry and
• 5:03
  Speaker: others.
• 5:04
  Speaker: It's good to take your customer journey, your guest journey
• 5:08
  Speaker: often, and put yourselves in the, the, the feet of, of your
• 5:14
  Speaker: customer, of your guest.
• 5:16
  Speaker: And how is it from that entire guest experience from when they
• 5:20
  Speaker: walk in the door, as they go through, when they leave, or
• 5:23
  Speaker: even before they join or when they want to come back, how do
• 5:27
  Speaker: we make sure that that's easy?
• 5:29
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 5:30
  Speaker: And that's the, you know, that's
• 5:31
  Speaker: the, the thing I am the person
• 5:33
  Speaker: who, uh, back when you used to
• 5:36
  Speaker: go into stores all the time to
• 5:38
  Speaker: shop, uh, it would drive me
• 5:41
  Speaker: crazy of, uh, can we get your
• 5:43
  Speaker: address?
• 5:44
  Speaker: No, you may not.
• 5:44
  Speaker: Can we get your email?
• 5:45
  Speaker: No, you may not.
• 5:46
  Speaker: Can we get your zip code?
• 5:47
  Speaker: No, I just want to buy these jeans, man.
• 5:50
  Speaker: Right.
• 5:50
  Speaker: Like I know, right.
• 5:53
  Speaker: Like that's it.
• 5:54
  Speaker: Um, as a customer, it frustrates me.
• 5:57
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 5:58
  Speaker: As a business owner, I understand the importance of it.
• 6:02
  Speaker: I understand the importance of capturing that data so that I
• 6:06
  Speaker: can reach out to that person again so that I know what's my
• 6:09
  Speaker: reach, where's my spread?
• 6:11
  Speaker: Like I get I get both things.
• 6:13
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 6:14
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 6:15
  Speaker: Um, and both things are
• 6:16
  Speaker: important, but at what point
• 6:19
  Speaker: does it become all right, I'm
• 6:21
  Speaker: just not going to deal with
• 6:23
  Speaker: this.
• 6:24
  Speaker: I'm going to go someplace else
• 6:25
  Speaker: because there's fifty seven
• 6:26
  Speaker: other places that sell these
• 6:27
  Speaker: jeans, right?
• 6:30
  Speaker: Versus okay, I'm going to suck
• 6:32
  Speaker: it up and I'll do this thing
• 6:33
  Speaker: now.
• 6:34
  Speaker: Well, and the question is, is it's also timing.
• 6:37
  Speaker: Do you need all of that information at the very
• 6:39
  Speaker: beginning when you're first walking into the store?
• 6:43
  Speaker: Uh, how do we get it?
• 6:44
  Speaker: Again, we have to have that hospitality.
• 6:47
  Speaker: We have to have that, that.
• 6:49
  Speaker: How can I help you?
• 6:50
  Speaker: I'm.
• 6:50
  Speaker: Let me understand what you're looking for.
• 6:52
  Speaker: Oh, you're looking for jeans.
• 6:54
  Speaker: We've got a great selection of jeans.
• 6:55
  Speaker: Let's start on that.
• 6:57
  Speaker: Then you can ask the question.
• 6:59
  Speaker: Um, the funny timing, uh, Sherry, who's our, our head of
• 7:03
  Speaker: marketing, uh, she just did a blog that was talking about when
• 7:06
  Speaker: she and her husband went into a, an outdoor store.
• 7:10
  Speaker: And the first thing that the
• 7:11
  Speaker: person came up with was they
• 7:13
  Speaker: were asking questions about
• 7:14
  Speaker: signing up for a credit card
• 7:17
  Speaker: before you even talked about
• 7:19
  Speaker: anything with.
• 7:20
  Speaker: And so that got me thinking
• 7:23
  Speaker: about this idea of first
• 7:24
  Speaker: impressions.
• 7:26
  Speaker: Uh, if I mean, I grew up in
• 7:28
  Speaker: hospitality, I grew up working
• 7:29
  Speaker: in restaurants and, and all of
• 7:31
  Speaker: that.
• 7:32
  Speaker: And it was, uh, how do you, uh, greet a guest?
• 7:36
  Speaker: How do you make sure that in any
• 7:38
  Speaker: place, whether it's a store or
• 7:39
  Speaker: otherwise, how do you create
• 7:41
  Speaker: that experience where people go,
• 7:43
  Speaker: wow, that was an awesome
• 7:45
  Speaker: experience.
• 7:48
  Speaker: And, and, you know, you and I talked about this too.
• 7:50
  Speaker: Uh, I've read this book.
• 7:52
  Speaker: You, you and your sales team are in the process of reading.
• 7:55
  Speaker: You do a book a quarter, which I
• 7:57
  Speaker: love, and you guys are reading
• 7:59
  Speaker: Unreasonable Hospitality.
• 8:01
  Speaker: Yes.
• 8:02
  Speaker: Yes.
• 8:02
  Speaker: Which is a fantastic book.
