Episode 21 - Jodie Conrad

Jenifer Kern: [00:00:00] Hello, everyone. Welcome to Restaurants Reinvented. This is Jen Kern. And today I'm here with Jodie Conrad, the CMO of Fazoli's. Hi, Jodie 

[00:00:33] Jodie Conrad: [00:00:33] Hi, Jennifer. Good to see you again.

[00:00:35] Jenifer Kern: [00:00:35] Well, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you. I've been hearing a lot about Fazoli's  in the news and the free breadsticks. And so I can't wait to dig in and hear what you're up to over there.

[00:00:45] Jodie Conrad: [00:00:45] Yeah and thanks for having me.

[00:00:46] Jenifer Kern: [00:00:46] Yeah and here we are on the I guess it's post-election day, technically.

[00:00:50] Jodie Conrad: [00:00:50] Technically, nobody's voting anymore anyway. Yeah.

[00:00:53] Jenifer Kern: [00:00:53] Hopefully it's a post election day and I was thinking, wow, how lucky am I get to talk about food today?

[00:00:59] Jodie Conrad: [00:00:59] Yeah exactly.

[00:01:01] Jenifer Kern: [00:01:01] And marketing.

[00:01:02] Jodie Conrad: [00:01:02] That's right.

[00:01:03] Jenifer Kern: [00:01:03] Just stay in my lane.

[00:01:05] Jodie Conrad: [00:01:05] I like the way you're looking at things right now.

[00:01:07] Jenifer Kern: [00:01:07] So let's give our listeners some background on you and tell me a little bit about your journey and some of the brands you've worked at and what brought you to Fazali's .

[00:01:15] Jodie Conrad: [00:01:15] Yeah. Actually, when I went to college, I was a finance major. So, as is often the case college is a little wasted on the young. But my first job was at an advertising agency and I worked for the CFO. So  I worked in the finance area and found that I really didn't like the work that much.

[00:01:30] And  I had been there long enough that they gave me a chance. I moved over to account service and worked on a restaurant company for the agency. We supported field marketing for racks restaurants which some people may remember. I think there's still at least one around that I know of. But roast beef concept in the Midwest. And from there I had a job opportunity to go work for Wendy's. And went into the new product marketing role there. And that kind of sealed my fate, I think, to stay in the restaurant industry because I had a really great experience there I learned a ton. From there, I worked at the Pillsbury company for a while.

[00:02:04] We're trying to hug and does ice cream there when it was a wholly owned subsidiary of Pillsbury. And I worked for Denatos pizza based out of Columbus, Ohio. I worked for Coca-Cola, I was a customer marketing manager there. I was back at Wendy's for several years. So altogether have probably spent about 13 years there and then came to Fazoli's four and a half years ago.

[00:02:25] Partly through a connection from Wendy's someone I worked with there, Donna Josephson was the chief marketing officer here, who I know has been on your show.

[00:02:32] Jenifer Kern: [00:02:32] Yeah . Great. So at Fazoli's for years now. And what are some of the things you've done there that feel like have really catapulted the brand and made some transformational changes?

[00:02:43]Jodie Conrad: [00:02:43] Yeah a lot of it really was getting good off premise platforms in place. We had a historically been a brand with the majority of our business coming from dine-in, which was unusual in the business because that is where we offer our unlimited free signature like breadsticks. So if you come in and meet with us, we'll keep bringing them out to the dining room and serving them to you for as many as you want to eat.

[00:03:03] No judging. So that's why I think unlike well, I've promise had been growing for Fazoli's  along with everybody else. We were still primarily a dining concept and that's really the consumer is just really changing how they're using restaurants and  especially quick serve restaurant.

[00:03:17] So a lot of the things that we've been doing since I've been here is getting good online ordering in place, getting a mobile app and a loyalty program in place where we can message with our guests and provide value and drive visits through that and, create connection and putting third party delivery platforms in place and improving our catering process, which was a thing until COVID happened.

[00:03:39] And then not so much the rest of this year but really a lot of it was getting good fundamentals in place and that's what really has allowed us to whether what's gone on this year and end up really  having our business thrive on the backend of this.

[00:03:53] Jenifer Kern: [00:03:53] Yeah. I saw a recent article that I believe it said that your sales are up 7% or higher year over year or month over month. Can you talk to me a little bit about that and how that happened?

[00:04:03] Jodie Conrad: [00:04:03] Yeah like everyone the middle of March and April was pretty devastating to the business, you know, with a lot of say, stay at home orders in place. And, we weren't making up enough off premise business to replace that dining business, which at the time before COVID was dine-in was still like 40% of our business, which compared to my past experience with Wendy's or with Denatos like that's a lot. And so it was really devastating but as people I think ran out of groceries at home and couldn't face cooking for their families, like every meal every day anymore and felt safe enough at least to go out and get meals to take home to eat. Us having a drive through, us having those good other off premise platforms for online ordering and delivery that part of the business really grew. Post COVID drive-thru has been the majority of our business more than half of our business is not going through a drive-thru and that had never been the case before.

