Jane Grote Abell, Executive Chairwoman and Chief Purpose Officer of Donatos Pizza, joins Zack Oates to discuss how the family-owned pizza chain has grown while staying true to its roots. From innovative partnerships to leading with love, Jane shares how she helps steer Donatos with a focus on its people and community. She reflects on how the company returned to its family values after a period of being owned by McDonald’s and why purpose-driven leadership is central to their success.

Creating a Family Business Culture (3:50)

“At Donatos, it’s not just about pizza, it’s about the people.” – Jane Abell

Jane talks about how they’ve kept the family business soul alive by partnering with franchisees who truly embody their values, helping them stay connected to the community.

Leading with Love (7:22)

“We call it agape capitalism—leading with love in business.” – Jane Abell

Jane delves into the philosophy of agape capitalism and how the power of love influences every decision, from board meetings to customer service. It’s about more than just serving great pizza—it’s about building a culture of care and respect.

The Role of Technology in Modernizing Donatos (11:15)

“We’re automating, but we’re also focusing on keeping the guest experience warm.” – Jane Abell

Jane explains how Donatos integrates cutting-edge technology to improve efficiency, from phone automation to smart pizza-saucing machines, while ensuring that the guest experience is always front and center.

The Importance of People-First Leadership (14:09)

“If you don’t treat your people well, they won’t treat your guests well.” – Jane Abell

Jane reflects on how treating employees with respect and care directly impacts customer satisfaction, sharing real-life examples of how prioritizing people has turned the company’s fortunes around after buying back Donatos from McDonald’s.

Building for the Next Generation (16:28)

“Creating a family business is about more than just the next sale, it’s about long-term impact.” – Jane Abell

Jane discusses the importance of building a business that can be passed on for generations, using Donatos’ long-standing franchise relationships as an example of how they keep values alive in every restaurant.

Who Deserves an Ovation? (18:50)

Jane gives a shoutout to Chick-fil-A for its outstanding hospitality and Texas Roadhouse for its people-centered culture, both of which she admires for their commitment to treating employees and guests with respect.

Links

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

https://donatos.com/

https://www.facebook.com/DonatosPizza/

Transcript

00:00:00:06 – 00:00:24:12

Zack Oates

Welcome to another edition of Give and Ovation, the Restaurant Guest Experience podcast. I’m your host, Zach Oates, and each week I chat with industry experts to uncover real strategy and actionable tactics to help you create a five star guest experience. This podcast is powered by ovation, the feedback and operations platform built for multi-unit restaurants. It gives you the insights you need without annoying your guests with endless questions.

00:00:24:12 – 00:00:50:05

Zack Oates

Learn more@ovation.com. Today we have Jane Abell with us, who is the owner executive chairwoman, chief purpose officer at Dynos, a brand that her father actually started. She’s also the author of the missing piece, Doing Business The Dine Out as Way. She’s been on the show Undercover Boss and has pioneered some really innovative collabs, such as selling Donatos pizza at Red Robin, which is really amazing.

00:00:50:05 – 00:00:52:05

Zack Oates

But Jane, welcome to the podcast.

00:00:52:10 – 00:00:56:12

Jane Abell

Thank you. I appreciate being on. It’s an honor to be a guest of yours.

00:00:56:14 – 00:01:16:14

Zack Oates

Well, and it was so fun to go because I’ve known you from afar, but it’s been fun to dive into the history and the things that you’ve been doing and the history and just the everything that Donatos is about. It’s it’s so much beyond pizza. It’s a lot about family. I mean, most of the time before this recording, we were just talking about our families.

00:01:16:16 – 00:01:30:16

Zack Oates

And so I’d love to understand your philosophy. And how do you maintain the core of what did not? Ours is while bringing in innovation, how do you stay true but also stay fresh?

00:01:30:18 – 00:01:47:18

Jane Abell

That’s a really great question, and actually a question that I think we asked ourselves way early on when we decided we were going to grow, is how do you keep the soul of your business and be able to grow and keep really make it still feel like a family business, but be able to provide opportunities as you continue to grow?

00:01:47:18 – 00:02:14:04

Jane Abell

And if you know our business, my dad’s also an inventor, so he’s all about innovation. He’s all about automation. And part of that is to make sure that everything we do, every piece of automation, is about making sure the customer has the exact same pizza every single time, no matter where you buy it. And so it’s got a couple patents on some equipment that’s really allowed us to do that, which then led us into the Red Robin expansion.