• 8:05
  Speaker: It's a it's a, it's an amazing book.
• 8:07
  Speaker: And, and it's a lot of common
• 8:09
  Speaker: sense, but it also challenges,
• 8:12
  Speaker: it challenges you to think about
• 8:15
  Speaker: the difference between service
• 8:16
  Speaker: and hospitality.
• 8:18
  Speaker: Um, and this idea of services, I'm going to take care of that.
• 8:21
  Speaker: I'm going to make sure the food comes out on time.
• 8:23
  Speaker: Make sure the bill comes out in their hospitality.
• 8:26
  Speaker: What got what really caught my attention was this idea of how
• 8:30
  Speaker: do you create that experience that just wows people.
• 8:35
  Speaker: And I think they used an example
• 8:36
  Speaker: where there was a group that was
• 8:38
  Speaker: in New York and they were
• 8:39
  Speaker: touring New York, and they went
• 8:41
  Speaker: everything else that the only
• 8:42
  Speaker: thing that they didn't get to do
• 8:43
  Speaker: is go to this and get one of
• 8:45
  Speaker: these burgers from this famous
• 8:47
  Speaker: place.
• 8:48
  Speaker: And so what does what does the restaurant do?
• 8:52
  Speaker: They have the server go out, get the burger, Bring it back.
• 8:56
  Speaker: And then what I love is then they had to convince the chef to
• 9:00
  Speaker: take it out of the box and then put it in a presentation that
• 9:03
  Speaker: was was appropriate.
• 9:06
  Speaker: But it's little things like that that really, uh, capture,
• 9:12
  Speaker: capture your attention.
• 9:14
  Speaker: Um, I've got another one locally because I'm here in the
• 9:17
  Speaker: northwest and one of the big, um, tire stores is Les Schwab.
• 9:22
  Speaker: Uh, and Les Schwab had a, uh, basically a thing that the
• 9:28
  Speaker: people you would pull into the parking lot and they would run
• 9:31
  Speaker: to your car to greet you.
• 9:35
  Speaker: And that was just what they did.
• 9:37
  Speaker: And then if there was a, you had a flat tire.
• 9:39
  Speaker: And even if it wasn't, your tire wasn't their tire, they would
• 9:42
  Speaker: repair it at no cost.
• 9:44
  Speaker: And they just said, yeah, the next time you come in, just
• 9:46
  Speaker: think of me.
• 9:47
  Speaker: That's what I think about as far
• 9:49
  Speaker: as how can we as operators
• 9:53
  Speaker: create this Amazing experience
• 9:57
  Speaker: for guests who are already
• 9:58
  Speaker: coming in for some of the most
• 10:00
  Speaker: important experiences that they
• 10:01
  Speaker: want.
• 10:02
  Speaker: They've got a birthday party, they've got a celebration.
• 10:05
  Speaker: They've got a business meeting.
• 10:07
  Speaker: How can we and how can we empower our teams to be able to
• 10:12
  Speaker: say, think outside of the box?
• 10:15
  Speaker: Think about what you have to do.
• 10:17
  Speaker: Doesn't have to cost a lot of money.
• 10:18
  Speaker: It could be just a simple comment or a simple idea.
• 10:22
  Speaker: And that is something that can technology can never replace is
• 10:27
  Speaker: when you train your team and.
• 10:30
  Speaker: And that the expectation is if
• 10:33
  Speaker: you see somebody doing this,
• 10:35
  Speaker: rubbing their arms, you know,
• 10:37
  Speaker: maybe shivering a little bit,
• 10:40
  Speaker: pay attention.
• 10:41
  Speaker: Hey, I see that you're cold.
• 10:43
  Speaker: Let me see if I can get the AC turned down.
• 10:45
  Speaker: Or can I move you to a table that's not directly underneath
• 10:48
  Speaker: the fan or right that yes.
• 10:51
  Speaker: Of that paying attention and observing.
• 10:53
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 10:54
  Speaker: Listening to to what's going on at the table.
• 10:58
  Speaker: Um, or as they're walking through the store, right.
• 11:01
  Speaker: Or whatever the interaction may be.
• 11:04
  Speaker: Uh, technology can never replace that.
• 11:07
  Speaker: No, I think the only thing technology can do is it can help
• 11:10
  Speaker: automate the processes that you need to have in place to
• 11:13
  Speaker: effectively run your operation.
• 11:16
  Speaker: But it has to be transparent not only to the guests, but also to
• 11:19
  Speaker: your team, because I think it's important for your, the if
• 11:23
  Speaker: you're looking at, oh, I got to do this and I got to do this and
• 11:25
  Speaker: I got to move over here and I got to pull this from this
• 11:28
  Speaker: location and transfer it over here that they're so focused on
• 11:32
  Speaker: internal processes, they're not focused on the guest.
• 11:36
  Speaker: Oh that's excellent.
• 11:38
  Speaker: Okay.
