Owner: Jeremy Julian
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
brands, data, cdp, customer, people, restaurant, create, bit, platforms, loyalty, talk, loyalty program, guests, loom, restaurant tours, day, drive, oat milk, years, kelly
SPEAKERS
Kellie (53%), Jeremy (46%), Intro (1%)
I
Intro
0:02
This is the restaurant technology guys podcast, helping you run your restaurant better.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
0:13
Welcome back to the restaurant technology guys podcast. We are joined today by a technology company and we’re joined by Kelly Zimmerman the CRO from bright loom. Kelly, why don’t you say hello to our audience on a little bit about yourself. And then we can talk a little bit about what bright loom does for for brands that are out there.
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
0:31
You bet. Hello, everybody. Happy New Year. Kelly’s Roman I am the president and acting CEO of bright loom. Bright loom is a customer data platform that really focuses on allowing marketers to get obtain and execute around data driven marketing strategies. We work with brands of all sizes, we started our mission to really bring brands and customers closer together. Several years ago, a lot of our founders and ideals come from restaurant tours, Chief Digital Officer CEOs of other brands that were very successful in developing not only loyalty programs, but also data driven digital strategies. So excited to share more today.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
1:17
I love it. I love it. I didn’t realize I was getting I thought you were the CRO. That’s what the note said no. Now I get to talk to the big boss.
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
1:26
It changes every day.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
1:27
Change that wow, hi, no, it’s I was having lunch. We just did a reorg after the first of the year, myself and I was having introduced myself on a call earlier on like, what is my title now? I don’t even remember. But so I actually introduced myself with the old title and then the new title right after that day. Interesting. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, and I think like with most companies, you know, we do what it takes to take care of people. So Kelly, the CDP is a word that’s kind of gotten thrown around quite a bit lately. But I do think that restaurant tours and Restaurant Brands have been, I don’t say underserved because but underserved from the the idea of CDP. But for those in an audience that don’t know what CDP means, can you define CDP and, and what that means? And then let’s talk about, you know, kind of kind of the what and the why. Because I think it’s a really, really powerful, powerful idea if, in fact, people can get implemented and get it to the place where you guys have gotten to?
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
2:24
Ya know, it’s a really good question, I actually like to refer to it even a little bit differently. In the sense, I think of it as customer data management, what is CDP really is defined as is taking in a bunch of customer data across things like point of sale systems, operational systems, marketing systems, bringing it together, and really helping brands create, I would say, a customer profile, a way in which they can recognize and understand their customers. In addition to that, you know, it’s allowing them to optimize, you know, as things change and evolve, you know, remove duplication in the data, you know, all the things that really cause bad data, the CDP is there to transform and ensure that it actually is good data, it Breitling we really think of it being more of a customer data management platform in the sense of have all this customer data, but how do we help manage it for the role of the marketer? The person who’s in charge of growing the business increasing? You know, let’s say the frequency, the loyalty of their customer base? How do we make that data really actionable? And quite frankly, interesting, right for the marketer in that position.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
3:34
Yeah, and I think, as I as I’ve done my own personal research on CDP, and just kind of this utopia of, of marketing, it’s always interesting to me, because restaurants are a unique element, because they’re not like ecommerce. They’re not even general retail, the transactions oftentimes are very quick. You’ve got to get in and out. Figuring out who your customer is, and understanding who they are is always been a challenge. And then tying them together in a platform that allows you to have actionable data is also really critical. Because I’ve I mean, I’ve asked the question, it’s like, Why does Amazon and Facebook and Google knows so much about me, because I give it to them. I give it to them all day long. But that doesn’t happen in the restaurant, nobody walks up to me and says, Hi, Jeremy. You make X amount of dollars, and you’re married to x, and you have X amount of children, and you live in this zip code. But Facebook has that information about me. Google has that information about me. Amazon has that information about me. Visa has that information about me, you know, Bank of America and chase and everybody else because I’ve given it to him. Talk to me a little bit about how, how and why you think that is and I guess where do you guys go to get that data? You know, I’ve joked with my kids even I, I have a very true story. I was some traveling with my son for a college visit over the summer. And he needed to turn in a homework assignment for summer school. And so he logged out of my Google account. and logged into his own Google account and then gave my laptop laptop back to me. And I freaked out. Because I got on my screen. And I’m like, This is not my laptop, like what happened because it totally changed. But I think it’s very different than than the way we experience restaurants talk to me a little bit about how CDP and how how do you guys capture that data? How do you capture who’s coming into the brand and understanding that because I do believe part of it is identifying who that guest is, so that you can appropriately talk with them the way that they need to be talked to?
