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#487: Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Brand Stories | Hospitality at the Heart: How Newk’s Eatery Blends Fresh Flavor, Warmth, and Loyalty

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When you walk into a Newk’s Eatery, you’re greeted by the warmth of an open kitchen, the sound of sizzling steak and shrimp on the grill, and the fresh aroma of house-made salad dressings crafted from scratch. Founded in 2004, Newk’s has carved out its place in the fast casual dining space by staying true to two core principles: hospitality and freshness. Every detail, from the open kitchen to the made-from-scratch recipes, is designed to make guests feel welcome and cared for. 

In this edition of Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Brand Stories, we sat down with Chris Cheek, Chief Development Officer at Newk’s Eatery,to talk about how the brand blends heartfelt hospitality with innovative technology to build customer loyalty. From its scratch kitchen to its evolving digital tools and franchise strategy, Newk’s is proving that genuine connection, not just convenience, is the secret ingredient to long-term loyalty. 

SPEAKER_01:

Good afternoon, good morning. Mark Johnson from World of 36. Welcome back to our leaders in customer loyalty series. This is our Brand Stories podcast. It's always great to have you every Thursday. In today's episode, we explore the heart of hospitality and the strategic thinking behind customer loyalty programs that truly put the customer first. You know, we often speak with mid-sized brands, especially in the restaurant space, that offer great food, style support, and dedicated frontline staff, yet they still face challenges in crafting authentic customer experiences. These organizations often have the flexibility to pivot, listen, and evolve not just their programs, but even their physical spaces in response to customer needs. Yet despite that agility, many still struggle. Authenticity can be hard to maintain in larger organizations, where bureaucracy and technology sometimes dilute the brand's original spirit. And while smaller brands may have the freedom to move quickly, they often need a leader or a clear guidepost to show the way. Today we're going to meet one of those leaders. Hospitality often comes natural to smaller regional brands, particularly those rooted in a stubborn culture, where warmth and personal connection are part of their DNA. These brands understand that loyalty isn't just about points or discounts, it's about what a customer chooses in your restaurant, knowing there are steal options. And more importantly, how do you ensure they choose you again? In this episode, we're going to hear from Chris J. He's the chief development officer of Nukes Eatery. He's the architect behind the customer-centric approach that blends hospitality, strategic insight, and a deep understanding of choice and conversion. Chris Jair's how nukes approach to customer loyalty, not just as a program, but as a philosophical foundation that begins when the moment a guest walks through that door. Chris, how are you today? Thank you very much for taking the time to join us.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm well. Hope you all are.

SPEAKER_01:

We're doing great. Thank you very much for asking. First off, for those who may not be familiar, can you give us a little bit of a history uh regarding Nukes? You know, what you guys do, how you do it, how you were founded?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. Great. Thank you again for having me. Um Nukes was founded in 2004. We are in the fast casual restaurant space. Um, but we're founded on um a couple of key principles. Number one is um hospitality. We believe that that that's the value add to the guest who has many, many choices when dining out, specifically in the fast casual category, but other categories that we share customers with. Um along with that, we are scratch kitchen, fast casual. So we do things in our kitchen that others uh can't or won't do, right? We're grilling fresh proteins in-house. So we can do things like salmon and shrimp and and and steak and addition to chicken with our sandwiches and our salads. Um, because we do have in the fast casual space a real kitchen. Um there are no microwaves uh in in a nukes. Um so uh our sort of one of our points of meaningful differentiation always has been uh the kitchen, the open kitchen, which is the engine for us um creating fresh ingredients and fresh items for our guests when they order them. We make like seven salad dressings from scratch in-house. Things like that are all points of meaningful differentiation for us and to our guests.

SPEAKER_01:

So do you think that's uh kind of that unique approach? Uh the kitchen, no microwaves, customized salad, customized offerings, uh grilling all your protein fresh. Is that what has led to the the great success that Nukes had has had?

