David Scott Peters, restaurant coach and author of Restaurant Prosperity Formula, joins Give an Ovation to share his expert insights on delegation, documentation, and hospitality. With decades of experience, David helps independent restaurant owners build systems, train managers, and achieve financial freedom without being trapped in daily operations.

The Power of Delegation (2:40)

“If you think adding a manager means you get freedom, you’re wrong. Without systems, you’re just creating chaos.” – David Scott Peters

David emphasizes the importance of training and accountability when delegating tasks. Many restaurant owners struggle because they abdicate responsibility rather than delegating properly. His solution? Document everything and train employees to follow clear, structured processes.

A Simple Way to Document SOPs (6:25)

“Every time you train someone, grab your phone, hit record. Now you have a training video—no extra work.” – David Scott Peters

Instead of spending hours writing manuals, David recommends using video to capture real-time training. By recording tasks, uploading them to a shared drive, and having employees transcribe and refine the instructions, restaurant owners build an operations manual effortlessly.

Creating a Seamless Guest Experience (11:40)

“Great hospitality isn’t about jazz hands—it’s about meeting guests’ needs before they even ask.” – David Scott Peters

David explains that the best restaurant experiences feel effortless. When staff anticipate guest needs, such as refilling drinks automatically or ensuring the dining area is spotless, customers stay focused on their company and the experience, rather than service gaps.

Why Restaurants Should Think Like Businesses (15:35)

“You’re not in the restaurant business. You’re in the hospitality business. If you were just selling food, you’d be competing with gas stations.” – David Scott Peters

David challenges restaurant owners to move beyond daily operations and focus on scalability, guest experience, and financial strategy. By implementing systems, they can shift from being operators to being true business owners.

Who Deserves an Ovation? (17:27)

David gives a shoutout to Matt Plapp of America’s Best Restaurants, recognizing him for revolutionizing restaurant marketing and helping brands build sustainable guest engagement.

Transcript

00:00:00:04 – 00:00:22:18

Zack Oates

Welcome to another edition of Give Innovation, the Restaurant Guest Experience podcast, where I talk to industry experts to get their strategies and tactics you can use to create a five star guest experience. This podcast is sponsored by ovation, an operations and guest recovery platform for multi-unit restaurants that gives all the answers without annoying guests with all the questions.

00:00:22:19 – 00:00:47:04

Zack Oates

Learn more at ovation up.com. And today we have David Scott Peters, the only man with three names that I know with decades of experience in operations of restaurants. He is a restaurant coach. He’s a restaurant expert. He’s a sought after speaker. He’s the author of Restaurant Prosperity Formula. And he is now gracing us with his presence. David, welcome to the podcast.

00:00:47:06 – 00:00:49:22

David Scott Peters

I appreciate you having me, my friend, very much.

00:00:49:24 – 00:01:11:15

Zack Oates

This is long overdue for a repeat. We don’t have very many guests on multiple times, but you have just such a wealth of experience and understanding. And maybe just for people who might have missed one of your sessions at a show or haven’t heard you speak, what is David Scott Peters? It’s an entity in and of itself. But who do you help?

00:01:11:17 – 00:01:32:08

David Scott Peters

Well, basically we’re a restaurant training coaching company for independent restaurant owners. The whole piece of it is my book is Restaurant Prosperity Formula what Successful Restaurateurs do. And the whole purpose is now restaurant prosperity is freedom for your restaurant and the financial freedom you deserve. If I can get you freedom from your restaurant for you. Implementing systems, processes, ways.

00:01:32:13 – 00:01:59:07

David Scott Peters

We have managers, supervisors, people who are doing those things. You learn to delegate. When that is happening, you have a life. When that is happening, you’re making money. You’re running off of budgets, you’re running off of systems. In other words, you’re in a position where you get to impose your will without being there. They’re doing things your way when you’re there, but especially when you’re not, which allows you to say, hey, I can become an owner, which is work on budgets, marketing, lead the team, develop my managers.

00:01:59:07 – 00:02:11:17

David Scott Peters

Hold them accountable. Work strategically on the business. Move it forward. Not be the best host or cook that I have. And it really changes your role and gives you your life back. Beautiful part is it also means you make money.

00:02:11:18 – 00:02:33:09

Zack Oates

There we go. I mean, right? I mean, I love making food, but everyone loves making money. So what are some of the common mistakes that you see when a new client comes to you and they say, hey, I don’t know what’s going on in my restaurant, but I just feel like I’m still working in the business and I can’t ever get myself out enough to work on the business.

