Find out how to digital ordering is changing the restaurant industry, and you how you can take advantage of it from the CEO of Olo, Noah Glass.

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Give An Ovation is the podcast where we interview restaurant owners, operators, and experts, to get their strategies and tactics so that you can deliver a 5-star guest experience. Available on all major podcasting sites.

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Noah Glass is a former cashier, delivery driver, and bartender. Oh, and we should probably also mention that he is the Founder & CEO of Olo, a publicly-traded online ordering and delivery platform worth over 3 billion dollars! We were honored to have such a special guest on the show.

Here’s one featured takeaway from this episode and Noah’s answers to the questions host Zack Oates asks each guest:

Featured Takeaway: Digital Will Affect Every Aspect of The Restaurant of The Future

“In the years to come, we’re going to see digital play a big role in the drive thru experience… And we’ve started to see on -remise going digital…What a digital ordering platform enables is actually placing the order, paying for the order, and having that order tagged with your table number. So the kitchen can receive that order, prepare it, and then a runner can run the order out to your table. It’s a better way to both better serve the consumer and to do more with less labor.”

Noah also noted that he doesn’t think all restaurant interactions should go digital. There will always be a need for the full service restaurant experience.

1: What is the most important aspect of the guest experience today?

Guests need to have service model choice. “They need to be catered to. Different occasions call for different experiences with the restaurant. They might want to use takeout one day, they might want to dine in another day, they might want to have something delivered the next day.”

2: What is something successful you have seen or tried lately?

QR code ordering. “It’s a new engine of growth for the industry as something that consumers are becoming familiar with. One of the reasons why it’s getting attention from the operator side is that it serves as a force multiplier. It enables them to do more with the labor that they have, which is in short supply, and spend that labor on high-hospitality experiences.”

3: Who is someone in the restaurant industry that deserves an Ovation?

Christopher Webb and the team at ChowNow. “We align so well on our philosophy and how we think about helping the restaurant to build its direct channel and better engage its consumers… We use ChowNow virtually every weekend.”

For more from Noah, you can find him on LinkedIn, Twitter, or visit olo.com.

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.

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