A Great Customer Experience Doesn't Always Start With the Customer With David Eha, Director of National Accounts at Restaurant Technologies
David Eha is the Director of National Accounts at Restaurant Technologies (RT). With 25 years in the restaurant business, he is responsible for developing new partnerships with industry leaders and national restaurant chains to provide automated systems for some of the worst back-of-the-house processes. In his role, David takes the lead in implementing RT’s Total Oil Management solution, which allows its clients to run cleaner, smarter, safer, and more efficient operations — RT’s overriding objective. RT’s clients include McDonald’s, KFC, Wendy’s, Applebee’s, and Texas Roadhouse, to name a few.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
David Eha discusses Restaurant Technologies’ (RT) background and the services and solutions it provides
How RT’s oil replacement system works
David talks about the problems that the hood and flue solution solves
The benefits restaurants receive from an oil replacement system, in addition to operational efficiency
David explains the sales process RT uses to sell its products
What challenge is keeping David up at night?
Why David is excited for back-of-the-house restaurant employees
What you’ll learn in this episode:
Most restaurateurs don't realize they can enhance the customer experience by upgrading processes that don't seem to relate to the customer. However, implementing systems that improve the work environment and alleviate labor-intensive tasks can translate directly to better service.
With over 25 years in the restaurant industry, David Eha maintains that a great customer experience doesn't always start with the customer. Providing restaurant employees with a cleaner, safer, more efficient work environment eases the pressure of performing undesirable, demanding work. David equips restaurants with innovative solutions that make jobs easier and frees up employees' time so they can concentrate on servicing guests. Case in point, David's company supplies restaurants with a solution that allows employees to fill and empty cooking oil friers with the push of a button — a time-consuming, dangerous task that workers invariably detest. By saving time behind the scenes, employees can concentrate on more productive work, thereby enhancing the entire customer experience.
On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni welcomes David Eha, Director of National Accounts at Restaurant Technologies (RT), to discuss how a restaurant can improve customer service by making behind-the-scenes operations more efficient. David explains how RT’s oil system works, the solutions RT offers, and how RT enhances customer service by making things easier for restaurant employees.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
This episode’s sponsor:
Today’s episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, we create meaningful moments of brand trust and influence how people interact and engage with brands.
There is a science behind tapping into your audiences’ desires and motivation. After all, if you’re not changing your audiences’ behaviors, you can’t truly unlock all of your brand’s potential.
The proven models and methods of Behavior Design is the strategic foundation for your brands’ success.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:02
This is From Persona to Personal podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. Off Madison Ave creates meaningful moments of brand trust and influences how people interact and engage with brands. The science behind their approach taps into your audience's motivations and desires. After all, if you're not changing your audience's behaviors, you can't truly unlock all of your brand's potential. Now, let's get started with the show.
Roger Hurni 0:34
Hello, everyone, I am Roger Hurni, the host of From Persona to Personal where I get to speak with top leaders changing customer behavior so they can propel their brands forward. Today, I have a great guest. But before I get to him, this episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, we use behavioral science to create meaningful moments of brand trust, which influences how people interact and engage with companies. Our behavioral approach taps into your audience's motivation and prompts them to shift behavior. And if you're not shifting your audience's behaviors, you truly can't unlock all of your brand's potential. These proven behavioral models and methods are the strategic foundation for your brand success, visit offmadisonave.com. That's a-v-e dot COM to learn more. So today from super excited, I have David Eha with me, David is the Director of National Accounts for Restaurant Technologies. And while he's been there for seven years, he's actually spent 25 years working with clients in the restaurant industry. So his knowledge is extremely deep. In his current role, David works with national restaurant chains to provide safer and smarter and more sustainable kitchens by automating some of the worst jobs and back of house. On a personal note, having done some of those first jobs back in the house early in my life, I can really appreciate the services that they provide. One last thing shout out to David Chang who got this whole thing set up. So thank you to David the other David. And then David Eha sorry. Welcome to the show.
David Eha 2:08
Thanks for having me, Roger. Happy to be here.
Roger Hurni 2:11
All that time telling you how I'm decent at languages and I don't put your name they ended up butchering your name. So my apologies.
David Eha 2:17
Trust me, you wouldn't be the first so.
