Brandon Batt, Founder and CEO of The Tabletop Group, joins Zack Oates to discuss how people strategy directly shapes the guest experience. Drawing from more than a decade leading people operations at Savory, Brandon explains why investing in the right leaders creates consistency, trust, and long term guest loyalty.

The Guest Experience Is the Employee Experience (4:11)

“The guest experience is the employee experience showing up in public.”

Brandon explains that how teams feel at work directly shows up in how guests are treated. Investing in people is not optional if brands want a consistent guest experience.

Invest Time Where It Is Earned (5:01)

“Invest your time in the employees that have earned it.”

Rather than spending all their energy fixing poor fits, Brandon encourages leaders to focus on developing team members who already align with the culture and values.

Discipline Comes from Trusting the Team (6:11)

“You’ve got to have trust in your leadership team.”

Brandon shares that discipline comes from building a leadership team where responsibilities are shared, allowing leaders to strengthen what is working while others address challenges.

Focus Shapes What You See (8:01)

“If all you’re focused on is the problems, that’s all you’re going to see.”

Using a skiing analogy, Brandon explains how leaders hit what they focus on, reinforcing the importance of deliberately focusing on strengths and progress.

Consistency Builds Trust with Guests (9:51)

“Consistency is the new luxury.”

Brandon tells a story about a small restaurant where familiarity and consistency mattered more than food quality, creating loyalty through trust and connection.

Connection Creates Lifetime Guests (13:10)

“If you build that connection, that’s how you get someone for a lifetime.”

Zack and Brandon discuss how convenience brings guests in, consistency keeps them coming back, and connection turns them into lifelong supporters.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-c-batt/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-tabletop-group/

https://thetabletopgroup.com/

Transcript

00:00:00:06 – 00:00:24:20

Zack Oates

Welcome to another edition of Give Innovation the Restaurant Guest Experience podcast. I’m your host, Zack Oates, and each week I chat with industry experts to uncover their strategies and tactics to help you create a five star guest experience. This podcast is powered by ovation, the feedback and operations platform built for multi-node restaurants. Learn what’s actually happening in your restaurants and exactly how to improve while driving revenue.

00:00:24:21 – 00:00:54:06

Zack Oates

Learn more at ovation up.com. And today we have someone that I am so excited to take a different approach to guest experience. And we’ve talked about the power of people before, but Brandon Batt is the CEO and founder at The Tabletop Group. Recently, he was the director of people for 12 years at savory. Everyone knows savory, and I’m actually drinking some swig.

00:00:54:08 – 00:01:14:04

Zack Oates

Here. That ice that’s magical ice right there. But he’s been all over doing amazing things in his career and really focused on people. And now he’s out there doing his own thing. And I’m really excited to chat with you Brandon, that about what you’re doing and hear about how people can affect the guest experience. So welcome to the podcast.

00:01:14:06 – 00:01:34:17

Brandon Batt

Hey, thank you, Zach, for having me. I appreciate it. And I’ve listened to your podcast for a long time and listened to, a lot of other podcasts. And man, I just have to say, your intro is so good and to see you do that live was the man that made my day. I’ve always thought that intro was too good.

00:01:34:17 – 00:01:43:20

Brandon Batt

There’s no way he does that live every single time. And just to see you do that live. Wow. I’m. Yeah I’m floored you man.

00:01:43:20 – 00:02:02:00

Zack Oates

Well it those who, aren’t seeing the video of this. I’m blushing. But Brandon appreciate that van man. Here he is. Just way to start a podcast. Just hype up the host and make him feel good. So. Well, Brandon, talk to us about the tabletop group. What is it and what inspired you to start it?

00:02:02:02 – 00:02:24:18

Brandon Batt

So I guess what inspired me is, like you mentioned, I was with savory for a little over a decade, 12 years, and man, there’s inspirations all around in that firm. The just amazing people from top to bottom. It’s easy to get inspired when you’re around amazing people like that. And Ron, Andrew and Shauna and Josh Bouchard and all the leaders there.

00:02:24:18 – 00:02:47:19

Brandon Batt

So they were definitely an inspiration to me every single day, and that inspired me to go out on my own and bring to the market some of the stuff that I had learned from them and others along the way. But the tabletop group I help in the most simplistic form. I help restaurant founders and operators really hire and develop the leaders that actually move the needle.

00:02:47:24 – 00:03:17:20

Brandon Batt

I know what it’s like to be an operator who’s lived with staffing and the chaos that that can happen there. Mischiefs, pressure, making payroll while protecting the guest and, you know, guest experience. It’s built on great leadership and a team that really wants to be there. And that’s my goal with the tabletop group, is to be able to help founders and deals be able to find the right people and really just continue to grow their brands.

