Kendall Ware, keynote speaker and growth strategist, joins Give an Ovation to share how brands can build lasting guest loyalty by connecting operational insights with authentic leadership. With years of experience helping teams scale with purpose, Kendall explains why small moments often have the biggest impact—and how consistency, care, and connection are at the heart of every great guest experience.

Authentic Leadership Through Everyday Sharing (1:00)

“Just start posting about what you’re already doing.” – Kendall Ware

Kendall shares how reflecting on daily experiences helped him create authentic leadership content. Instead of chasing engagement, he focused on offering genuine insights that resonate with others in real time.

Fixing the Franchise Relationship (3:28)

“Clarify what you should be doing—and what you should not.” – Kendall Ware

Drawing from years of franchise leadership, Kendall breaks down how operational churn and miscommunication weaken franchisor-franchisee trust. He emphasizes going back to the basics: clear promises, clear delivery.

When Convenience Isn’t Enough (6:35)

“The memorable experience is what kept us coming back.” – Kendall Ware

Through a personal story about a local diner, Kendall illustrates why convenience brings guests in—but memorable connection and consistency keep them loyal for years.

Operational Gaps Hide in the Details (13:13)

“We found the real issue buried in the prep sheet.” – Kendall Ware

By digging into guest feedback and operational data, Kendall uncovered how simple oversights—like missing prep sheet items—can snowball into guest dissatisfaction. Data isn’t just numbers; it’s the guide to better experiences.

Adapt Without Losing Consistency (16:11)

“One size fits all doesn’t work anymore.” – Kendall Ware

Kendall encourages brands to stay consistent at the experience level, but adapt regionally where needed. Whether it’s menu tweaks or TV programming differences, honoring local preferences builds stronger guest loyalty.

Who Deserves an Ovation? (18:03)

Kendall gives a shoutout to the team behind Lucky’s Hoagies, praising their slow, steady growth and commitment to people-first hospitality.

Learn more

Kendall Ware – Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendall-ware-keynote-speaker-franchising/

Transcript

00:00:00:05 – 00:00:21:03

Zack Oates

Welcome to another edition of Give and Ovation, 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.

00:00:21:04 – 00:00:41:09

Zack Oates

Learn more at Ovation Icon. And today, we have a good friend, a trade show staple, Kendall, where keynote speaker franchise growth coach. He was the CEO of walk on, the president of Cinnabon, the CEO of orange. Leave just an unreal rap sheet of what you’ve done in the hospitality industry. Welcome to give an ovation, Kendall.

00:00:41:11 – 00:00:44:02

Kendall Ware

Thank you. I appreciate it, man. Glad we can make this happen.

00:00:44:07 – 00:01:05:14

Zack Oates

I know I feel like this is like two, three years in the making of trying to arrange everything. So I’m glad that you got here. Now, one of the things that I see, your LinkedIn content is just so inspirational. You care so much about people. You’re very authentic. Talk to me about when you started posting more on LinkedIn and you started doing that.

00:01:05:16 – 00:01:12:17

Zack Oates

Are you glad you did it? You wish that you would have like posted less? Now that you’re kind of a thought leader in the industry now.

00:01:12:19 – 00:01:35:03

Kendall Ware

At first, right, it was really the idea of all the things that I talk about or do daily in a brand. Obviously it impacts that brand and the people involved, but it’s a much smaller scale in comparison to what it could be. So I can’t remember where I heard it, but I heard somebody say several years ago that if you want to start creating content, just start posting and talking about what you’re doing on a day to day basis.

00:01:35:05 – 00:01:56:11

Kendall Ware

Look at your calendar or recap the meeting in your head. What were some key takeaways? And just start sharing that instead of trying to struggle and think about what should I go talk about? And so it really became, hey, here’s what happened today. I’m gonna go ahead and share this. And a couple things got some good traction. A lot of good feedback was coming back and forth, but there’s also days where it’s very low engagement and you wonder if anybody saw anything.