Roger Hurni 2:21
Well, my last name H-U-R-N-I it's a shortened Ellis Island story. And I have had people butchered also I'm like, Have you ever seen the movie Ben Hur? And then usually people know and I'm like, Okay, well, then you're not gonna get the pronunciation of my name. Alright, enough about me. Let's talk about restaurant technologies. Why don't we start by giving me a little background, David on Restaurant Technologies and the services it provides to restaurants?
David Eha 2:46
Sure. So Restaurant Technologies has been around for around 25 years. And essentially, we automate what is the worst and most dangerous job in the back of the house, which is automating the cooking oil management. And as you know, Roger, you've done those jobs in the back of the house, our job and what we provide to our client Partners is a cleaner, safer environment. And basically bringing into the modern day era, the handling of cooking oil, as opposed to kind of the archaic way. It's been done forever, which is very dangerous, very labor intensive. And then we also have another automated solution for a pain point of clients, which is an automated hood cleaning system, which eliminates the need for traditional third party hood cleaning. So essentially, our company we have 41 depot's across the nation that serve close to 37,000 restaurants in the US. And our whole goal is as you said, at the at the open cleaner, safer, smarter and more sustainable back of house.
Roger Hurni 3:59
You know, I really wish these were around, you know, a very, very long time ago, when I was in the restaurant business prior to get in advertising and marketing. But, you know, I had a couple of friends of mine tell I was telling you about this interview. And they're like, Well, why are you going to interview David, he, you know, this is the back of the house kind of a thing. And I said, Well, it's all about the customer experience. People don't realize that if you can, and this is the translation point, I feel like I need to make if you can run a better cleaner safer back of the house in the kitchen. That frees up your restaurant staff to create a better experience out of the tables. So you get to get the food done better. You know, to make it come out quicker, like it creates so much efficiency. And that's why I wanted to talk to you because that experience is really critical for restaurants to be able to translate into the for the customer. And and that's why I think your services are so great and it In the context that I do want everyone to learn a little bit more. So I'd like to dive a little deeper into how the oil replacement system works. And then really, and also how the hood and UI system really work from a service standpoint, can you just give us a little brief detail on both?
David Eha 5:18
Sure. So let's kind of start with the oil management and talk about the status quo and the way people have done it in the past. When it comes to a fresh oil filling the fryers you've got those 35 pound jibs of oil that somebody has to carry from a shelf or into the fryer. When the fryer it's time to be emptied and waste oil, a waste oil, they typically have to empty it either manually or put it into a caddy, and then shuttle it out somewhere in a corral or in the parking lot dump that used cooking oil into a nasty messy rendering tank. Our system automates that whole process on both the fresh oil and the waste oil, we have a closed loop system that is to 1400 pound tanks, fresh oil tank and a waste oil tank, there is a Fill box on the exterior of the building, where our hoses connect from the Fill box directly to our tanks, and then from the tanks directly to the back of a fryer. So Roger, as opposed to taking those jibs and dumping them and shuttling oil out to a rendering tank and the ability or the opportunity for slips, falls and burns. Bottom line is you can fill an empty the fryers with a push of a button. So a much safer way a much more efficient way. And you know, you hit on a key point. And I was at a conference in Arizona a couple of weeks ago and there was a panel of CEOs and there was a quote that really resonated that one of the CEOs said Our task is to automate undesirable work. And what is more undesirable than that person either has to fill the fryers or empty and shuttle that oil. And so by automating that, and making it more efficient, just what you said that frees people up to sport, spend more time in the front of the house, and things that impact the guest.
Roger Hurni 7:28
Before you go on to the hood. And then that balloon thing is there. I'm just kind of curious now, is there a horror story that you've heard about someone? Like Like, what's the worst that's happened that you are familiar with, with someone dealing with this problem themselves?
David Eha 7:43
Yeah, we hear about all the time. And I mean, obviously slips and falls 70% of back of house accidents on the slip and fall care category can be attributed to cooking oil, but the real ones that resonate are the burns, because those are the most devastating and really can be catastrophic. And, unfortunately, if you've been around this business long enough to talk to enough customers, and if you think about the employee base, oftentimes, particularly in the QSR space, you're dealing with teenagers, and so unfortunately have have heard a ton of stories around folks unfortunately, getting burned. And it's one of the reasons why a big benefit to our system. And something that is come on as late is we have 18 National Insurance carriers that offer premium discounts on the use of our service, because they recognize the safety benefits. And so for any, you know, you've got with with what's happening in the turnovers right now, in the restaurant, industry, anything you can do to retain your staff, provide them a safer work environment. This is really low hanging fruit.
