Geoffrey Toffetti, CEO of Frontline Performance Group, joins Zack Oates to explore why the guest experience can never exceed the employee experience. Frontline Performance Group helps brands strengthen their teams through recognition, accountability, and training that translate directly into revenue and loyalty.

Frontline Culture Sets the Brand (01:15)

The frontline defines the brand. “You can expect your guests to be treated exactly the way you treat those who lead.” Culture begins at the top and flows to every guest interaction.

From Selling to Serving (04:06)

Language changes outcomes. Geoffrey teaches staff to recommend, not ask. “Most people who order this steak really enjoy our asparagus.” Guests feel served, not sold, and revenue grows naturally.

Reward, Recognition, Accountability (05:40)

Geoffrey’s career performance equation balances incentives, praise, and clear expectations. “It’s not all fluff. You need a little carrot and a little stick.” Recognition matters as much as results.

Measure What You Coach (08:02)

Clear metrics and visibility drive growth. “When you think you’re doing well and see you’re ninth out of twelve, it’s eye-opening.” Leaderboards give accountability without confrontation.

Top Performers Do It Differently (10:31)

Even on the same shift, top servers generate up to 25 percent more revenue per guest. The difference comes from attentiveness, tone, and timely follow-up.

Lead With Trust and Respect (15:18)

The best leaders model the behavior they expect. “Give your team love, trust, and respect first. They’ll pass it to your guests.” Recognition rituals and peer-to-peer shout-outs reinforce that culture.

Hospitality starts with people, not policies. Define standards, celebrate wins, and build a culture where the frontline feels supported and seen. When employees thrive, guests notice—and everyone wins.

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gtoffetti/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/frontline-performance-group/about/

https://www.instagram.com/frontlineperformancegroup/

https://frontlinepg.com/

Transcript

00:00:00:07 – 00:00:25:12

Zack Oates

Welcome to another edition of Give an Ovation, 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 the feedback and operations platform built for multi-unit restaurants. Learn what’s actually happening in your restaurant and exactly how to improve while driving revenue.

00:00:25:14 – 00:00:49:15

Zack Oates

Learn more at ovation up.com. And today we have Geoffrey Toffetti with us. He is the CEO of Front Line Performance Group. He’s been there for 14 years working with some amazing brands. He is lucky to be based in Florida, especially on this chilly winter day in Utah. But Joffrey, so excited to have you on the podcast. Thanks for joining us.

00:00:49:17 – 00:00:52:22

Geoffrey Toffetti

Thank you Zach, I’m really excited about doing this, I appreciate it.

00:00:52:24 – 00:01:15:10

Zack Oates

And one of the things I was drawn to when I was doing some research on you was just one of the things that we always say here on the podcast is that the guest experience cannot exceed the employee experience. And so for those who don’t know, maybe you can share a little bit about what does Front Line Performance Group do and how do you help to create a better customer experience?

00:01:15:12 – 00:01:41:02

Geoffrey Toffetti

Yeah. So Frontline Performance Group has been around for we’re in our 33rd year and we’ve always exclusively supported frontline teams in a variety of industries, anything from car dealerships to theme parks. And now hospitality. Hospitality has become our strategic focus. Hotels and restaurants and bars. And the way that we help create a great guest experience is that we are we’re in the business of improving and developing the front line.

00:01:41:08 – 00:02:10:08

Geoffrey Toffetti

So the front line is the brand. A lot of business owners or corporate leaders forget that your entire brand experience is your frontline employees. They can make or break any experience that a guest is going to have. So if you refine the front lines, approach, if you empower them, if you build a really strong culture around them, it’s going to translate directly to your guests because the phrase you just used our version is you can expect your guests to be treated exactly the way you treat those who lead.

00:02:10:08 – 00:02:11:04

Zack Oates

Bam!

00:02:11:06 – 00:02:29:20

Geoffrey Toffetti

Culture rolls downhill, right? And so that’s our entire ethos is how do we get the culture sound? How do we get people trained up to be effective in their jobs? And then everyone wins. The frontline can make more money, the restaurant or hotel can thrive, and the guest has a better experience because the human exchange is more nuanced.

00:02:29:22 – 00:02:55:05

Zack Oates

I think that is so powerful to think about because you do all of this work. I mean, everything that we do in hospitality is either to increase profits or create a better guest experience everything. And yet, when you look at the power of your frontline workers, we recently had a podcast episode with the CEO of Taco Deli, where he was talking about some of his employees have been there for over 20 years, these kitchen managers.

00:02:55:05 – 00:03:23:07

Zack Oates

And so you want to talk about profitability, how quickly and efficiently and without mistakes can someone that’s been there for 20 years doing it, as opposed to someone that’s been there for 20 hours, right. There’s a profitability with your people. And not only that, everything that happens, the last line is always the front line, which is like we often talk about the last mile, but it’s about that last foot when I hand it to you, how do you feel when I put the food down?