00:03:17:22 – 00:03:37:18

Zack Oates

And it is so powerful to move the needle with people. I love how you said that, because anyway, anytime I think about a needle right now, I think of like my weekly GLP one injections and like having to move that needle and sometimes it’s hard and it’s scary. But if you do it right, dang, you look good after, you know what I mean, right?

00:03:37:20 – 00:03:58:09

Zack Oates

It takes some work. But as you’re thinking about moving the needle of obviously like the speed, the improvement, what are some low hanging fruit that you’ve seen in restaurant brands that can really help? Because one of your roles at savory was taking the brands and integrating and making sure that the people had homes and they were doing the right things in the right times.

00:03:58:09 – 00:04:11:10

Zack Oates

And so what are some low hanging fruit that you’ve seen in the last dozen years, working with all these different kinds of brands that can help restaurant owners and operators right now level up their team?

00:04:11:12 – 00:04:21:22

Brandon Batt

Yeah, definitely. That’s a great question. I like to say that the guest experience is the employee experience showing up in public.

00:04:21:24 – 00:04:23:05

Zack Oates

Oh I love that.

00:04:23:07 – 00:04:47:19

Brandon Batt

So it’s something that everybody knows that that you have to do. Every business owner, they’ve read it in every book since they were in high school that take care of the employees and your guest will be taken care of. But it’s one of those things that’s so easy and you hear so many times that you forget. So in my experience, I would say it’s probably the the lowest hanging fruit is continue to invest in your team.

00:04:47:21 – 00:04:52:24

Brandon Batt

And in doing so, yeah, the guest experience will continue to thrive and grow.

00:04:53:01 – 00:05:01:17

Zack Oates

When you talk about investing in the team, what are some ways that you’ve seen that there are some good investments and bad investment? What’s a waste of money versus like what’s essential?

00:05:01:23 – 00:05:09:04

Brandon Batt

Yeah, I would say invest in the people that have earned it. And when I say invest, maybe it’s invest your time.

00:05:09:06 – 00:05:10:16

Zack Oates

Oh interesting. Yeah.

00:05:10:18 – 00:05:40:15

Brandon Batt

Invest your time in the employees that have earned your time, that are doing the correct things. Spend all your time with those people. You know, very early on if somebody fits the culture and if they’re going to add value to the culture, you know, very early on, and a lot of founders will focus on trying to fix the employees that don’t when they could be spending that time making those employees that do even better.

00:05:40:17 – 00:05:57:18

Zack Oates

Yeah. Because it really is like you focus on the problems, right? You want to stop getting punched in the face as opposed to like working on your right hook. But that right hook is how you know when out of the park, right? We never exactly way too many metaphors here, but you get the point. It’s like you have to be deliberate about that.

00:05:57:18 – 00:06:11:05

Zack Oates

How do you have the discipline to do that? I know that we’re supposed to be. I’m supposed to be asking you all these questions about the guest experience, but really, that’s what this is, right? The employee and the guest experts are so interrelated. So how do you have the discipline to not just focus on the problems?

00:06:11:07 – 00:06:47:01

Brandon Batt

You’re asking all the questions, Zach. You’re asking all the good ones. It has to do with building how you stay disciplined. You’ve got to have a team, right. You’ve got to have trust in your leadership team. So it’s not to say that nobody is focusing on the problems. If you build the right leadership team, you’re going to have somebody on your team that is going to be there focusing on that while you’re focusing on all the things that are that are going right or strengthening your strengths or vice versa, whether there’s someone on your team or yourself, the goal is to build a leadership team.

00:06:47:01 – 00:06:52:04

Brandon Batt

We’re really everything’s being focused on if that makes sense.

00:06:52:06 – 00:07:16:09

Zack Oates

And it’s so hard at times to do that because like, you’ve got to solve problems and if you are only focused on the problems, and I think here’s where it comes down to. It’s like if you have your whole calendar open to focus on problems, guess what? It’ll be filled with problems. And I think there’s so much to be said for having that time scheduled.

00:07:16:11 – 00:07:43:07

Zack Oates

And one thing that we do at ovation is I actually do skip level meetings twice a year with everyone. I want to hear how each individual team member is doing. I don’t care if there’s like two layers between us. It’s like it doesn’t matter. Like we’re all the team ovation to move things forward. And I have learned so much because sometimes feedback and sometimes it kind of gets a little bit filtered on the way up.