00:01:56:15 – 00:02:16:16

Kendall Ware

Yeah. But it’s more about what, you know, the value can be for those that do see it. So it could be one person, it could be 200 people, whatever that may be. At least I know it’s adding value somewhere. And that’s really what it became, is how do I just share things that I’ve gone through personally currently experiencing right in the moment, or that I know people may just need to hear right now, given the current climate?

00:02:16:22 – 00:02:26:10

Kendall Ware

Yeah. So that was really the drive behind it was how do I spread what it is I’m passionate about and the value that I’m adding to the people I work with to a broader audience.

00:02:26:12 – 00:02:41:18

Zack Oates

For the listeners. If you don’t follow Kendall, go follow him. I know we normally do that at the end of the podcast, but he’s got great content, like I said, and it’s the kind of content where it’s not just like, oh, that’s like really insightful, but it’s also content of like, oh, I should do that and be a better person.

00:02:41:18 – 00:03:00:21

Zack Oates

So I appreciate that you put both of those flavors in there. Now, going into the restaurant world, as you have been at the helm of some of these just iconic brands. And by the way, I don’t understand how you’re not 400 pounds after working at Cinnabon. I know they call it the focus 15, I guess. Yeah. Now we’d be called the whatever.

00:03:00:21 – 00:03:01:22

Kendall Ware

Go to 15.

00:03:01:22 – 00:03:27:23

Zack Oates

Yeah. Yeah, right. Not quite as catchy as the focus 15, but you get a fresh Cinnabon and you get a middle that’s like of someone that’s just been frosted. It is hard to beat that as you’ve been at the helm of all these iconic brands. What are some of the common mistakes that you see that if you walk into any restaurant, you’re like, all right, here’s some things that you should take a look at in your brand.

00:03:28:00 – 00:03:46:11

Kendall Ware

A lot of them have been franchise brands, a lot of times it’s about the franchise relationship to some degree or a misconception, right, or a disconnect in terms of what you are promising your brand as a franchise or versus what you’re actually delivering on. And a lot of this is comes from the churn that happens in the industry.

00:03:46:11 – 00:04:10:02

Kendall Ware

And you have things like an STD or a franchise agreement where there’s an individual franchisee who has read all this, hopefully and most likely, right. They’ve read all this, they signed up for it, they paid the check, and they have an expectation driven off of those documents. Right. But if you have leadership that comes and goes and they’re not consuming those same documents and living by them, it creates this natural disconnect.

00:04:10:08 – 00:04:30:15

Kendall Ware

So if I were to summarize the last ten franchise brands that I’ve worked at or lead, that’s usually where I had to start was strengthening the relationship, clarifying what we’re supposed to be doing as a franchise or what we should not be doing as a franchise or, and really just educating around the legalities, but also that expectation in franchising, that’s usually the go to from there.

00:04:30:15 – 00:04:53:12

Kendall Ware

I feel like every brand so far usually has some sort of operational disconnect when it comes to just having consistent KPIs, cadences, and when when they visit and what they’re supposed to do during their visits. It’s usually these common areas that I see to where you can literally apply a playbook. And going back to my comment earlier this playbook, I’ve had to apply and refine at every single brand.

00:04:53:17 – 00:04:58:10

Kendall Ware

And now it’s more about, hey, how do I just take that playbook and share it with a larger scale audience?

00:04:58:12 – 00:05:18:14

Zack Oates

Well, in that franchisee, franchise or relationship is something that is constant strain there. It’s tough to manage that. And you really need a lot of politicking. Right. And it’s politicking, but it’s also just delivery. It’s just like straight. Here’s what I’m going to do. And then doing it and earning that trust. And I think that goes both ways.

00:05:18:14 – 00:05:37:21

Zack Oates

But yeah that definitely is tough. So as you’re looking about all of this though, I mean, one thing that the franchisees and the franchise owners could be on the same side of everything that we’re doing the technology, the food, all the ingredients, the locations, it’s all about the guest experience. And so what do you think is the most important aspect of guest experience nowadays?

00:05:37:23 – 00:05:53:12

Kendall Ware

It’s how are you going to make it a memorable experience for the guest? So the person who’s actually coming into the four walls, what are you going to do to make it memorable in a positive way? You don’t want it to be memorable in a negative way, which does happen, as we all know. But how do you make it positive?