00:03:23:07 – 00:03:44:21

Zack Oates

How did you feel when I’m exposing for a to go order? How accurate is it? And it’s all about those front line people. So what do you actually do to help frontline workers like. And maybe we could kind of parlay that into talking about the guest experience. But how do you think about the important aspects of guest experience as it relates to frontline workers?

00:03:44:23 – 00:04:06:15

Geoffrey Toffetti

We spend our time in environments where revenue is in play, so we use revenue as the benchmark for the performance of our of our model. So how do we help as we go in. And the other software platform. And it basically provides the entire toolkit to optimize performance at the frontline. It handles recognition. It handles goal setting, incentive calculations and training.

00:04:06:15 – 00:04:27:22

Geoffrey Toffetti

There’s a lot of training in there. But essentially what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to get the front line to engage the guest in a service focused way, to drive more revenue by listening to them, by responding to the cues you’re receiving, and by basically fulfilling your promise. So being attentive, being aware of what’s going on, active listening.

00:04:28:01 – 00:04:49:12

Geoffrey Toffetti

But we also teach them the right way to promote things. So you don’t ask, do you want this or do you want that you recommend? I’ll give you a real example. Let’s say someone orders a steak and you want to sell them an add on to that steak. You wouldn’t say, do you want asparagus with that? You’d say, you know, most people that have this steak really enjoy our asparagus.

00:04:49:14 – 00:05:09:06

Geoffrey Toffetti

That is a nuanced way of promoting. And same with the hotel. If someone’s checking in and you want to offer them a room, you don’t just say, do you want a bigger room? You say, because you’re traveling with your family and you need a little more space. I think you’d enjoy a suite. It’s a nuance, but it changes the dynamic of being sold to to being served.

00:05:09:08 – 00:05:14:09

Geoffrey Toffetti

And when you can actually accomplish that, your revenue goes up and your guest experience goes up.

00:05:14:14 – 00:05:40:22

Zack Oates

Amen. And I think that when you think about what does that look like in terms of the guest experience and when you can say, hey, I want to make sure that the guest is feeling something I love that is really thinking about it in terms of how do we train, how do we improve the employees, and what are some tactics that you’ve seen that have actually helped employees feel empowered and feel like they matter?

00:05:40:24 – 00:06:03:14

Geoffrey Toffetti

We promote what we call the career performance equation. Our founders, the Corey who was the visionary of this and it’s basically a framework for leadership and culture. There’s three things that are necessary to properly motivate frontline people. One is reward. So they have to be getting rewarded in some way incentives and tips. And in restaurants it could be incentive program recognition.

00:06:03:16 – 00:06:23:10

Geoffrey Toffetti

So when people are doing what you want them to do, recognize them publicly in front of their peers and accountability. So it’s not all fluff. You need a little carrot, little stick. So accountability is are you fulfilling your part of the mission as an employee? Whatever the standards are that we set as a business, and when you put those three things.

00:06:23:10 – 00:06:45:00

Zack Oates

Together, by the way, can we just whatever the standards you set as a business, that is important because what I see a lot of times is people will come in, the standards are not explicitly set. And then it’s like, hey, we want you to we just had someone who was head of brand at Papa John’s, and we were talking about how she’s like, we want them to be friendly.

00:06:45:06 – 00:06:53:03

Zack Oates

Well, what is friendly mean and like, maybe I’m from New York. Friendly, mean something very different than if I’m from Utah.

00:06:53:05 – 00:06:55:14

Geoffrey Toffetti

Yeah, if you’re from Philly, it might mean insulting your guest.

00:06:55:20 – 00:07:00:08

Zack Oates

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Right. There we are. You from North Jersey?

00:07:00:10 – 00:07:03:22

Geoffrey Toffetti

No. Oh, God, I know. Well, I know, I know the area.

00:07:03:24 – 00:07:26:01

Zack Oates

Yeah, but I mean, that’s the thing, right? You got to clearly set the expectations of what you want them to be doing. But anyway, sorry I cut you off there. But just like that. So key to not forget that it is our job as leaders to set the expectations so that we can hold them accountable so that they know what it means to be successful, right?

00:07:26:03 – 00:07:43:00

Geoffrey Toffetti

That’s exactly right. So the best way to set an expectation in a service focus, where your product is service, is to embody it. That’s the best way for a leader to get a standard set is to be the standard. And then you can say with a straight face, I expect you to treat the guests the way I’m treating you.

