Heroic Hospitality and Empowering Employees To Create Raving Fans with Mario Nocifera

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Welcome back to the show. This is Brad and today I got a special treat for you. We've got a entrepreneur who is also a world class hospitality consultant. I've known him for about 23 years. Met him in Spain back in the year 2000 with, when I was with some friends. And since then I've watched a really amazing rise that he's made through the world of hospitality into entrepreneurship and also helping other hospitality based business owners really grow their business in some really unique and effective ways. Now Mario Nassifera is going to join us here in just a second. But he's got a perspective that even if you're not in the hotel restaurant retail business, even if you don't deal with people face to face, there's a lot that you can learn from somebody who has worked at the highest levels of hospitality, both as an employee and an entrepreneur. And we're going to go deep into what he says makes not only raving customers for life, but also how to empower and encourage your employees to create the machine that makes your business run smoother more effectively and more fun. Now if you do happen to own any business in the hospitality business or where you are dealing with customers or clients on a face to face basis or just really want to create these 10, this 10 star experience for both your employee and your customer. Pay very close attention to this because we are going to make sure that Mario shares some of his best secrets. So Mario, welcome to the show. It's great to have you.

Yeah, thanks for having me, Brad. Happy to be here.

Yeah. So as I mentioned to the audience, I, you know, we met back about 23 years ago and you just take me, take us back a little bit through your journey in the hospitality business as far as, you know, what you've done, kind of the evolution of who you are and where you've gotten to.

Sure. I think the, you know, the short story is I was, I was chasing high end restaurants in leadership positions from a very, very young age.

Very young age. The little, no Little Nell Hotel in Aspen, Colorado in my early 20s. Spago and Palo Alto, Charles Knob Hill in San Francisco, which at the time was One of four, four star restaurants. Really cool story. It was us, Gary Danko, French Laundry, and a restaurant called Mas's. So really privileged to be in such a amazing group of restaurants.

Then received some of my most valuable training at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco. The. The Ritz Carlton in San Francisco was the global training ground for.

Leadership, specifically relating to restaurants and fine dining. At the time, it was us and Buckhead in the.

Yeah. The Ritz Carlton is known for world class customer service and attention and attention to the detail that just makes people go, wow, this is next level service, right?

It is. And yes, 100%. And it also focuses on the customer, on the employee experience almost as equally as the customer experience. So I gained a lot of insight specifically with the employee experience and the customer. In my experience, the customer experience follows the employee experience. So I always do my best to focus on that first and foremost when I work with my clients and my existing business, which is Beacon, it's an immersive art and dance bar in Denver, Colorado. So that's great.

So, and I want to get to that in a minute because I know that that was an. That's an amazing pivot that you made in your career, especially during a really weird time in the hospitality industry. But you also mentioned something about focusing on the employee experience. I think so much of it's just focused on the customers and we just think that, you know, we, we neglect what happens with the people who work for us, not realizing that those are the ones who are face to face with the customer and drive it. So if you screw that up, you screw everything up.

You.

You pivoted from. From hospitality employee to owner at one point. What year did you. Your restaurant was what? Lower 48.

Yeah, lower 48 in Denver, Colorado.

What year did you open that?

We opened. What is 23. It was like, it was like 20. I'm sorry. Yeah, like 2016.

Okay, great. Right around there. And this was, this was a nice restaurant. You had a really amazing chef and you were responsible for really everything else. What are a couple of the things that were the biggest challenges, moving from employee to entrepreneur?

Well, the process.

Was pretty challenging. Being the sole.

The process of opening the restaurant was challenging, even though I had a lot of experience opening other folks restaurants. So when I opened Lower 48, I had either opened or transitioned about 14 different restaurants. Concepts or transitions. Doing it yourself, you're much more involved in the construction process and the fundraising process. Two things I didn't have a ton of experience in, but I always help people achieve Those.

Through. Through the operational lens.

Okay. So. And then you built on what you knew. You created it. Was it really well received by the community?

