Zach Goldstein, CEO and founder of Thanx, is an expert in retail customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty. Thanx enables customers to automatically earn rewards at your favorite merchants – no plastic cards necessary. Zach’s cutting edge innovation grows customer lifetime value through data-driven engagement and a modern digital experiences.

Here’s one of our highlights from this episode and Zach’s answers to some of our questions:

Featured Takeaway: The secret to understanding your customers boils down to digitalization (6:09)

Goldstein argues that digitalization is the best data capture mechanism in this new age. Nowadays, restaurants are swimming with a lot more information about who customers are. Digitalization better enables those competing within the restaurant industry to customize their online processes to individual customers.

What’s the most important aspect of the guest experience nowadays? (15:28)

Catering to the individual.

“When it comes to guest experience, you need to know who your guest is. There was a period where you could just consistently deliver good food and good enough service…

That period has ended, that’s not to say that good food and service don’t matter, they very much do. But if in your response to those things, you might come off a little tone deaf because you treat everyone exactly the same”

What’s something successful you’ve seen restaurants try lately? (20:22)

Ease and efficiency. Making processes within your establishment easier for the customer to navigate is arguably the most sure-fire way to generate customer loyalty in Goldstein’s opinion.

Who is someone in the industry that deserves an Ovation? (22:04)

Zach Goldstein extended a shout-out to bold leaders in the industry who are investing in IPOs (initial public offering).

“We’re seeing more bold decisions in the restaurant industry which has historically been fairly conservative…

We need more of that in this industry to embrace the future.”