00:05:53:14 – 00:06:16:03

Kendall Ware

And to your point, that is usually the common ground that you share between franchises or franchises. So it’s so easy to tie back the conversation or the new launch you’re working on, or whatever the changes happening in the brand. If you can tie it back to the guest experience, usually you can gain the buy in. If you can’t tie it back to the guest experience, then you’ve got to ask yourself, should we even be working on this or not?

00:06:16:05 – 00:06:35:05

Kendall Ware

Because if it’s not going to impact the guests, then what’s really the purpose behind it? Don’t get me wrong, there’s some things you got to do every once in a while that may not ever reach the guest, but for the most part, that should be the common ground that you’re aligned on. So between the two parties, it’s really how do you have a brand that stands for something bigger that is capable of making something memorable?

00:06:35:07 – 00:06:52:08

Kendall Ware

And I always think about personally, there’s a diner down the street. Okay. Nothing special about it. It’s just close. It’s very convenient. And when my son was six months old, my daughter was one. It was a crazy Saturday morning. Need to get them out of the house. I just walked to the nearest place. Okay. It’s convenient.

00:06:52:10 – 00:06:55:12

Zack Oates

By the way, I know nothing about that. Kendall. That is a.

00:06:55:12 – 00:06:56:09

Kendall Ware

Complete.

00:06:56:11 – 00:06:59:03

Zack Oates

Foreign territory to me. Yeah, okay.

00:06:59:04 – 00:07:00:11

Kendall Ware

You keep them worse than I do.

00:07:00:12 – 00:07:12:04

Zack Oates

I’m totally empathizing. I am right there with you. I’m feeling the pain. I’m feeling the thinking about the whole day with nothing planned. And it’s like we just got to get out of the house. Just got to go. I’m with you. I’m with you.

00:07:12:06 – 00:07:28:09

Kendall Ware

Put him in the stroller. Make my way out. I go to this diner. Okay? We sit down. Binky’s are flying and people are crying. It’s all kinds of drama, right? Waitress comes over to ask for my order. I haven’t really looked at the menu yet. I saw something about biscuits and gravy. I saw something about having green chilies on it.

00:07:28:14 – 00:07:49:02

Kendall Ware

I don’t really know what it was. I just said, yeah, give me that. And I pointed at something. Okay. Long story short, the item that I ended up getting was not something I had asked for, but I’ve now had it for almost five years because I go to that diner every single Saturday with my two kids. And what happened is I order something very random, and they thought I ordered biscuits and gravy with green chilies on top of it.

00:07:49:04 – 00:08:05:05

Kendall Ware

Okay, it’s actually very delicious, but it wasn’t my intent every time it came back each Saturday morning, they just kept saying, you want the same thing as last time. I just said yes. Oh wow. Okay. Yeah. Then it turned into never asking me anything. I would just sit down. They would bring me the meal. My kids and I would all share.

00:08:05:07 – 00:08:19:21

Kendall Ware

And over time I didn’t really care what that was. It was just a matter of how the experience was memorable. It was contained. My kids were happy. They were fast about it. We didn’t waste any time. They’d bring me my latte and it’s a go cups. I know I didn’t want to spill it. I wanted to walk home.

00:08:19:23 – 00:08:37:02

Kendall Ware

They knew all these details. Okay, so the convenience factor of it being close to my house got me in the door. The memorable experience is what kept us coming back until one day we showed up, staff had changed and nobody knew who we were. I was handed menus, I was asked a bunch of questions. My kids were getting antsy.

00:08:37:02 – 00:08:54:03

Kendall Ware

They’re upset. They were crying. I did not want to go back after that. Gave them a few more tries and luckily the owner noticed what was happening and made a change and the owner started actually documenting certain things that he could share about some of his regulars. So that way if the team did change, they knew how to handle and what those expectations were.

00:08:54:07 – 00:09:12:02

Kendall Ware

And ever since then, right? For five years now, it has been the most consistent and fun and memorable experience that I have with my kids. And in my household. There is no Saturday. You got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, breakfast day, and then Sunday. That’s what my kids call it. They go, it’s breakfast day, dad, let’s let’s go, let’s go to breakfast spot.