It was amazingly. It was. I'm so proud of that experience from. From start to finish. The way we opened, we opened with amazing fanfare, considered one of the best restaurants in Denver at the time for a couple years straight. And as. As time grew on, as time kind of as evolution and time took place, then the neighborhood around us started to deteriorate, more so than when we. When we opened. And so the location became our biggest challenge.

How so?

The homeless population around us grew probably a hundred percent. And we did everything from trying to get valet.

A valet service, which did not work, even though we offered it for free. We did everything from. From that to having your own, basically shepherd or butler take you to your car.

Right. I think you told me offline that wasn't like a homeless shelter opened up, like, right across the street or something.

It was. There was always a homeless shelter, but they expanded it. Oh, yeah. Something you don't really want to pay or expect. Yeah.

When you're in line for a nice restaurant.

Yeah.

Necessarily want to see that. Well. And location is so important.

100%. Yeah. It's. It's. It's the most important.

Right. So that. That business ultimately didn't work out the way you wanted it to. And I know you shifted over, became more of a consultant with Bird's Eye Hospitality, or consulting business, and started to help a variety of businesses kind of learn what you've learned both as an employee, as and as an entrepreneur, and help them grow. And I want to circle back to Bird's Eye Hospitality and what you do there for a second. But I also think it's really fascinating that, you know, a lot of people just have one skill set and they stick to their lane like restaurants. And you. You've really branched out and expanded your skill sets. I believe it was in 2020, you. I believe. And as a consultant at Bird's Eye, you got. I think it was February of 2020, you got an incredible gig helping a restaurant in Houston really improve everything they were doing. And then within a couple weeks of that engagement starting, Covid hit.

Yeah.

And shut everything down.

Yeah.

I mean, your industry was one of the most decimated by the entire. Right. What I liked about it is you branched off. You say, okay, we can't start a. Can't start a restaurant right now, but why don't you tell the folks the pivot you made in 2020.

I've just had the pleasure of being around such amazing people in, in Denver, Colorado and, and beyond. And a friend of mine presented an opportunity to lease a building right on the corner what was Main and Main, 28th street and Larimer in the Rhino neighborhood. And gorgeous building. And the gentleman that had it before I did did such an amazing job. So they had such creative momentum behind what they were doing. I knew I could.

I could create something there that. That didn't exist at the time, that's for sure. I. The concept was called Onward, which was the idea of Onward was to kind of place you in a forward mindset.

During a really hard time.

During a really hard time. Yeah. And so how do we move Onward?

And this was, this was retail and event space and a little bit of art gallery and a little bit of everything.

Yeah, yeah. So we employed, you know, at any one given time we were employing about 35 artists creatives.

And we were running events. It was definitely a little taboo and you know, sure, I'll get a little shit for it, but you know, it was, yeah, it was definitely not isolating, but it was employing creatives at a time where other people were not. So people that had an artistic expression had a place to sell it. And so I didn't necessarily charge anyone rent to sell their items at Onward, but I did receive a percentage of what they would sell. So there was really no huge. Yeah, no huge exposure for the artist.

Well, and what you did is you created an experience both for the artists and for the residents of Denver who were not afraid to be completely locked in their house 100% of the time and who wanted to have something else and, you know, that benefited you for your next foray into. About a year and a half ago or two years ago, you started Beacon, which is the hottest nightclub or as you call it, an immersive art dance bar in, in Denver, which is inspired by like Burning man meets Gold Guy meets Tulumi, A little bit of everything. I've been there. It's an amazing experience. So now you've got, you've got nightclub. You've got the hottest nightclub in town. You've got.

Retail experience, you've got like high end restaurant experience. So you've really added to your. Your credentials to be able to work, work in hospitality and help others. So in addition to running Beacon, and you know, I know you're about to launch, you know, in the near future an entire new nightclub experience, but you're also with Bird's Eye Hospitality, helping others and giving back in that way. So let's dive in a little bit into the world of hospitality. What are some of the biggest, you know, what are some of the biggest misconceptions about what it takes to create a world class hospitality experience from the business owner's point of view? Like what are some of the biggest mistakes you see people make?