SPEAKER_00:

I think that along with our focus on hospitality.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh because, you know, when we when all of us go out to eat lunch or dinner, we have a lot of options. And we have our favorites, and some are more convenient to where we live or work than others. Um, but but one thing that differentiates a lot of brands in every category is the hospitality piece. So when a guest walks in, that immediate eye contact from a team member, that genuine smile from a team member, helping a guest who may be a first-time guest in your restaurant from a team member are all critical to what we do. I would say it's it's it's equal to the quality of food that we produce and the overall guest experience that both of those, the hospitality and the food, come together to deliver.

SPEAKER_01:

It's interesting you mentioned kind of choice, right? Uh I, my wife and I both had big jobs. We have uh four kids, only two left in the house, but two are Division I athletes, traveling a lot. Uh and choice, you know, we go to restaurants probably three times a week. Um but I'm kind of picky, finicky. You know, I there's a few I like. I'm a longhorn guy, I could eat there most every day. Qdoba, uh, I I I'll try. I I love nukes. I've had it at Auburn a couple times that I've been there, but it it's I don't run into nukes that often. Uh, but when I do, I definitely stop in. But choice is something, especially as you get older, right? I I'd rather go to a longhorn than maybe try something else. I try to try one or two things a week. So that choice has got to be very important. So when they give you that opportunity, people are loyal to certain brands, right? So when you get that opportunity to engage them, do you know if they're new guests, or can you find out, or is it that hospitality that kind of impacts that choice? Because you know, it it's for me, and I think for a lot of others too, that they they go to a set series of restaurants. So how can you expand that group or set of opportunities for the restaurants? That makes sense?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think so. So there's a couple of questions in there. Um, you know, one is we're talking about loyalty, and and and it's really become heightened in the restaurant category. I would say the discussion around it and the theories behind it and the technology that supports it, uh, it's been all of that's come to uh a lot of momentum in the last five to seven years. But if you think about it, loyalty's been around for a long, long time, right? It's why I'm sitting in a Marriott hotel right now. I'm a Marriott guy. You know, all things being equal in price, I'm a Marriott guy. Same thing, flying Delta. You know, so loyalty is not something new uh for consumers, but the the the aspect of it in the restaurant business has been heightened because of a lot of things that we all talk about, a lot of the headwinds we talk about in the restaurant space, right? Labor, tariffs, driving cost of goods and equipment on the new build outside. And so what what is it that we on the restaurant in the restaurant category, and specifically nukes, can do to increase the number of um times guests visit with us, right? We have um almost 27% of our sales are tied to loyalty club members if you look at on a 90-day rolling average, right? And our loyalty guest on that same 90-day rolling average are going to visit us 2.6 times more often than a non-loyalty guest. So we see the benefit uh of it directly with nukes. And you know, we're not a discounting brand, we're not a buy one, get one brand. We believe in the value of what we offer. And we sort of get to that with with duos and trios, right? You pick two or pick three, ultimately generating a lot of value um in the mind and true value uh to the guest. But the loyalty program makes someone um feel connected to the brand, feel connected to that experience and brings them back more frequently. And I don't have the data in front of me, but but industry data indicates that loyalty club members uh have a higher per average ticket uh than non-loyalty club members uh in Coparis.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Yeah, and you make a lot of good points. Uh, you know, you you mentioned headwinds, you mentioned kind of the tariffs and the unpredictability that's kind of out there right now. Some have headwinds, some have tailwinds, and it seems to vacillate every day, just as you think things are uh going to calm down, all of a sudden uh we're not paying people out on furlough, which is, you know, uh just it makes it difficult for you to plan, right? Um and and you know, when you look at some of those economic headwinds, especially, and you mentioned as we prep for this, you're looking at new store formats. How do those some of those economic headwinds impact some of your decisions?