Interview with Noble Restaurant Group Director of IT William Connors about how Toast has improved the industry, revolutionizing the CRM, and how to improve your tech stack.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Welcome to Restaurant Influencers
00:13 presented by Entrepreneur.
00:15 I am your host, Sean Walsh,
00:17 founder of Cali BBQ and Cali BBQ Media.
00:20 In life, in the restaurant business,
00:22 and in the new creator economy,
00:24 we learn through lessons and stories.
00:26 We are in Boston at the Toast Sales Kickoff,
00:30 and I have the pleasure of bringing our first
00:34 Director of Information Technology onto the show,
00:37 William Connors, Director of IT for the Nobel Group,
00:42 and you came all the way from London
00:43 just to be on the show, right?
00:45 - Yes, I did, thanks for having me.
00:47 - William, I'm so excited to have you on the show
00:49 because we have a deep thesis that runs through
00:52 not only Restaurant Influencers, but digital hospitality,
00:55 and that's how can we be hospitable in a digital world?
00:59 That's a reason why we believe in Toast,
01:01 that's why Toast is a title sponsor of the show,
01:03 that's why you and I are gonna be on a customer panel
01:06 tomorrow answering questions about Toast,
01:08 but I'd love for you to set the stage for the audience
01:11 and let us know a little bit about the Nobel Group.
01:14 - Well, the Nobel Group, if you've ever been to the UK,
01:17 and especially London, they have some very well-known brands,
01:21 Angus Steakhouse, a steak and company.
01:24 We have all the restaurants in the British Portrait Museum,
01:27 which is Ocher and Miro's Kitchen.
01:31 We also have a casino up in Blackpool called Coral Island,
01:35 and we have Alley Cat's Pizza.
01:38 - So when did you first start working for the group?
01:42 - About a year and a half ago now.
01:44 Before that, I was with Popeyes and Burger King,
01:48 and before that, I was with a UK chain called Oaxaca.
01:53 - Okay, and before we started recording,
01:55 let's start with the military bases.
01:58 So for those that are listening to the show,
02:00 Cali Barbecue, we just made an announcement recently.
02:03 We are partnering with the Navy Exchange
02:06 in San Diego, 32nd Street, so we are honored
02:09 to be able to serve our military.
02:11 We are also honored to be able to bring Toast on base.
02:14 We are gonna be in a commissary, not a commissary,
02:17 a courtyard with Panda Express, Pizza Hut, Subway,
02:23 Cold Stone, and Starbucks, and then Cali Barbecue,
02:25 which is the first family small business
02:28 that they're bringing in to this particular 32nd Street.
02:31 But for us, it's very exciting
02:33 because of the technology piece,
02:35 and you were a part of bringing technology onto base.
02:38 Can you tell us your base technology story?
02:41 - Oh yeah, well I mean, when I was,
02:45 like 20 years ago, doing installations,
02:49 I was working across the states,
02:53 working at all the different military bases,
02:55 and so I'd work at Fort Knox,
02:57 I'd work at all the Japanese bases,
03:02 and also in South Korea, like Osan and Kusan.
03:07 And yeah, they gave me a designation of,
03:12 like it was like, what do you call it,
03:16 something seven, like where you're kind of like
03:19 a civilian version of Colonel,
03:21 so I used to call myself Colonel Connors.
03:23 Like no, that's like not in front of the military,
03:26 of course, but it was great.
03:27 Like you come in, you just install
03:31 all the restaurant systems for the commissary.
03:33 - What were they on before you're bringing?
03:35 - At that time, it was a product called Micros 3700.
03:39 - Okay.
03:40 - And so now that product's been purchased by Oracle,
03:44 and now they got Symphony.
03:45 - But what were you replacing?
03:47 Was there a system, or you were putting in a system?
03:49 Like was it just a cash register?
03:51 - I think we replaced cash registers, yeah.
03:53 - That's amazing.