• 11:38
  Speaker: I think I think you and, and that's part of that critical
• 11:42
  Speaker: nature that I mean, I encourage owners, I include managers, I
• 11:46
  Speaker: even include encourage staff.
• 11:48
  Speaker: I said, walk through your location as your customer.
• 11:52
  Speaker: Um, it's funny, I in doing this, I've been working in.
• 11:56
  Speaker: I've been working in technology
• 11:58
  Speaker: and hospitality for a long, long
• 12:01
  Speaker: time.
• 12:02
  Speaker: I'm not going to tell you how long, but I would years.
• 12:05
  Speaker: Thank God bless you.
• 12:07
  Speaker: Um, the I would take my family out to dinner and I would be,
• 12:12
  Speaker: we'd be looking at the receipt.
• 12:13
  Speaker: We'd look at, uh, the, the
• 12:15
  Speaker: restroom, we'd look at the
• 12:17
  Speaker: carpet and how everything was
• 12:18
  Speaker: presented.
• 12:19
  Speaker: And it was funny that they said, dad, you've kind of ruined it
• 12:22
  Speaker: for us because now we do the same when you go in.
• 12:26
  Speaker: But I think that's important that we train, especially our
• 12:30
  Speaker: younger team members, to have that critical approach.
• 12:34
  Speaker: What do you what's important to you?
• 12:36
  Speaker: What do you like?
• 12:37
  Speaker: How could we incorporate that in?
• 12:39
  Speaker: If you go to competitive locations, what are cool things
• 12:41
  Speaker: that you have?
• 12:42
  Speaker: I think that's empowering that you get people so that we come
• 12:46
  Speaker: up with new ideas.
• 12:49
  Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
• 12:50
  Speaker: And that's the.
• 12:53
  Speaker: We can As business owners, you
• 12:55
  Speaker: are so focused on, you know,
• 12:57
  Speaker: numbers and bottom line, which
• 12:59
  Speaker: is of course important and you
• 13:00
  Speaker: need to be paying attention to
• 13:02
  Speaker: that.
• 13:03
  Speaker: Absolutely.
• 13:03
  Speaker: I'm not saying don't worry about it, guys.
• 13:06
  Speaker: Uh, but we get lasered in on that.
• 13:10
  Speaker: Or when you go into your place
• 13:12
  Speaker: of business, whatever that place
• 13:15
  Speaker: may be, whether it is an FEC or
• 13:18
  Speaker: the grocery store or, you know,
• 13:20
  Speaker: if you're managing a grocery
• 13:21
  Speaker: store or a restaurant or even a
• 13:24
  Speaker: corporate coming in, walking in,
• 13:27
  Speaker: sitting down at your desk, kind
• 13:29
  Speaker: of a job, you forget about the
• 13:32
  Speaker: experience of the customer that
• 13:34
  Speaker: you're serving and, and, and
• 13:36
  Speaker: interacting with.
• 13:38
  Speaker: Right.
• 13:38
  Speaker: And when you do that, you overlook so many things like, oh
• 13:45
  Speaker: yeah, I know that that door, I have to twist it the other way
• 13:48
  Speaker: to get it to open.
• 13:49
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 13:50
  Speaker: Because I use that door every day.
• 13:51
  Speaker: Well, your customer doesn't and
• 13:53
  Speaker: they're going to be annoyed by
• 13:54
  Speaker: it, right?
• 13:55
  Speaker: Yes.
• 13:55
  Speaker: There's so many of those little things that that you don't think
• 14:00
  Speaker: much about because you deal with it every day.
• 14:02
  Speaker: Right.
• 14:02
  Speaker: So the customer is a big deal.
• 14:04
  Speaker: And when you stop looking at
• 14:06
  Speaker: things as the customer
• 14:07
  Speaker: experiences it.
• 14:09
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 14:10
  Speaker: Then I think those little things can add up quickly.
• 14:13
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 14:13
  Speaker: And create a situation where the
• 14:15
  Speaker: customer is not going to come
• 14:16
  Speaker: back.
• 14:16
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 14:17
  Speaker: Right.
• 14:17
  Speaker: And I think when talking about from a financial standpoint, the
• 14:21
  Speaker: having that excellent service will help, but also making sure
• 14:27
  Speaker: that you have a strong financial and all the right systems and
• 14:31
  Speaker: controls in place so that you are not so focused and worried
• 14:36
  Speaker: about trying to keep the doors open, that you can say, okay,
• 14:40
  Speaker: we've got the basics covered.
• 14:41
  Speaker: We've got what we need to do now.
• 14:43
  Speaker: How do we go to a next step?
• 14:44
  Speaker: And I would, I think as part of the book and as as part of the
• 14:48
  Speaker: process, this doesn't have to be a monumental process.
• 14:53
  Speaker: It could be a simple tweak.
• 14:56
  Speaker: It could be fixing that door.
• 14:59
  Speaker: Uh.
• 15:00
  Speaker: Right.