Well, I do think focusing on the customer experience as a direct.

Is a no brainer obviously, but doing it through the employee lens.

I think a lot of owner operators skip over that employee experience part of their business and it's unfortunate because the employees are the ones that create, dictate, help solve the big problems that, that most businesses have. And every business that deals with customers or as customer facing.

They can't always see that those, that, that exposure. But your employees can, right?

And I've never worked in hospitality for the most part and I've never owned one, but I would imagine that the biggest frustration for most people in that business is the people that they work for them because it's a lot of turnover and you know, a lot of people are just doing it for a paycheck and they're in and out. And these days with, you know, Google reviews and Yelp reviews, etc. One bad experience.

Can lead to, you know, a lot more, but it can lead to the, you know, the public evisceration on these sites and you know, you live and die by these reviews, unfortunately for the most part. And so if you aren't being extra vigilant to that, I can see how it can really wreck you. So when you are working with a, let's say a restaurant, a hotel, et cetera, is that the first thing you focus on is what, what's going on with your employees? Is that where you, or where do you microscope in?

I do, yeah. Employees are, are what I look at first because you can tell by their demeanor, their body language and if the place is clean or not, and the place only gets cleaned by in one way, which is employees or your cleaning crew, which you employ. So at the end of the day it's, it's it again, I always go back to it no matter what.

So what do you, what do you think are some of the biggest factors in creating employee culture? That they love to work there, they want to serve the people the right way outside of just how much they're getting paid. Because I mean, I believe most hospitality employees, especially in the waiting space, you know, they're not, there's no minimum wage, they have to work on tips, etc. And I know this Obviously depends upon the type of company you're working with. But, you know, how do you, where do you start? How do you get.

A bunch of hospitality employees to really give a crap.

Sure.

And give their best.

I think empowering them is how does that work?

How so.

Allowing them to be, to make decisions freely that have a positive impact on the guest experience, I think is really important.

And I've never given a budget to an employee. I just let them make decisions. And if it costs the business money, the business, I'll just speak for my own business. You know, we're willing to accept that burden, financial burden, for the anticipation that, that cost, whatever that cost us monetarily, the customer goes away with an experience that is, you can't put a price to. So I allow people to make decisions that ultimately do cost money.

That, that, that, that they have the right to do that. So I can't give some examples. Sure.

One thing that.

So one, one thing that recently I was, I was actually at Beacon and I just, I was there, somebody wanted coffee and they didn't, they were allergic to Red Bull or didn't like Red Bull or didn't like energy drinks. So we.

I was with one of the, one of my bartenders and we were talking about like trying to solve this problem for the customer because they didn't want soda and they wanted a kick because they were getting sleepy. But we went down the street and got.

And got a coffee, like a cold brew coffee, which we brought, we poured it for him, we made a cocktail for him out of it and we actually ended up just giving it to him because they were willing to wait for us to provide that service and we thought it was a good idea. And so know it cost us a little time.

Which that did translate to a little stress because that put the bartenders behind and other folks drinks behind. But we were willing to make that sacrifice to provide something to someone that they're going to go wherever they live in the world or in Denver with an experience of. I was at that place and they did this for me. And for me that's just, it is.

A little stuff like that that makes a big difference. You know, when I got out of college, I worked for Walt Disney World at Epcot. And one of the things that Disney is famous for are these, or at least if you're an employee or they call a cast member, it's these take, they call them take five and magic moments, which is just like give somebody a magic moment. Give them, you know, they empower you to go Enable somebody. If you see a child crying, you can run into, you can take them into a gift shop and buy them a Mickey Mouse or a T shirt. And then you just, you just tell the person, the cashier, this is service recovery. Just, you know, mark it down for that. They write it off and they let the employee do something really cool. And especially if, you know, if you're a lower end employee, the lower you get, the less empowered you feel. Oftentimes I know Disney did a great job of making everybody feel empowered to do that and it became fun and you looked forward to making somebody's experience as opposed to being seen as just a cog in the machine. Um, so it sounds like it's very similar to what Disney does. Who's right? Right. Like at the top of hospitality. Yeah. You know, they're known for that. What, what are some of the ways that you know when you're training employees or retraining them? Obviously it's probably easier to start fresh when you started Beacon. You got to bring people in and train them right from the ground up. But let's say I owned a restaurant or a hotel and I'm having some of these problems. One of the issues I, I would imagine I would face is, well, I'd love to reorganize my culture and make it a lot better and get my employees empowered to do these things and to make my business run smoother. But when you come into an existing operation, where do you start? In retraining or reculturing them so that, so that it can work smoothly?