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
5:28
Yeah, you know, it’s a really good, it’s a really good point. I mean, I always, on behalf of the restaurants we serve, I always study the retail space, right, I actually have some experience in my previous life in retail, because they’re way ahead of most restaurant tours, I think, you know, for restaurant tours, really, until the days and age of COVID. Right and creating a digital footprint for every customer. You know, they just didn’t have the ability to you know, people were buying their products online, most likely, right? They weren’t. And so they didn’t even they couldn’t even get to the data to even try and think about how do I use it? Right? It was all about how do I ensure they have a really good experience when they walk into my location? And they leave going, I want to come back tomorrow, maybe? Right? Today is totally different. And I think where, you know, loyalty programs are such a leading indicator as to where I think this is all gonna go CDP in mind, you know, how do you continue to focus on your most loyal customers, I mean, the thing I tell every brand, every time I can, every chance I can, is that the top 5% of your customer base is really driving your business.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
6:42
Yep. And you know, majority of your profit is the worst part. You know, not only that, not only the top line sales, but better than 80% of your profit comes from that top 20%. As you know, from the data,
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
6:53
right? And so, you know, a lot of restaurants go out by these big CDP’s. Right, but I’m like, but is it giving you the answers you really need? Do you know what those most loyal customers prefer? Do you know, merchandise? What locations they go into? Do you care? What do they care? Do you understand how they move the needle? You know, in your engagement? Do they like free things? Do they not? Do they like swag? You know, how do you really I would say surgically dissect certain segments of your customers to ensure that you’re really operating around them in a way that they prefer. And I think that’s when brands, especially in the restaurant space really do that? Well. You know, that’s when you see them really succeed. And, you know, the fan base for those relationships just grows. So we saw a great loom I know, you’d asked me about what data do we, you know, intersect with, we take point of sale system data marketing, and loyalty program data. So we, you know, interact with, you know, most of the common platforms out there today, to bring that data together and really create, you know, insights and segments based on the things that these that are brands and care about as it relates to their customers.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
8:10
Yeah, so talk to me a little bit more about that. Because I think that there’s I mean, even defining what a loyalty package is, because I think that that even loyalty, I don’t say has a bad name. There’s there’s different types of loyalty. And a Starbucks loyalty package is not going to look the same as a Ruth’s Chris loyalty package. Ruth’s Chris has a very different value proposition. I’m not going to Ruth’s Chris, every day, like I might at a Starbucks. And so Starbucks loyalty looks different than loyalty at a at a destination place that you’re going on your anniversary, or going on your birthday, or you’re going for a business dinner, talks about a little bit about how you guys define loyalty as a package, not necessarily loyalty as an idea.
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
8:51
Yeah, I love what you’re saying, because I’m completely there with you. I’ve even been in situations where I’ve questioned why brands that we’re working with have a loyalty program because for me, it just doesn’t make any sense. It’s very expensive. They’re giving away things to their most loyal customers that we’re going to come anyway, you know, why they’re just opening the app to see what the coupon is and then the registration and you’re just giving away free stuff. And so, I think of loyalty, you know, for every brand is going to be different to your point based on kind of the RFM analysis we tend to look at which is the recency frequency and monetization you know, so, whether you have a loyalty program or not, we like to dissect it kind of based on various tiers within that to know who your most loyal customers are. And then those who are progressing and then the program right might be giving away you know, offers or promotions or points. It might be giving them convenience factors, you know, like online ordering and mobile you know, for the more frequent you know, like coffee shops, etc. But then for sit down Right, that loyalty program may be more like a membership program, right? Where people are signing up for something that might give them a better seat when they come in or faster service or, you know, free bread with their with their meal. So, you know, we, through the data, right, really help brands understand what is the right strategy? If they’ve got one is it working what needs to change, if they don’t have one, like, let’s make sure you put the right strategy in place to optimize, you know, not only your profit, but the customer experience.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
10:36
