Get ready to feast on some delicious insights as we sit down with Gus Malliaris, the genius behind Detroit Wing Company and its rise from a singular location to 31 thriving branches. We unwrap the secrets behind Gus’s success underscoring the power of customer experience in the restaurant game.

What is the most important aspect of the guest experience?

“Finding a way to make the guests feel special. You know, whatever. One of the things that we talked about FSTEC was digital hospitality. As that experience has changed and customers are going to online ordering, they’re slowly minimizing that interaction . . .

. . . Trying to try to find ways to still give them that experience and feel like you know who they are in that limited interaction, is for me, probably one of the biggest things that I’m trying to do as best as I can and find find ways to do better.“

What are some tactics you use to improve the guest experience?

“Trying to find ways to give the store operators pieces of information that I would use if I was in a store to to recognize a customer. Back when we only had one store I was able to go and look up their tickets and see what the order history was and acknowledge them. Or I just knew them because I saw and recognized them and I knew who my regulars were and it was easy to have that connection. We try to get our operators to look into those things as much as they can and just really know their customers and their data.“

Who in the restaurant industry deserves an Ovation?

Mijo Alanis, Beyond Juice

“We’ve only been doing business together for a couple years now but it’s pretty rare to find someone that has that same kind of hospitality first view of the business. He spent some time as a bartender and he gets it, he knows people in that same way and people are our purpose is kind of his slogan.”