03:53 So you were actually laying down the foundation for--
03:56 - Yeah, that's actually a really good question,
04:00 what they had before, but thinking about it now,
04:02 they had the old, like the ones where basically
04:05 you have a static grid, and basically you press it,
04:09 like yeah, so they took those out,
04:11 they put in their first system with touchscreens,
04:16 and kitchen printing, and basically,
04:19 then they kind of evolved from there.
04:22 But yeah, it was a great experience.
04:24 When I went to the Top Gun facility
04:29 in Kunsan in South Korea,
04:32 we lived on the base, and there were lockers
04:37 with like Joker, and all these fancy names and stuff,
04:41 but all the guys look like physics professors,
04:44 because they're not the typical good-looking guys,
04:48 like Tom Cruise and stuff, they're like 5'8",
04:52 they're very thin, and yeah,
04:57 I mean, to actually fly these jet planes,
05:00 and also to, you had the B-52 bombers
05:02 that were going up at 45 degree angles,
05:04 and so the whole place would just shake,
05:06 it was pretty cool.
05:08 But yeah, it's not like the movies.
05:12 - So where, after the bases,
05:15 when did you start working for Popeyes?
05:17 - Well, that's it, so as a contractor,
05:21 I was doing base after base, and I was loving it like that,
05:24 and then they said--
05:24 - How long did these installs take?
05:27 - It was about a week per base,
05:31 so like you go in and--
05:32 - And how many food facilities on base?
05:36 - It was sometimes as high as as many as 14,
05:39 and there'd be sometimes just two or three,
05:42 but it was kind of in the good old days,
05:44 we're talking now this is like 2005, 2006,
05:49 and so they'd have like 14 servers,
05:52 and then they'd kind of test it out,
05:55 and they'd say, okay, fine, let's try two revenue centers,
05:58 and so they'd all of a sudden squeeze it all into one,
06:00 like that, it was very much fingers crossed at the time.
06:06 But now everything's cloud-based, and it's fantastic,
06:09 I mean, that's one of the best things about Toast,
06:11 is you don't need to rely on a server,
06:15 you don't need to rely on a master till,
06:17 it just works like that, which is great.
06:20 - So bring me to Popeyes, how did you get recruited?
06:23 - Well, that's it, from working in the military bases,
06:28 they said, we're sending you over to the UK,
06:32 we need you to do some work there,
06:34 and so I thought I was coming over for a week,
06:36 and basically-- - What year was that?
06:39 - That was, I guess, 2004, I guess, like that.
06:43 - And you've been there ever since?
06:44 - Pretty much, I did a couple years in the Caribbean,
06:47 contracting, like just got called away from the UK,
06:51 and then worked in the Caribbean, then went back,
06:53 and then 2009, basically the economy just stopped
06:58 for the entire world, and they said, go home,
07:03 and I'm like, well, what do you want me to do at home?
07:04 Like that, and like, well, that's it,
07:06 like we've got no work for you to do,
07:07 just go home and wait.
07:09 So I went home to Canada, and I basically got married
07:14 to my now wife, and then we said, okay,
07:18 we're gonna come back to the UK,
07:20 and you're gonna get a non-installation job,
07:24 or you're gonna, so I started doing work
07:28 for a company called QSR, which is an American company,
07:32 QSR Automations, so I basically did all the main,
07:36 like restaurant brands that at the time were very famous,
07:41 like I'm not sure how many would be famous here.
07:44 Then I went to Oaxaca, which is a Mexican-style restaurant,
07:48 which grew to about 30 sites,
07:50 and now it's back down to about 18,
07:54 and then from there, three, four years ago,
07:59 Popeyes just opened, like so, in the UK,
08:04 a company called Ring Holdings bought the franchise rights,
08:07 and so the first few that we did were absolutely manic,
08:11 like a three-hour wait.
08:13 People were just so keen on trying out
08:18 the Louisiana chicken product,
08:20 and so the same big corporation also had 120 restaurants
08:28 in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark,
08:32 so basically we did all of their IT systems,
08:36 and basically, yeah, they were running on something
08:38 that was green and black, like the old kind of Matrix stuff,
08:43 and yeah, so we took all that out
08:46 and put in modern, like TIL systems and stuff,
08:50 and from there, basically, the noble group said,
08:54 we want you to bring us up to speed
08:57 and to modernize their system.