[00:04:52] Jenifer Kern: [00:04:52] Right. And do all of your locations have drive-throughs?

[00:04:55]Jodie Conrad: [00:04:55] They do. In the past, I've had some locations like we had a mall location but that closed a little while ago. Partly because of COVID and we do have a location in the food court at Texas tech that is contained within their food service where there's not a drive-through, but otherwise all of our locations have drive-throughs.

[00:05:10] Jenifer Kern: [00:05:10] Okay. And what's the split right now? Like what are you seeing in terms of the guest's experience and how people are looking to get their food from you in the different channels?

[00:05:18] Jodie Conrad: [00:05:18] Yeah dine-in business has some of it has come back. We've been able to permit it to reopen dining rooms and pretty much everywhere. Although some States unfortunately are going kind of back the wrong way on some of that.  But some of it's come back, but not all of it because just not everybody is comfortable coming into the dining rooms again and they feel safer getting food and taking it home to eat where they're not spending that much time in a public space because our dining room business is still probably down probably around half 40 to 50%.

[00:05:45] So, we really have  focus on a couple of things during all of this.  One is really putting forward some good cleaning and sanitation procedures, communicating that both internally to our associates, to our franchisees, to our guests,  to make sure that we know we're very aware of this and we're taking the necessary steps because we want our people to be safe, we want our guests to be safe and then trying to live up to that every day, you know, like sending it as one thing and doing it every day is another, so really trying to reinforce that through the system how important it is.  Another thing was just really being focused on value because we still do have relatively high unemployment from where we've been in the past and some underemployment where people just aren't working as much. A lot of people in our own business  have had hours cut back and things like that. So, we have really focused on our value offering to be competitive there. Both for just  kind of traditional great prices on our entrees. But also adding some additional choices on family meals. Because there are so many more occasions where it's not just like you grabbing a quick lunch for yourself while you're working anymore. You've got to feed the whole family. So adding some really relevant choices at a good value there. And then lastly, just really focusing on the experience for off premise. I think as we had talked about guest experience before, we had focused mostly on what that meant. If people were dining in our restaurants, that's where we were very focused on what kind of experience we're giving them. But  now they're not as much. So if we have the majority of people coming through our drive-throughs, how can we give them a good experience?

[00:07:06] So that's one of the things we've also pivoted to adding or taking tablets and having people go out  when weather permits and all of that to go. So we can take more orders further down the line to try to improve speed of service  so people can get in and get out in a reasonable amount of time. And even where we had breadsticks service in our dining rooms before and still do where the dining rooms are open. In addition to serving unlimited breadsticks there, we're walking out to serve breadsticks to people. We have employees also going out for people waiting in the drive-through line for our peak periods and lunch and dinner. So that they can get some extra breadsticks in the weight.

[00:07:36] Maybe it goes just a little bit faster if you get to have a couple of yummy breadsticks while you're sitting in your car waiting to place your order and get your food.

[00:07:43]Jenifer Kern: [00:07:43] Yeah. We've talked so much about the importance and necessity for the value during this pandemic. You can't underrate it. I mean, that's just so important and being able to do something like a promotion, like I saw your drawing, I think, did you create this national breadstick month?

[00:07:58] Was that you guys or is it a thing?

[00:08:01] Jodie Conrad: [00:08:01] Was the thing

[00:08:02] Jenifer Kern: [00:08:02] Oh, it's a thing.

[00:08:03] Jodie Conrad: [00:08:03] And so, yeah, we just tried to take advantage of it. And it's always been one of those things where, what do we do for national breadstick day? Because if you eat inside we give them away for free already. Right. But now with so much of our business where people  aren't able to eat inside with us. We wanted to make sure they could get and enjoy some of our breadsticks so we did a free offer. You just had to download at a code on our mobile app and you can get six free breadsticks. No questions asked no strings attached.

[00:08:26] Jenifer Kern: [00:08:26] Right. And no purchase necessary.

[00:08:28] Jodie Conrad: [00:08:28] That's right.

[00:08:28] Jenifer Kern: [00:08:28] That's crazy. 

[00:08:29] Jodie Conrad: [00:08:29] Yeah. 

[00:08:30] Jenifer Kern: [00:08:30] I love that. That is just so fun. Help us understand a little bit about your concept , I know it's been around a while, you're in the fast casual quick serve space. How do you differentiate yourself with your food and your brand today?

[00:08:43] I mean, we've been talking about some of the freebies and stuff like that and where do you see it headed? Where do you see the market headed  in the segment?