00:02:14:06 – 00:02:36:03

Jane Abell

But I would say for us, it’s making sure as a franchise company that we’re bringing on the franchise partners that truly create a family in their own restaurants. So it’s not just me and dad or my dad or my son and myself or even our CEO. It’s not about that. It’s about having a family that’s in business. We have franchise partners that are now on their third generation family businesses.

00:02:36:04 – 00:02:36:20

Zack Oates

Oh, wow.

00:02:36:23 – 00:02:52:18

Jane Abell

I think that model works for us because it really, truly allows you to be part of the community and your community to know who you are, rather than this big corporate chain where the reality is, they’ll never know me the same way that I kind of know their franchise owner and their local neighborhood.

00:02:52:20 – 00:03:19:10

Zack Oates

And I think this question really dovetails in and I stumbled over a little bit your title, because I wanted to say Chief People officer, which you were for a number of years, but it’s the chief purpose. Officer, I’d love for you to tell us, what does a chief purpose officer do? And it seems like you play a huge role in making sure that you keep the sole of Donatos, as things may change on the exterior.

00:03:19:12 – 00:03:42:19

Jane Abell

Well, I think, what do I do? I annoy a lot of people. So I think, you know, just like anything. And if you know the story, we were family business. We grew it. McDonald’s approached us. We sold our family business to McDonald’s in 99. That was never our intention. We didn’t grow up thinking that was going to happen, but we thought we’d have a great opportunity to build out really, our family business.

00:03:42:19 – 00:04:09:06

Jane Abell

And we believe in building a business based on the power of love. And so we thought, what a great opportunity to be able to do that. Anyway, didn’t work out. And so I think it was a great, valuable lesson for me. And I talk about it in my book because I lost my soul during that time. And I went from working in a family business where you could make long term decisions and you could impact your own business by making sure you’re making the right decisions versus nothing against public companies.

00:04:09:12 – 00:04:35:12

Jane Abell

During McDonald’s, it was all about that quarter, all about it’s all about what the shareholder thinks. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but it was just different for us. And so I think for us, and then when my dad and I ended up buying the company back, is how do you build your branding and I said earlier to your soul, and one of the things we believe in doing is what we refer to as agape capitalism and agape be in the truest, highest form of love, of love.

00:04:35:12 – 00:04:54:05

Jane Abell

Yeah, right. And so if you can build your business based on the power of love, you can do really good things with that money and give back to a community, which we have a nonprofit we started, but our three tenants and just to hopefully answer your question, to keep true to who we are, are lead with love. The Golden rule.

00:04:54:05 – 00:05:07:08

Jane Abell

So always treat others the way you want to be treated. And if you do those two things, you end up doing the right thing. And so we have these coins. They don’t have our logo on and they’re just our ethos, our values, who we are, what we represent and what we want to build in business. And we hope it.

00:05:07:09 – 00:05:23:01

Jane Abell

I’ll send you one. We hope it’s like a ripple effect. My dad will call it cryptocurrency in that you give energy to it every time you make a decision with it. But we use it in our boardroom meetings. We use it in our personal lives, and it’s just having the power in the pause just to stop and say, this is difficult.

00:05:23:01 – 00:05:43:18

Jane Abell

Am I leaving with love? Am I fulfilling the Golden rule and am I doing the right thing? So simple. Best practices, whether it’s a customer service experience, whether it’s an associate experience, whether it’s a spouse experience, it’s just a way for us in what we believe. And my dad has another sister company. It’s a manufacturing company. That’s just how we believe in doing business.

00:05:43:20 – 00:06:06:18

Zack Oates

I love that, I mean, my hat, it says do good, eat well, and I’ll send you a hat. I know, but your hair looks too good for hats. But this is something that literally keep top of mind of we’re here to do good any. Well, and that’s my whole philosophy with ovation. And I love that what you’re talking about here, because it’s about building value first.

00:06:06:22 – 00:06:30:01

Zack Oates

It’s about giving first, and it’s about what value you bring into the world. And the world will pay you for your worth and what you’re doing. But if you lead with that love, you can rarely make a wrong choice. Because love doesn’t always mean easy. Love doesn’t always mean nice. Love doesn’t always mean. I’m going to give you your fifth pizza for free, because you’ve come in and complained five times.