00:09:12:04 – 00:09:15:03

Kendall Ware

And that’s just what it’s become because of that experience, see.

00:09:15:03 – 00:09:33:19

Zack Oates

And that is amazing because we talk about this all the time on the podcast convenience will get someone in the door, consistency will bring them back, but connection will keep them for a lifetime. Right. That’s right, that’s right. And that connection is all about trust. It’s all about where everybody knows you. And I have never sung into this microphone.

00:09:33:19 – 00:09:35:22

Zack Oates

That felt very uncomfortable.

00:09:35:24 – 00:09:37:12

Kendall Ware

I’m good sounding good.

00:09:37:14 – 00:09:55:08

Zack Oates

But I think you’re exactly right. And it’s like noticing those small things. For example, I took my son to Disneyland a couple weeks ago, and he got a little motion sickness from some of the rides. So we went in. They asked one of the staff members in a in a gift shop. I said, hey, do you have any Dramamine for kids?

00:09:55:08 – 00:10:15:01

Zack Oates

And they were like, oh yeah, it’s behind the counter though. So they got it. They charged me for it. And then we walk out of the store and we kind of walk down the sidewalk and we sit on the bench, right. So we’re probably like a good, I don’t know, 30, 40 yards away from the store. And as we’re sitting there, guess what happens?

00:10:15:03 – 00:10:35:02

Zack Oates

A woman that I asked if they had Dramamine came out and she had apple juice and chocolate milk and she said, hey, can I give one of these to him to drink with the pill? Because she knew it wasn’t a chewable pill. And so I was like, oh yeah, let’s get the apple juice. And then she goes, would you also like a bag in case he does throw up?

00:10:35:02 – 00:10:53:14

Zack Oates

And I said, oh, sure. So she goes back. She comes back and she doesn’t just hand me a bag. She had double bagged it, opened it up, gave it to me and then told my son, hey, here’s a bag in case you need to throw up. But if you don’t make the bag, that’s okay. We have people that will help clean it up, right?

00:10:53:16 – 00:11:02:04

Zack Oates

It happens all the time. And I just thought about that, about that little moment of she could have just said, yeah, here’s the Dramamine.

00:11:02:06 – 00:11:03:11

Kendall Ware

But here you go. Goodbye.

00:11:03:12 – 00:11:23:04

Zack Oates

Here you go. Goodbye. But that’s not the Disney way. That’s not hospitality, right? Right. It’s all about how you make people feel. And that thought of, oh, they need something to drink it with. And maybe they have something, maybe they don’t. But let me take these drinks from the cooler, walk out, look for them, bring it to them, stuff like that.

00:11:23:04 – 00:11:31:13

Zack Oates

I mean, that is the magic of Disney. That is the magic of hospitality. It’s just helping people know that you care, right?

00:11:31:13 – 00:11:48:08

Kendall Ware

Right, right. It’s special. I always say that to restaurant owners. You have to set the expectation. Whatever that expectation is. Maybe it can’t be like Disney. Maybe it can’t be like the local diner that I referred to. But whatever your expectation is that you want to deliver on, you have to be consistent at whatever that is. That’s up to you.

00:11:48:08 – 00:12:02:19

Kendall Ware

That’s your choice. So people may not perceive it the same across the board. But like my kids have an expectation now when they go in a restaurant, when we go somewhere else, right, they’re like, hey, how come they’re asking us all these questions? I come in and bring me my special meal, but it’s just different, right? Because not all brands are the same.

00:12:03:00 – 00:12:14:07

Kendall Ware

So to your point, right, Disney has the expectation they live up to it. It’s the details of opening up the bag, handing something they didn’t have to hand over. But all that adds up. And you now have that expectation, right? So it’s just about the consistency factor.

00:12:14:12 – 00:12:43:11

Zack Oates

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that’s the magic of those three cons right. Convenience consistency connection. Because you really do need to ladder up to them. I mean had you gone back the second time and the biscuits and gravy were bad, maybe because they’re so conveniently close, you may have come back one more time, but if they were again, inconsistent, it it doesn’t matter how convenient they are, you’re not going to waste your time on a Saturday with your family just to have a meal that you’re not sure is it going to be good or not?

