Learn how to prioritize social impact while scaling your business with the Founder and CEO of GiftAMeal.

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The Off-Premise Restaurant

by Restaurant Experts

Andrew Glantz is the Founder & CEO of GiftAMeal, a local marketing program that helps provide a meal to a family in need each time a guest takes a photo at a partner restaurant. Over 500 restaurants currently participate and over 1,300,000 meals have been given so far! Andrew believes that profit and purpose can be consistent goals hence his expertise in brand alignment.

Here are a few highlights from this episode:

What is the most important aspect of the guest experience nowadays?

I think the last word is the most important: experience. A lot has gone off premise, if somebody is going to come on premise to the restaurant, there has to be an experience for the guest. What is going to be the driver that’s going to create that sense of hospitality within the 4 walls that makes it worth the customer not just ordering from their phone at home, but actually going into a physical restaurant. If it is off-premise, how do you extend that sense of connection to the brand and that sense of hospitality to the customer off-premise. So they aren’t just seeing you as a commodity where they can school through doordash and pick any other restaurant.

What are some successful tactics you’ve seen or tried lately?

“Treating guests the same across the channel and forming that sense of connection. We’ve started to look at different that GiftAMeal can be embedded within those other channels, whether it’s the restaurant’s own mobile app and having GiftAMeal embedded after online ordering at the restaurant to have a prompt for them to take their photo . . .

. . . There’s a lot of ways when you look at the touch points with the customers as to how you can take something one step further of an experience in order to really push that guest experience to be something positive.

Who deserves an Ovation in the industry?

Andy Rehbun, SVP Marketing, El Pollo Loco

“He’s always looking at the latest innovations in tech and for new ways to connect with customers . . .

. . .he’s doing some really amazing things that are cutting edge, and is really kind of embracing a different mentality in the restaurant industry

For more, reach out to Andrew at andrew@giftameal.com or learn more at the GiftAMeal website!

Thanks for reading! Make sure to check out the whole episode, as well as other interviews with restaurant gurus by checking out “Give an Ovation: A Podcast For Restaurants” on ovationup.com/podcast or your favorite place to listen to podcasts.

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