Find out how Preston Junger, the VP of Sales and the Head of US Operations at 7shifts, aligns his teams and why he places so much importance on culture.
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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To put it simply, Preston Junger is the real deal. He’s the VP of Sales and the Head of US Operations at 7shifts, the practically ubiquitous employee scheduling software of the restaurant industry. His background includes VP at Yelp as well as great tenures at Yahoo, Expedia, and Apple. He’s the co-founder of Mile Square Labs, a consulting group for high-growth tech companies, and was also named one of The Software Report’s Top 25 Software Sales Executives of 2021.
Preston had some great knowledge to share on this episode of Give an Ovation: A Podcast For Restaurants. Here were a few of his main points:
1) Help Others Collaborate
For Preston and 7Shifts, collaboration was one of the main ways they stayed grounded and survived the pandemic. Preston pointed out that no single piece of tech does everything for a restaurant, so the key is finding the right combination of tech. A great resource for finding the right tech for you is Table For 10, a free e-book that 7Shifts worked on with Ovation and 8 other restaurants. Check it out here!
2) Get Your Team In Alignment
Another way 7Shifts powered through the pandemic was through the unification of their entire team. It’s important to share organizational goals and be on the same page professionally, but as a leader it’s also important to sync up with your employees’ personal goals and motivations.
3) Be Open To Dynamic Roles
To maximize employee happiness and productivity, Preston recommends looking beyond their current roles and examining their strengths and personality holistically. Do they have any skills that aren’t currently being utilized? Is there a way you could expand their role to make the most of their employment?
4) Culture Matters
As Preston said, “Obviously a great product, a great software is one thing, but the people that power it are everything.”
It may be less about finding good people but be about increasing what you can extend to your employees. Culture is hard to focus on when you’re a busy owner, but if you give your employees a 5-star experience, they’ll pass that on to your customers.
5) Be Opportunistic and Explore Technological Suggestions
Preston believes that technology can solve so many issues and create innovative ways to run your restaurant, and you may have to explore to find the right solutions for you. But regardless of how long that exploration takes, it’s worth it.
For more from Preston, you can find him on LinkedIn or Twitter as Preston Junger. And don’t forget to visit https://www.7shifts.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.