08:58 - How did they find you?
08:59 How did the noble group find you?
09:01 - They basically, yeah, word of mouth,
09:03 like I'd seen their restaurants,
09:06 but I basically didn't really think too much of it,
09:09 but then when I started having the conversation,
09:12 I thought it was really exciting,
09:14 because Popeyes and all these things,
09:18 they have systems that's been agreed to years in advance,
09:22 so you're just basically carrying on
09:23 with the other person left off,
09:25 so the first thing we did was looking at
09:29 the IT environment.
09:34 Toast was-- - What year was this?
09:35 - This was like three years ago.
09:38 - Three years ago, okay.
09:39 - So yeah, just basically,
09:41 with Popeyes and Burger King, it was good,
09:46 but it was a big job, and yeah,
09:48 I was just keen to do something smaller, better,
09:51 and not having to deal with such a,
09:55 like I had three different bosses,
09:56 and they're saying, "Don't listen to him,
09:57 "listen to me," like that,
09:59 so the noble group, I got to just come in
10:01 and just put everything in place myself,
10:04 so we put in Toast, we've put in--
10:07 - What made you pick Toast?
10:08 - Oh, well, Toast, first of all, it's new technology.
10:13 - Were you one of the first Toast customers?
10:14 - Yes. - In UK?
10:15 - Yeah, yeah, I don't think we were the first,
10:17 but we were one of the first, and--
10:19 - How many locations did you install?
10:22 - Well, that's it, we started off with the nine restaurants
10:27 for a steak and company, Angus Steakhouse.
10:28 - Nine all at the same time?
10:30 - We did one a week.
10:31 - One a week? - Yeah, and--
10:33 - Is that your recipe?
10:35 - Well, yeah, I mean--
10:36 - Well, that's how I roll.
10:38 - It's actually pretty good, because
10:40 putting in a new Toast system can be very disruptive,
10:44 so we'd put in the system actually within a day,
10:48 and then we'd basically spend three or four days
10:51 just making sure it was fine,
10:53 and then do a day of just breathe
10:55 and prepare for the next site, and yeah, go from there.
10:58 But yeah, if the system is working well,
11:00 they don't wanna see you anyway,
11:01 they're just like, "Yeah, yeah, we're fine, good,"
11:03 and they want you at the door.
11:04 But the system was a resounding success,
11:08 and all of a sudden, we had benefits
11:12 that we weren't even really expecting,
11:15 because with the handhelds,
11:16 you're no longer queuing at the tills,
11:18 so they're like, "Oh yeah, we can actually cut our,
11:22 "like, instead of having a staff of seven servers,
11:25 "we can cut it down to six or five,"
11:28 so there's been lots of benefits that way.
11:30 But it's a reliable system, and all of a sudden now,
11:34 before we had a whole group of people
11:38 trying to number crunch and figure stuff out
11:40 with reports and stuff, to do server competitions
11:45 and stuff, saying who's selling
11:47 the most really basic questions,
11:49 and the other system couldn't do it.
11:50 So with this system, we know automatically,
11:54 like, everything, like, these are the people
11:59 that are selling, these are the people
12:00 that are not performing properly.
12:04 Like, we also were able to uncover
12:07 like some fraud here and there,
12:09 which shows that it's a good system.
12:12 And we've linked it with other things as well.
12:14 We've got a great product called Tenso,
12:16 which basically consolidates your labor,
12:18 your stock, and your ePause sales all into one platform.
12:23 We use seven rooms, so we can like, you know,
12:28 add a whole bunch of tags, so when you walk in,
12:30 we go, you know, like, "Hi, William,
12:32 "it's great to see you again.
12:34 "Your gin and tonic in the corner table is ready for you."
12:37 So like, stuff like that.