Well, and Kelly, the one thing I’m going to, I’m going to go back to and I’ll talk a little bit about it is as COVID COVID has changed COVID change what people expect from her brand COVID has changed the way people interact with a brand COVID has changed even what consumers expectations are of brands. Talk to me a little bit about how, and I will say, you know, back to your point, I’m a member of Landry’s loyalty program, because I happen to have four children, and getting a table for six on a Friday night is a pain in the ass. It just there’s no two ways about it. And so why do I pay the 100 bucks to get part of their loyalty program, I get 75 bucks back. So it really only I get to the top of the waitlist, I don’t have to worry about going into one of their brands on a Friday night. It’s just the way it works. And I’m paying for that convenience. They now know who I am. And they know my frequency. They happen to be a client of ours, I happen to have gone into their user conference last year. And they were like, Oh, you haven’t been in lately. And I’m like, Yeah, you probably shouldn’t know that. But you do. Because at the end of the day back to the data. In that same vein, I think the way people interact with brands has changed. I think that understanding that that some people interact with your brand, because they’re they’re buying, you know, their pharmaceutical rep and they’re always buying food for the doctors that they’re bringing it into, or they’re they’re catering there. You know, there’s other people that only do take out there. So people talk to me a little bit about how you guys segment that data and understand how to educate restaurant tours, because even pre show we talked about data is great. But if it’s not actionable data that anybody can do anything with, none of it matters. Talk to me a little bit about that segmentation and helping brands and marketers understand those segments, because again, going back to retail, they know my wife is, you know, is a mother of four lives in a middle, you know, middle upper credit class neighborhood drives this kind of car. I mean, they know all of that stuff about us at Amazon, and Google. But restaurant tours oftentimes are in the dark, and they don’t understand how brands interact. Nor do they know how to segment their customers talk to me a little bit of how bright loom and just kind of CDP’s in general can help with that.
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
12:38
Yeah, it’s a good question. You know, I think I’ll answer one thing you said, which is, I think why, you know, there’s a big reason why brands haven’t done this as much as they should, it’s just they don’t have you know, to do this, well, you have to have, you know, a team of data scientists. And engineers, you have to be pretty savvy, right. And brands just don’t have that skill set, typically in house. So they should be leaning on providers, like a CDP or bright little to, to help them organize and canonicalize that data. I mean, we spent three years as a software company, right, developing ways in which we can develop these kind of fingerprint footprints right around data, to ensure that it can be rinsed, repeated and acted upon quickly. That’s it was, you know, it’s a pretty heavy load to ask any brand to take on themselves. And I would say the way we’ve really found it to be successful, because, you know, for one, the data changes, right, to your point. I mean, if you look at customers two years ago to today, most brands don’t look different, right? Even when you look at the data that brands had two years ago, versus now, you know, third party data, you know, still is not as accessible as we’d like it to be right. But there are ways which you can start to really unpack these customers, maybe that you don’t see coming through in your current data sets. So we you know, our process that we like to follow, you know, really is kind of what we call the digital flywheel, which is we bring in data, right, we help the brand set a baseline around the data. Once they’ve set the baseline, and have determined what strategies and things they’re thinking about what what needles do they want to move, what aha moments that they have, that they kind of want to test even and experiment with. Through that process, then they they create their strategy. They build segmentation right through our tool, the way they need it to the guardrails and kind of that implementation, if you will, of the strategy. And then they execute. And then what our models do is when the data comes back around, it assesses not only the performance, it adjusts, but then it really proactively tells the brand what to do the next time they go through this wheel. And at first we do it pretty hands on with brands, especially brands with a lot of data maybe don’t know Always as much as they would like to. So we really take a very hands on approach. The idea is eventually the wheel just runs and flies on its own. And a brand can kind of orchestrate and adjust and be really athletic as the as the data changes, or the segments just happen, right. But that takes, it takes a while right to get there. The thing that I think is always surprising, at least from our standpoint, is that you can get to that first step of understanding your data in weeks now, right, it used to be months or years, now it’s weeks. And so I sometimes don’t understand why brands at least just don’t take that one first step to assessing their current customer, trying to find the aha moments and then adjusting. And I’ll share a story with you, I think it’s a fascinating story, it’s one of my favorite, we were working with a pretty good sized coffee chain through this process. And one of their locations, they noticed they had a run on oat milk. I