• 15:00
  Speaker: Or opening the door for a guest.
• 15:02
  Speaker: It's, it's all these different, different things that you can do
• 15:06
  Speaker: that if you come and take that, that approach and you encourage
• 15:10
  Speaker: your team to take that approach, you have a whole host of people
• 15:15
  Speaker: that are that value.
• 15:17
  Speaker: They want to keep their job, they want to do that.
• 15:19
  Speaker: And I think if you empower them
• 15:21
  Speaker: to do that, I think you get more
• 15:23
  Speaker: buy in because now I'm not just
• 15:24
  Speaker: working here.
• 15:25
  Speaker: Now, I feel like I'm, I'm part of the team.
• 15:29
  Speaker: I and that counts for the person who's maybe working at the front
• 15:33
  Speaker: counter or the checkout line to the manager or the team lead or
• 15:39
  Speaker: the shift supervisor, right.
• 15:41
  Speaker: I mean, it doesn't matter if
• 15:43
  Speaker: people feel like they have an
• 15:45
  Speaker: opportunity, like they
• 15:47
  Speaker: understand the purpose and the
• 15:49
  Speaker: why.
• 15:50
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 15:50
  Speaker: And that they have an opportunity to do something that
• 15:54
  Speaker: helps benefit that.
• 15:55
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 15:56
  Speaker: That they can have choices in.
• 15:59
  Speaker: Right.
• 15:59
  Speaker: That's it, that's it, that's it.
• 16:01
  Speaker: It's a simple thing where somebody, let's say, working in
• 16:03
  Speaker: the sales office sees that there's a guest at the front
• 16:06
  Speaker: desk and that somebody at the front desk had to go take care
• 16:09
  Speaker: of another guest, that they get up out of their chair, they're
• 16:11
  Speaker: walking by and they say, hey, just want to let you know.
• 16:15
  Speaker: Thank you so much for coming in.
• 16:16
  Speaker: Uh, Susie's just going to be finishing up.
• 16:19
  Speaker: She'll be right up.
• 16:20
  Speaker: Uh, can I get you anything?
• 16:22
  Speaker: It's that type of.
• 16:23
  Speaker: It's a very simple idea, but I think it's.
• 16:26
  Speaker: We don't always.
• 16:27
  Speaker: Not everyone gets that.
• 16:29
  Speaker: And I think that is part of a
• 16:30
  Speaker: thing that we can do through a
• 16:31
  Speaker: training program of just kind of
• 16:33
  Speaker: making sure that you kind of
• 16:35
  Speaker: look, be aware and don't have
• 16:37
  Speaker: tunnel vision.
• 16:39
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:39
  Speaker: And it's that tunnel vision that that owners get workers, get
• 16:43
  Speaker: customers get right.
• 16:46
  Speaker: I'm just coming in here because
• 16:47
  Speaker: I need this one thing and I'm
• 16:50
  Speaker: not paying attention to anything
• 16:51
  Speaker: else.
• 16:52
  Speaker: I just need this pen.
• 16:53
  Speaker: I got to get this pen to finish up my thing.
• 16:55
  Speaker: My, you know, my project or as a worker, it's like, oh, yeah,
• 16:59
  Speaker: I've got to get this done.
• 17:00
  Speaker: This is my one thing.
• 17:01
  Speaker: And you don't look up and see what's happening around you.
• 17:04
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 17:05
  Speaker: And there's, there's idea.
• 17:06
  Speaker: I look at like the idea with Walmart.
• 17:08
  Speaker: Why is milk and toilet paper always in the back of the store?
• 17:12
  Speaker: Because they want you to walk
• 17:13
  Speaker: through the entire store to get
• 17:15
  Speaker: those staples.
• 17:16
  Speaker: So that could be another piece
• 17:18
  Speaker: that you're looking at again,
• 17:19
  Speaker: how do you open up a guest, a
• 17:21
  Speaker: guest size, but do it in a way
• 17:23
  Speaker: that is not, uh, annoying is not
• 17:27
  Speaker: taxing.
• 17:27
  Speaker: Yeah, that comes back taxing friction.
• 17:30
  Speaker: Annoying.
• 17:31
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 17:31
  Speaker: Right.
• 17:32
  Speaker: I mean, um, and, and for me,
• 17:34
  Speaker: when we talk about the friction,
• 17:36
  Speaker: you know, coming back to kind of
• 17:38
  Speaker: how we started this
• 17:39
  Speaker: conversation, that friction
• 17:41
  Speaker: piece, um, everybody's
• 17:44
  Speaker: definition of what that is, is
• 17:46
  Speaker: different.
• 17:46
  Speaker: Yes.
• 17:48
  Speaker: And I think, you know, I am of an age where I get the
• 17:53
  Speaker: technology, I have it.
• 17:55
  Speaker: I'm comfortable with it somewhat.
• 17:58
  Speaker: You know, my parents, I any time
• 18:01
  Speaker: we go to a restaurant and
• 18:03
  Speaker: there's no menus and there's a
• 18:04
  Speaker: QR code.