[00:08:50]Jodie Conrad: [00:08:50] Yeah we are kind of a bit of a hybrid to your point like we're a quick serve. We have a drive-through we have all those things but we also have some nods to fast casual like when you dine in our restaurants, we bring your food out to you in the dining room after you order and take your seat. And we serve our food with unreal plates with real utensils,  so  we're kind of a, I guess, an elevated QSR. It's kind of how we think of ourselves. Some are kind of between, kind of a basic QSR, which is why I think we've held onto more of the dine-in part of the business  because people can still get a good experience and a good value there.

[00:09:20] And there's really not anyone who does exactly what we do  in terms of Italian food, through a drive-through available at pretty attractive price points starting around 499 or $6 for a lunch that includes a beverage. So I've always kinda thought that's a blessing and a curse in some ways  cause if you say like, I want chicken or I want a burger, you kind of have a short list in your head of the places that you're going to go and because we're kind of alone and what we do, it's not maybe so often that's the case and that's what we found a lot.

[00:09:47] We tend to have, in our user base, it's a little bifurcated. We have those people who are regulars and they visit a whole lot. And then there's like another group on the other end where they like us but they kind of I think forget about us sometimes in the middle. And then they can remember and  come back and I think that's been a really interesting thing.

[00:10:03] And part of what's happened during COVID is as people were looking for other options to feed their family, pasta is a good option for that. Kids like it. You can get a good value at it. And I think a lot of folks kind of rediscovered us again during this experience. And found this to be a good option to feed their family to make everybody happy what they got and to be able to do it at a good value which we know is super important, it's going to be important.

[00:10:27] Jenifer Kern: [00:10:27] Right. It is a very unique segment like you just kind of painted that picture and I don't have any near me, so I've never been to one. Like I have a road trip plan for when this is all over but I was looking at all the pictures on your website and I was thinking the same thing. Like this is fairly unique but also perfect for the times we're in, because I know myself as a mom and as the person responsible for dinner not always the case in every family but to be able to go out and get yet the full meal, right? Not just like you said, a burger or a fry, which you're sort of like, eh,  I've been having a lot of that but to get a full meal and it looks like you have a lot of variety.

[00:11:01] And I know, like you said, that family meal and the pack has performed really well, you are right it is unique. 

[00:11:06] Jodie Conrad: [00:11:06] Yeah. And the majority of our business is pasta as you'd expect and we have everything from really basic choices like fettuccine, Alfredo, and spaghetti and meatballs and all that stuff that we still sell a whole lot of even though they're pretty basic and classic dishes but we also do some LTOs that are really when we execute it right they are on part with what you can get in a casual dining in terms of the food experience. Because we have like right now, a Parmesan crusted shrimp bake where it's a pasta and an Alfredo sauce with shrimp in a black pepper sauce and roasted red peppers and panko bread crumbs on top.

[00:11:39] So like, it's really something that is pretty special in terms of an item that tastes good. And you feel that you're indulging yourself a little bit but you can get it for like less than $8. Which is kind of amazing.

[00:11:50] Jenifer Kern: [00:11:50] That is amazing. And I saw that you're testing some gluten-free options.

[00:11:55]Jodie Conrad: [00:11:55] We are. That is  one of the things that is not a fad by any means as a real trend that we do have a lot of people who are looking to watch their carb intake or watch their gluten intake. Obviously we're still not a choice if you have celiac disease or those things where gluten is very dangerous to you because we have gluten in our kitchen.

[00:12:11] But we have added a gluten friendly pasta in our tests that's a chicken pesto, rotini dish. It's really  delicious whether you are trying to avoid gluten or not. It's a great dish and I would recommend it. We're also testing a low carb keto flatbread, a pepperoni bacon flatbread. And it has like eight net carbs, I think. so, and again, a great deal. Like you can get it for only 499. So, we know it's been a gap on our menu and it does matter when people are feeding a family. If you've got one person in the group who either is avoiding gluten or carbs, we kind of had like you could get a salad and that's about it.

[00:12:45] So, you know, having some other meaningful choices there that we can execute well, was important to us.

[00:12:51] Jenifer Kern: [00:12:51] Yeah, that's fantastic. That's fantastic. My son is gluten-free he's not celiac but he's pretty far on the spectrum and that's always something that goes into our decision when we're ordering. And just to have those options like you said, it's more than a trend, right?

[00:13:03] This low carb keto is a big part of a lot of people's diet now. So, having those options just sounds great. So, just reflecting on your past, you mentioned starting out in finance and then getting kind of hooked, a lot of people say they got like bit by the restaurant bug.

[00:13:18] Right. You know, felt falling in love with restaurants, getting into the restaurant space and working for a lot of big brands. I mean, you mentioned Wendy's and some other great brands. What do you think has been the thing that's really shaped your career the most and kept you in the restaurant marketing space.