00:06:30:03 – 00:06:57:09

Zack Oates

Love means doing the right thing and inviting people to another place and upgrading employees to guests if need be. And I think that there’s some of these things where we often get confused between love versus nice and kind. And I think it’s important that you make the hard decisions both for the guests and for the employees. But I think that’s that’s a beautiful concept of leading with love, agape capitalism.

00:06:57:09 – 00:07:00:00

Zack Oates

That is amazing. I love that, Jane.

00:07:00:02 – 00:07:17:21

Jane Abell

That’s great. And you’re exactly right. It is truly. And people can think it’s soft. And, you know, my dad will say, no one ever said love in business. Ever. And why not? Because we are here to do good, and we are in business. To be able to give back to our communities. And so why not use the word love?

00:07:17:21 – 00:07:35:13

Jane Abell

It really captures an unconditional love which is agape, right? Why would you not want to be that kind of a person in business otherwise? And my dad would say that too. We don’t really want to be a business if you can’t do it and really, truly bring the biggest expression of love to business with you, then, then why be in it?

00:07:35:15 – 00:07:58:09

Zack Oates

Amen. Wow. Here we go. Preach. And Jane. Here we go. I think that is just beautiful. When I hear you talk about that and now seeing your title of Chief Purpose officer, it makes so much more sense because that’s not something that an outside hire is going to come in and get that they’re going to come in and let’s optimize, let’s, you know, and yes, you got to do all those things.

00:07:58:11 – 00:08:15:07

Zack Oates

But the question through the filter of the agape love, I love that. So now let’s boil it down to the guest, because obviously everything that we’re doing now is to affect the guest and make a great guest experience. What do you think are some of the most important aspects of guest experience nowadays?

00:08:15:09 – 00:08:37:19

Jane Abell

Wow, I think the most important experience, and this is a hard question, right? Because we’ve got a whole new generation of people. I didn’t grow up just on technology and the phone, but our next generation, that’s what they grew up with. And so the old days of pizza, right? You call the pizza shop and someone answers the phone and then they write down the order, which is when I grew up to today.

00:08:37:19 – 00:09:05:22

Jane Abell

So I think the guest is looking for a convenient experience. But a memorable line. And how do you make it memorable? And can you make it memorable with technology and can you make it memorable with automation? And so right now we do find ourselves in that balance, right? We want to automate. So one up for us as we really exploring and have rolled out last year I on the phones and one that’s great because the machine learning learns about the guests and knows better, right.

00:09:05:24 – 00:09:21:11

Jane Abell

But I would say, you know, I had a delivery driver just say, oh, but I can’t talk to Rose. And she calls me every Tuesday and I know what she wants. Right? So it’s like, how do you balance that? And yeah, you know, it is like Rose can still call you and she just has to press this number to this next generation.

00:09:21:12 – 00:09:44:10

Jane Abell

That’s like, I don’t want to talk to anybody on the phone. I am not answering a phone. But most importantly for the guests is what is their experience. And so I think the more consistent and convenient you can make it for the guests but make it memorable. And I say that with some of the automation we’re putting into the stores we have now a smart saucer, you push a button and it automatically sauces the pizza.

00:09:44:12 – 00:09:58:18

Jane Abell

And that invention. My dad had 50 years ago. But now we’re doing it in stores as a pepperoni machine that automatically slices fresh pepperoni sticks right onto the pizza. And we put over 100 pieces of pepperoni on every large pepperoni pizza. So, wow.

00:09:58:20 – 00:10:02:06

Zack Oates

That’s a lot of hand. And yeah, it’s a lot.

00:10:02:07 – 00:10:25:02

Jane Abell

But what we’re finding is, especially this next generation appreciates the technology, appreciates the automation. It’s a lot more fun than sitting there putting it on my hand. They love the technology, but also taking the phones out of the stores and putting it I it’s a better experience for our associates so they can focus on the guest. And that’s what I think has been really valuable for.

00:10:25:08 – 00:10:43:20

Jane Abell

How do you balance the automation and innovation with being a people first company? And it’s allowing takes the noise of the phones out. It takes the hard work out, but just the repetitive task out so they can have more freedom to spend more time with the guests and have more interaction with the guests.