• 18:06
  Speaker: I mean, my father just, you know, you hear the get off my
• 18:10
  Speaker: lawn rant about how horribly annoying that is.
• 18:16
  Speaker: You know, um, and, and even me,
• 18:19
  Speaker: I'm, you know, he's a boomer,
• 18:21
  Speaker: right?
• 18:21
  Speaker: I'm, I'm a Gen Xer.
• 18:23
  Speaker: I like to see a physical menu.
• 18:26
  Speaker: I do, I will do without complaint the QR code for the
• 18:30
  Speaker: menu on my phone.
• 18:31
  Speaker: Fine, but I would rather have a physical menu.
• 18:35
  Speaker: But like my niece and nephew, uh, who are twenty one and
• 18:39
  Speaker: seventeen, if you handed them a paper menu, they'd be like, what
• 18:43
  Speaker: are you doing?
• 18:44
  Speaker: You know?
• 18:44
  Speaker: Right, right.
• 18:45
  Speaker: What is this about?
• 18:47
  Speaker: Well, and I think if we look back again, why did we move
• 18:49
  Speaker: towards QR codes.
• 18:50
  Speaker: Why did we move to move to that?
• 18:52
  Speaker: That was part of a safety thing with Covid.
• 18:54
  Speaker: Covid, yeah, everything else.
• 18:56
  Speaker: But now you can still have that.
• 18:58
  Speaker: And I've been to some restaurants and now we talk
• 19:00
  Speaker: about taking that one little step is that you walk up and
• 19:03
  Speaker: say, hey, you know, if you want, uh, and you can joke with it,
• 19:07
  Speaker: you know, I, I have bad eyes.
• 19:09
  Speaker: I can't figure out my phone.
• 19:10
  Speaker: Uh, so we do have menus so you
• 19:12
  Speaker: can take that moment to so for
• 19:15
  Speaker: your dad, he gets a real
• 19:17
  Speaker: positive experience.
• 19:18
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 19:19
  Speaker: And a little bit of a joke
• 19:20
  Speaker: banter back and forth that comes
• 19:22
  Speaker: in.
• 19:22
  Speaker: Kids can look on that and they can.
• 19:24
  Speaker: Yeah, we know you don't need that.
• 19:25
  Speaker: You can probably like design this.
• 19:28
  Speaker: Correct?
• 19:29
  Speaker: Correct.
• 19:29
  Speaker: I think that is it's important
• 19:32
  Speaker: to look and that's a simple idea
• 19:34
  Speaker: around friction.
• 19:35
  Speaker: Uh, and, and so there's, there's the idea around friction with
• 19:41
  Speaker: systems or multiple systems or things that you come in, or it's
• 19:43
  Speaker: just friction that comes into, it's a process.
• 19:46
  Speaker: Well, we've always done it that way.
• 19:48
  Speaker: Well, why And can we can we change that?
• 19:52
  Speaker: Because let's look in terms of
• 19:54
  Speaker: efficiency, which could be cost
• 19:56
  Speaker: savings or that increase that
• 19:58
  Speaker: improves that guest experience,
• 19:59
  Speaker: which could be a revenue revenue
• 20:01
  Speaker: opportunity?
• 20:03
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 20:03
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 20:04
  Speaker: And, and I think that it's the balance, right?
• 20:08
  Speaker: Balancing technology and hospitality.
• 20:15
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 20:15
  Speaker: And again, you think about technology is simply a tool.
• 20:19
  Speaker: It's not a silver bullet.
• 20:21
  Speaker: Uh, I think it's important.
• 20:23
  Speaker: I mean, we've we've heard a lot
• 20:24
  Speaker: of people talking about AI and
• 20:25
  Speaker: how it's able to like, do coding
• 20:28
  Speaker: and do simple things and, and
• 20:30
  Speaker: you will never have to work
• 20:32
  Speaker: again.
• 20:32
  Speaker: I think it's, it's no different
• 20:34
  Speaker: than a calculator, a
• 20:36
  Speaker: spreadsheet.
• 20:36
  Speaker: It's kind of like garbage in, garbage out.
• 20:38
  Speaker: You have to take a critical look at it.
• 20:43
  Speaker: And especially when it comes comes into with hospitality, we
• 20:47
  Speaker: can't systemize it.
• 20:48
  Speaker: Hospitality is Hospitality for a reason.
• 20:51
  Speaker: Uh, I think we have to always continually think about how do
• 20:56
  Speaker: we get people to come to our location over competition and
• 21:00
  Speaker: even how do we get people to get come out of their house?
• 21:05
  Speaker: So if we're thinking about
• 21:05
  Speaker: family entertainment, there's so
• 21:07
  Speaker: many things.
• 21:08
  Speaker: I have a one hundred and seventy inch screen in my house.
• 21:12
  Speaker: I'm joking.