00:12:43:14 – 00:12:52:21

Zack Oates

So that being said, with these restaurants, with these brands that you’ve been at and with the consulting that you do now, what are some tactics that you’ve seen to improve the guest experience?

00:12:52:23 – 00:13:13:14

Kendall Ware

Actually leveraging the data you have access to? I know data is a big conversation. There’s obviously things like KPIs and a lot more granular data you can get your hands on now. However, there’s also just basic insights that sometimes get overlooked, right, or aren’t being checked when there is a change or problem happening. It makes me think about something that happened most recently at walk ons.

00:13:13:18 – 00:13:28:19

Kendall Ware

Right? So we were going through a menu revitalization and, you know, looking at things and percentage of sales and all the basics you would do. Okay. So came up as one of those items that was a low percentage of sales. But also Casio kind of works with the sports bar makes sense. So why would you want to get rid of it.

00:13:28:19 – 00:13:48:09

Kendall Ware

But sometimes, you know, this is how decisions are made. Well, someone said something about it’s just a hard product. It’s never really coming out. Right. Nobody really likes it. All right, well, let’s go into the data. Let’s understand why. Because it’s queso when I’ve had is delicious. Who wouldn’t like it. So we dive into the data right. And we go and find out what the real root causes.

00:13:48:11 – 00:14:10:14

Kendall Ware

And you have to go through first all the guest data you have access to. Right? Sales is one factor, but what are the guests and consumers saying about the product? What’s the highlights there? And sure enough, you start digging. And yes, there’s a lot of comments about queso and three other items. So there’s really four hot buttons that were being talked about a lot in relation to poor quality or not meeting expectations to some degree.

00:14:10:16 – 00:14:28:11

Kendall Ware

So you keep digging and you dig and you dig. And sure enough, there was no problem at all. But it was something so simple that literally changed overnight. Not to be dramatic, but what happens? You realize that consumers are saying all this, and so you go back and you start looking at your systems, your operational procedures. What’s missing?

00:14:28:11 – 00:14:45:01

Kendall Ware

Why would something be happening like this? Well, sure enough, out of the hundreds of items that that brand has to prep every single day, there’s four items that are not on that list. And those four items happen to be the four items that have to be held in a heating container and have a shelf life of only four hours.

00:14:45:03 – 00:15:05:18

Kendall Ware

Well, because they were not on the prep list, they were out of sight, out of mind, and either people were putting way too much and at a time, and it’s obviously just drying out, going bad. You’re wasting a whole bunch. Or they weren’t having enough and the product wasn’t readily available either way. We also noticed that of that item, it was the highest gap we had in food waste.

00:15:05:20 – 00:15:22:19

Kendall Ware

We looked at theoretical versus actual. So all these factors pointed back, and it was just that simple prep sheet that needed four items added to it. So that way people knew how much to put out at a time and to actually manage it, to make sure you’re not wasting it and you’re still delivering high quality. We would have never figured that out without the data.

00:15:22:21 – 00:15:43:16

Zack Oates

And I love that. One of our big things is like actionable guest feedback. Because if you’re not taking action on the guest feedback, there’s no point in you collecting it. It’s like, take action now. And I think that’s one of the powerful things about taking action on your data is that it’s not only about finding that 1 to 1 hospitality.

00:15:43:16 – 00:16:11:11

Zack Oates

How do you help that guest feel like they’re known and cared about? But also it’s about using the data to find the consistent trends and differentiating between the one offs and the things that need to be fixed fundamentally with the operational piece, as opposed to just like someone happened to not like the queso. That’s okay. Right? Not everyone’s going to like the queso, but if you’re having operational issues tweaking that, I think I love that concept.

00:16:11:17 – 00:16:39:08

Kendall Ware

And I think another tactic and maybe more of a strategy, I think brands should be more open to is the idea of analyzing whatever is going on in the brand is meaning that sometimes interesting. So maybe need to regionalize meaning you’re going to take something away in a certain region. Maybe it’s adding something different, but you hear a lot of brands who are focused on this idea of control when it comes to operational consistency, which by all means, we all know you have to be consistent, but it’s almost like table stakes.