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, there's what there's another headwind, if you want to call it that, that that we're also dealing with, and that is um rents aren't getting any cheaper. Um, you know, vast majority of our locations are leased locations. Many of us who've been doing this for a long time, as we struggled our way through COVID and were negotiating with landlords back during COVID for rent relief, you're thinking in the back of your mind, man, the landlords are going to be more humbled when we come out of COVID, right? With the with the price of with with the with the lease rates. And boy, that didn't happen. It almost went the other way. And so we're also we're also battling that, you know, but we're doing that by by building smaller buildings, right? We don't need as many seats in our restaurants as we did, you know, when the brand was started, even up 10 years ago. We don't need 4,500 square feet anymore. We've got prototypes that range from 2,800 to 3,600 square feet. And and and that helps uh on the PL as well. That line that's called occupancy cost. You know, that's one of your largest fixed costs when you sign a lease. Cost of goods and labor vary with sales, but but your your rent is your rent. And so, um, you know, I think the the way we we tackle the headwinds is to continue to drive uh value to our guests. With what we talked about earlier, the pick two, the pick three, which represent a large uh amount of of the way our guests order with us, right? They may, you know, we may have 31% of our sales could be sandwiches, but they may be ordered in a pick two with a soup and a salad. So the ordering method versus the item for us, we see a variation in, and that variation is a good thing. It means if guest is looking to us for value with that pick two or pick three. Um, and and I will add one thing that that is a uh maybe not a headwind, but maybe a threshold. And that is, I think many brands, um, and we're somewhat in that category. I felt like over the years we've pushed price as far as we can push price, right? So, you know, um that's not a uh that's not a final decision, uh, but we all we are very cognizant of what today's consumer is feeling in terms of pressure from things not related to food in their life, but but where restaurants have um moved their menu price points to over the last you know number of years.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and you mentioned that too. You know, we as a trade association for customer loyalty, we meet with brands on a weekly basis. Uh, we have different brands uh you know lead different topics. And we had one a couple weeks back around value, right? We had uh a grocer and a large home goods entity talk about how they're looking at value. And value can mean a number of different things. It can be discounting, which you said that's not approach. It's convenience potentially, right? It's it's the combination meals that you're looking at. It's you know, even increasing the personalization and kind of the the you know the customer service options in a smaller restaurant. That's all value. But the customers are definitely looking for value and they're asking of their uh the brands they engage with uh you know about value in different ways. What are you seeing with value? Is it is it the the restaurant kind of the combined offerings? Is it the you know the pick twos, pick threes? Well, what what does value mean to you and and how is it kind of manifesting itself?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you know, it it's all of those things, um, and it varies on a per guest basis. That's why you really have to, you know, solve the riddle of quality of food, portion size, guest experience. You know, I'm a big believer. I think this is an old Disney phrase that the experience starts in the parking lot, you know, so the experience of that when the guest pulls up. I think it's it's um, you know, it it all of those things have to come together for each individual guest experience. Because I know my approach to what I think is value in a restaurant varies from what my wife thinks is value in a restaurant. You know, for her, it's more what are the sight lines, what are the light levels, what are the music levels? Um, you know, because if you think about coming into a restaurant, your your five senses are impacted. And often the very last one to be impacted is taste, right? What you see, what you hear, what you smell, those things occur when you walk into a new restaurant before you even get to put the food in your mouth, the taste piece of it. So I think we have to always focus on um on the restaurant side on to the extent we can, keeping in mind we're doing this through as restaurant brands, we're doing delivering the guest experience through mainly um hourly partners, right? They're well trained, uh very conscientious hourly partners, but that experience and the quality of foods being delivered through those hourly partners. So our training programs have to always address that. And then one of the challenges I think that we'll probably talk about is how do you get that, continue that culture of hospitality down through uh a guest just ordering online or through your app and picking it up and walking away and eating in their office, or third-party delivery orders that are delivered by someone that's not even an employee or a team member of your brand.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's an interesting uh segue. So uh you know, uh, how do you expand hospitality? Because I think you mentioned, right, uh there's a number of different factors. You talked about technology earlier that can enable uh customer experience, customer loyalty, but you also have technology that can disintermediate, right? Where if you're using a third-party delivery, Uber Eats, uh, you know, potentially other delivery services if you're using them, uh, and also even like the the you talked about the parking lot. The experience starts in the parking lot, and there seems to be trash blowing around all over the place right now, and there's only so much of that control. But one thing I know you do have, or at least you did have, you had those wonderful breadsticks up front, and that's always something you can grab a few of those in the little packs.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh yeah, some some grab more of those than others.