Well, it depends how.

How degraded the culture is for sure. Sometimes I've done three times in my career, which is like the most.

It'S the most challenging and easiest way of dealing with it, which is, and most money. But it's, it's very effective. Close for a couple days and rehire everybody, which is an outlandish thing to think about. But sometimes if things are so degraded, it's kind of the only way to do it and to have people reapply for their jobs and to re establish the rules of the road and the rules of the game. So I've done that three times in my career and have found.

Great benefit in that it is the most time consuming and the most expensive, but the results are by far the best results.

I think doing things like, like, like moderate tweaks with the schedule, having the schedule directly correlate to operations and, and changing what employees do on a daily basis so everybody feels good and respectful of the other person's job. So if you're a server in a restaurant, some days you're doing this one thing because that's what you've always done, which is I just wipe the tables down and the chairs and I sweep or whatever those tasks may be. Sometimes redefining what people do in an organizational manner does allow individuals to see the, to see their work through a different lens, even though they're shoulder to shoulder with someone. You don't always experience.

You don't always experience.

The other person's. You don't always see the other person's experience even though you work in the same place.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah.

How do you, what are some of the filters you go through when hiring people in hospitality, especially the ones who are facing the guest as much as possible. How do you.

The processes for hiring.

Yeah, and especially filtering out what are, like, what are you looking for to give you an indication whether or not somebody's going to be really good at this or not. You know, I fit into the culture.

Yeah. That's the big one. That's the big thing. So I never really, I've never really hired on, on.

On experience. I've hired on who this human being is and what they're willing to pay attention to, which is either it's themselves and the customer and the people around them, almost in that order.

And how do you gauge that during the interview process?

I ask a lot of questions about who they are, where they've been and things that motivate them as people. Because again, I believe I could train anybody that is open to be trained. But you can't train someone to have empathy. They, they come with a degree of it. And to which degree do we want to employ?

That makes sense. Are there, are there any specific ways that you get people to want to work at like, your location? Especially when there's, you know, there's a million hospital restaurants and hotels and things that they can get a job with. Is it just cultivating that reputation as the place to work or because, you know, you also have to convince the best people when you find them to want to work for you?

Yeah, I think, you know, simple things like offering benefits is, is, is really, is really awesome. And as is the norm, in addition to that, you know, the quality of life when you come into working in a restaurant or bar.

Making sure it's really clear with what you're able to offer, that you actually do what you say and say what you do when you're, when you're hiring for people. Like there's a Lot of smoke and mirrors that I've seen in, in, in restaurants where they say that you're going to have a quality, a great, quality life, but they don't really care once they get you in there. And so I always look at things like, you know, are our operation, are our hours of operation in line with the amount of people that we are employing and the amount of compensation these folks, these team members are able to make.

That makes sense. When you come in and work with another company, is there a certain process that you follow.

That allows you to find these opportunities for improvement? Because sometimes their employee culture may be okay, but what are some of the other things that you might discover that may be contributing to lack of performance?

One thing that I find that contributes to lack of, well, to identify a lack of performance is how clean or dirty a place is. And so I'll look at that first and then I will look at the customer experience second. Because usually those things go hand in hand.

Yeah. The environment matters.

Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, it sure does.