Roger Hurni 9:05
Oh, my goodness, you must have ESP because you literally just answered my next question before I had a chance to ask it. I mean, there's operational efficiency, yes. But then there's just I got to imagine the receiving money from insurance. And clearly there is you can make a safer work environment outside of the insurance discounts just not having to deal with accidents with OSHA and the whole deal. I mean, I got to imagine that's just a real unreal, massive benefit for restaurants. I'm kind of curious, how does the hood and system also work?
David Eha 9:38
Sure. So depending on your cook surface, and your local authorities, you have to get your act according to NFPA 95 You have to get your hoods inspected and or cleaned a certain frequency throughout the year. So most QSR let's say a burger restaurant would typically have to get their hoods inspected there and then cleaned four times per year. And right now, if you think about that, the only time those hoods can be cleaned is in the middle of the night, where a crew comes in and power washes it and makes a mess, gets grease everywhere, you know, problems with equipment, you don't know how clean the system got. Auto mist is an automated hood cleaning system that eliminates traditional hood cleaning. And if you think about the easiest way to explain it to produce MR. at your local grocery store, we have a system that goes the hood flew all the way up to the fan that retrofits in your current exhaust system that will spray a detergent mixed with water three to four times a day five to eight seconds at a spray. And so you never get the grease build up. It you start is clean and stay clean. And again, from a risk mitigation standpoint, if you think about the amount of grease that builds up in a hood, the day after that hood cleaning takes place till the next 90 days, right. A flame that comes from a grill or a fryer can ignite that grease, and all of a sudden you got a catastrophic event by cleaning daily and never allowing the grease to build up you mitigate that entire risk. And for restaurants that are open 24 hours, the huge benefit is you never have to close down your operations for good cleaning ever again. So it's a terrific solution to what is really an industry wide problem. A lot of people can't find hood cleaners and let alone making sure that they're doing a good job getting the system clean.
Roger Hurni 11:57
I kind of imagine sales are pretty easy because they can what's the counter argument for not using or not using your services?
David Eha 12:06
Yeah, I mean, it sounds pretty salesy, right, I've been in sales for 35 years, I've yet to come across a status quo where there is more universal dislike or discontent, you no matter what you're selling typically a widget, you're gonna come across somebody that says you know what, we're happy with the way we do it currently, or we liked this particular product, so you can respect that. But majority of people for the reasons I mentioned whether the folks can't find somebody to do the job, they have to have one of their employees come and be on site overnight. The cost factor rail, the mess, there's just a lot of things where that our pain points for clients that we're trying to solve.
Roger Hurni 12:55
You know, if I were in your shoes, and someone ever said to me, I'm perfectly happy putting my employees in danger. I would I wouldn't know what to say, yeah. Maybe Best of luck to you. But are there? Are there expansion? I'm not sure if you can prove those two services. So let's start there, actually. Are you able to improve that? Are you Are there anything that you're doing to try to make that process for both of those things more efficient?
David Eha 13:24
Sure. Yeah, we're constantly trying to evolve and listening to our customers about what we can do to add on to those solutions that would be beneficial to them. And so whether it is having technology, on, you know, one of the evolutions on our oil management system is we now have technology that measures and monitors usage, filtration, adherence to their SOPs, you know, giving them the data to help better manage their cooking oil and their food cost. And so, you know, it's it's a constant. You know, we're constantly listening to our clients about what it is in the back of house that needs automation. And I think, you know, as we looked down the line of what we're going to be coming to the market next, it's going to be something that our clients are asking for that they're right now as a, as what we said earlier, undesirable work.
Roger Hurni 14:26
So you are looking at some type of expansion of of services. I imagine you're building robots back there trying to clean floors or something like that, you know, you take the irama and put it on a map and mop and it's, you know, attachment to it. So you can't disclose what you're working on.
David Eha 14:47
I can't break now, but all I can say is that, you know, we have a great group of product engineers and certainly, you know, we're looking at what's next and and you and certainly growth opportunities, but the best thing we can do is just continue to listen to our customers. That's how auto mist kind of came to be. And so I know we're working on some some great things and, and really, in addition to new products, how do we enhance the solutions that we already have?