00:02:33:11 – 00:02:40:14

Zack Oates

What are some things that you look at initially to say, hey, here’s some low hanging fruit that you’re probably doing or not doing.

00:02:40:16 – 00:02:58:04

David Scott Peters

I think the biggest and hardest thing that a restaurant owner needs to learn is how to delegate. I mean, it’s really saying, okay, I can do everything myself. That’s horrible. You’ve created a prison for yourself. Like I’m going. I can write the schedule. As the owner, I’m the only to place an order as the owner. I’m the only one.

00:02:58:04 – 00:03:16:00

David Scott Peters

I’m the only one. I’ve tried to give it to people. And you go through this process and you never learned how to delegate successfully. Instead you abdicated. You gave it to somebody, turned your head and said, please, please get it right. But ultimately, they fail you every single time because you didn’t teach them your system, your process, your way.

00:03:16:05 – 00:03:26:01

David Scott Peters

You didn’t make sure they could do it on their own without you being over their shoulder. So there’s this gray area or what we like to call in the restaurant business, something called common sense, which.

00:03:26:01 – 00:03:27:19

Zack Oates

Is not exist.

00:03:27:21 – 00:03:45:15

David Scott Peters

And so the biggest thing is you think that adding a manager means I have freedom. No. If you didn’t teach them your system, your process, your way, there is no freedom. Oh, do you have a system, a process away? And it’s not that. It’s in your head. Follow me for three days. Good luck after that. That’s how I was trained in the restaurant business.

00:03:45:15 – 00:04:04:21

David Scott Peters

I don’t know about you, but I was literally said, follow me for three days. How you open and close. And every day I walk in and it was like, Now I’m a Gen Xer, so we don’t do this today. But we used to potty train puppies by when they did ABM on the carpet. You’d stick their nose in it, roll up a newspaper, hit them in the nose and go bad dog.

00:04:04:23 – 00:04:21:17

David Scott Peters

Well, that’s what it’s like learning how to become a manager for an independent restaurant. Follow me. And every day you walk in and you’re told what you’re doing wrong. Who wants to work in that environment today with millennials and younger? That doesn’t work. They’ll ghost your ass. They won’t even show back up because that’s not how they want to work.

00:04:21:19 – 00:04:40:03

David Scott Peters

So as owners, I have to make sure I have my system, my process, my way, that I train my people. And then I’m there not only to coach them, but be willing to hold them accountable. And therein lies the rub. Have the system train them and be willing to hold them accountable.

00:04:40:05 – 00:05:04:11

Zack Oates

I think that’s so great because oftentimes we ping pong back and forth between do delegate, do delegate, do delegate. And what happens is when you remove that accountability and you remove the opportunity to document and you remove the opportunity for you to dream up of what’s new, then you get frustrated and I talk to your restaurant owners time and time.

00:05:04:11 – 00:05:25:11

Zack Oates

And keep in mind, this is a business problem, right? We’re not talking restaurant problems right now. We’re talking business problems. We had this aggravation where we would do. And then as we started to hire more and more people, as we grew more and more, the people weren’t doing it the right way. And then we realized that we were skipping that step of documenting.

00:05:25:11 – 00:05:48:18

Zack Oates

So it’s instead of do delegate, it’s do document, delegate with accountability and then dream and dream up of what that better world looks like, and then start doing that stuff and then document what you’re doing, and then delegate with accountability and then dream up new stuff. The problem is, when you get caught in that rat trap of do and delegate, you never get to dream.

00:05:48:23 – 00:05:52:15

Zack Oates

But it’s because it’s so annoying to document, right?

00:05:52:17 – 00:06:11:07

David Scott Peters

So here’s the deal. We have technology today. It makes life easy for us. You touched on in the beginning to do everything. Myself and I delegate. I fail with delegation, and it’s this vicious cycle. And you said, okay, well, you need document. The last thing a restaurant owner ever thinks about is, man, I want to sit in front of a computer, whether it’s a book about the word.

00:06:11:07 – 00:06:25:23

David Scott Peters

And I want to sit there and I want to frickin take this stuff out. You got to be kidding me. It’s like I don’t even have time in my day to do the things I want to do to market. Let alone sit there and say, I’ve got to say, this is how you count at a bar draw. Well, here’s the beautiful part, Zach.