mean, they just couldn’t, they were for in, you know, our data set that’s proactively dishing up interesting insights based on how the data is changing, all of a sudden oatmeal became it just, I mean, it just jumped as far as as as revenue around that product. So they looked deeper, and they realized in certain regions, other competitors had run out of oat milk. And so they launched a massive marketing campaign in those regions around oat milk. And I mean, I think they still benefit from that, from that today, because they created, you know, a more loyal customer base, they brought them in, they gave them a great experience, they tailor their experience based on you know, their preference. And sure enough, so I think that’s a really good story. And had they not gone through that process, right? In organizing the data, assessing it, and then having these mechanisms that proactively communicate to them when something’s changing, you know, they probably wouldn’t gone on their merry way, and maybe would have seen, I wonder why that revenue went up, you know, a quarter later, just too late to react. So I think that’s a really good example of how it can work really, really well.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
17:11
Well, and I think that that mean, that one, I love that example. And I and but I’d love for you to give me another example on the opposite side. So let’s take a brand that might want to do an LTO or might want to do something that’s that’s unique to a value proposition where they they’re looking to get either new guests in, or, you know, looking to get another loyal patron. Talk to me about about what that looks like to try and say, My strategy is to drive X, you know, frequency, appetizer sales, liquor sales, what you name it, there’s a whole bunch of different brands, strategies, but like that one was awesome, because you’re able to get the data and able to make some business decisions and understand why something happened. But it doesn’t sound like there was an impetus from marketing or from loyalty from the CDP to go drive that they did make a business decision posthumously saying, Oh, the competitors are running out of oat milk. So let’s go capitalize on that. flip that around that says, I’m really looking to hit the Valentine’s Day holiday, which is coming up in a few weeks, or I’m looking to go hit Mother’s Day or you know, whatever, you name it, you’ve been around doing this for a while. Talk to me a little bit about I’m trying to drive some initiative that is out there with a supplier are out there with, you know, some product that we really want to turn over the next 6090 120 days, over the next six months talk to me a little bit about what that might look like if I were a brand, trying to drive some behavior from my guests on the flip side, and how I get attribution, because what I’ve heard for so many years is they, they’ll put an ad out there and they pray that people come in and interact with that brand. And you know, the old adage is, you know, 50% of the marketing works, we just don’t know what 50% You know, and so it’s like, but with data, you can know what 100% of where or high 90s of what percentage of it worked, if you’re doing it properly. Yeah.
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
18:59
You know, it’s, it’s a good question. And I think I’ll answer it by this example. I think often brands are often searching for the next cool thing, even as it relates to the holidays, right? Certainly, you know, it’s become a well known factor that you offer special things for the seasons, and they create a lot of great, you know, interest in probably revenue. But there’s also something to be said, Write about the standard things that people like and I think what we often see in our data, take a look just a latte as a very generic example or, you know, a taco. I think brands often try and focus on creating all these interesting, you know, new things around it, but sometimes the staple of which they offers the best thing they have. You can think of an example where a brand was really trying to, you know, find new products and create all this new An exciting momentum around new launches and all of those things. When we said your data saying you just need to focus on the one thing that you’re really good at. And when they did that, it actually changed their frequency pretty dramatically. You know, and so I think, you know, brands try and sometimes get too creative with the data. They’re trying to search for the, you know, the one AHA thing. And sometimes, the, the thing that you do really, really well is the best thing you can put out there, even if it’s a holiday message, right with the thing that you know, people really like. And
JJ
Jeremy Julian
20:42
I love that. So I have a very good friend of mine, who’s also in the restaurant business. And he will, he will say to me, when you think of a brand, if I say the word Olive Garden to you, if that’s a brand that you go to, I say the word Cheesecake Factory to you, or I say the word, I say the word Cheesecake Factory to you, I promise you, you think of two, maybe three menu items. And if you want that, then you consider going in, if you don’t want that, then you don’t go. So figure out what those two or three items are and advertise that market that create a reason to come have the Chinese chicken salad or the, you know, the avocado egg rolls or whatever those items are, because oftentimes, that’s what gets people into a place like cheesecake factory, or the Olive Garden or Red Lobster, or whatever it might be.