• 21:12
  Speaker: Um, you have a screen in the
• 21:15
  Speaker: house movie night at John's
• 21:16
  Speaker: house, everybody.
• 21:17
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 21:19
  Speaker: You have all of these points.
• 21:20
  Speaker: So how do you create this experience that they're that
• 21:24
  Speaker: they can't have at home?
• 21:27
  Speaker: Uh, and I think that's that important because how do we,
• 21:30
  Speaker: we're talking about, I think the industry is saying that, you
• 21:33
  Speaker: know, there's a lot of uncertainty going on.
• 21:35
  Speaker: Uh, we're saying that, uh, spending is down.
• 21:39
  Speaker: Uh, now, I've heard that individual spending is down, but
• 21:42
  Speaker: I've heard that groups group business is, is up.
• 21:45
  Speaker: Uh, and that could be just with parties, uh, because they're
• 21:49
  Speaker: they're going to do.
• 21:50
  Speaker: It depends on.
• 21:51
  Speaker: So what what I can tell you is that it depends.
• 21:53
  Speaker: Like you may have more number of
• 21:56
  Speaker: groups, more people are booking
• 21:58
  Speaker: the corporate event or the
• 22:01
  Speaker: family reunion or whatnot, but
• 22:04
  Speaker: the amount that they're spending
• 22:06
  Speaker: is down.
• 22:08
  Speaker: So like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 22:10
  Speaker: So I heard from a couple that were saying, you know, our
• 22:13
  Speaker: numbers are down, but our average spend has increased.
• 22:16
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 22:16
  Speaker: And I, and I said, well, what do you attribute that to?
• 22:19
  Speaker: And they said, well, the, the family may not be able to take
• 22:22
  Speaker: that trip to Disneyland or may not be able to go to the coast
• 22:25
  Speaker: for, for a week, but they can go to a local FEC and they can have
• 22:31
  Speaker: a great experience with rope climbing, ziplining and
• 22:34
  Speaker: Putt-Putt and all that stuff.
• 22:37
  Speaker: You create that experience.
• 22:39
  Speaker: And I think that's, that comes
• 22:41
  Speaker: back to also innovation, um, of
• 22:44
  Speaker: how can we, how do we capture,
• 22:46
  Speaker: uh, the most revenue that we can
• 22:49
  Speaker: in the in the month of August
• 22:51
  Speaker: before everybody goes back to
• 22:52
  Speaker: school.
• 22:53
  Speaker: How do we plan for back to school?
• 22:56
  Speaker: How do we how do we position ourselves and we can't do
• 22:59
  Speaker: monumental things in, in thirty days or in a week, but we can we
• 23:05
  Speaker: can we can do one little thing and one little thing could have
• 23:07
  Speaker: a huge, huge impact.
• 23:09
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 23:10
  Speaker: Absolutely.
• 23:11
  Speaker: Absolutely.
• 23:12
  Speaker: Uh, John, uh, we are coming up to the end of our time, which
• 23:16
  Speaker: breaks my heart.
• 23:17
  Speaker: I can talk to you for forever,
• 23:18
  Speaker: uh, and enjoy talking to you for
• 23:20
  Speaker: forever.
• 23:21
  Speaker: So, uh, a couple of quick questions before we leave.
• 23:24
  Speaker: Sure.
• 23:26
  Speaker: Uh, you are a incredibly well rounded person.
• 23:31
  Speaker: Okay.
• 23:32
  Speaker: You travel a lot.
• 23:33
  Speaker: You do a lot of speaking engagements.
• 23:35
  Speaker: You work for center edge.
• 23:37
  Speaker: Uh, you're also in not one, but two bands.
• 23:40
  Speaker: Come on.
• 23:42
  Speaker: What do you do to grow yourself?
• 23:48
  Speaker: So how do you grow either your
• 23:52
  Speaker: personal relationships, your
• 23:54
  Speaker: business, mind yourself as an
• 23:57
  Speaker: individual?
• 23:58
  Speaker: You know, what is it that you do to help keep you moving forward
• 24:03
  Speaker: and looking forward?
• 24:05
  Speaker: I guess always one of my approaches I've always had is I
• 24:09
  Speaker: always say that I'm always working and I'm always playing.
• 24:13
  Speaker: And so I'm always trying to look
• 24:15
  Speaker: and say, you know, look for what
• 24:18
  Speaker: can you get out of what you're
• 24:19
  Speaker: doing?
• 24:20
  Speaker: And, and what do you challenge yourself yourself to do?
• 24:24
  Speaker: So I like reading books,
• 24:26
  Speaker: listening to podcasts, I think
• 24:28
  Speaker: are great.
• 24:28
  Speaker: Um, I found that like audible has always been great for me
• 24:31
  Speaker: because again, when I'm out watering the plants or if I'm
• 24:34
  Speaker: taking a walk or I'm have a long drive listening to these books.
• 24:39
  Speaker: And that's what I did with, uh, unreasonable hospitality.