Roger Hurni 15:19
All right? Well, fair enough. Fair enough. I will save that question. For another time and another interview with you when you're when you're ready to talk about it. I, I generally don't ask this question a lot, unless I'm dealing with companies in the restaurant space. But I'm kind of curious about the pandemic. While it affected a lot of restaurants, restaurants that couldn't pivot certain types of restaurants did really, really well. I'm going to imagine that because there were ghost kitchens, and people were doing takeout, the pandemic didn't really affect your business. So I'm kind of curious if that did and if there were any lessons learned?
David Eha 15:58
Yeah, I mean, it look we like, like anybody in this space? We've no question we were affected, particularly from our client base in the casual dining segment, right, when all of the dining rooms were closed, thankfully, a large portion of our business is in the QSR space, where the drive throughs remained open. So if we were solely reliant on, say, the casual dining space, it would have been a lot more, you know, traumatic, thankfully, a large portion of our customer base, you know, they stay pretty busy if you had a drive thru and take out, you know, a lot of those places did pretty good. And so in sales that were high, and so fortunately, we're a big player in that space, so that minimize the damage. But you know, no question. You know, there were adjustments made from, you know, our folks in the depot's and the number of drivers that we needed to our corporate office, you know, folks not coming into the corporate office and, and working remote, but we were no question about it. We were thankful to have a lot of customers in in the QSR. Space.
Roger Hurni 17:19
Nice, very nice. What's the what's the biggest challenge that you're facing right now? You know, that that thing that keeps you up at night?
David Eha 17:29
Yeah, I think, for us, the biggest challenge that we're facing is keeping up with the technology, you know, I mean, the changes are happening so fast at the restaurant level, in terms of technology. And so, you know, automation is where this is going not just in the back of the house, the front of the house, you know, you look at the use of kiosks as opposed to people taking orders when you walk into a restaurant. And so how can we take advantage of technology and bring that to our customers in a way that adds value? Because things are going to continue to involve the you know, what we, what we see right now, 10 years from now in the restaurant space, you're gonna see smaller back of the house. You know, you've got, you know, restaurant chains right now that are going to drive thru only. And so you know, we've got an outdoor tank set up, that frees up space in house. And so things like that, that help our customers wet with, you know, if they're looking for space savers in the back of the house, here's an outdoor unit that houses our equipment that will do that. So keeping up with the trends, but keeping an eye on technology, and how can we use that to integrate the other things that provide data that give them the analytics they're looking for in the back of the house?
Roger Hurni 19:07
Yeah, any AI incorporation there that you're looking at? I mean, I wouldn't think because it feels like a very manual type of service.
David Eha 19:17
Not right now. I know. It's interesting in it being at that conference, AI was a big topic, right. And it's certainly something that the chains are looking at, and are going to be starting to do more with. I would say right now, it's something that we look at. It's on our radar, but I, I would look at the restaurant chains themselves to be more out in front when it comes to AI.
Roger Hurni 19:44
Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. Is there anything that you're super excited about at the moment that you can share? You can click and share new products or services, but anything else?
David Eha 19:56
You know, I think what I'm excited to share is, you know, we talked earlier About the insurance play, and we are continuing to add carriers. And we've got customers that are taking advantage of those premium discounts. And so that continues to excite me. Because we're getting more and more recognition from the safety benefits, you know, in both of our solutions, and, you know, I think the other day, Roger, and you and I kind of talked about this prior to coming on air, but one of the great things about restaurant technology, why I love what I do is genuinely, the workers in the back of the house, love and appreciate once they use our system. And so you know, it's pretty rewarding. When you put a system in the back of the house, and you have managers, you know, give you us a standing ovation when they find out it's going in their back a house, or somebody that struggled previously with that terrible task, that now that goes away and frees up their time. It's pretty rewarding to see their reaction when you take something that's traditionally been a dirty, nasty unsaved job and make it a lot easier. See their smiles as pretty rewarding.
Roger Hurni 21:21
That's great. All right, I a backup because you said something. And I didn't have this question prep. But you said something I need to ask a question about because the marketing guy in me, you know, needs to know, you have a lot of evangelists out there, not just in the restaurant and those employees, but in the insurance companies. Are they recommending you? Are you marketing to them in any way, shape or form? Because I got to imagine if I don't know of you, and I don't know of this service, the minute I have a question about getting insurance, and I'm dealing with an insurance agent or a broker, I would expect them to be like, here's a company or here's the service that can lower your premium.