SPEAKER_01:

I would be one of those. So I was gonna ask if there's a uh uh shrinkage concern there, but that's uh we can ask that next. But you know, yeah, how do you expand that hospitality with all of these ancillary pieces that are impacting, you know, the opportunity to do uh and you know, have a good experience?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think it starts with um my point of view with third-party delivery specifically is um you can't fight it, right? I mean, we talk about loyalty, uh, our loyalty customers. There are customers that are very loyalty to DoorDash and Uber Eats and others. And no matter how hard you try as a brand um to highlight or point out to them uh to the guest um the level of additional expense they're incurring by ordering through those guests are gonna order through their favorite, right? Their Dash Pass or their, I think it's Uber One or whatever. So you can't as a brand, you don't want to fight it because that's a very proven, not going away distribution channel for your product. So then it comes down to packaging, right? So if you can't have a uh a smiling nukes employee handing that bag across the counter to a guest in a restaurant, um your packaging often becomes that the way of doing that, right? Of conveying the brand value and the brand essence and things like that. So you know, I think it it really comes down to um uh packaging, uh as as we discuss third-party delivery, um uh that that point of distribution.

SPEAKER_01:

That makes sense. Uh it but it seems to be also oftentimes too, where you know, I I was watching my daughter play soccer in college a couple weeks ago and used one of the delivery services and and had uh two pretty bad issues, right? So but I don't I don't remember who it was with, or they weren't large national chains, they were the smaller entities. Uh I don't think it necessarily in that situation reflects poorly on the brand. But can that be a concern? And how do you mitigate that? Because we we we've talked a number of different restaurants about that in the past, is it can be a challenge, right? Especially for someone local who's ordering from you know their local pizzeria or a nuke's or a you know a subway potentially. If if they mess it up several times, whose responsibility is it? Is it the the third party delivery service? Is it yours? How do you approach that? Because that can definitely impact that customer experience, don't you think, or that hospitality that you guys do such a job of?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you know, it's it's it's uh the ultimate uh part of that equation is we don't if if it's a if it's an order coming coming through third-party delivery, we as the brand don't have a lot of connectivity to that customer. We don't own their information and we don't own the relationship directly. Um, and we may not find out in some cases. Uh obviously the third-party delivery providers do pass that information back to us, but it doesn't come directly back to us, right? So I think it's again it's a tough uh solve if, as you mentioned in your experience, you had a bad experience, right? Ordering from brand X coming through one of the third-party delivery drivers. You don't know if they made multiple stops before they got to you. Um, you don't know if they drove through Starbucks to get themselves a cup of coffee before they got your food to you. Um so it that's the tough part. I mean, I think that the the way to solve it, it's not a solvable, not an easily solvable element is you do your own delivery, right? Like the guys have been doing forever. But that becomes cost prohibitive for certain brands, right? It's it's difficult to do in fast casual. Impossible to do, many would say in fast casual. So I think again, it gets back to when you find out there was a problem, meaning when the brand finds out there was a problem, you do everything you can to fix it as quickly as possible, right?

SPEAKER_01:

That makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_00:

Um but it is a challenge, there's no question, because you don't own that customer relationship directly.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's interesting. And I think that's uh where a lot of brands kind of abnegate on that and they kind of hoping that it'll just go away. But being proactive like you are and addressing it is interesting. And you know, I'm dealing with a situation right now where I dropped something off at UPS, something$1,000 package. My son dropped it off. We didn't get a receipt that day, but we've got uh we went back and they gave us a camera footage of them on it, and now we're uh negotiating with them and Amazon. They're like, Well, it's the it's not our fault, we're not UPS. I'm like, hold on a minute. Your sign says UPS store. I know it's not UPS per se, but we dropped it off.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, my fault.

SPEAKER_01:

We handed it to you, so you're like, we have to deal with Amazon. I'm like, why do we you lost the package, right? And she's like, Well, we didn't lose the package because we're not part of UPS. So you can either take approaches like that or you can proactively address like you do, which I think is good.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, and and what you're highlighting, just just a UPS example, is it's what we live with at Nukes and many other restaurant brands. That's a franchisee of UPS, right? So it's um likely that's a franchisee of UPS that opened a UPS store. Yeah. And so um, you know, we at Nukes have we'll have a hundred restaurants opened by the end of the year, uh, this year. And and so 29 of those we own and operate ourselves. The rest are all operated by independent, uh, in many cases, multi-unit franchise owners. And so it's ensuring that those franchise owners are doing that um or treating um the guest experience through third-party delivery in a way that we would do it in one of our 29 company-owned restaurants.