00:07:43:09 – 00:08:01:05

Zack Oates

But that’s led me to understand who are the rock stars and who are the people who. This may be a temporary role for them. Right. And what are some other like tactics that you’ve seen of people to help? And by the way, do you think that’s a bad idea or a good idea? What I do.

00:08:01:07 – 00:08:25:17

Brandon Batt

And I think that’s a really good idea and I like that you mentioned. Right. If all you’re focused on is are the problems, that’s all you’re going to see. The human mind doesn’t recognize the negative, it only sees what it sees. So for example, downhill skiers, right. You’re you’re skiing through the trees. You’re off the trail. If all you’re focused on is the trees, you’re going to hit a tree.

00:08:25:19 – 00:08:35:20

Brandon Batt

If you’re focused on the path, you’re going to continue down the path. The human mind doesn’t recognize the negative. It only recognizes what you’re focused on.

00:08:35:22 – 00:08:59:12

Zack Oates

Love that powerful and getting to the guest experience. I think nowadays the focus should be on the guest experience. At the end of the day, everything boils down to the guest experience. And I think with employees and with team members, it becomes so interesting. And by the way, I think they’re like employee and customer is the same as like team member and guest, right?

00:08:59:12 – 00:09:21:19

Zack Oates

It’s just like how to look at them. And one of the things that we talk about often at ovation is that you have your last mile delivery that we often that everyone talks about, but it’s really about the last foot and everything along your entire supply chain, all of your processes, everything they all of your training, everything that you’ve done.

00:09:21:21 – 00:09:44:16

Zack Oates

If that employee misses an item, if that employee is not having a good day, if that employee feels like an employee as opposed to a team member, all of that is for not because all the guest feels is that last foot, whether it’s a delivery or whether it’s dropping food off the table. It’s like that last foot is all controlled by people.

00:09:44:22 – 00:09:51:10

Zack Oates

So I’d love for you to give us your philosophy on the most important aspects of guest experience and how that relates to people.

00:09:51:12 – 00:10:17:01

Brandon Batt

Yeah, I think that consistency is the new luxury. Guests are more value conscious than ever, right? We all know that if you spend money, they want to know exactly what they’re going to get every single time. Same welcome, same pace, same quality, same recovery. If something goes sideways, right. So I think consistency is the new luxury of a great story.

00:10:17:01 – 00:10:44:17

Brandon Batt

So a bunch of the fellow coworkers and I would go to this Chinese restaurant and it was about 15 minutes away from the office. And we just ended up there one day. Never been. There’s a really it’s I mean, for all intents and purposes, a dive like we just ended up there one day. And you know what? I’ve probably been to this restaurant more than I’ve been to any other restaurant for just the consistency.

00:10:44:19 – 00:11:06:02

Brandon Batt

The same waiter every single time ended up knowing me by name, knowing my fellow coworkers by name, knew what we wanted. We would show up. He wouldn’t even give us a menu. All of our items would be there. I mean, if we didn’t want to, we don’t have to say a single word. Obviously, we like talking to people.

00:11:06:02 – 00:11:30:15

Brandon Batt

So we said quite a bit, but if we didn’t want to say a single word and we just wanted to decompress and go and sit down, our food would be there. The server knew exactly what we like to drink every single time. It’s a consistency. It’s huge. Right? And the food wasn’t necessarily the greatest. It wasn’t the cleanest restaurant I’ve ever been to.

00:11:30:18 – 00:11:34:15

Brandon Batt

But I knew what I was going to get. Yeah, every single time.

00:11:34:20 – 00:11:36:09

Zack Oates

And that builds trust.

00:11:36:11 – 00:12:02:23

Brandon Batt

It builds trust. Right. And that server took time to learn our names, took time to write, look at the name on the credit card, seeing who’s paying and then memorize the name. And it was an amazing experience. And again, it didn’t matter that it was the best food on the planet. It was the consistency. And we showed up multiple times a week for years, years.

00:12:03:00 – 00:12:22:22

Brandon Batt

So I think that there’s something to be said for that. Right. And again, going back to the we all know it, we’ve all read the books, we’ve been to the seminars. It’s the little things that matter to many people. There’s so much scope creep. Too many people are trying to figure out a new way of running their business.

00:12:22:24 – 00:12:31:23

Brandon Batt

At the end of the day, it’s getting back to the fundamentals and really getting good at that small, simple stuff.

00:12:32:00 – 00:12:52:10

Zack Oates

Man, I love that because at the we talk about all the time on this podcast, how at first it’s about convenience. Like for example, you love that restaurant, but if you move an hour away, the chances of you going there multiple times a week go to zero because it’s just not convenient. Or if they doubled their prices, you probably are going to go someplace else, right?