What are, you know, what are some other tips that you have for people right now? Some businesses who are in the hospitality space, hotel, restaurant, retail, really, customer face to face experiencing where service matters.

You.

Know, if they're not, if, if they want to examine what they're doing and look for opportunities to improve. What are some of the tips and advice you have for them right now?

Talk to your people. I think that just having very basic conversations with your team is very important. Being available is also very important. If somebody has a question about whether it's the business that they choose to work in, your restaurant or the business that you, or the restaurant that you run, or just their own goals and aspirations and personal life. Get to know them a little bit more and just really take the time. And it's easier said than done because.

You know, when you're going through the hectic life of a restaurateur, owner, operator, it's hard to slow down and, and part of great customer service is slowing down and understanding what's directly in front of you. And a lot of times that's your employee needing to talk with you and them not understanding how to ask the questions or nervous that they're bothering you because you are so busy and so taking the time and making yourself available. You can find a lot of great information out about your team and that one person can offer a lot of insights to how other folks are feeling.

That makes a lot of sense. Are there any particular experiences that you've either.

Been on the receiving End in hospitality that was just world class. And you're like, you know, that really made an impression on me and shaped maybe future things that you've done or are there any favorite things that you've done proactively in your career to create these amazing moments or this culture just from your experience that you're gonna be able to.

I think, I mean, I think that the coffee, the cold brew coffee is a great example of something simple that, that, that's just right on the top of mind. Another thing that didn't cost any money recently was we were at a nice restaurant and the restaurant didn't have great lighting in the parking lot and it was a dirt parking lot, but a really high end restaurant. And they had someone that had a flashlight, simply had a flashlight. And that person helped you get to your car and then when you reversed they were like right there like moving their flashlight. It was really like such low hanging fruit. And what an amazing memory and leaving that experience. And it was an a experience already. But I'll tell you like after that I'm like, they truly care. They care that you just spent money with them and even though you've paid your bill and you've given the tip and you said your thank yous and however else you left that experience, they chose to go above and beyond by having somebody in the parking lot with a flashlight so you don't trip and fall and, or just help you get out and navigate a very dark parking lot with potholes and you know, dirt.

Yeah, sometimes it's the little stuff that is, it's not top of mind, it's the little stuff that you might not even think of, but you go all the way through the customer's journey. You know, I know in marketing, which I do a lot of marketing, marketing advisory work, you think about what is the customer's journey. And a lot of people unfortunately stop at the time the customer gives you money. And that's really the beginning of the.

Relate relationship because you got to come back. You know, that's. How do you create fans for a real long time. One story, another, another great story is, you know, in, in, in great restaurants and if it's raining outside, a staff member will, will walk you to, you know, outside or to your car with an umbrella. And we're fortunate enough at Beacon to have a line on the weekends and my business partner.

Came up with this idea of tying umbrellas together so people don't take them and allowing like a handful of groups of people to use a string of umbrellas. And it also creates chemistry and communication and community within people standing at the line. So that's great. You know, it's so great. And it's been such a rainy season in, in Denver. It's been such a rainy summer in Denver. Umbrellas are definitely a thing now. And so we, you know, we offer these umbrellas, they're strung together so people are forced to engage, they stay dry. And we're offering something that cost us very little money, but all we had to do is just think just a little bit more about the customer experience and then when they come in, they just feel good. Because you know, when you walk into a nightclub is, which is literally what we are, we might call it something different. We're a nightclub. It might take you a minute to get a drink. It might, you know, it might, you have to wait in line to use the restroom. We do our best to provide the best service, but at the end of the day.

You know, we, we, we still have our struggles with the small things as well.

