There may not be anyone with a more impressive hospitality marketing pedigree than Erin Levzow! We can’t list it all here, but she has experience marketing for Caesars, MGM, Palms Casino, Wingstop, and is now the VP of Marketing Technology at Del Taco. She is also the recipient of many awards, such as 40 under 40 Brand Innovators, Top Women in Retail, and CMO of the year.

Here are a few highlights from this episode:

Featured takeaway: Find guests by going where they are.

“Find your customer wherever their channel is.

Whether they want to come through the app, the website, walk into the restaurant, go through the drive thru, pick up their order through a pickup block or a kiosk, whatever it might be. Be where the customer is and meet them where they’re at.”

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

“I think it all plays a part. Every department, whether it’s operations, HR, whoever. They all have such a big part of this. If we don’t have enough labor, guess what? You can’t get your tacos.”

What is a successful tactic or strategy you’ve tried lately?

“Developing a close relationship with 3rd party delivery providers. “There was a time where people would go, ‘oh, we’re not doing third party delivery. We want people to come to us. Let’s be real, not everybody’s coming to us…

So being where the customer is, and thinking about what are their goals, what are our goals, and then building that relationship together and putting time into it for anything like any relationship that you want to grow. You have to invest in that.”

Who deserves an Ovation in the restaurant industry?

Starbucks. “I think, from a technology perspective, they have figured it out.”

Listen to the whole episode to find out why!