Qu - Restaurants Reinvented - Niko Papademetriou & Stacey Sikorski - Transcript
[00:00:00] Jen Kern: Hello everyone and welcome back to Restaurants Reinvented. This is Jen Kern, and today we are kicking off a new series all around labor challenges in the restaurant industry. And I am joined by two folks who have a wealth of knowledge on labor and challenges and the solutions available in the market. So I'm really excited to introduce Stacey Sikorski. She's the Mid-Market Account Executive from 7shifts. Hi, Stacey.
[00:00:29] Stacey Sikorski: Thanks for having me
[00:00:30] here.
[00:00:31] Jen Kern: Yeah, really excited to talk with you today. And then from Qu here we have Niko Papademetriou. He was our SVP of Sales and Business Development. Hi, Niko. And for our audience to get to know you too a little bit, I'd like you to give just a brief bio and background in terms of your experience in the industry and as it really relates to labor as well would be great.
[00:00:51] So we'll start with you, Stacey.
[00:00:52] Stacey Sikorski: Awesome. I, as you mentioned, Mid-Market Key Accounts Executive at 7shifts, I've been here for almost six years and worked in a lot of [00:01:00] different, customer and partner facing roles in the company. And previous of that worked in the liquor industry, selling to restaurants and in bars there, and also just worked in restaurants myself. So I have a true passion for the restaurant industry and for 7shifts and the mission we're on.
[00:01:18] Jen Kern: Great. Well, we're excited to hear more about 7shifts and everything you're doing and doing together with Qu. So we will get into that, but before that, Niko hello. Welcome back, I should say.
[00:01:30] Niko Papademetriou: Hey, Stacey. Good to see you. Niko Papademetriou. I've been at Qu for seven and a half years, maybe a little more than that. I'm not a one-up on Stacey, but you know, I have been here longer than you've been.
[00:01:40] Stacey Sikorski: Okay. Okay. You win.
[00:01:43] Niko Papademetriou: I, over that time, I've sort of worked on a lot of things mostly customer facing, market facing, sales business development, strategy. And before that, before coming over to Qu, I own a restaurant and a nightclub. I think it gives me a unique perspective to really understand what we're talking about here. The challenges that are so unique to [00:02:00] having both a production facility and a retail environment in one brick and mortar location. And then now how that's continuing to change so rapidly with the proliferation of digital ordering and, you know, ghost kitchens, host kitchens, shadow kitchens, dark kitchens, all these great fun, interesting things happening. And before that I was in finance, so don't hold that against me, but, but I do like looking at numbers.
[00:02:20] Jen Kern: Awesome. Awesome. Well, thanks for the quick intro, guys. As we launched into talking about labor and what some of the challenges and opportunities are, I think it goes without saying that we all know that there's a massive labor crisis in the restaurant industry right now. And every conference that we've all attended in the past four months since conferences have gone back in person, this has been the key topic that has come up over and over again. So I really wanted to partially use this time to talk about some innovative solutions that you both have heard about that operators are deploying now in the space that don't have, it could have something to do with technology, but nothing to do with technology. And so again, if I can start with you, Stacey I [00:03:00] mean, if you want to give a little background on 7shifts and what your technology does, and then some of the operators stories that you have heard that you think represent best in class, you know, opportunities to overcome the crisis.
[00:03:11] Stacey Sikorski: Yeah, absolutely. So 7shifts is a scheduling team management and communication platform, but the special thing about us is that we are 100% built for restaurants. If a retail shop came to us tomorrow with 30 locations and said, "Hey, we want to use 7shifts," we would say, "Thank you," but politely turn them down. Uh, We strictly target the restaurant industry and have many different features within our platform that are built and catered towards them. In terms of the industry and things that I'm hearing is really just the change on labor in that prior to COVID, I would say that people were really focused on labor from a perspective of our industry has high turnover. It was accepted and how do we reduce labor [00:04:00] costs and how do we continue to reduce labor costs, and how do we pool our tips in a way that we can then compensate for how we're reducing those labor costs and make it up that way in terms of taking those tips from the customers and trying to balance it that way which is still important. And it's still important to reduce those labor costs, but now I think it's flipped into a mindset of like, "Hey, we, as an industry have lost a ton of people out of this industry because of this pandemic and how do we create an industry that now people want to come back to?" So for the first time I know a lot of restaurants were probably tech savvy before this, and those ones have really come out and succeeded out of COVID, but the ones that weren't have now been forced to have an opportunity to look at tech and actually really embraced it, knowing that it's something that they need in order for their business to succeed in the future. So it's more so just a mindset switch of like, "Oh, hey, what are the tools out there now?" [00:05:00] instead of tech companies trying to come and help these people. They're now scouting it out themselves.
[00:05:07] Niko Papademetriou: Let me, I want to touch on two things you said. First of all, you said, well sort of politely turn them down and I just want to say that the 7shifts team is primarily from Canada. And God I love Canadians. I mean, it's just great to work with, with Canadians. It's just, Stacey, I think you guys do everything politely and it's just a pleasure to to be around you guys. So, breaking the ice early, early and...