[00:13:33] Jodie Conrad: [00:13:33] Yeah, I think it was really the first time that I worked at Wendy's. I worked for Emma Burleigh, who later was the CEO at Wendy's until he retired about four years ago.  And he was the strategic or the senior vice president of strategic planning and research.  So,  we were a pretty small team working for him.

[00:13:50] There was a research group and then a marketing group, and we worked on product testing and we worked on bundled options and everything else. And part of it was just such a great learning experience that you kind of had to learn about the whole business, how it all worked together in that job because you're evaluating different menu items and menu changes and you have to understand how it affects the financial performance. You have to understand how consumers respond to it. You have to understand how it affects operations and can we execute it with excellence.

[00:14:16] And so that's where I think  finance background or finance degree isn't a bad thing. As long as  you create a well-rounded team because you also have to understand how the business is screwed together. How you can influence it and get the results that you're looking for.

[00:14:30] And having that job where I just got to touch it and learn a lot of things was probably what did it for me because that  I was 20 something years old and didn't know what I didn't know at the time and just getting the chance to kind of do that and learn it. And the pace of it is something that I think people either love or hate.

[00:14:47] Cause it's not like a consumer packaged goods kind of business. It's much more like retail and you have to be, even if you're a big organization, you have to be nimble to some degree  to be able to compete in this space because that's the other part that everyone can relate to restaurants, I guess, is part of why it's interesting to work on because consumers are fascinating, always fascinating.  Because they're always changing and there are always things you can learn about how they're behaving and how they're making decisions and what that means to your business because everyone can relate to restaurants.

[00:15:18] Jenifer Kern: [00:15:18] Yeah, it's so true. It's so true. That's so interesting. just such a great journey, right? To be able to combine the finance side of it with all the different aspects of the restaurant and the restaurants are very complex. My background is more B2B SAS and it's a little bit more of a linear.

[00:15:33] But seeing all the changes that have occurred, even with pandemic and this combination of the brick and mortar with the online and the digital experience and managing all that. And I know I've told you that with this podcast I'm really looking to elevate the conversation and marketers in general within this space.

[00:15:48] Cause I feel like they've been a little bit undervalued in the past and now is our opportunity to really rise up. Right. And talk about the things that we're doing. So I'd love to hear like more on your perspective there in terms of your role, your team at Fazoli's, how have you, help to kind of bring all those different facets of the business like you said together and really help the organization shine.

[00:16:10]Jodie Conrad: [00:16:10] Yeah. And  I feel like the roles that I had at Denatos and at Wendy's, and here in terms of being in the brand.   You are at the center of a lot of what's going on in the organization because you're driving the marketing calendar, you're driving a lot of these initiatives.

[00:16:21] So it requires a lot of cross functional connections and cooperation and planning.  And that has never been more so than now, I think especially, when I think back to some of my earlier restaurant jobs years ago, I probably barely knew people that were in the IT department, for example, where now they're probably number one on our quick dial lists. Because we're collaborating and working with them so much, because so much is about the technology and the tools to providing a good experience,  both for our guests and for our operators. And I think that it's really been important for us to understand how as marketers, to that point, like how it all fits together, how we can make this something where our operators can execute it with ease. It makes our guests experience better and takes down barriers for them being able to access us and get the food they want when they want, how they want it.

[00:17:11] And it's really been something where I feel like that's one of the reasons that the brand has done well through this pandemic is we really did this kind of all focus on like as a leadership team communicating well together.  And as we're all working remotely, then within our team trying to stay connected and react to things in a hurry because we're turning things around on a dime because you've gotta find ways to communicate.

[00:17:33] How are people going to social distance in your space and give them guidance and communicate  how to do that? And how are we going to make sure a franchisees succeed through this? How can we help them with their media planning? And, as they think about how they're going to invest their money in this world moving forward and really staying close to them.

[00:17:50] So I feel like we really just kind of buckled down when all this happened to say we just need to survive. Like we don't know how long  this terrible, kind of, situation is going to be in place. So we just all have to support each other, whether that's franchisees, whether that's the people on our own teams, whether that's the people working in our restaurants, like how can we just try to make sure that we can get through this to fight another day.

[00:18:09] And that's really kind of the mentality that it took because it was rough.  Those first, several weeks for everyone.

[00:18:15] Jenifer Kern: [00:18:15] Yeah. Have you made a lot of changes on your team or have you kept everything pretty much the same?

[00:18:20] Jodie Conrad: [00:18:20] We furloughed a couple of people. And so, we did eliminate a couple of positions and now as we're kind of getting on the other side in terms  of sales and revenue performance, figuring out kind of like how to build the team back the best way, because things are a little different kind of coming out of this other side in terms of what we need to do for our guests, what we need to do to support our technology, what we needed it.

[00:18:41] What kind of support, we need to support franchisees in terms of what roles and all of that. So we're still kind of figuring some of that out, you know, right now to say, as we look to the future to build back our team,  where do we really need to fill the gaps?