• 24:43
  Speaker: Also with the, the challenger sale was another one that I
• 24:46
  Speaker: thought was great.
• 24:46
  Speaker: I think the other one was crucial conversations.
• 24:49
  Speaker: Uh, yes they have.
• 24:51
  Speaker: That's I think I can't remember the speaker.
• 24:53
  Speaker: He was like an ex FBI negotiator
• 24:56
  Speaker: and he talked and he talked
• 24:58
  Speaker: about a family crisis that went
• 25:00
  Speaker: through.
• 25:01
  Speaker: And I'm, I think I'm a firm believer.
• 25:04
  Speaker: I love to, to, uh, tell stories
• 25:06
  Speaker: because I think that is
• 25:08
  Speaker: impactful.
• 25:08
  Speaker: People remember that.
• 25:10
  Speaker: So I, I try and keep myself busy.
• 25:13
  Speaker: Um, I think sometimes sleep is overrated.
• 25:16
  Speaker: Um, but I, I really try to take
• 25:19
  Speaker: an approach of saying, how can I
• 25:22
  Speaker: make the most of what, whatever,
• 25:24
  Speaker: uh, whatever environment that
• 25:26
  Speaker: I'm in and how can I challenge
• 25:28
  Speaker: myself maybe to read a little
• 25:30
  Speaker: bit more or when I don't quite
• 25:32
  Speaker: feel like I want to go work out
• 25:33
  Speaker: to say, you know, I can do a
• 25:36
  Speaker: good ten, ten to fifteen minute
• 25:38
  Speaker: workout.
• 25:38
  Speaker: I don't have to do two hours.
• 25:40
  Speaker: Yeah, I think it's, I think
• 25:42
  Speaker: that's where I try and challenge
• 25:44
  Speaker: myself to say, okay, How do I
• 25:47
  Speaker: move forward?
• 25:48
  Speaker: How do I make myself a little bit better each day?
• 25:51
  Speaker: Excellent.
• 25:52
  Speaker: I love it.
• 25:53
  Speaker: All right, John, tell us about what do you got going on there.
• 25:56
  Speaker: Well, again, it's been a great, great company.
• 26:00
  Speaker: I've been with them a little bit over a little bit over a year.
• 26:03
  Speaker: Um and had worked with them for, for years.
• 26:05
  Speaker: And so they're very, very well respected in the industry.
• 26:09
  Speaker: Love what they do.
• 26:10
  Speaker: Uh, we, as I mentioned at the
• 26:12
  Speaker: beginning, we're really try and
• 26:14
  Speaker: focus on all of the major
• 26:15
  Speaker: components that that a FSC needs
• 26:18
  Speaker: and how can we bring that under
• 26:20
  Speaker: one roof.
• 26:20
  Speaker: And so the latest that we have
• 26:22
  Speaker: is we've introduced center edge
• 26:23
  Speaker: play, uh, which is a cashless
• 26:26
  Speaker: solution that is tightly
• 26:28
  Speaker: integrated with the center edge
• 26:30
  Speaker: software.
• 26:31
  Speaker: So the goal is, is now we can create and we can eliminate some
• 26:34
  Speaker: of that friction for a guest.
• 26:37
  Speaker: So if somebody wants to, let's
• 26:38
  Speaker: say, purchase a package online,
• 26:41
  Speaker: they can purchase that, get it
• 26:42
  Speaker: for all, all their kids, they
• 26:44
  Speaker: can get the attractions, the
• 26:45
  Speaker: food and beverage, the game
• 26:46
  Speaker: card, etc. they can then walk
• 26:48
  Speaker: in.
• 26:48
  Speaker: They don't have to go to the front desk to check in.
• 26:51
  Speaker: They can scan their phone at the
• 26:53
  Speaker: kiosk and the wristbands print
• 26:55
  Speaker: out.
• 26:55
  Speaker: Uh, so it's, uh, we've been
• 26:58
  Speaker: involved in the industry and
• 26:59
  Speaker: have been working in cashless
• 27:00
  Speaker: for many years and worked with a
• 27:02
  Speaker: lot of a lot of other groups out
• 27:03
  Speaker: there.
• 27:03
  Speaker: But now we're able to bring all of that together and have have
• 27:07
  Speaker: had some really amazing, uh, installations since we released
• 27:12
  Speaker: it, uh, at Iapa.
• 27:14
  Speaker: Uh, and so we're really excited about it.
• 27:17
  Speaker: Um, it's, uh, it brings a lot together.
• 27:21
  Speaker: Uh, and that's, that's what we've heard from customers is
• 27:23
  Speaker: that they have one group.
• 27:25
  Speaker: They have to call for support.
• 27:27
  Speaker: They're able to do things that
• 27:28
  Speaker: they weren't able to do
• 27:29
  Speaker: together.
• 27:30
  Speaker: And it really kind of comes
• 27:31
  Speaker: around, how do we eliminate
• 27:32
  Speaker: friction?