Absolutely. You know, when you're talking, going back to talking about employee empowerment, it actually brought up a, a memory that I have of like an incredible customer service that I had. It wasn't from a hospitality based business in the traditional sense, but it was retail. It was an Apple Store. It made me become an Apple fan for a very long time, which is, I just switched over. This is, you know, 10 years ago or more probably more than 10 years ago, probably 12, 13 years ago. I had switched over from PC to MacBook and it had taken me about a week to learn the MacBook and move everything over and get all my stuff. And then I, I dumped a CO. One week into having my MacBook Pro, I dumped a cup of coffee on the keyboard and it basically fried my machine. And I was so upset, like I can't believe this. But I did know that I had insurance from my credit card because I just bought it a week ago and I had purchased insurance. You know, AppleCare wouldn't cover this, what I call dumbass protection. But because I was the dumbass, I was fully at fault. But my insurance was going to take care of fixing it, etc. However I talked to them, I was like, okay, you got to go into the Apple Store, let them review, like let them look at the MacBook and come up with all the things that are wrong and then send us the, you know, send us their report and we'll decide. It was a headache to get the insurance to cover it, but I mean it was a couple thousand dollar expense So I took the MacBook into the Apple store and they, and I told them what I needed. I just need you to tell me what's wrong with it so I can submit it to my insurance. And they said, okay, let us take a look at it. Come back tomorrow. So they called me, they said, your MacBook's ready. I came back the next day and they said, okay, here it is. It's, it's all fixed. And I go, wait, what do you mean all fixed? They said, oh, well, it needed a new motherboard, it needed a new, you know, display. It needed. Basically everything was fried except for the hard drive, which happened to have all the data that I just moved on there. The hard drive was really all I cared about. They said, well, we replaced pretty much everything else in there and it's like a brand new MacBook Pro. And I was like, that's great, but I can't pay for that. Like, I needed the other stuff so I could submit it to my insurance. And they go, we noticed that you just bought it. Don't worry about it. We covered it. It's all on us. And they didn't need to do that. I told them my insurance, take care of it. But they just. Now we noticed that, you know, you just bought it, it's on us. And I, here you go. I walked out of there going, holy crap, that was customer service. And I told everybody about it and I said, I will be a Mac guy forever.

And I was just really impressed. And here I am, like 13 years to this day, and I can remember all the little microscopic details of it because it was something they didn't have to do. They did it. It added to the experience, and that is hospitality. Right? It's customer facing. Give somebody an experience that is also. It makes me think of. It's one thing to give somebody a great experience that they weren't expecting, but removing a bad experience that they might have to normally deal with. Like you even mentioned going in the parking lot with a flashlight or whatever. That's not a, you know, it's a dark parking lot. That's not a great experience, but they make it better. That's stuff people talk about. You're talking about this right now. It was something so, so minor. But it's those minor things that matter.

Oh, yeah, of course.

What, what would you say is the. Has been the most formative experience for you when it comes to really understanding how to create world class hospitality? Was there, was there a particular job? Was it your own business? Was there anything? Was there Anything that really catalyzed this in your mind, or is it just a combination of years of experience?

I just think that working at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco and running one of the most important restaurants in the state at the time.

The commitment to just trying day in and day out to figure out new ways to enhance the customer experience they were so committed to, that was unbelievably expired. Inspiring. And how they empowered their employees to.

To follow them on their journey. And when I mean them, I mean like upper management, leadership, ownership of the hotel, but they really, they did a great job of bringing the employee along on the journey of making the best customer experience possible. And it would be recognized in the daily and weekly meetings.

That's great. Yeah, I know. I've never actually stayed at the Ritz. I've eaten there and it is a, it's an awesome experience. You know, speaking about like this, this aspect I always, I often talk about with my clients or talked about this on the podcast, et cetera. There's like a lot of different ways to differentiate yourself and stand out amongst the competition. You know, whether you're the cheapest or the most expensive or the most exclusive or you, you've got the most social proof or the most, you know, the most reward, you know, reviews on Yelp or, you know, there's a lot of different things you can do to stand out amongst the competition. And I'll actually be doing a full podcast on this entire concept. But one of them, it's one of the last but not least is what I call this 10 star customer experience. We often think of a five star experience. You know, Amazon, you have five star reviews or five star. But I often think like, if you really want to stand out, even if you screw everything else up, if you give people a 10 star experience, like what would that be like? Double a five star? Like how can you just go the extra, extra mile to make sure that these people walk away and create massive amounts of word of mouth? In any business, differentiation is super important because they have choices. They don't have to go to Beacon, they don't have to go to lower 48, they don't have to go to the Ritz Carlton. They can go a lot of places, but people want to go where they're treated best. But I actually think if you, you don't have to be the, the highest end, it doesn't have to be the most, you know, expensive to have the best experience.