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
21:20
That’s right, that’s exactly right. So,
JJ
Jeremy Julian
21:23
so I’m gonna, I’m gonna pivot here on you just a little bit, there’s been a whole lot of chat about AI, machine learning, chat GPT, solving these problems, you know, I know that that you know, and I was talking to our CTO, actually, this week when we’re in our NRF. And I was like, why, why so much now versus what it used to be. And he would share a story with me, and I’d love to know what your thoughts are now and where that’s going in the future. But just, he would share with nieces, we built this logarithm about kitchen timing, and what’s causing the kitchen to have troubles with getting guests satisfied. Orders, what what’s dragging kitchen ticket times, and we loaded it up with like three years of data at a brand. You know, and we figured out that every time there was the miso salmon on this, or whatever it was, it caused problems to the order. And the order was was delayed. I said, he goes that took somebody 50 hours to build that, that logarithm to do that. Because 10 years ago, that would have taken somebody a year, or a team of three for a year. Talk to me a little bit about the acceleration of machine learning and AI and how it’s kind of helped with the CDP platforms to create suggestive things that used to take a data scientist days, if not weeks to go mill through the data to be able to help people with this, because it does end up coming down to how much data do I have? And how can I make that decision quicker? And then layering on top of that ideas like like this talk kind of a little bit about where that’s at and where that’s going, not just for bright lung but for the industry in general?
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
22:48
Yeah, you know, I’ll say the industry still struggles, right, with giving away access to data, there still are a lot of areas, right and in certain side of the business that still keep data pretty close to the rest of the world. And so we’re always trying to, to, to break through those barriers. But in general, I would say, you know, my own interpretation of wise, you know, speed and acceleration in this for one, there’s a lot more people that can have done it, right. We the industry just has more experience, and there are people on platforms now that have developed all of the mechanisms to make it easier. I’d also say that, you know, brands in order for them to genuinely scale, right, like, how can you scale across all this data right? Now machine learning? I mean, you can’t and so possible, it’s impossible. Exactly. And so, you know, even like it bright loom, some of our founders came from Amazon and Starbucks, right? Who developed some of the early I would say capabilities around this, you know, and then once partner with like us, Breitling, we can then accelerate all of that thinking and do it in a very, you know, easy and technical fashion. So I think data is still hard to get to I still I don’t think this industry has fully, you know, broken down all the barriers there. But I think the experience the expertise, and a lot of the thought leaders who were early on are now you know, developing a lot of really interesting things through platforms like bright loom that are making it a lot more accessible to brands.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
24:25
So I would say that, I 100% agree with you on the data front. We happen to run a point of sale company, and our philosophy has always been it’s the customer’s data to have and to exploit and to use for their own business purposes. But many of our competitors don’t think that. What do you think that the I mean, I guess what’s the reason behind that? Because I mean, we have our own philosophy. It’s on our website. It’s what we believe to our core that says you captured the data. We also own it, and we’re going to do what we want with it. But if you want it or need it, whether it be for your loyalty program for braid loom for your CDP, Eat, we believe that you should have access to it in an accessible way, as long as you’re not a bad actor, you’re doing it, you know, appropriately and following the guidelines of, you know, data privacy and whatnot. Why do you think the other struggle with that including the third party delivery companies, because they’re probably the worst of any of them. And, you know, while it’s a necessity, to have these third party companies, I just talked to a brand earlier this week, who says 60% of their sales are going out via third party delivery, that means 60% of their customers, they don’t have the level of data that they want or need, unless they get creative about the way they go about that. Is it because they want to compete with bright loom? Is it because they think that they’re gonna do something with it? Like, why? Why did they make it so hard to get to? What I believe is the customer’s data?
