Hospitality leadership coach Matt Rolfe shares expert insights on improving restaurant guest experiences, focusing on the importance of clarity, retention, and putting people first.

In this episode of Give an Ovation, we delve into effective hospitality leadership with Matt Rolfe, a hospitality leadership coach, speaker, and author of “You Can’t Do it Alone.” Matt shares his insights on helping multi-unit restaurant operators, focusing on the people element of the business to ensure success and growth. Learn about the importance of clarity, prioritization, and a relentless focus on guest and employee experiences.
Here are some highlights:
What is the most important aspect of guest experience?
“The biggest opportunity is how do we retain the people we have through the lens that we want them to provide a guest experience that’s consistent and hopefully allows us to stand out from our competitive set.”
What’s a tactic you’ve used to improve the guest experience?
“Clarity is key. So I’m really passionate about the guest experience… We want to ensure the leaders are clear as to what the desired guest experience looks like… I want everybody to hear Zack’s points. We can do it on a napkin, we can do it on a page, we can shoot a video of what it looks like, but we need to show what great looks like in its simplest form and then let your people be themselves.”
Who’s someone in the industry that deserves an Ovation?
“There’s a few.
Shawn Walchef. the man’s passion for the industry is incredible.
I just got off a call with Christian Fischer from the Disruptive Chef… somebody who’s truly is disrupting the industry but in the backend is just such a genuine kind soul trying to help all of us, I think he’s somebody that should be on your list.
Christin Marvin like looking at her stuff, what she’s putting out and how she’s trying to help and what they’re trying to help for people working through addiction in our industry is it’s heartwarming and it’s needed.”
Where to Learn More
To learn more about Matt Rolfe and his services, visit mattrolfe.com. You can also follow him on LinkedIn for daily content and check out his YouTube channel for free courses. His book, “You Can’t Do it Alone,” is available on Amazon.
Thanks for reading! Make sure to check out the whole episode, as well as other interviews with restaurant gurus by checking out “Give an Ovation: A Podcast For Restaurants” on ovationup.com/podcast or your favorite place to listen to podcasts.