12:38 I really think that restaurants are becoming
12:42 more and more competitive,
12:43 because it's a bit of a tough market,
12:45 but the thing is, is that everyone is gonna be better
12:48 in the long run, because with the competition,
12:52 everyone ups their game quite a bit.
12:54 - Can you talk about the experience
12:57 of working with the Toast team, the team in London?
13:01 - Yeah, fantastic.
13:02 Like, it's funny, because in the past,
13:07 with my different roles, like,
13:09 there's so many times I've heard people say,
13:12 like, "All Till companies are terrible."
13:14 Like, you know, because there's kind of an animosity
13:19 with your Till provider, because, you know,
13:24 they always let you down,
13:28 they never deliver what they promise and stuff,
13:30 and all of a sudden, Toast comes in,
13:32 and polite, like, very attentive and stuff,
13:37 like, "Support, support."
13:39 You get, like, people calling on the third ring,
13:42 and they actually fix your problem.
13:44 You're not shuffled from department to department,
13:47 or, like, wait for a call back.
13:49 I mean, I was telling somebody just the other day,
13:52 like, another system that we worked with,
13:55 when you had a problem, the recording would say,
13:58 "Please have your credit card ready."
14:00 You know, like, and it's just like,
14:02 "Oh, that's, no wonder there's animosity."
14:05 But, like, Toast, categorically, absolutely,
14:09 it's a good product, it's reliable,
14:12 but the people behind it, you know,
14:14 they take special efforts,
14:15 they want to find out ways to improve your business,
14:19 but also, too, like, they hold events
14:22 where you can get together with other Toast users,
14:26 and also other, like, products that link into Toast,
14:30 you know, like HR systems, and like,
14:33 Rota, and CRM, and stuff,
14:35 and, like, you can feel a passion building in the room,
14:39 because everybody wants to do a good job, you know,
14:41 everybody wants to modernize,
14:44 and run a successful business,
14:46 but, like, I think Toast, especially in the UK,
14:50 they're riding a wave of positivity,
14:52 and also, too, their product is outperforming
14:56 what's been, you know, in place for 15 years.
15:00 - How many restaurants total in the group?
15:02 - I'd say about 18.
15:06 Like, we also have another product
15:10 that we haven't yet put in Toast,
15:11 but we're putting in very shortly called Chata Mate.
15:14 So we've got a few in the States,
15:16 we've got one in San Francisco, one in Miami,
15:20 we have one in Toronto, which is in Canada,
15:22 and they're opening up one in Atlanta.
15:26 - And those are all live on Toast?
15:28 - Well, that's it.
15:29 The first installation is gonna be with San Francisco
15:32 in about six weeks.
15:35 - And you'll be there?
15:36 - Hopefully.
15:37 Like, you know, I think it would be great,
15:39 but sometimes I think Toast is probably
15:42 a little bit too good for its own use.
15:44 They're kind of like, you know,
15:46 you can do everything remotely and stuff,
15:48 and it's true.
15:49 Like, I'm completely confident
15:51 that they don't really need me, but I'll go.
15:54 - Yeah.
15:55 - I'm happy.
15:56 I like going to exotic places like Boston
15:59 and San Francisco when I can,
16:01 but it's probably not necessary.
16:03 - Can you explain for the person that's listening
16:06 or that's watching this, kind of the tension,
16:10 that this perceived tension of staff before,
16:13 because, you know, as a restaurateur myself,
16:15 I know we told Toast, we're gonna document our unboxing,
16:19 we're gonna document our go live,
16:21 and like, even though we have cameras rolling,
16:23 like, there is this fear of what happens
16:27 if it doesn't work.
16:28 - Yeah.
16:29 - So like, you're the person that's literally in charge
16:32 of this implementation to make sure
16:34 that this fear goes away.
16:36 How do you, having done so many of them,
16:39 what have you learned through the process?
16:41 - Well, I mean, there is quite a bit of trust,
16:45 and also to, when you walk in,
16:49 you kind of come in knowing that,
16:52 like, the first couple were a bit,
16:55 it was a bit of a challenge,
17:00 because operators don't like change,
17:03 like, you know, because like,
17:04 oh, God, I gotta learn a new system.