It can be to have a flashlight.

Right.

To get cold brew coffee. Yeah, I Mean, these aren't high end places. These are places that are just thinking and being present.

Yeah. So, yeah. Even if it's a fast food restaurant where normally we're expecting as a customer, we're expecting the worst service by teenagers who don't care.

Yeah.

And don't give a crap. And they're just kind of slinging your food at, you know, but, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of those companies that do a great job of just empowering their people to. You walk away going.

I mean, I don't, I don't eat fast food often. And, and I'll tell you that, you know, Chick fil a nails it.

Yeah, they do.

You know, when they have the long lines and your order is really big, they'll actually ask you to pull over once you get to their window and you've paid and you like have half of your order. Like, can you just pull over there so we can take care of the next customer? Like that alone, like for that next customer, didn't cost them anything to ask me to move over my car. And that next customer rolls up and they're taken care of now faster. And it's just less stress on the employees. And I think whenever you can create an environment where there's less stress on the people that are taking care of your guests, you're winning.

Couldn't agree more. What do you, what do you see as the kind of the future of the hospitality industry? Is there any, are there any changes coming? Any evolutions? I mean, besides of you, just more great service.

Yeah. I was at a. I'll tell you, I was at a. I had a very frustrating experience, actually. I don't know if you were there or not. Yeah. Panera bread. Oh, yeah. Maybe I shouldn't say that. Say it. Whatever.

Throw them under the bus.

Under the bus, man. Because we get there and there's like a computer screen as we walk in. And then the computer screen is definitely not customer friendly. I hate using a computer screen. I do not like the QR codes. I know that they add value to, you know, the perceived value through the, the operator's lens, but I don't find the value as a customer. Obviously we all have to deal with the QR codes, but like, I don't want my phone out when I'm eating at restaurants because I want to be present with who I'm with. But anyway.

We got you walk in, there's a computer screen. Computer screen's not user friendly. Trying to order. I think we Were I was trying to do like no onions on something or whatever the simple prompt was. It was this whole long thing, had to pay. Then I had to go and talk to someone that definitely did not want to talk to me, didn't want onions on the thing, the thing was already made, then they had to go back. It was a nightmare. So I do think that technology, the more we incorporate technology.

I think the more opportunity for good and bad customer service.

Yeah, I think I agree. And as somebody like, and as I've told you, I've got clients in the hospitality space that I'm helping integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve their experience. And.

One of the key aspects of this is not trying to just replace human interaction with technology, but to augment it to make it more empowered and powerful and potentially even using artificial intelligence internally so that they can learn more about how to best serve the customer in a personal way as opposed to just say, well let's just replace it with robots so we don't have to deal with people. That is not the best. And I actually think that there's going to be a lot of companies who do that and I think it's going to bite them in the butt if they just try to completely replace it instead of augment them. And that's one of the areas that I see the future with as well as just using.

Machine learning to understand your internal operations better, your internal people to potentially screen for better candidates for.

Allowing you to.

Create more of those magical moments for your guests.

Yeah.

Are there any types of clients when it comes to the bird's eye hospitality space that you really love working with? Like what are some of the situations that a hospitality based business owner, executive manager, etc might find themselves in to realize? Maybe I could use an outside perspective on this.

I think a restaurant that's in transition that was at one point doing okay to good, that wants to be great.

Those are some of my, those were always. Some of my most. Those are always some of my favorite clients because they want to be better and they want to speak to someone that might offer some insight.

To what, what a great business could look like. And also people that are like starting off and trying to identify who they are, what they are and why they want to exist. And helping people through that process is very rewarding.