[00:18:54] Jenifer Kern: [00:18:54] Can you give us a little insight into maybe some of the different roles or emphasis on different areas? Like for example, I know, you know, local store marketing is always important. Are you going to have the same emphasis on that? And you have over 200 locations, right ? 

[00:19:07] Jodie Conrad: [00:19:07] We do and we're in 28 States.  We don't have a really huge footprint anywhere. You know, we're sort of spread out.

[00:19:13] Jenifer Kern: [00:19:13] heavily franchised or what's your?

[00:19:15] Jodie Conrad: [00:19:15] About three quarters of our system as franchise the company owns about 25% of our restaurants and so local store marketing will always be important to us with that kind of a footprint.

[00:19:25] We don't have national advertising, right? Because of what it makes sense for us? It wouldn't be relevant or affordable but how we do it is different now. Because we focus a lot of it before on sort of some boots on the ground and building like catering relationships with schools and with businesses.

[00:19:41] And we're like, you can't go to those places now. So how can we find some other tools that will help restaurants make connections and keep us top of mind and even like changing what we're offering as relates to things like catering where now we have individually packaged meals because  there are a lot of situations where people aren't going to share, like everyone digging into a pan of pasta  to share it among a group. If they aren't people that are in your household. So, we've had to really even change what we're offering as part of catering to be relevant for those people who are still need that.  Things like,  retailers  where there's still a need to feed their people for some of these busy times that are coming up. But they need to do it in a different way.  

[00:20:16] Jenifer Kern: [00:20:16] Yeah. A lot of things to consider there.

[00:20:17] Jodie Conrad: [00:20:17] Yeah. And in terms of on the company side we really haven't made that many changes. We think about like our local market, our paid media plans. We're still doing kind of some of the traditional things like, outdoor and out-of-home and direct mail because we don't really have the presence or the penetration in our markets where TV makes a lot of sense for us because we can't afford enough of it to make a lasting sales or brand benefit over time. So we're still pretty much using those traditional tools. And then doing some digital and social from here, you know, on behalf of the brand overall but we're still kind of deploying what I would call very traditional tools in our media plan but things like direct mail are still working in today's environment where value is a top of mind.

[00:21:00] Jenifer Kern: [00:21:00] Right. What is your largest traffic driver right now? What strategy or channel is driving the most  traffic?

[00:21:08] Jodie Conrad: [00:21:08] In terms of guest? Yeah. drive through is the percentage growth is greatest in delivery and in online ordering for take-out the percentage growth is biggest there but the biggest dollar boost and occasion boost is the drive-through. I think people just feel safe in their cars,  you know, listening to some of like the data central research, they've done some really good work through the pandemic.

[00:21:27] And I think as long as people can stay in their cars and get food and take it home they can feel safe and that they're not putting themselves or their family at risk. And so I think drive-thru has just been a really important channel not just for us but for all of QSR.

[00:21:40] Jenifer Kern: [00:21:40] Oh, yeah. And do you have single dual lanes?

[00:21:43]Jodie Conrad: [00:21:43] Just single. A lot of our restaurants, we really don't have the room on our sites to accommodate much more than that anyway and it is very expensive to do that. So that's why we've done things more like the tablets and the breadstick service to try to speed up the line and provide a better experience there since we can't easily and quickly put things like that in place.

[00:22:01] Jenifer Kern: [00:22:01] Right. And how do you see consumers? I mean, other than, from a channel perspective, you're saying like the drive-through is definitely the top producing from a marketing and engagement and conversion standpoint, where do you see consumers really engaging with you the most and converting on your marketing outreach?

[00:22:17] Jodie Conrad: [00:22:17] I think a couple of things, we have kind of changed our approach to social a little bit and are getting greater engagement on that by just kind of speaking more with a human voice, sort of, being, more. Like a person than a brand. Because as a personality for the brand mean, we are like just kind of, sort of Midwestern approachable friendly, you know, sort of thing. And so really kind of bringing that to bear, in our voice there.  Cause it's kind of what we do. Like not everybody can afford to go to olive garden or a lot of other fancier Italian restaurants all the time, but you can still get a good Italian food experience for a reasonable price in our restaurants. And so, that's been important for us and using our Fazoli's rewards our  loyalty program and our mobile app to be able to message. Cause that's something that we can completely control ourselves, you know, in terms of being able to reach out and send the message or provide an offer or communicate things like our super family meal that I was talking about, where we really provided one of the best values in the industry with that offer when people were really looking to find an affordable ways to feed a lot of people and their households.

[00:23:24]Jenifer Kern: [00:23:24] nd what social media channel is best performing for you? Is it Facebook? Instagram?

[00:23:30]Jodie Conrad: [00:23:30] For us, it's primarily Facebook and Twitter where we get the most engagement. Instagram is okay for us. And we really haven't done a whole lot on Snapchat yet. 