17:05 Oh, you know, like, and it's just,
17:08 it's extra work, and it's extra stress,
17:10 and, but like, once everything went into place,
17:13 like, wow, this is pretty good,
17:14 and especially when they get the handheld,
17:17 so like, oh, so you mean I don't need
17:19 to have a separate PDQ?
17:21 And it's like, no, just do the one device.
17:23 Oh, I don't need to go to the till, like that.
17:26 And they were doing other things too,
17:28 where, okay, again, we had bad processes,
17:34 so like, every time that you made a void,
17:36 you'd have to like, open up your computer,
17:38 and type the void in Excel,
17:41 and keep a copy of the thing,
17:43 and like, literally, even myself,
17:46 I mean, I'm being a little bit diplomatic with the ops,
17:49 because I don't wanna, you know,
17:51 tread on their territory and stuff,
17:52 but I'm like, what exactly,
17:53 why are you doing all this, you know?
17:55 And they're like, well, it's because we always did it,
17:57 you know, and it's just like,
17:58 well, like, just run a report, you know?
18:01 And the same thing, they said,
18:02 well, how do I make sure that my credit cards
18:04 are balanced, and I go, well, it's an integrated system,
18:07 it's all in one, you just run the one report, that's it.
18:10 And like, with every step,
18:13 we kind of saw like, the positivity grow more and more,
18:18 like saying, oh, yeah, this is actually pretty good.
18:21 You know, like--
18:22 - Do the locations have KDSs, kitchen display screens?
18:25 - Yes.
18:26 - They, before Toast? - No, no.
18:27 - So they went from printed tickets to a KDS?
18:30 - Yeah, and the thing is,
18:33 actually, that was a bit of a struggle the first time,
18:35 because they're old school.
18:37 A lot of these guys have been doing the same job
18:39 for 20 years and stuff, eh?
18:42 So like, we actually had it so you bump the item
18:45 from the KDS, and a chit would print.
18:48 And so like, you're supposed to put the prepared dish
18:53 with the chit next to it,
18:54 so the server knows which one is which,
18:56 and they take it to the table.
18:57 So the guy bump, bump, bump, bump, and he'd bump
19:00 everything off, and he'd take the thing,
19:01 and he'd start arranging the paper,
19:03 and I was kinda like--
19:04 - Stop it.
19:05 - Yeah, that's it, I said, "Look, trust the system."
19:09 And it actually took, one of the Toast installers
19:14 was an ex-chef, and he goes, "Look, let me get in there
19:19 "with you, and I'll show you," like that.
19:20 And of course, nobody can say that paper's better
19:25 than a KDS.
19:27 It's multicolor, all of a sudden, you got your timings,
19:30 you can see your allergens in purple,
19:34 and your to-go items in orange, it's better.
19:39 As soon as the chef started seeing how it is,
19:44 and that they don't need to basically repeat
19:47 what they used to do, all of a sudden,
19:49 they're like, "Yeah, it's okay," like that.
19:51 And ever since, it's been fine.
19:54 Everyone is very happy with it.
19:57 - Can you talk about the other London restaurants
20:00 that are starting to learn about this technology
20:04 that you guys have, that are coming to reach out to you,
20:07 say, "Hey, what are you doing, why do you like it?"
20:09 I mean, are those things starting to happen?
20:10 - Yeah, and it's funny, because Toast--
20:14 - You're almost like a testing ground,
20:16 where other owners and operators come,
20:18 and they're like, "Can I touch it?
20:19 "Can I see how it works?"
20:21 'Cause we're that kind of restaurant in San Diego.
20:24 - I mean, I'm happy to share our success story
20:27 with whoever wants to hear it with Toast,
20:29 because that's it, they've done a good job,
20:32 and they deserve the praise.
20:33 It was funny, before Toast arrived to the UK,
20:38 everyone thought it was a saturated market,
20:40 saying, "Oh, there's too many till companies,
20:42 "and there's no money in it," and stuff.