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
25:45
Yeah, I mean, I think they see it is it’s the value, right, that they continue to drive, which is we know your customer, right. And quite frankly, I think a lot of the third parties look at themselves as they do actually own the customer, right. And so we’ll tell you what you need to know. But you don’t need to worry about the customer. And they’ve got their own mechanisms and data science, right, trying to help brands drive activity through that that way. So competitors, maybe, right, but I honestly think it’s they see data as the king, and therefore it’s giving them an immense amount of value. I do see it changing though. You know, we’re actually working with square, you know, which is kind of a more downmarket POS, but we’re actually starting to get access to third party data through square. I know as the mechanism, we can actually start to identify, right, the customer. And if we have the access points to other pieces, we can kind of synergize that data together and start to create a profile. But I think third parties will change, I think, you know, we’re starting to see it a little bit and being a little bit more open around that. I’ll tell you outside of third party, what we’ve seen with platforms that aren’t as open is quite frankly, they built technology, right? That was 10 years ago, right? Some of them I truly believe they just don’t have the capability to and you need to evolve their infrastructure in order to make it more readily accessible. And they better hurry up, right? Because I see. I feel like in the last year, especially so many brands change platforms that they were working with because of it. Yep. And so they will die on the vine, I think if they don’t kind of get with the program and act more open and give access through things like API’s,
JJ
Jeremy Julian
27:41
ya know. And it’s interesting that you say that, because some again, our platform’s only been around for 10 years. But I would say that we started with that data first mentality that said, give people the ability to get to their data, because it is their data and allow them to exploit it to make better business decisions. Because collecting the data without good business decisions means nothing. We’ve talked about that for a whole conversation. And I do know that some people are not the best actors. The other piece that I think I think you shared, and I think it’s kind of interesting is that a lot of these technology companies, they want to get paid to get access to that data. And they want to create these firewalls in between them make it challenging. And to your point, marketing oftentimes runs a lot of the decisions that even it has to make within Restaurant Brands. And so they’re gonna lose out if they don’t figure out how to do it. I do applaud those that are trying to normalize, I know that the group HT is trying to figure out how to normalize the data spec. So that everybody’s, you know, playing on an equal playing field and saying, You know what, you got to do this, because the brands are going to expect it. So, tell me, I’m gonna flip topics here just for a little bit, because we’ve talked about the backend data and figuring out who the guests are. Talk to me a little bit about what you think the future of those engagements are, when a guest comes into a brand. You know, I’ve had these ideas of as, as, you know, scary as it might be, but it happens. They know whether it’s the beacon on your phone, or facial recognition through a camera, or through Facebook, check ins are through geo data, they know a lot more about who you are than you know, through the app that you’ve logged in with, they know where their geofencing you and when I pull into the parking lot at this brand that I have a loyalty app on my phone for it’s amazing how often I get a push notification that says come in. Talk to me a little bit about what that looks like. Because I think like what’s the benefit not just to a restaurant and to a CDP, but even to the consumer and why? Why do we need to educate the world that says you’re gonna get a better guest experience no different than I was belly aching about my son logging into his Google account and how his experience was different than mine. I think all too often. If you can get that digital cheers experience. When you go into a brand that it knows who you are and knows what you want, knows when you want it knows when you want to interact with that, it’s going to end up delivering a better guest experience. Talk to me a little bit about where do you think that’s at now? And where do you think it’s going?
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
30:07
Yeah, I think, you know, there’s a lot of really interesting innovations, right, that are coming out every day. It’s funny, because we actually have been approached by several companies that locate, you know, based on things like, you know, satellite and cell phone pings to see if they’d like to partner with us, right, where we can help use our data and our platform to, you know, connect with that user quite quickly, and give them the right recommendation. Right. As far as what the data we know that they what they like, I think we’re We are however, in a really interesting place. Because, you know, data is also an insecurity and a lot of the things you know, that have changed. As far as security is concerned, you know, how much data how much big brother watching right arm are willing to do? And I think we’re still kind of working through that. How much does a customer want you to know, versus give you the optionality to know. But I think what you’re saying, you know, if you think about, let’s call it this Starbucks, you know, online mobile ordering, right, which was clearly cutting edge when it first came out. I mean, people said, that wasn’t going to be an option, right? Like my favorite is hearing like, that’s never gonna work. Who’s gonna do that? Right?
JJ
Jeremy Julian
31:23
Who’s gonna pay $5 for a cup of coffee? You know, what, 30 years ago, people just said, Who’s gonna pay $5? For a cup of coffee? And now people spend it every single day, right?