00:06:25:23 – 00:06:46:02

David Scott Peters

What I teach people is you’ve got a cell phone in your pocket. I call it a 4K camera. Every time you train somebody to do something. It’s the first time you’re training them on something. You grab your phone. You hand it to them, you say, hit record. Now, I don’t give a rat’s ass about lighting. Professional sound quality.

00:06:46:03 – 00:07:03:18

David Scott Peters

I don’t care if you drop the F-bomb 30 times. You say I’m 35. I don’t care when you’re done teaching me how to do the draw. When you’re done walking through the restaurant, when you’re done teaching me how to write a schedule, name the item you say, hit stop. Now you say thank you and you tell them, I’m going to upload this into the internet.

00:07:03:19 – 00:07:19:05

David Scott Peters

Whether it’s at any kind of online drive, you’re going to make it a private folder so that the only people that can open that file is the person you send it to, that you’ve added to it. So I’m going to add this manager I’m saying I’m going to email you the file. So you click on the link. Let’s say it’s in Google Docs.

00:07:19:08 – 00:07:35:00

David Scott Peters

The video comes up. I can watch it. Your job by the way, is to document everything I just taught you. Not only do I just show you how to do it, but I want you to actually type it up. You the manager, type it up, and then I’m a Gen Xer. Don’t email me that son of a bitch.

00:07:35:01 – 00:07:50:00

David Scott Peters

No. You want to print it off? You’re going to hand it to me, and I’m going to grab a red pen like an eighth grade English teacher and go, nope. Wrong. Wrong fix. I’m gonna hand it back to them, and they’re going to make the changes, and then they’re going to give it back to me. And when it’s good to go, I’m in a three hole.

00:07:50:00 – 00:08:09:18

David Scott Peters

Punch that puppy, throw it into a binder. And now I’ve got my operating systems, my SOPs, my operations manual. Don’t care what you call it. Each one of the things that I teach them, that they document, that goes in here. So now I’m building my systems. By the way, I didn’t have to do it. I did what I had to do anyway, which was teach them visually.

00:08:09:24 – 00:08:31:12

David Scott Peters

Now from there, what I’m going to do, I’m going to get a $100 droid tablet. Put baby bumpers on that thing, and I’m going to say, okay, train the next person. I’m going to show you. Then I’m going to say, by the way, when you forget, here is the written manual part of it. And if you want, here’s this $100 droid tablet push play the video.

00:08:31:14 – 00:08:47:06

David Scott Peters

So not only do I stay with them until they can do it on their own, but if they forget three nights later, whatever it may be, they’ve got a step by step guide and they’ve got a video they can watch. And all of a sudden I did what I always do. I showed somebody, but they actually did the work.

00:08:47:07 – 00:08:51:12

David Scott Peters

Now I’m documenting my systems without creating more work for myself.

00:08:51:14 – 00:09:13:11

Zack Oates

I love that because it’s not about taking the shortcut, but it’s about taking the long way faster. You still doing the hard work, but you just get in there as if you took a shortcut, because I think that’s the thing is that we think there’s so much going on in my brain right now that I can’t possibly take the time to sit down and train someone and all of this because it’s worthless.

00:09:13:11 – 00:09:32:14

Zack Oates

Because what happened? Shirley sat down with me, and she had me follow her around for a couple of shifts, and then she’s like, great, now you’re trained, right? And then how did I know that I wasn’t trained on making a strawberry shortcake sundae? Well, when the server yelled across the way, I need a strawberry shortcake sundae! And I didn’t know what to do.

00:09:32:16 – 00:09:57:07

Zack Oates

I literally got pushed out of the way, got yelled at for not knowing how to do it, and then she made it and had me watch her and then I learned from the server, right, who is now laid on her table, and she’s frustrated that I couldn’t help her out. That’s the old way of doing things. And there’s easier ways to get to the end of the road, which I think is just such a great idea, man.

00:09:57:09 – 00:10:19:02

David Scott Peters

And I want you to think about, if you’re a restaurant operator, everything you do in your restaurant is a task that can be documented, trained, and assigned to someone other than you. You’re not God. If they’re running to the bank and making a deposit, you are not God’s gift to writing a schedule. You are just the person who has been doing it, and the only person has been doing it right.

00:10:19:04 – 00:10:43:00

David Scott Peters

And a side note, we’ve all been taught at some level that if you can get somebody to do it 85% as well as you, you have hit a home run. They will never be you. They don’t own the restaurant. But if I can hold them accountable, if I can continue to coach them, give them, coddle them, train them doing everything I can to make them successful and they can take 85% off my shoulders and it’s getting done.