David Eha 22:01
Yeah, exactly. I mean, we are marketing to them. And we're also attending, you know, risk management conferences and trade shows where we're getting connected in that industry. And if you think about the brokers and the underwriters, you know, our they adding value to their clients, it's lifting up opportunities where they can create safer environments in that and thus save money. And I kind of mentioned low hanging fruit, both of our solutions are really easy ways where you can make your building safer, and the lives of your employees safer, just like that. So yeah, so we've created a lot of energy around that space and and people are buying into it.
Roger Hurni 22:48
Yeah, this is one of the things that when I work on behavior modification, and again, I do a lot with consumers, but on the b2b side, people often don't realize they're those types of influencer aren't on social media, that you can really leverage to help shift your customers behaviors into buying your products and services, simply because they pull sway. And they're more motivated. As far as restaurant owners go than restaurant groups, they're more motivated to save money and mitigate risks just the way the insurance company wants them to. So you almost have this army of salespeople out there. And tapping into that, I think is really, really smart. I don't have a question in that I just was a comment observation.
David Eha 23:33
No, I mean, it's, it's, you know, one of the things that it's really easy for anybody to do is if, if a restaurant tour, took a look at their last five years of loss runs, and you can identify which of those could be attributed to the use of cooking on the back of the house, whether it slips and falls or burns. And it adds up and it's pretty easy to identify. And so as a broker, underwriter when you can say, okay, that risk goes away immediately by automating that, pretty powerful.
Roger Hurni 24:05
It is it is, I think the real subtext here to the conversation that you and I are having for everybody is that the customer experience doesn't always directly deal with the customer. When you're doing the kinds of things that you're doing. It enhances the customer experience, maybe not directly, indirectly. But it does. And you have to, if you're going to be a great brand, if you're going to be a great business, it's critical to make sure you're able to enhance that customer experience from all angles. And and you seem to be certainly doing a really great job from a restaurant perspective. And I think it's been a really interesting conversation from that.
David Eha 24:45
Yeah, well, I appreciate it and definitely rewarding from that standpoint.
Roger Hurni 24:50
All right. Well, we're not done. I do have one question. I wrap up every show with that, because there's been some great learnings and some good advice here. And I believe what you don't do is as much as It is as important as what you do do. So I'm kind of curious what's the worst advice you've ever gotten that you ignored?
David Eha 25:09
The worst advice that I ignored?
Roger Hurni 25:15
Boy, clearly it wasn't. And he took a job in restaurant technologies had not so.
David Eha 25:20
So the worst advice I ignored and Roger, this isn't from a business standpoint, but I played basketball in college. And I was once told, as a point guard, don't throw the ball to a big man on the run on the fast break. And your natural inclination, no matter how tall somebody is, if you're going down the court and they're open, you're throwing the ball ball stuff. So but I will spin that around the best advice I ever gotten, which I use all the time is to be a good listener. And, you know, listen to your customers and what they're telling you and what their needs are. So maybe not a good answer on the worst, but if I could flip it around the best advice I ever got, that'd be that'd be
Roger Hurni 26:12
I think, I think there is good advice in your worst advice, because if you follow the rules too stringently, you end up not seizing opportunity. And when someone's open for other than the ball, good things can happen.
David Eha 26:29
My thoughts exactly, that I will back me up on that.
Roger Hurni 26:33
Alright, I'm good at translating. I have been speaking with David Eha, the Director of National Accounts at Restaurant Technologies. David, where can people learn more about you and restaurant technologies?
David Eha 26:46
Sure. Um, so you can go the best place, go to our website, www.rti-inc.com. Find all the information on our services, solutions, case studies. You name it all right there on our website.
Roger Hurni 27:05
Great. It's been wonderful speaking with you. And hopefully we can get you back on the show when you are ready to launch the automated AI robot mopping system for restaurants or something, whatever you want to call it. Thank you again, David.
David Eha 27:19
Now, thank you for having me. Appreciate it.
Roger Hurni 27:22
I am Roger Hurni. This is From Persona to Personal and we will see you next time.
Outro 27:29
Thanks for listening to From Persona to Personal, the podcast that takes a closer look into how organizations personalize their marketing. We'll see you again next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.