That's actually how I met, that's actually how I got involved in Beacon. It was my now business partner was just trying to understand the space a little bit more. And as we kind of walk through what he, what his idea was and how he wanted to.

Show up in the world through hospitality. And it was a, first it was a spa, then it was a multi.

Multi layered bar concept. And we just kind of walked through it. And I just love that process of like helping someone like walk through an idea and, and, and getting it dialed in and like really distilled to like it's the essence of what they're, they're trying to accomplish. Just needs a third party sometimes or a secondary party sometimes to just ask the right questions.

Right. That makes sense.

And it's.

So it's kind of like if they, if you find yourself in transition, whether it's you're transitioning into a new business or you're realizing that I need to make a change because this is not going the way I want it to. And it, especially if it's going the opposite direction where, you know, poor reviews, profitability is down, the competition starting to beat up. Yeah, yeah. Eat your lunch. Pun intended.

And then. And this can be for any business that really is customer facing. Yeah. Whether it's retail.

I've helped some house. Some hotels with their housekeeping company. So that their housekeeping component.

Nice. How so?

And how. Well, it was really the food component of housekeeping. They were, they really wanted the housekeepers or that area of where the housekeepers and room service inter. Interacted within the space of the hotel. The logistics of that didn't make a ton of sense. And then how the room service attendants received the information and how the housekeepers were kind of a little bit too in the mix with that one specific area. So really what we just figured out was we just need to redefine what this area looks like and how they receive the information. So the front door communicating with the housekeepers and the customer communicating with the room attendants.

That's great. So just really breaking down the process, looking at it at a granular level and then looking for ways to optimize that. Yeah, I love that. So, Mario, that kind of brings us to the. The end of our conversation here. But I think that there's probably a lot of people out there who could utilize your help. And I know that all of us as consumers of hospitality based businesses would wish that everybody would put the kind of attention to detail as you and your customers and your clients put it into there. If, if somebody wants to reach out to you and to learn more about Bird's Eye hospitality and how you might be able to help them, what's kind of the best ways to get a hold of you or to find out more.

Well, you can email me. I use my. I use my Beacon. Email Mario at the Beacon Co.

I also have a podcast as well called Heroic Hospitality where we interview hospitality professionals and people in the space that are just trying.

More than, more than most successful entrepreneurs. Basically the kind of people that would listen to Heroic Hospitality or entrepreneurs or anyone in the hospitality space.

And then on Instagram and. Yeah, Instagram or email. Really?

That's great. I'll put, yeah, I'll put links to all of that in your awesome. In the show notes. And you know, I encourage. I've known Mario for 23 years and I've seen his journey and I been a witness on the, on both sides of it to the.

Level of hospitality he gives, whether it's friends and family or customers and clients, but also employees. Whenever you're around the people that he's employed, you can tell there's something completely different after Mario's got his hands into their culture and helped to shape it and sculpt it and mold it into something that's really, really remarkable. And I congratulate you for that.

Thank you.

Anybody's out there listening, thinking, you know, maybe I want a second opinion on what I'm doing and maybe I can step up my game or have somebody give me a I love the bird's eye, you know, perspective.

Sure.

On how to improve this. Please reach out to him. I know that you'd be in good hands. I can speak from experience on that. But Mario, thanks a lot for joining me on the show and sharing, you know, your hard won wisdom over, you.

Know, thank you so much. Yeah, I just encourage anybody that leads a team of people just to slow down and to pay attention minute to minute, hour to hour with what you're and how your people are behaving within your space and your interaction with them because they look up to you, whether you believe it or not. So take the time and look them in the eyes and be available. I think that goes a long way.

I love it. Couldn't agree more. And thanks again for coming on the show. To everybody else listening, if you haven't dropped a review on itunes, please do that. I read every single one of them and do not hesitate to reach out and let me know if there's a topic that you would like some coverage on or even a specific issue you're having problems with. Once more, this is Brad Costanzo and you're listening to Bacon Wrapped Business. I'll see you on the next episizzle Talk soon.