00:07:43:02 – 00:08:02:19

Geoffrey Toffetti

But yeah, defining it, having a framework, having a process that you endorse as a business leader that you want people to follow, all those things are important, that you can hold people accountable, but it’s also measurement. So you can’t hold someone accountable if you’re not measuring their performance. So we our platform is really all about how are people doing?

00:08:02:21 – 00:08:30:08

Geoffrey Toffetti

Are they responding positively to the training? Do we see their metrics improving? And we’re big believers in leaderboards. So you put their names don’t have to be on there like in our system that the the servers have their own app, but they only see their name on the leaderboard, but they can see where they rank. So when you think you’re doing a good job and you look at the leaderboard and your nine out of 12 positions, it’s eye opening and that’s the accountability that we go for, is just let them know where they are.

00:08:30:10 – 00:08:46:24

Geoffrey Toffetti

You don’t have to confront them with it, but just let them know where they are and then make the training and make the recognition and make the reward programs available to drive their performance up. But it’s your point. If you don’t know what you’re striving for, you’re on quicksand. You don’t know what the goalposts are. You got to set some goalposts.

00:08:46:24 – 00:08:48:16

Geoffrey Toffetti

What is success?

00:08:48:18 – 00:09:22:09

Zack Oates

And are we providing them with the training and tools to be successful? And I think that’s something where I’m thinking that this episode is reminding me of, like the cliff notes of The Five Dysfunctions of a team, you know, because it really is. I mean, there’s so much there that that is so good and accurate, but we get so caught up sometimes in strategy or in maybe our pet project of what we care about the most, that we forget the really, it’s about making sure that our team is empowered to be successful.

00:09:22:11 – 00:09:47:24

Geoffrey Toffetti

Yeah, a common thought experiment would be if you had a really beautiful esthetic restaurant. The menu was amazing, the chef was a superstar and your staff were rude. Would the food and esthetic prevail? And conversely, if you have a dive bar on the beach selling fried food, but your staff is incredibly good, would that overcome the esthetic? And I think everyone knows the intuitive answer.

00:09:48:01 – 00:10:08:24

Geoffrey Toffetti

The staff set the quality of the experience. It’s not the environment. I mean, those are all important things. I understand you want to go for a concept, but if you don’t have the right culture at the front line, you lose. And most restaurants are pre they’re okay. I mean, you go in, people are rude. You know, they’re not yelling at you and stuff, but they’re just not as tuned in as they could be.

00:10:09:01 – 00:10:31:16

Geoffrey Toffetti

For instance, we work with a bunch of restaurants and we look at the leaderboards on revenue per guest. This is just as an example. And in the same shift, the same servers, there is often a 20 to 25% differential in revenue per guest between the top performers and the bottom. That means same guest, same shift. You could make 20% more revenue.

00:10:31:18 – 00:10:50:10

Geoffrey Toffetti

Why? Because the people at the top are engaging the guests. They’re super friendly. They’re listening. They’re seizing opportunities to recommend enhancements where others are just taking the order and they’re like, oh my, you know, my name is dropping to take care. I’d say, would you like some bread? That’s what’s happening. The top performers are like, let’s get you started with a round of drinks.

00:10:50:10 – 00:11:11:13

Geoffrey Toffetti

Let’s get this experience underway. I’ll be right back. They come back when they say they’re going to. They don’t leave for 20 minutes so you can’t get your drink refilled. It’s like those kind of things. So that’s what we’re focused on, is the techniques that separate top performance from average and imparting that into the servers by giving it a what’s in it for me, which is the accountability, reward and recognition.

00:11:11:19 – 00:11:40:19

Zack Oates

Love that. And at the end of the day, people want to feel seen and they want money, right. And so if we can find a way to give them both, then Amen. Love that. And one of the things that I’d love to get your professional opinion on this, one of the things that we do at ovation is we do something called Given Ovation, where it’s not just the podcast, but we also have an internal giving ovation where everyone at ovation gets what they call an ovation that they get to give to somebody else.

00:11:40:19 – 00:11:58:01

Zack Oates

So it’s a monthly bonus that they have to give to someone else. And then and are all hands meetings. They fill out a form beforehand saying who they are giving their ovation to because they exhibited which of our five ovation values and what happened that made them earn that ovation of yours. And then we read that in the all hands meeting.

00:11:58:01 – 00:12:15:09

Zack Oates

And so that’s just a small way that we can catch everyone. Everyone’s looking for other ways to say thank you and to find people that are doing good out there, I guess. What do you think about that? And what are some simple ways that other that restaurants might be able to help in the recognition standpoint?

00:12:15:11 – 00:12:32:22

Geoffrey Toffetti

Yeah. So I think that’s a phenomenal scenario. We do something internally. We call it cheers for peers similar concept. We do it every Friday and it’s anyone in the company can give cheers to anyone else in the company. And it’s sent out to the whole company. So it’s you do exactly what you’re saying with an ovation. I love that you coined that.