[00:23:40] Jenifer Kern: [00:23:40] Or TikTok?

[00:23:40] Jodie Conrad: [00:23:40] Or TikTok. I have to tell you TikTok makes me feel old.

[00:23:43] Jenifer Kern: [00:23:43] I know right. We keep talking about tech. I mean, it keeps coming up because sometimes I'm the one who brings it up. Cause it's like, I'm a very socially forward person for my age. Let's just put it that way. And I've worked for social media companies. So, but TikTok is actually the one platform I have not got on.

[00:24:01] Jodie Conrad: [00:24:01] It's just one of those things where I'm like, this is why we have diversity in our teams, right? Because every time I looked at TikTok I'm like, yeah, I don't kind of get this. So that's why I need somebody to do  understand it for me.

[00:24:11] Jenifer Kern: [00:24:11] Right.  Well, the human factor that you talked about on social is so true and it's been evolving over time, but I definitely think in the pandemic it's become more and more like people just don't want to be like marketed to and want to be talked to. And so then emotional side, like tapping into the emotional responses and just tapping into the human side of things.

[00:24:32] Is so important there. I mean, I've been seeing it a lot on LinkedIn too. I mean, LinkedIn is transforming. LinkedIn used to be just like a billboard, right? For resumes and people and businesses. And now you have these marketing people who I think it's in their job description, senior marketing leaders who are writing every day on LinkedIn. Really emotive things like asking questions and sharing their experience. And so seeing some of the social changes, like you said and more human aspects. Can you give us a few examples of how you've humanized your outreach and social?

[00:25:03]Jodie Conrad: [00:25:03] Yeah. And I think just engaging with more people and there's nothing secretive or magical about that. It's just really about spending the time to reach out and engage with people and celebrate when they love us, you know, and why they love us. And it's one of the things where it's so easy to make a connection with people that can be lasting just by using some of that user generated content, you know, to share on our site and following some of these people and engaging with them and conversations about the brand and what it means to them. It hasn't been anything revolutionary by any means and nothing like the Wendy's Twitter experience that happened.

[00:25:37] That was in our digital group but that was a whole like kind of revolution thing in and of itself. Nothing to that degree for us by any means in terms of a different brand voice it's actually I think bringing our brand voice to social where we weren't doing a great job of it before.

[00:25:51] Jenifer Kern: [00:25:51] Yeah. So engaging more than talking at people.

[00:25:54] Jodie Conrad: [00:25:54] Yeah exactly.

[00:25:55] Jenifer Kern: [00:25:55] Yeah. Creating that conversation. Yep. So important. Let's talk about digital and the digital transformation that's happening in the industry a little bit and how's that manifesting itself at Fazoli's and within your team?

[00:26:07] Jodie Conrad: [00:26:07] Yeah,  one position, our team is basically solely dedicated to sort of all of that now and parts of other positions but that didn't exist even just four and a half years ago, you know, when I was here, there was a person who's a shared resource on social and some other things, but now we have a digital marketing manager who  owns all of the Fazoli's rewards. He owns all of social, both to help direct content and community management, and also helping us grow participation in our loyalty database, getting new users, developing frequency, what are different tactics we can test and try. Because that's one of the beautiful things about that is because we can control it.

[00:26:42] It's easy for us to test things and either like have a great idea that we can capitalize on or kind of move on, you learn like nobody really, that didn't spark for anyone. So, okay, that's not it. What else can we do?

[00:26:53]Jenifer Kern: [00:26:53] Yeah. And on the larger business side, how has tech evolving across the business?

[00:26:59] Jodie Conrad: [00:26:59] Gosh, it's again, part of the main reason. I think our business has been able to thrive and survive. Like I was talking about through this is because of a lot of the technology around off premise platforms. Having digital or having third party delivery relationships in place. But then also we switched to Olo last fall. We had been one of the lingers ago. that was really more on the catering side. And now,  like for all of the business so that we could integrate through Olo rail. So all of those delivering orders because they literally more than doubled almost overnight,

[00:27:28] Jenifer Kern: [00:27:28] Right.

[00:27:29] Jodie Conrad: [00:27:29] You know, when people weren't going out.

[00:27:30] So having that integration into our POS system where we didn't before we have the gazillion tablets in every restaurant and ping the orders are coming in and they've gotta be reentered into the POS system to fulfill them where you both have. You're not adding value to the process by doing that.

[00:27:45] And you have the opportunity to make a mistake and make it worse, right? You know, having those integrations has been super important for us to be able to weather this and also with improving,  through Olo and our mobile app is with punch. So, it didn't make sense for us to develop those internally and  partly it takes forever.

[00:28:04] You never know how much it's going to cost. And then once you build it, you've got to maintain it forever too. So,  I think they've been really good partners to us through this, you know, Olo punch and cause that's the other  part of the business in terms of percentage growth online and mobile ordering. You know, it was up like 400%. So it's still not a huge part of our business. We haven't done enough to grow that is still an opportunity for us, but we needed to get the right platform in place first, which we did just last fall.