00:10:43:20 – 00:10:45:18

Zack Oates

So 100%.

00:10:45:21 – 00:11:02:09

Jane Abell

Yeah, I think that’s what’s important, because we know the world’s going to automation and innovation, but we have to be cognizant of the fact that when it’s got to be good for the customer, you can’t do it. It also has to be good for your people, because we know the old saying, right, your people are Lincoln and treat their customers well as you treat them.

00:11:02:11 – 00:11:05:20

Jane Abell

Exactly. So it has to be good for both.

00:11:05:22 – 00:11:09:16

Zack Oates

By the way, is it public who you use for your phones? Are you happy with them?

00:11:09:18 – 00:11:18:14

Jane Abell

We’re in the middle of transitioning, actually. Press release just went out about that today, so we were switching, but we’ve been happy with the process. It’s been really good.

00:11:18:16 – 00:11:22:23

Zack Oates

Okay, awesome. Well, congrats to the new partner there for the phones.

00:11:23:00 – 00:11:24:16

Jane Abell

I’ll send it to you okay.

00:11:24:16 – 00:11:44:11

Zack Oates

Because I think that the phones are one of those things that is just so amazing because you walk into the store. I remember one time I was at a different pizzeria and I walk in and I wait in line for literally 20 minutes to place my order. I get up to the front and I’m greeted with a finger in the face and someone saying I blah blah blah.

00:11:44:12 – 00:12:04:04

Zack Oates

How could I take your order? And it’s like, yo, I’m like, right here. And that’s why I tell people all the time. The bad news is, 30% of your phone calls aren’t getting answered. The worst news is that 70% of your phone calls are getting answered, and every time they answer that phone, they’re creating a negative experience for someone that they could be helping.

00:12:04:07 – 00:12:27:08

Zack Oates

Or you have to over staff to manage the phones. And so yeah, I think that there’s so many powerful things in phones ranging from full voice AI to very basic solutions of just intercepting it through text messaging and whatever the case is. Yeah, I think if someone calls the store and it just goes to the phones and it just rings in the restaurant, you’re missing revenue right now.

00:12:27:13 – 00:12:35:13

Zack Oates

And quite frankly, creating a worse experience. Because to the flip side, when I call a restaurant and they don’t answer, it’s so frustrating.

00:12:35:13 – 00:12:36:11

Jane Abell

So frustrating.

00:12:36:12 – 00:12:39:13

Zack Oates

Because I’m calling to give you money, let me pay you.

00:12:39:15 – 00:13:06:12

Jane Abell

Well. And, you know, another interesting thing is our digital presence. So anything online. So whether it’s through a third party marketplace or through our own website is 80% right now. So very few are actually going into the store. So when that happens and then no one really you’re not used to even answering the phone. Right. And so yeah, there’s been a big obviously movement to digital, which is wonderful.

00:13:06:12 – 00:13:11:12

Jane Abell

And I think that’s great as long as your website works. Right. Yeah.

00:13:11:14 – 00:13:31:18

Zack Oates

Because it’s interesting, 97% of consumers have said they recently backed out of a purchase decision because it was inconvenient. And when you add that friction to the online ordering, it gets really challenging. And it’s sometimes it’s like too convenient. I mean, like, honestly, one time I ordered pizza by pushing a button on my Apple Watch and I was like, oh, that was a little bit too weird.

00:13:31:21 – 00:13:55:17

Zack Oates

So I don’t do that, but I do. If there’s a place where it’s complicated to order online or they make it challenging, I don’t order from them again, because if it’s too hard to do, I don’t do it. And that’s the beautiful thing now about your phone is every online order, when placed mobile, you should be able to do something like Apple Pay because it makes it so easy and so just do it.

00:13:55:17 – 00:13:58:21

Zack Oates

So that way I don’t have to look for my credit card, right?

00:13:58:23 – 00:13:59:14

Jane Abell

100%.

00:13:59:20 – 00:14:05:01

Zack Oates

So phones are a great one. Any other tactics that you’d recommend to growing brands?

00:14:05:03 – 00:14:24:07

Jane Abell

I think always making sure that you’re talking about who you are. And oftentimes it can be hung on the wall and stay on the wall unless you bring it to life in your restaurants. And the best way to bring it to life is to celebrate examples of it, which we do that throughout what we call promise and action.