00:12:32:24 – 00:13:02:07

Geoffrey Toffetti

I think that for the average business owner, I think it’s about having the kind of environment where you solicit from them. Positive feedback. I’m thinking about my son. He was on a football team, one of the top teams in the country for a while, and at the end of practice, they make a starter stand up and pick a nonstarter and in front of the entire team, recognize them for something so that he’s bringing the people who aren’t on the field into the fold with the starters.

00:13:02:07 – 00:13:26:15

Geoffrey Toffetti

And it culturally, it’s a massive when you’re the kid. When my kid was a freshman and one of the seniors called his name, it’s like you make your month, a similar kind of thing could happen your senior season. People could pick your people that haven’t been there as long, like you were saying, with the value of a cook that’s been doing the line for 20 years versus a newbie, but have them recognize each other, is a hugely powerful for culture building, there’s no question.

00:13:26:15 – 00:13:42:04

Zack Oates

I love that. Amazing. And I love this conversation because it really is all about the people and just fantastic. So if someone is, you obviously know a lot of people around this industry who is someone that we should be following who deserves an ovation?

00:13:42:06 – 00:13:58:14

Geoffrey Toffetti

Well, I’ll tell you, there’s several people I work with that I would love to answer that question with, but I can’t because then I’m excluding everyone else. And I have to be very careful. But will guidara the book you have on the shelf behind you, hugely influential to our thinking about food and beverage. This is our newest industry.

00:13:58:14 – 00:14:24:15

Geoffrey Toffetti

We’ve been working at it for about two years, but we work with almost 3000 hotels. But the restaurants is fairly new for us. He has been a huge influence on understanding the psyche of a restaurant tour, and how you can go over the top to win guest favor. Now, not everyone can afford to do what 11 Madison does, but the minor nuances that you can impart onto your staff by treating them in a nuanced way, you’re basically teaching them.

00:14:24:15 – 00:14:32:20

Geoffrey Toffetti

And every interaction they have with you on how to treat the guest. And that will definitely drive for. And he has been hugely influential to us.

00:14:32:22 – 00:14:53:07

Zack Oates

Yeah, there’s a reason the book is right behind me. He’s one of my heroes. He’s been an incredible guy. And they say, don’t meet your heroes. And I had him on the podcast and I think that phrase is accurate, not because I was at all disappointed because he was every ounce as amazing as I thought he was, but because I got so scared to meet him, because I just was such a fanboy.

00:14:53:07 – 00:15:13:16

Zack Oates

So don’t meet your heroes because you may look like an idiot. But anyway. But truly though, just what a great guy and totally influential. I have my two shoulder angels or will guidara and just love. And I think that’s what it’s all about. Any last advice to someone who is thinking about how do I improve the performance of my frontline staff?

00:15:13:18 – 00:15:18:00

Zack Oates

Anything that, besides reaching out to you, which we’re going to get to in just a second.

00:15:18:02 – 00:15:36:22

Geoffrey Toffetti

You just stole my punchline. I was going to say, other than hiring us. Yeah. I mean, I’ve never owned or run a restaurant, so there’s things about it I’m not going to presume to know. But what I do know is, is frontline team culture and selling. And I’ve said it a couple times, it’s really like you have to impart love and trust and respect to your team.

00:15:36:24 – 00:15:58:08

Geoffrey Toffetti

You as a leader have to do that first. You can’t expect them to give it to you first. You’ve got to give it to them first. And when you give them trust and love and respect, they are going to pass that right on to the guest. If you’re treating them like an authoritarian and you’re micromanaging them and you’re bossing them around, you can expect they’re going to be short with your guests.

00:15:58:08 – 00:16:17:13

Geoffrey Toffetti

They’re not going to have patience because they don’t feel like there’s room for them to take their time and do it right, so they’re going to rush the guests. It is how it is. But a lot of times you get wrapped up, you lose sight of the fact that that’s what you’re doing. So I would say, look in the mirror, ask, am I treating my guests, my employees, the way that I want them to treat the guests?

00:16:17:13 – 00:16:21:12

Geoffrey Toffetti

And if the answer is no, just make adjustments. It’s never too late to make the adjustments.

00:16:21:14 – 00:16:34:23

Zack Oates

I love that. Awesome. Well, Joffrey, for reminding us that team is key and for being the kindest Joffrey out of the two that I know of. Today’s ovation goes to you. Thank you for joining us and giving ovation.

00:16:35:00 – 00:16:37:11

Geoffrey Toffetti

Thank you so much. It was great to be here.

00:16:37:13 – 00:17:00:00

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 ABC.com.