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
31:31
Yeah, no, it’s 10. Yes, but But now, you know, so that I think what you’re getting at is going to be the future state of that convenience factor, which is you’ll opt into, you know, I bring my girls to dance every Friday and I’m always it, we always go to this location, we always order the same thing like how you just make that one click order ready. That the technology’s there. Yes. It’s just a matter, I think of working through the mechanics of how to get people interested and okay with it that that a lot of platforms are still working through.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
32:09
Well, I think it’s interesting that you say that because some, my mother in law is in her 70s. And we’ll be talking about a dog dog treats around the house. And then she is baffled that her Facebook app shows her dog treats that are showing up in her Facebook feeds. So it happens all day, every day. But for some reason, ecommerce and social media has gotten away with it. Whereas people think it’s creepy. If Target’s doing that. You know, you everybody’s heard the story. A lot of people have heard the story of the lady that cut the diaper advertisement, you know, at Target, before she even told her family that she was pregnant because she was taking pregnancy tests and target knew that she was buying pregnancy tests. Everybody’s heard that. But they think that that’s creepy. But Facebook can listen to everything that we’re talking about right now. And you know, I say Facebook, it could be any of the social media platforms, and then they start giving the advertisement for dog treats because I talked about dog treats on the podcast. Why? Why? I guess why are consumers surprised that that social media is doing this? And then they get offended when brick and mortar retailers do that? What do you think that is?
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
33:10
Yeah, I mean, I think we are hitting on a little bit is maybe just the transformation of who you know, the generations to. I mean, me, and I’m not part of Gen Z by any stretch. But I like the fact that someone’s going to proactively tell me, right? What I need or what I what I’m talking about, right? Even vacations, right? Like that happens to me all the time. We talk about going somewhere, and then I’m starting to get ads. Thank you. Right. Thank you for giving me an offer. That might make me you know, hit your hotel. While we’re there. It’s it’s I think it’s a convenience factor. I think, what will change the game for you know, the broader masses is when it’s when it’s actually even marketed that way, right? I think the so many brands, I think it’s a secret, right? And therefore, because they’re not being more upfront about what they’re actually trying to do. I think it creates more, you know, chaos than it’s worth. But I think it’s, as the generations have more and more buying power, right, and we see that shift, I think it will become more less and less of an issue.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
34:18
Yeah, I think that’s, that’s probably true. I’ve got younger siblings that are 15 years younger than me, and they don’t care about any of that stuff. And I’m like, Oh, do I really need them to know all of this. But then again, I get frustrated when my Facebook feed looks like my westleaf group, Facebook feed or whatever it is. I’m like, this isn’t my Facebook feed. Like why I want my stuff. I will also say that though social media and quite frankly, advertisers are getting so good that there was a lot of impulse purchases this past Christmas that probably wouldn’t have been there had it not been for that advertising, where I’m like, I don’t really need this but I purchased it because they hit me you know, 678 times on my feed and and you know how many ever times it was so where’s it going Cal like, Where’s where’s all of this going? Like, you know, talk to me a little bit about how restaurant tours should be thinking about the future of CDP shouldn’t be thinking about, you know, I’m guessing, you know, unless you’re a very large brand, most don’t have a CDP strategy. Most don’t have a CDP technology, they don’t have all of this that you guys are going after, you know, as well as I do that those big brands have it, and they’re using it to compete against those smaller brands. Yeah, is it gonna get normalized down to the single unit operators are going to get normalized down to the place where, you know, five and 10 unit chains that are local in a region know who their guests are, and know what they’re ordering? And know how to get back to them? If there’s a problem and know what’s going to resonate when they put a new menu item on the on the on the list? Is that where it’s going? Is it is it going to where, you know, Doggy Dog, and you know, just the top people that have it are going to just continue to squeeze out the Walmart effect. And in the small towns, you know, talk to me a little bit about where you see it going over the next 510 15 years as the data becomes more available, and these tools become something that people really are gonna be able to use. I don’t say in a really powerful way.