00:12:52:10 – 00:13:10:17

Zack Oates

Because it’s no longer convenient in terms of like the value. But then once you get past that convenience threshold, then it’s about consistency. If you went there three times and it was like a certain way, and you went there a fourth time and it was totally different, you’d be like, I don’t know if I want to go back here because I don’t know what I’m going to pay for.

00:13:10:19 – 00:13:30:09

Zack Oates

But then the highest level is exactly what this server did, which is connection, right? So it’s the convenience, the consistency and then the connection. And if you build that connection, that’s not how you get someone in a couple times. That’s how you get someone in a lifetime. And I think that’s really key because it’s all down to the people.

00:13:30:09 – 00:13:45:04

Zack Oates

Every process that you have, if at the end of the day, the person isn’t executing it with that hospitality in mind, you’re not building that connection and you’ve got a short term lease that’s going to make food and not a generational business.

00:13:45:06 – 00:14:01:13

Brandon Batt

Yeah, I know, absolutely. And you know what we would joke to we joke that, you know, and this is again is you got to take care of your employees, especially the good ones. We would joke that if that server left, we probably wouldn’t go back to that restaurant. Oh, find out.

00:14:01:15 – 00:14:02:07

Zack Oates

Where they went.

00:14:02:07 – 00:14:17:08

Brandon Batt

We would find out where they’re at, where they went, and we would go follow them. Yeah. No matter if we like the food or not. So that server made that much of a connection with us, that we were no longer there because of the restaurant. We were there because of that server.

00:14:17:10 – 00:14:34:11

Zack Oates

Yeah. I mean, I love that take care of your good employees. And as we say in Jersey, take care the bad ones, you know. Anyway, love that brand. And we’re going to have you back on to talk more about the guest experience, because I know you’ve just got such a wealth of experience, and this has been such a great conversation.

00:14:34:13 – 00:14:37:12

Zack Oates

Who is someone in the restaurant industry that deserves an ovation?

00:14:37:14 – 00:15:00:14

Brandon Batt

Yeah, I’d have to say. Jamal. Really of the Halal Shark. Just a good dude. If you guys haven’t heard of him, go look at the wall shack. Incredible food. They’ve got locations all over the country. An owner operator that cares about the business, that’s humble, that’s really doing the work on that grind. So I got to give a shout out to him.

00:15:00:16 – 00:15:03:12

Zack Oates

I love that. How many locations are they at?

00:15:03:14 – 00:15:06:09

Brandon Batt

I believe they’re at, a little over 35.

00:15:06:11 – 00:15:10:17

Zack Oates

Oh, really? At 50. Oh very cool. Yeah. They’re all over the place.

00:15:10:17 – 00:15:17:21

Brandon Batt

Figured it out. He’s got some corporate locations and licensed locations, so he’s figured out a model that that’s working for sure.

00:15:17:23 – 00:15:35:23

Zack Oates

Very cool. Yeah, well, check him out, everyone. Jamal. Really? And Brandon, for helping us to remember that moving the needle with people is the best way to get where we need to go. Today’s ovation goes to you. Thank you for joining us on giving Ovation, by the way. Oh before I forget, how did people find and follow you branded and you new company.

00:15:36:00 – 00:15:55:06

Brandon Batt

Yeah. You can find me. Follow me on LinkedIn business page, the tabletop group and then just. Yeah, brand about on LinkedIn. I love to connect super active on it. And yeah, thank you for your support. And, Zach, I do have to mention that I remember remember the episode you talking to Josh Bouchard and that t shirt that everybody keeps talking about.

00:15:55:11 – 00:15:57:15

Brandon Batt

Once you’re on this podcast, you get a t shirt, right?

00:15:57:15 – 00:16:00:05

Zack Oates

Oh, I got one for you. I got one for.

00:16:00:05 – 00:16:01:10

Brandon Batt

You, bro.

00:16:01:12 – 00:16:07:12

Zack Oates

It’s it’s a good one. It’s a nice, nice minty pop to it.

00:16:07:14 – 00:16:09:08

Brandon Batt

Love it. Love I’m looking forward to it.

00:16:09:08 – 00:16:33:21

Zack Oates

Awesome. Thanks, Brad. Thanks for joining us today. If you like this episode, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite place to listen. We’re all about feedback here. Again, this episode was sponsored by ovation, a two question, SMS based, actionable guest feedback platform built for multi-unit restaurants. If you’d like to learn how we can help you measure and create a better guest experience, visit us at ovation up.com.