00:10:43:02 – 00:10:59:20

David Scott Peters

You’re hitting a home run. You’re giving yourself time to go get the next catering job, to do the next menu, to work on marketing, to work on your budgets like the things that move the company forward versus spending your day going to the bank and writing a schedule and taking comping something for a guest or flipping a burger.

00:10:59:23 – 00:11:02:22

David Scott Peters

It just doesn’t make any sense when we do that.

00:11:02:24 – 00:11:34:16

Zack Oates

So when you look at the guest experience, because I know we’ve been talking a lot about the owner’s life and what does that take? Because I think at the end of the day, that is the thing that’s most painful. But the reason people got into restaurants is for the most part, when you talk to them, they left. You know, I’ve got friends who have left high tech jobs where they’re making 400 a year and they’re like, yes, I’m not making that money my first few years of working in building my restaurant, but they get into it because they have hospitality in their blood and they love the guest experience.

00:11:34:16 – 00:11:40:10

Zack Oates

And so what do you think is the most important aspect of guest experience nowadays?

00:11:40:12 – 00:11:59:01

David Scott Peters

I would say the most important is making sure that you’ve got everything taken care of in your business, that they notice nothing else other than the other person they’re with. So, for instance, we think about great hospitality back in the 80s and 90s, the 80s, we had gap and hi, how are you? How can I help you? How are you?

00:11:59:01 – 00:12:14:14

David Scott Peters

We get bombarded. You feel like, oh my gosh, leave me alone. We thought that was great. Then in the 90s, we started talking about treat your guests like you want to be treated. You got to be kidding me. Like, if I had a friend come over and they were coming over to my house, we’re like, dude, go get yourself a beer.

00:12:14:14 – 00:12:36:21

David Scott Peters

I love you to death, but I’m not good enough. So we’ve got to change how we do things. And great hospitality. Isn’t jazz hands what it is, is from the moment your guests meet each other outside your building, they think nothing of nothing else other than each other. They walk in the door. They didn’t notice a dirty window or a handle that’s too hot.

00:12:36:21 – 00:12:55:07

David Scott Peters

I’m in Arizona like you’ve got a leather binder around it so that you don’t burn your hand. You walk in the door. You don’t notice that there’s gum on the floor or that it’s dirty. You don’t notice that things are out of place. Instead, you come to the host station. Or if you’re going to a registered quick service, we kind of flow and we have a conversation.

00:12:55:11 – 00:13:19:00

David Scott Peters

What happens is when our needs are anticipated and met for us. Hey, please follow me. The host isn’t running to the table and leaving us in the dust. They are literally staying with us, conversating, getting us there versus I go to the host station, there’s nobody there and that internal clock starts happening, and then we start to look at each other and say, are we going to get service?

00:13:19:02 – 00:13:40:20

David Scott Peters

Now our connection with each other has been broken. Now, if I can keep that connection, have all my needs anticipated, met for me that by the time I get to the table, by the time we are within the two minute window, that we don’t go any longer than that my drink has taken, so on and so forth, that the table’s been marked, that if I had ordered a bowl of soup that there’s a spoon dropped off.

00:13:40:20 – 00:14:02:23

David Scott Peters

So I’m not going. Wait. Hold on. I need a spoon. I need a spoon. All these things happen that by the time I walk out the door, we’re going to shake each other’s hands. Go, man. It was great to see we should win this place. Great. Let’s do that again. It wasn’t that the server was spectacular. It was that my needs were met and I stayed engaged with the people I’m there with.

00:14:03:00 – 00:14:10:22

David Scott Peters

That’s how memories are created. So make sure all the basics are done. You’ve got to execute on restaurant 101.

00:14:10:24 – 00:14:35:21

Zack Oates

And it’s tough, right? Because when you look at it, there’s a thousand places where something can go wrong. We’re not. The main course is the restaurant. We are the dish and the experience. 99% of the time is the reason that people are coming in, is to experience something with the other person. It’s not to sit there. And yes, there’s some experiential restaurants.

00:14:35:21 – 00:14:56:21

Zack Oates

Yes, there’s some that have like the pizzazz. Yes, I come here because I want to be fed. But at the end of the day, I think about a coach that I worked with. She’s a CEO coach of mine to this day. She was living in Brooklyn and there were two coffee shops, one that was great and 30s closer, one that was good and 30s farther.