SPEAKER_01:

That makes sense. Well, when we started this, we kind of jumped right in and kind of got sideways a little bit. Uh, tell us a little bit about you, uh, you know, kind of about your role, your day-to-day role at Nukes. Uh, you know, as we prep for this, you kind of talked about some things you did before and kind of this is how this is your second uh you know stint with uh Nukes. Could you tell us a little bit more about your current role, what you do, and and you know, what you like about the position?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I'm so I'm chief development officer with Nukes Eatery. Um as I mentioned earlier, this is an encore for me. I was here from 2014 to 2019. Um, we were at 60 restaurants when I started in 2014 at Nukes. And um, and and so it was a good opportunity after some uh moving on to some larger companies, which which we sold, to come back to Nukes and help um restart the growth, right? Post-COVID. Um and so as chief development officer, I'm responsible for a number of things. Um, franchise recruiting, new franchise recruiting, real estate site selection, negotiation, and construction. Um and the latter two items, real estate and and construction, I also am responsible for in the company on cyber business too. So um, you know, I wouldn't normally be the person you'd be talking to for loyalty and technology discussions like this, but it is a uh it is represents a key element in nukes that um no matter what your role is, we all are very knowledgeable in order to be credible uh of all other aspects of the business, not just what we're responsible for, but but other aspects of the business that uh franchisees will ask me about, new franchisees or prospective franchise will ask me about loyalty and technology. And you know, I have to be credible in those discussions. So um, but my role is franchise recruiting, real estate construction to grow the brand.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, but you mentioned maybe not who we would talk with periodically or uh traditionally, right? I mean, we we see kind of a dichotomy there when it's more senior, when it's more aligned to the organization like yourself. We're talking to a president, a brand president, a senior vice president, whatever it may be. You know, those organizations have a kind of a deeper focus on customer loyalty and the programs, too better the programs are integrated in with the operation from sense of data, from operation, from a training perspective, a number of things you've spoken with. And those brands who have maybe someone who be who may be a little bit more junior, they don't understand the inner workings of the company, the passion points, the kind of the deep heritage and limits of the company, and how customer loyalty should fit into it. So I think having you know, kind of a more senior person who can speak to, who has a passion for customer loyalty and how the program, multi-program can kind of bring that out is very important for you and the brand. Sure. Absolutely. Um uh perfect. So when you look at uh some of the kind of the new franchisee process, you talked about about a little bit. You know, how do you how do you do that? How do you determine what's a new franchisee? As you move from the south to the north, is that different? If you move from the you know, the south to the uh the west, is that different? You know, you know, what makes uh a good franchise or and and how does the process work?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I think um put simply, you have to be as a franchise or very selective about who you award franchise rights to, right? Um it's been said a lot, but it's more like a marriage than it is a partnership, right? And um a business partnership, I should say. And you as a franchisor, and the same on the franchisee site, have one chance to decide if it's going to be a good fit, right? Uh up front. And um, and so we try to do the best we can to identify the best franchise partners we can to invite into our system. It's not an exact science that we don't have a crystal ball on how someone will perform once their restaurants are open and flying our flag. But uh, I will say that um, you know, they uh we try to be very irrespective of geography, right? Um, be very diligent about who we pursue for franchisees. If they're existing restaurant owners, we'll get into their existing restaurants that they have before becoming a nukes franchisee and see how they operate and see if their team members deliver uh the genuine smile and the eye contact that that we expect. So um it really is, you know, much like site selection, um, it's your opportunity up front before you sign a lease or buy land or or sign up a new franchisee to be very active in that decision-making process. Is this going to be a good fit or not?