• 27:33
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 27:34
  Speaker: Excellent, excellent.
• 27:36
  Speaker: All right.
• 27:36
  Speaker: How can people get Ahold of you, John?
• 27:38
  Speaker: Um, well you can't we are at
• 27:41
  Speaker: center edge software dot com or
• 27:44
  Speaker: they can uh, email me at j s k e
• 27:48
  Speaker: y s at center edge software dot
• 27:51
  Speaker: com.
• 27:52
  Speaker: And we also have, again, if you're on social media, uh,
• 27:55
  Speaker: we're on LinkedIn and Facebook, and I'm still trying to figure
• 27:59
  Speaker: out Instagram and some of the other ones, but my kids are
• 28:01
  Speaker: helping me with that.
• 28:03
  Speaker: Uh, I understand, I understand.
• 28:06
  Speaker: Isn't it bad when you reach that age where you're the one that
• 28:11
  Speaker: the young kids are going, oh, here, give me your phone.
• 28:13
  Speaker: Let me fix it for you.
• 28:14
  Speaker: Let me show you.
• 28:15
  Speaker: Let me do it.
• 28:16
  Speaker: Oh, I have my granddaughter.
• 28:17
  Speaker: It's papa.
• 28:18
  Speaker: No, no, Papa, give that to me.
• 28:20
  Speaker: Let me do it.
• 28:20
  Speaker: I was like, really?
• 28:21
  Speaker: I sell this stuff.
• 28:22
  Speaker: I should actually no. Yeah.
• 28:24
  Speaker: No, it's okay, I understand, I understand.
• 28:27
  Speaker: Uh, listen, John, as always,
• 28:29
  Speaker: it's a pleasure speaking with
• 28:30
  Speaker: you.
• 28:30
  Speaker: Thank you so much.
• 28:31
  Speaker: This is a lot to think on.
• 28:33
  Speaker: Uh, and a lot of things.
• 28:34
  Speaker: I think that that people can, if
• 28:35
  Speaker: they can just remember
• 28:37
  Speaker: technology is great, but it's
• 28:39
  Speaker: not the one hundred percent
• 28:41
  Speaker: solution, right?
• 28:42
  Speaker: Right.
• 28:42
  Speaker: And finding the balance between.
• 28:45
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 28:45
  Speaker: And one thing I'd say a
• 28:47
  Speaker: challenge for all of your
• 28:48
  Speaker: listeners is you have partners
• 28:51
  Speaker: that you work with, technology
• 28:53
  Speaker: partners, you have other
• 28:54
  Speaker: partners.
• 28:55
  Speaker: Challenge them, ask questions.
• 28:58
  Speaker: What can we do to improve this?
• 29:01
  Speaker: Or what new ideas do you have for this?
• 29:03
  Speaker: So I think as we're a small
• 29:06
  Speaker: industry, I think we need to
• 29:08
  Speaker: continue to work together to, to
• 29:10
  Speaker: help.
• 29:10
  Speaker: And I think sometimes we need to
• 29:12
  Speaker: ask as vendors, how can we help
• 29:14
  Speaker: you?
• 29:14
  Speaker: What are you working on?
• 29:15
  Speaker: But also ask customers, they should come in and say, here's a
• 29:19
  Speaker: challenge that we have.
• 29:20
  Speaker: How can you help us with that and be open to a new idea?
• 29:25
  Speaker: That's an excellent challenge, I love it.
• 29:28
  Speaker: I love it.
• 29:28
  Speaker: All right, John, as always, pleasure.
• 29:31
  Speaker: Thank you, my friend.
• 29:33
  Speaker: Thank you so much, Denise.
• 29:34
  Speaker: I really appreciate it.
• 29:37
  Speaker: Well, we hope today's
• 29:38
  Speaker: conversation has given you some
• 29:40
  Speaker: practical tools to help you
• 29:42
  Speaker: sharpen your edge and accelerate
• 29:44
  Speaker: your growth.
• 29:45
  Speaker: If you're ready to grow your
• 29:47
  Speaker: team, your business or yourself,
• 29:49
  Speaker: contact us at the Growth Pro
• 29:51
  Speaker: group dot com and set up a free
• 29:53
  Speaker: growth call with one of our
• 29:55
  Speaker: coaches.
• 29:56
  Speaker: Once again, a special thanks to
• 29:58
  Speaker: our sponsors, In-bed Party
• 30:00
  Speaker: Center Software in a global
• 30:02
  Speaker: Benson, Simcox, Schaefer and
• 30:05
  Speaker: Roller for all that they do to
• 30:07
  Speaker: help us bring you the Growth Pro
• 30:09
  Speaker: Edge.
• 30:10
  Speaker: And until next time, I'm Denise
• 30:12
  Speaker: Killian with the Growth Pro
• 30:14
  Speaker: Group.
• 30:15
  Speaker: Keep learning, keep growing and
• 30:17
  Speaker: keep striving for the
• 30:19
  Speaker: extraordinary.