00:14:56:21 – 00:15:16:12

Zack Oates

And she said, which one did I go to? And I’m like, well, obviously the great one that was closer. And she goes, no, I went to the one where they knew my name, because at the end of the day, it’s like, I want to feel something. I want to know that I’m cared about and the attention to detail, those little things matters so much because you can’t fake the little things.

00:15:16:14 – 00:15:35:20

Zack Oates

I could fake the one big grand gesture, but all of these little things together where you become invisible and you can just feel at home, right? And not feel like, oh, it smells weird in here. It looks weird over there, or there’s paint chips over there, but just be in the experience in the moment. That’s so powerful. I love that man.

00:15:35:22 – 00:15:57:02

David Scott Peters

Let’s just be very clear. You’re not in the restaurant business. You’re in the hospitality business. We are not in the food business. If you were in the food business, we’re competing with a gas station. I get food there. So by creating memories and, oh, by the way, we have the privilege of creating memories. Think about it. Whether it’s somebody’s anniversary, it’s their 35th birthday.

00:15:57:06 – 00:16:17:19

David Scott Peters

They met each other. They’re they’re just going out because they want to release some steam. It does not matter what the purpose is. When you deliver on your promise of great hospitality, man, you’ll be remembered forever. It is much harder to do if you do a lot of things wrong. When you do a lot of things right, you’re not noticed.

00:16:17:19 – 00:16:43:21

David Scott Peters

In fact, it seems seamless. It is less about again, jazz hands. Look how great we are to man. Let’s make sure we meet their needs. We anticipate and meet our guests needs versus letting them go. I need hey, can I get can I have more? It’s the little things that make a huge difference. Things like as simple as if you’ve got bottomless nonalcoholic beverages, sodas, coffees, teas.

00:16:43:23 – 00:16:59:23

David Scott Peters

Why do you need to walk up and say, do you want another one? Just bring one, because when it’s halfway full, there’s two sips left. That’s it. So when your server comes by and goes, oh well, they’re halfway full, I got plenty of time. No, bring another one. Take the half empty one away. Don’t say a damn word.

00:17:00:00 – 00:17:09:09

David Scott Peters

Make it so that I’m never like, oh, man, I’m thirsty. I really hope somebody brings me a drink. Just anticipate the need. Meet it. Make sure that we stay engaged.

00:17:09:11 – 00:17:27:12

Zack Oates

I love that man. Powerful. I’m pumped. I’m ready to open up a restaurant, man. Let’s go. David. Okay, look, we’re running short on time. This has been just such a great pod. You know, so many people. Who is someone that we should be following? Who’s someone that deserves an ovation in the restaurant industry?

00:17:27:14 – 00:17:47:00

David Scott Peters

Probably somebody you know very well is Matt Clap America’s best Restaurants? I think he is trailblazing a new direction when it comes to restaurant marketing. From grabbing people at the beginning to taking them through loyalty and keeping them all the way through, it’s been amazing to watch him. He has more energy than anybody I’ve ever met in my life.

00:17:47:02 – 00:18:06:09

Zack Oates

He’s amazing. I literally was just talking to him not 24 hours ago, and your name just came up organically because we both just are such big fans of yours, and he actually is the one who sent me this neon pizza sign behind me, so that’s pretty cool. He’s such a cool guy, I love him. He is a must follow.

00:18:06:11 – 00:18:11:02

Zack Oates

Now, Mr. Peters, where can people go to follow you?

00:18:11:04 – 00:18:35:07

David Scott Peters

Well, I would go several places. It depends on what you want. You can go to my site. David Scott peters.com if you want to learn about what we do. Otherwise I’ve got places that you can learn for free. No no no commitment needed. Go to my YouTube channel which is David Scott Peters, or look up my podcast where you and I talked recently, and that is Restaurant Prosperity Formula, found on all the popular podcasting services.

00:18:35:09 – 00:18:53:06

Zack Oates

And a great podcast. It is. Appreciate you showing me the ropes, teaching me how to do a podcast. And so glad we finally got you on for a sequel. The first episode was amazing. This even better Mr. David Scott Peters for showing us how to make the long way short and the hard way easy. Today’s ovation goes to you.

00:18:53:08 – 00:18:55:22

Zack Oates

Thank you for joining us. I’m giving ovation.

00:18:55:24 – 00:18:57:17

David Scott Peters

Thank you, my friend.

00:18:57:19 – 00:19:20:07

Zack Oates

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 Ofcom.