SPEAKER_01:

Excellent. When you look at uh the customer loyalty program as you expand you know from uh into the hundreds of locations, does that the program need to be uh kind of updated periodically? Uh how do you go about keeping the loyalty program fresh and kind of relevant as you expand uh you know the the the number of stores that you have uh or restaurants, should I say, within the the program?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think I think um there's two parts to that. One is we have to always look at, and this doesn't necessarily play in play into growth, uh number of unit growth or or geographic growth, we have to look at what the guest is demanding uh in terms of loyalty and um and make that from a technology perspective and a process perspective, make that um easily scalable across a franchise system, right? Um before I got into this business 25 years ago, um I was in software, sales and marketing. And and I always said that uh there's there was one there's wonderful technology. But if you don't have three things come together, people, process, and technology, the best technology will fail. Uh the best process will fail if the people don't embrace it, right? And and and the technology doesn't support the process. So uh we have to approach this uh as we grow and improve um our uh loyalty programs and technology supporting it in such a way that we can roll it out across uh a very diverse group of franchise owners. Some have um different backgrounds, different appreciations for technology and process changes. So I think it it's it's important to always look at as you grow um and add items like this that involve technology, and they have to involve technology on the loyalty side. No one's going back to the old punch cards anymore. Um the people in process is it easily supportable by the people that have to execute it and the processes behind it.

SPEAKER_01:

That makes perfect sense. When you look at, you talked about this a little earlier, that uh, you know, the loyalty program, over 25% of sales, which is a significant milestone. Um, you know, what does customer loyalty uh, or should I say, how does customer loyalty play into kind of the the broader business strategy and profitability goals you have for the organization?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, as we see, that that guess comes more frequently. And so uh that's what every restaurant chain looks for, right? That that frequent guest coming more often uh and in theory spending a higher check on those visits. So yeah, but plain and simple, I mean, that that's it's a it's a it's a guest that you've captured, that you don't have to spend additional marketing dollars to get that guest to come in to try you for the first time. Um, so I think it I think it's it's as simple, it's as simple as that.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, excellent. Uh we talked about this a little bit, uh, kind of how uh Nukes is uh different uh in the in the you know the the fast casual space. You also leverage technology very uniquely as well, right? You just launched a new uh point of sale system with kitchen displays and customer facing touch points. You know, how has this technology uh improved operational efficiency and you know customer experience?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so we so so we've rolled out toast and toast kitchen kitchen display system to almost 60 of our 99 locations. And we expect to have them all live by January. Um what it does is um a number of things, um, both in the kitchen, but to the guest, it allow first of all, the guest has a guest facing display when when they walk in at the point of sale. Um it allows that guest to check their loyalty account, allows them to review and confirm those orders. They can add a tip, pay at their own pace, and um, and even check themselves in for each visit without needing a counter server. So that guest facing display right up front uh frees up the team member that's working the POS to maybe suggestively upsell or recommend some things versus having to stare at the POS in front of them to look up how much uh I mean, loyalty points the customer. Customer has, right? And so for that, it's been very, very significant. And then underlying that is our point system allows guests to accumulate points for anything on our menu. It's not like after 10 items, you get a free sandwich or you get a free uh slice of cake, or you can you can accumulate those points, you can use them for anything you like across our menu. But this rollout of toast in the kitchen display systems has really been um uh significant for us.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. And when you look at these new tools, you talked about technology being one of kind of the pillars for an organization that that are very important. When you look at the kind of the rollout of these technology pilots, uh the key LC apps, upgrade websites, you know, how how are you measuring customer satisfaction, long-term customer loyalty, you know, to make sure that the juice is worth the squeeze? Because some CFOs, especially in the this kind of you know, era of economic headwinds, are looking at it with a more critical eye than they may have in the past.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I think we we we use all of the industry standard you know guest satisfaction um uh options. Not all of them, we we we use some of the key ones. And um, in addition to that, we we're able to use cust guest segmentation uh in our loyalty system to be able to offer guests customize offers, right? So if a guest comes in um, you know, uh a significant amount of time for one item, maybe we suggestedly sell something else to the guest. And we can measure, we can measure that, right? We're looking at exploring further implementation of a customer data platform to take that personalization to a to a further level or even further. Um, and that'll help us mine more guest data uh and make those offers more compelling. But we see it in the offers and how they're redeemed uh with our guest.