00:16:39:10 – 00:16:58:24

Kendall Ware

But there’s a difference from being consistent to adapting to your local regions, right? Just because you have to do something slightly different in a region doesn’t mean you’re in consistent as a brand. Your experience can still be the same, but sometimes you have to offer something different or do something different for that clientele or that area that you’re having presence in.

00:16:59:01 – 00:17:16:15

Kendall Ware

And so I think just having that open, open mindedness to understand that. Yeah, you know what? Maybe in this area we do need to entertain the idea of showing fights on television after 9 p.m. because we’re a sports bar versus over here in this certain region. We should not because it’s very kid friendly. A lot of volume is kids.

00:17:16:20 – 00:17:31:00

Kendall Ware

It doesn’t make sense for that area. But this idea that one size fits all, I just don’t think works as well anymore. So there’s got to be some adaptation that occurs to make sure that you can meet your, your consumers where they’re at and, and be that place that they want to call home.

00:17:31:01 – 00:17:51:18

Zack Oates

I love that I think that that’s so powerful because, yeah, you want to make it feel like the neighborhood, the neighborhood area. And I think that regardless of what it is, I think there’s some brave things like Chick-Fil-A, putting pimento cheese on all of this stuff. It’s like, oh my gosh, I mean, right, do that. Many people actually like pimento cheese.

00:17:51:18 – 00:18:03:04

Zack Oates

But yeah, you know what? Good for them for doing it. I love the boldness. Okay. Now last questions here Kendall. Who deserves an ovation. Who is someone that we should be following in the restaurant industry?

00:18:03:06 – 00:18:20:01

Kendall Ware

I would take a look at Todd Broderick and the whole team and Bucky’s hoagies. So Lucky’s hoagies is a basically it’s an emerging franchise concept out of Atlanta. I’ve been to Philly and I’ve had the debate between Pat and Gino’s, and I don’t want to get your podcast canceled by talking about this, but I’m telling you, they have an incredible cheesesteak, right?

00:18:20:01 – 00:18:38:23

Kendall Ware

It’s one of the best I’ve ever had. But long story short, they had this proprietary recipe that was known for a pizza concept based out of Boston. It was around for 20 plus years. They had 1011 units. It was iconic. They want a ton of awards for this pizza dough. Well, they were able to take this pizza dough and convert it into a hoagie recipe.

00:18:39:00 – 00:18:58:04

Kendall Ware

And so it’s something truly special. It’s very, very I would say intriguing and interesting. And it just has this higher quality taste compared to most sandwiches out there when it comes to the bread itself. But long story short, they’re scaling, they’re in growth mode, they’re doing things the right way, slow and steady, but they keep people at the forefront of everything they do.

00:18:58:04 – 00:19:07:09

Kendall Ware

They’re all about how they drive a purpose and try to create some sort of positive impact in their communities. So awesome brand. I would definitely check them out and give them a follow and see what they’re up to.

00:19:07:11 – 00:19:09:18

Zack Oates

I mean, the website and the menu just look awesome.

00:19:09:18 – 00:19:12:14

Kendall Ware

Oh yeah, love it. They don’t get you and Kendall.

00:19:12:14 – 00:19:15:24

Zack Oates

Where can people go to find and follow you? Sir?

00:19:16:01 – 00:19:32:14

Kendall Ware

So my website’s the best place to go. Kendall wear.com nice and simple. That’s where I have a lot of my content and offerings and services and all that. And then of course LinkedIn, as you mentioned, but also Instagram. I try to stay pretty strong and frequent on Instagram as well. But yeah, any one of those platforms would be great.

00:19:32:16 – 00:19:41:12

Zack Oates

Awesome. Well, Kendall, for putting out ideas that inspire institutions and individuals to be better. Today’s ovation goes to you. Thank you for joining us and giving ovation.

00:19:41:14 – 00:19:43:19

Kendall Ware

Awesome, man. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

00:19:43:21 – 00:20:06:08

Zack Oates

Thanks for joining us today. If you liked 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.