[00:28:29] So, you know, goodness that was in place a year 

[00:28:32] Jenifer Kern: [00:28:32] ago.

[00:28:32] Yeah. Yeah. And you had the mobile app. A lot of people are scrambling now to get the mobile app.

[00:28:37] Jodie Conrad: [00:28:37] Yeah, we were just very fortunate that had been  a focus of the organization and something that our CEO, you know, had really focused on for a while because you know, the trend lines were an extremely moving towards more on-premise so how can we within reason for an organization our size and what the resources we have. How can we make ourselves available?

[00:28:56] However people want to use us. What can we do to make that an easy experience and take barriers away?

[00:29:01] Jenifer Kern: [00:29:01] Right, And speaking about, like, you've mentioned a few times the consumer data and getting to insights and understanding the guest. How are you collecting the data and staying on top of consumer trends for your business?

[00:29:14] Jodie Conrad: [00:29:14] Yeah, we take advantage of what, outside resources there are like, I mentioned data central has done a great job doing some webinars and posting  free information on their website, which has been a great resource, you know, especially early on, as we're all trying to figure out, what does this mean?

[00:29:27] How are people behaving? What's important to them and it's one of the things that we were already seeing from our own interactions, with guests in our restaurant, but especially early on really reinforced the importance of having  these rigorous, cleanliness and sanitation standards, living up to those and sharing it and communicating it with your guests, because kind of before in this business always kind of like cleaning as something that you kind of wanted to do without anybody seeing it, you just wanted them to see the result of it, right?

[00:29:53] Like a clean table, a clean space, you didn't really want them to see you doing it. Now, like they want to see you doing it, like wipe down that counter and sanitize the other table before my family is going to sit there and like, they want to see you doing it. 

[00:30:05] Jenifer Kern: [00:30:05] Yeah. 

[00:30:05] Jodie Conrad: [00:30:05] So, using resources that are available to us that way, you know, to help us kind of like, here's what we're saying. Yeah. This is definitely something  that's in a handful of markets or locations. Now this is something that is really top of mind for these consumers.

[00:30:17] We also, every year or two, do studies just sort of a guest experience assessment where we also try to see what's happening with traffic.   Meaning, what are our opportunities for us to, what are things we're doing better on to make the guest experience good and how are they making trade-offs between brands like who's winning and who's losing. You kind of learn from that to say what are those people doing that we need to take advantage of?

[00:30:38] And then we also get a lot of feedback from guests on our products, too. We do, in restaurant research, as we do testing a new product development to get feedback on our products. So like we're talking about the keto flatbread and the gluten-free pasta that's something that we got consumer feedback on.

[00:30:53] So very specific at the product experience and formulation. But also how does it deliver on what, in this case, like what your dietary needs are. Like if you're a person who's looking for gluten friendly choices or low carb choices, is this meeting  the need that you have.

[00:31:07] Jenifer Kern: [00:31:07] Right. Are you getting real-time guests feedback? Like, do you do like the surveys or the moment feed or ovation or use any of that? 

[00:31:14] Jodie Conrad: [00:31:14] Yeah we were with S and G for a long time, but a few years ago, I guess, you know, discontinue that. And we rely a lot now, which isn't exactly the same thing by any means, but we do get a lot of guests feedback from online reviews, you know, for all of our restaurants. And, we have a relationship with yaks.

[00:31:32] Where we have those are centralized and our operators, our customer guest services can respond to those in real time both for the good ones and the bad ones we found out is important to do. So it's definitely trying to recover a customer is very important, you know, as part of that experience when they have a bad experience and want to tell people about it.

[00:31:50] But when they have a great experience, like acknowledging that too, you know, and celebrating that and appreciating them for coming in and for taking the time to share about a good experience. So we've been really sanding in both of those.

[00:32:02] Jenifer Kern: [00:32:02] Yeah. That's great. Well, such good information. I really appreciate you chatting with me today and our listeners. And now I'd like to move into a little bit more of what I call my lightning round. So if I can ask you a few quick questions, Jodie, what keeps you up at night?

[00:32:15] Jodie Conrad: [00:32:15] What keeps me up at night is not knowing what's going to happen, with this crazy virus, right now. So I'm sure I'm not alone in that. I just think every time we think it's going to get better or we know how it's going to end, it's pretty much all of the States we're in, it's getting worse and not better.

[00:32:29] And I worry about, you know, how our guests are gonna feel about venturing out through our restaurants and us being able to provide them an experience that they feel safe and cared for and can get delicious food to feed their family. The uncertainty of it is still making me a little crazy, even though business is good right now.

[00:32:44] After having lived through what we did this spring, I'll be glad when whatever the new normal is on the other side of this. It gets here and we know what that looks like.