SPEAKER_01:

Excellent. We talked about partnerships a little bit, talked about the partnership that you have with DoorDash, uh uh kind of how that's uh impacted nukes. Are there other partnerships that they that are you looking at? And when you look at third-party partner uh delivery, but maybe even brand partnerships, maybe potentially partnering with a racing entity or another hotel. You know, how do they complement your uh customer loyalty program uh and kind of enhance the relationship for your customers?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I think that the probably the one that we we have uh not talked about that is significant for us is Easy Cater.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So on the catering side, um they are far and away the market share leader of that that platform, right? Easy Cater. Uh many companies mandate uh business catering to be run through Easy Cater for ease of invoicing and other reasons. So um we we do partner with Easy Cater across our system. Uh it does help drive um a significant amount of our catering revenue through that platform. And and so um I did not want to end this today without talking about Easy Cater and how important our partnership is. So that's that's probably the the one I would highlight.

SPEAKER_01:

When you look at your program, what are two or three things that you're most proud of?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I think it's really one, and that is for a company that's small, compared to the likes of Panera and Chick-fil-A and others, um I think we've rolled out quickly. Now we're smaller, obviously, number of units, but um evaluated, adopted, and rolled out technology very, very quickly that is very robust with a very, very, you know, uh efficient team, which means small, right? And so um obviously working for a number of brands over the last 25 years and consulting with a number of brands in between some of those opportunities, I get to see and observe uh marketing departments around loyalty and IT departments around technology. And and Nukes is the best I've seen.

SPEAKER_01:

That's awesome. Uh, and in uh couple more questions. What future innovations are you looking at regarding loyalty personalization, uh customer experience, uh digital engagement? You talked about uh potentially uh rolling out a CDP that can help uh you know understand who the customers are, identify them more proactively. Are there other solutions that you may be looking at uh regarding uh uh technology for customer loyalty?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I think um I would say probably TBD. Um, you know, I think our next step is going to be um really elevating guest segmentation further and the implementation of the CDP to take the it the personalization even further. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

And the last question you know, what can loyalty 360 do to help you and your uh team with your customer loyalty program?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I think it just uh providing the content and the information that um that you do, uh obviously we're inside of our own business. And all of us try to observe and read industry trade mags to see what's new and what's real and what's exciting and what's really going to improve hospitality, guest experience, loyalty, and so forth. But we can't be everywhere uh, you know, uh absorbing all the things that are going on that that can help drive our business. So it you know, it's providing that content, um, real, you know, real content around what the industry is seeing.

SPEAKER_01:

That makes perfect sense. Well, now we have our wonderful quick fire round of questions. We like to keep them to a one-word or short phrase answer. Uh so the first question we have is what's your favorite word? Ocean. Ah, what's your least favorite word? Tired. Uh what excites you? My kid's success. That's awesome. Uh, what do you find tiresome? Meetings. Oh, well, is there a book that you've recommended or uh that you've read that you like that you like to recommend to colleagues?

SPEAKER_00:

There's one I read about four years ago. Uh no, two years ago, First Impressions. I forget the author. Um, but I would say first impressions.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, is there a profession other than one that you currently are doing that you uh would like to attend?

SPEAKER_00:

Professional golfer.

SPEAKER_01:

There you go. Um, and I guess that will probably answer the next question. What do you enjoy doing that you often don't get a chance to do?

SPEAKER_00:

Golf.

SPEAKER_01:

There you go. Uh, what's what's your handicap?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh gosh, it's uh probably eight and a half right now. But it's great. Yeah, it was the lowest it's ever been when I graduated high school. So then I got to college and work and all the distractions that come from that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, excellent. Uh who inspired you to become the person you are today? My wife. That's awesome. Uh, what do you typically think about at the end of the day?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh another day complete.

SPEAKER_01:

That's awesome. And how do you want to remember my friends and family? Fun. Okay, perfect. Chris, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today. It was great getting to know you, uh, your background and hospitality, your passion you have for the customer, and also the choice and conversion. I love that uh framing of the customer journey. Uh great to hear from you. Great to hear the passion and continued uh success with uh the amazing program you have. Also, want to thank everyone for taking the time to join us today. Make sure you check back every Thursday for the next edition of our Leaders in Customer Loyalty. If you haven't already, please subscribe to the YouTube channel and also to the LinkedIn page. Until then, have a wonderful day. Thank you.