20:43 And basically, despite all that,
20:47 Toast came in with a superior product.
20:50 But yeah, that's the difference
20:52 between old technology and new technology.
20:55 Old technology, it's like, "Yeah, we need a master till,"
20:57 and yeah, all this stuff.
20:59 And it's like, "No, you don't need it."
21:00 So they said, "Well, what happens
21:02 "if one of the tills goes down?"
21:03 Like, it's just like, "Oh, then just use everything else."
21:06 Like, it's all, you don't really need
21:09 any kind of redundancy that other systems traditionally use,
21:14 because yeah, it's all cloud-based,
21:17 as long as you've got a decent internet connection.
21:19 If you don't have an internet connection,
21:21 they'll still work with each other, which is phenomenal.
21:24 - How do you build a restaurant tech stack?
21:29 - A lot of effort, a lot of listening,
21:31 and quite a bit of flexibility,
21:35 because there's a lot of things on the market.
21:37 Like, everyone says, "Oh yeah, this product's better,
21:42 "this product's better."
21:43 And there was a few things that you're like,
21:47 "Okay, I was a fan of this,
21:50 "but actually this is newer and better,
21:52 "and I'll change that."
21:53 So like, you have to, what I've done is,
21:57 I've actually mapped out on a big board
22:00 how every system, like IT or otherwise,
22:04 communicates with each other.
22:06 So basically, we use another--
22:09 - Is that on a whiteboard?
22:11 - Well, actually, there's a product called Xcalitra,
22:14 and what it is is it's a webpage,
22:17 and you can just basically zoom in and zoom out
22:19 as much as you want.
22:20 But basically, once you get everything in place,
22:24 you try and establish a circular movement of data.
22:28 So you've got the customer coming in,
22:31 they're connecting to the Wi-Fi,
22:33 we're using a product now called Patronix,
22:35 which is based in Boston as well.
22:37 So basically, Toast plugs into Patronix,
22:42 and Patronix gives the vouchers,
22:44 and we're linking with another product called Feeditback,
22:48 which does feedback.
22:49 And so, once you've finished your meal,
22:52 30 minutes later, you'll get an email from Feeditback
22:56 saying, "How was the steak?
22:58 "How was William as a server?
23:01 "How was the ambience?" and stuff.
23:03 But the questions are all staggered.
23:05 But once you consolidate all those questions
23:07 on a daily basis, you've got mounds and mounds of data,
23:12 not only on the food, not only on the servers,
23:17 but on everything.
23:19 And because you've got this data to back you up,
23:21 you can actually go to a server and say,
23:26 "200 people said that you don't smile enough."
23:31 If I say you don't smile enough,
23:32 I think it's something of you and me,
23:35 but if you take the data and you use the data,
23:38 the service, all of a sudden,
23:40 the service just starts getting a lot better
23:43 because people are taking it all on board.
23:46 But that, all of a sudden,
23:48 will feed into your Google rankings
23:50 because if you have a good review,
23:53 it'll say, "Oh, you wanna share the love on TripAdvice.
23:56 "You wanna share the love on Google reviews and stuff."
24:00 So all of a sudden, your rankings go higher,
24:02 which means more people come in.
24:03 And if it's a bad review, it goes straight to the manager.
24:06 Sometimes somebody gives a bad review,
24:09 they're still in the restaurant,
24:10 so the manager can hurry over and say,
24:13 "I'm sorry, you had a bad experience.
24:14 "How can we fix this?"
24:17 And all these things plug into each other
24:20 and then basically you can use the patronix
24:23 to give vouchers to reward your staff.
24:27 You've got Tenzo that basically,
24:30 the managers use it on the floor
24:33 and they can see, okay, based on AI with the environment,
24:37 how many, like if there's a show going on
24:40 or a football match or if you have,
24:43 so all these things that say,
24:46 you should send somebody home right now.
24:47 And you're like, "Fine."
24:48 Tenzo says, "I've got too many servers."
24:51 You're gone.
24:52 And so everything is working really well.
24:55 I mean, things change.