[00:32:52] Jenifer Kern: [00:32:52] Yeah. What advice do you have for restaurant marketers?

[00:32:55] Jodie Conrad: [00:32:55] I think, you know, a couple of things, one is just always be curious, that to me is the most fascinating part of this is, what people do and how they make decisions has changed from the time I started in this business to now there's always something to learn and people are interesting and always being curious and open to figuring out what's going on with people and what that could mean to you and your business is important.

[00:33:17] Jenifer Kern: [00:33:17] Yeah. The biggest opportunity for restaurant marketers today.

[00:33:21]Jodie Conrad: [00:33:21] I think, the biggest opportunity it's hard there are so many, I guess, is the issue, but what's been amazing to me is how much technology has played into how people are accessing and using restaurants and like the things that Domino's did, for example, you know, early on through their app where I guarantee you, no one in a focus group was asking for any of that.

[00:33:40] So, really being able to anticipate where guests are going on how they want to use an access us and what they want from us. So we can be ahead of it and give them that is our biggest opportunity, because you've got to kind of figure it out. Some of it out on your own, because no one's going to tell you that in a focus group or through a research study.

[00:33:57] Jenifer Kern: [00:33:57] Absolutely. The biggest challenge marketers face today.

[00:34:00] Jodie Conrad: [00:34:00] The biggest challenge to me is still always just kind of staying top of mind because there's a million other choices out there. So, what can we do to make sure that people don't forget about us, that we're providing what people are looking for and the value they're looking for and breaking through.

[00:34:14] And that's where I think things tools like our mobile app have been really important to us because in a world of TV or other marketing compared to a McDonald's and a subways all of these big concepts, we're never going to be on that same playing field, but, we can provide an experience for the mobile app.

[00:34:30] That's pretty much on par with what a lot of those big players are doing. And so that's why it's been an important tool for us.

[00:34:36]Jenifer Kern: [00:34:36] Yeah, absolutely. I love this. This is a new question I've been asking. What is one commonly held belief in restaurant marketing that you disagree with?

[00:34:44]Jodie Conrad: [00:34:44] I guess my experience here would say that you've gotta be on TV. We have some markets who run TV, so it's not something that we don't do at all, but we not long after I was in charge of the entire department after I was promoted to this role, is one of the things we did is like, we took it out of our schedule and the company markets where we'd done it before, and we're doing better now than we've ever done.

[00:35:04] And again, we haven't really even innovated as much as we can, or we should in terms of how we're approaching our media planning and all of that. We're still using pretty traditional things. But I think, my experience with Wendy's and even with Denatos is like, you buy a TV, it's what you do.

[00:35:18] Jenifer Kern: [00:35:18] Right. Challenging the status quo. That's such a good reminder too, that every brand is different.

[00:35:23] Jodie Conrad: [00:35:23] that's right. That's right.

[00:35:25] Jenifer Kern: [00:35:25] It's not a one size fits all for marketing every different brand has different requirements and things that work better and don't work at all. So back to your point of staying curious and open, right?

[00:35:35] And exploring that. What is restaurants reinvented mean to you today?

[00:35:38] Jodie Conrad: [00:35:38] Restaurants reinvented to me really is about being. Able to understand the whole guest experience. Because I think, like I said, especially when the brand had much more of the business happening in dine-in and it's like you open your doors and people come to you and that's not in anymore.

[00:35:52] That's this much of it. there's so much more. And, so I think really understanding the whole consumer journey and how you can take away barriers and make yourself a better choice for them all throughout that process is a super important.

[00:36:06] Jenifer Kern: [00:36:06] Yeah, it's a big job.

[00:36:08] Jodie Conrad: [00:36:08] It has a big job.

[00:36:09] Jenifer Kern: [00:36:09] It's a big job connecting all those. What did I hear? I think 27 touch points in the consumer journey the restaurant.

[00:36:14] Jodie Conrad: [00:36:14] I kind of believe it now.

[00:36:17] So many ways to go wrong. Like a golf swing, right? A million things. Yeah.

[00:36:22] Jenifer Kern: [00:36:22] Well, so fun having you here today, Jodie.  Before we wrap any last plugs that you want to put in for Fazoli's?

[00:36:29] Jodie Conrad: [00:36:29] If you're in one of our markets, if you haven't been for a while, give us a try. I think you'll be really pleasantly surprised at some great food you can get for a good price, and served quick. It's a really unique kind of concept and we're really proud of what we're doing out there every day.

[00:36:42] Jenifer Kern: [00:36:42] That's great. Well, thanks for everything you're doing and congratulations your recent successes and thanks for the free breadsticks which I had won, and stay awesome. Love it. It's great stuff.

[00:36:53] Jodie Conrad: [00:36:53] Thanks so much, Jennifer. Appreciate it.