00:14:24:07 – 00:14:47:01

Jane Abell

Our promise is to serve the best pizza and make someone’s day a little better. It’s that simple. Just do that and making sure that we celebrate that. So we go out to this. I go out to the stores and celebrate our teams. Anytime there’s a promise next action with a promise plan or their milestones. And, you know, I’m focusing a lot on the teams because I do believe if you don’t treat your people right, they’re just not and care about your customers.

00:14:47:01 – 00:15:05:22

Jane Abell

And I’ll, I had real life examples of that of during McDonald’s days. And McDonald’s is a great company. But the way we were operate in our company at the time, I think our people stopped caring. And the day we bought it back and we were losing money when my dad and I bought it back, we were losing $7.5 million.

00:15:05:22 – 00:15:33:03

Jane Abell

So the day we bought it back in that first year, we had $10.5 million turnaround. And honestly, is because our people started caring again. Wow. We didn’t change anything else. They just started caring about what they did. And I think when you see something that real, that evident, but they in the snug because it was that my dad and I, it was because they knew they were in an environment that cared about them, and so they cared about their customers.

00:15:33:09 – 00:15:57:07

Jane Abell

And now I can say it over and over again, but it really, truly was the biggest expression of that I think I’ve ever seen. And so that’s why the better we take care of our people, the better they’re going to take care of our customers. And you can feel it. Yeah. Every restaurant and you know, you walk in a restaurant and you can tell if people are being taken care of, and you can tell the energy in the restaurant and how that manager is leading and that customer feels it.

00:15:57:09 – 00:16:13:11

Jane Abell

And when a customer could feel and they know it’s not right, then your experience is not going to be right. Because we believe my dad’s quote is food served with love nourishes the soul and if our associates are making that pizza with love, the customer is going to end up feeling that beautiful.

00:16:13:11 – 00:16:21:06

Zack Oates

Thank you Jane, who is someone that we should be following. Anyone in the restaurant industry that you think is worth a follow. Someone that deserves an ovation.

00:16:21:08 – 00:16:43:05

Jane Abell

So just last week and a half ago, I would reached out to a Chick-Fil-A team and we went out. Our leadership team went and spent two. They opened their doors and their hearts, and they’re very gracious and they spent two days with us. I get to spend time with Dan Cathy, the second generation, and the I would say you feel it in their stores and their drive through, right?

00:16:43:05 – 00:17:05:13

Jane Abell

Like their hospitality, their every sense of that throughout their entire company. So from the leadership throughout to the receptionist, everybody was my pleasure. And it’s not fake. It’s not something hanging on the wall and their organization. So that’s my first shout out. My second one, and thankful that they opened their doors and allowed us to come spend some time with them, because I’m always curious to learn.

00:17:05:18 – 00:17:28:10

Jane Abell

My second one is, last year I was appointed to the board of Texas Roadhouse. And when you start to think, can a public company be true to who they are and keep their values and be people centered and people focused, never been more impressed with an organization that has really, truly been able to do that. So a large family business has been able to grow, and then also a public company that’s been able to stay true to their people and their values.

00:17:28:12 – 00:17:41:18

Jane Abell

They say that they’re in the people business. They just happen to be serving steak and they’re true to that. So those are my two. I think they do them to an exceptional customer service of an example in different ways, but in many great ways.

00:17:41:20 – 00:17:54:21

Zack Oates

And those roles, I mean, to me, it’s like they’re in the role business and they just happen to serve steaks. I mean, that’s just that’s that’s yeah, that’s a where can people go to find and follow you and your brand.

00:17:54:24 – 00:18:12:15

Jane Abell

At tenaris.com? You can find us and you can find franchising information on there. You can find all kinds of information. You can find me on LinkedIn. You can find me on Facebook. You can find I have a microsite finger Audible.com anywhere. And just hopefully just not as.com. You should be able to get to anywhere else.

00:18:12:17 – 00:18:25:11

Zack Oates

Awesome. Well Jane, for giving us a slice of your wisdom and helping us calculate the ROI of love, which apparently is $17 million. Today’s ovation goes to you. Thank you for joining us on Given Ovation.

00:18:25:13 – 00:18:28:06

Jane Abell

Thank you so much. I appreciate being here.

00:18:28:08 – 00:18:50:19

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 up.com.