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
36:09
Yeah, I love this question. Because it’s, it’s quite frankly, something we talk about a lot. And, you know, I’ll say this. I think that the the power right of data, and using this data to really give a unique experience is going to be the best thing any small restaurant tour can activate upon. The great thing about you know, a smaller, you know, more, let’s say, local chain or restaurant, is that they have the ability, right to make quick decisions, they can actually enact typically pretty quickly if they know what they need to do, right? I know, so many of these brands, just say, tell me what to do. I’ll go do it right now. Right? Just give me that give me the tool, and I’ll make it happen. Using these larger brands, you know, even when you read the headlines, they’re struggling, because you know, they are so big. And I think sometimes making change and adjusting and being athletic as the environment around them is harder. Yes. So we’re putting a lot of emphasis, I would say in kind of the more SMB market and really helping those restaurant tours. And we see, you know, they typically are a little bit younger in generation, these founders and and CEOs. And they’re excited to take on technologies like Tiktok, and Instagram, and they’re excited to explore new things, even like web three, right? They’re on the cutting edge, I think of this technology. And if they can have tools that aren’t expensive, which they have been, and are have the capabilities to make it really easy for them to act upon. They will take off, and I will see them have more and more impact in this industry over the next five years.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
37:54
Well, and I think I say it often on the show, because I think part of why I love having people, you know thought leaders on the show is because there are so many people that are if they’re not already doing it, they’re thinking about it. And I would strongly suggest all of our listeners get to a place where they love what you guys are doing love the product you have, you guys have got a dozen or so competitors in the space. So if you’re not using Breitling, you have to be using someone to get this data to be able to go there because at the end of the day, that I am passionate about restaurants that I’m passionate about restaurant technology, because I want that local restaurant to be there when my kids grow up, I want them to be able to go have a have, you know, food with with a friend and be able to go enjoy an experience just like I did. And I think that if you don’t you end up you know, losing out if you’re not using data to make better business decisions if you’re just you know, and again, all too often even you look at all of the shows the Gordon Ramsay goes in and tries to fix a failing restaurant. And it’s like, you’ve got this stuff in the freezer that’s been there for seven years. Why do you still have it on the menu, nobody’s eating it. Or, you know, you don’t have new customers coming in. And it’s like, people are not thinking this way. Oh, it always works this way. So we’re always going to do it that that way. It doesn’t work anymore. And I think you guys are evidence exactly of that. Because you guys have the capability to, to, you know, to solve so many of those problems. How does somebody learn more about what you guys are doing? Like, talk to me a little bit about what engagement might look like if I’m if I’m one of those restaurant tours out there. And I’m like Braid loom. Need to have it figured out where to get going. What does that engagement look like? What can they expect when they engage with you, your team? You know, as the as they move into move into trying to solve this?
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
39:35
Yeah, so I first tell them to go to right loom.com And we have you know, we actually are have right now an offering from our website, which is called a data health report. It’s something we came up with last year after going through this process with so many brands big and small, realizing they had no clear understanding of even the health of their data. has it set right where the gaps were. And even have helped them update and think differently about the platforms and systems they’re using today, right before they start a journey of even getting better and more complex down this path. So, you know, I’d say go to our website, if you think a data health report might be a great first step, sign up for one, right, a team will quickly engage with you. And we’ll take you down about an hour workshop session with us where we’ll connect your data. And we’ll give you a report on really where your data sits, I would say that’s a really easy next step that everyone should be taking, you know, whether you even have solved this problem or not, or you think you have, or it can never hurt to know more.
JJ
Jeremy Julian
40:47
I love it. I love it. Because to what we’ve talked about for the last 40 minutes, it’s like it’s the data is there to be used and exploited to make better business decisions. So if you’re not using it, ultimately becomes a really expensive cash register out from or a really expensive way to message your people and get people in the door. But if you’re not using the data to make decisions, then ultimately it’s you’re under utilizing the capabilities that you have there.
KZ
Kellie Zimmerman
41:11
And just one other thing I’ll highlight because we do believe both in the SMB as well as the enterprise, we work with some of the biggest brands out there. And now we’ve come to market with an SMB offering. And so I just want to set that stage that we’ve got the capabilities to go really deep. And really, you know, data science driven. We also have easy, lightweight options for brands of all sizes to quickly get going. Within days, right hours, not weeks, years. So
JJ
Jeremy Julian
41:39
I love it. You’re speaking my language because we all love those small brands. And quite frankly, when I’m traveling especially, I hit those big brands a lot more often than I do the smaller brands because I know what I can, you know, know like and trust when I’m out out on the road. Well, Kelly, I can’t thank you enough for the education that you offer to our audience. To our audience out there guys. We know that you guys have got lots of choices of who to listen to out on the the interwebs as it relates to podcasts. So we appreciate you guys spending some time with us. Kelly, thank you so much for your time and to our audience. Make it a great day.
I
Intro
42:10
Thanks for listening to the restaurant technology guys podcast. Visit restaurant technology guys.com For tips, Industry Insights and more to help you run your restaurant better