24:59 I mean, certain things like in some of our restaurants,
25:03 the seven rooms is actually taken off
25:05 and it does really good
25:06 and we do get that automatic guest recognition.
25:08 For some of our brands, like Angus Steakhouse,
25:13 it actually hasn't taken off
25:15 because we get a lot of tourists.
25:16 So the person that's hosting is like,
25:18 "Yeah, but I don't really see the same customer
25:23 for six months at a time."
25:25 So it's not that useful.
25:27 So the thing is, so maybe that will have to change a bit.
25:31 Everything needs to be adjusting.
25:33 You need to get buy-in from,
25:35 it helps to have buy-in from the managing director.
25:38 We have our managing director's incredibly supportive.
25:41 He's like our CEO and he basically,
25:45 like Paul Stirlitz does a lot of,
25:48 he's a tech person himself, which helps,
25:52 but also too, you need like a clear communication
25:55 and buy-in from the staff.
25:56 And also you have to listen to the staff
25:58 because certain products they'll say,
25:59 "Yeah, this is amazing."
26:01 And other stuff, they'll be like,
26:02 "It's not really what we use."
26:05 So like, but you also need to constantly listen
26:09 and look for new products and adapt
26:11 and find ways to kind of up everyone's game
26:16 because you're never finished.
26:18 - That's awesome.
26:20 So every single week on Wednesday and on Friday on LinkedIn,
26:23 you, the listener, you, the viewer can join us.
26:26 You have a digital hospitality community of leaders
26:29 from all over the globe.
26:29 We wanna hear your story.
26:31 We wanna hear about your restaurant
26:32 if you're in content creation.
26:34 If you're in tech, if you're in sales marketing,
26:36 it's a chance to connect with our community.
26:38 We're grateful, William, for you taking the time today.
26:42 You were on a flight all the way from London
26:45 to come and share your story.
26:47 We believe in technology,
26:48 otherwise we wouldn't do the show.
26:49 We also believe in storytelling,
26:51 the work that you do
26:53 and that all the technology officers in restaurants.
26:57 I mean, that's one of the coolest things for me
26:59 is to see how many new people,
27:02 you've been in the game for a long time,
27:03 but how many people might see this and think,
27:06 I didn't think that I could be in technology,
27:08 but also in hospitality.
27:10 And like, that's the blending of two worlds,
27:12 digital hospitality.
27:13 What kind of plans do you guys have for this year?
27:15 Anything that you'd like to share?
27:17 - Well, we're definitely opening up some more restaurants.
27:21 That's it, we've got--
27:22 - What's the best place for people
27:23 to follow the restaurant group?
27:25 The website?
27:27 - I would say, it's funny because
27:32 we don't have a noble restaurant group website
27:35 because before the owners were like,
27:37 I don't want to be involved in stuff.
27:39 - If they need to tell us,
27:40 I need to talk to the owners and tell them,
27:42 we need to tell their story.
27:45 That's how we get more people in the restaurant.
27:46 - Well, that's it, yeah.
27:48 We're gonna grow our audience and grow our loyalty programs
27:52 and work on the repeat business using the tech as a tool
27:57 and work on the feedback.
27:59 But if anyone ever wants to come
28:05 like check us out, yeah, we've got Alley Cats,
28:09 Steak & Company, Angus Steakhouse,
28:12 Ocher and Cora Island.
28:14 And if you go there, we'll be using Toast
28:17 and you'll see all these nice products that plug into it
28:20 for hopefully a wonderful guest experience.
28:24 - That's awesome.
28:25 William Connors, if you guys want to keep in touch with me,
28:26 it's @SeanPWalchef, S-H-A-W-N-P-W-A-L-C-H-E-F.
28:31 Instagram's the easiest,
28:33 but you can connect on LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook,
28:36 any of the platforms I'm weirdly available.
28:38 As always, stay curious, get involved
28:40 and don't be afraid to ask for help.
28:42 Thank you and we'll catch you guys next week.
28:44 (upbeat music)
28:47 (upbeat music)