[00:05:29] Stacey Sikorski: I swear, I didn't plan that.
[00:05:30] Niko Papademetriou: But the other thing is, I think for a long time, I'll speak to it from the lens in the US but it's no different than Canada, right? I think we looked at the hospitality industry as a whole, right, broadly as a stepping stone type of role, right? Or at least I think that's what a lot of people who weren't in it looked at it as. And I think there's some validity to that story over the last three or five or seven decades, perhaps, but I think we're in a position today whereby, pandemic aside, [00:06:00] it's just no longer the case. I mean, sure, there are, there are still a contingent, potentially a very large contingent of the broader, restaurant employee segment that is using it as some sort of a transitional role, or maybe, maybe they're in high school or college or, or what have you and they're looking for some extra cash. I think there's a reality that as the US has continued to expand its economy into more of a a brain economy rather than a laboring economy as we've sort of transitioned somewhat over the last couple of few decades, we've gotten to a place where food is now entertainment.
[00:06:36] That's one of the things I heard a lot at, you know, some recent conferences that I've been at is, "Food is really a slice of wallet share from the entertainment part of your wallet these days." And so we can talk about, you know, gluttony and, and America being a little overweight aside, but like the reality is if that's now how we're viewing it, then why do we necessarily look at those roles or those jobs as [00:07:00] minimum wage or entry level, potentially temporary roles. So how do we use
[00:07:05] technology and how do we use culture and other things like that to, to quite frankly, have happier employees? I think happier employees present a better brand, a better product.
[00:07:16] They
[00:07:16] execute better. They're happy to go to work, right? Shouldn't we all be striving for that? so that's, just sort of moving the conversation forward, but I think that's what I'm seeing as maybe the most important thing. And the last thing I'd say is the pandemic. Stacey, to your point, that pandemic
[00:07:32] accelerated a lot of things that were already either happening, being talked about, or in many
[00:07:38] cases maybe not being talked about. And so I'd be curious to know, you know, what you think about today versus 18 months ago in some of that
[00:07:46] acceleration or compression of things because of the pandemic?
[00:07:50] Stacey Sikorski: Yeah, I completely agree there in terms of the compression and acceleration. It was the people that had been thinking about maybe they need to do this, but [00:08:00] it's on the back burner because restaurants have a lot of things to deal with. It's now become a priority for them. So instead of being that task that never gets crossed off and gets moved to the, to the different, to, to to-do lists, it's now like the number one priority and, "Hey, I need to look at this." And I really agree in making this like a longterm career play. Some of the people in the conversations I've been having something as simple as like looking at daycare options because, because of it being a short-term career, being able to provide benefits such as that so that people can actually stay in the industry for a longer time instead of the typical, "I'm in college, here we go," "Now I'm out of college and I go find a real job."
[00:08:44] Jen Kern: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think, listen, there's no doubt about it. There's a whole sales change going on here and pandemic definitely accelerated it. And my perspective is it's almost like you have to really throw out the old way of [00:09:00] doing things. I feel like there's a fresh new mindset that needs to come into the industry in terms of how we approach labor.
[00:09:06] And, Niko, you touched on it with talking about culture, incentives brand plays a role in that. Stacey you were talking about how do we bring people back to the industry, but how do we keep people in the industry? And I feel like we just need a lot of new thinking and ideation around that. I mean every restaurant I go to,
[00:09:25] and now even online, they've got things plastered everywhere, "Apply and get $500. Refer a friend, get $500." There's digital ads now running on some of my favorite apps, you know, everyone is just desperate for workers, but have you taken that step back and really thought about, "What is the culture I'm building?
[00:09:47] Why would people want to come here and stay here?" And those are some of the things that I'm curious, Stacey, what have you seen operators doing to help with that?
[00:09:56] Stacey Sikorski: Yeah. So I think really 18 [00:10:00] months ago or, or even some, some today, they'd be thinking about how is tech going to take away the bad parts of my job in terms of the operations and how is that going to streamline for me. But why not thinking about it in a way of like, "Let's provide tech that takes away the bad part of the employee's job to make their lives easier at work." So that's one thing that 7shifts helps with in terms of like the scheduling. Nobody wants to have an excel sheet emailed to them every single time something changes on the schedule, which happens all the time in the restaurant industry. So being able to have like a real live schedule on their phone and being able to submit availability and time off themselves, it really allows the employee to be more autonomous and think that they have more control over their schedule, even though the managers on the other side approving it all at the same time.
[00:10:51] But in that mindset of that employee, "Here's an app that I can download myself and I can figure out myself. And then I don't even have to talk to anybody, I can just submit it all through [00:11:00] here and I get a notification when it's approved." So it's really just thinking about it in a way of like how are we going to make our employees lives easier and then providing this environment that we'll want them to stay.
[00:11:14] And then also, retention tools and things... Again, we have an engaged feature built into 7shifts, but allowing the employees to provide feedback on their shift right after their shift has ended and surfacing that data to show highly engaged employees versus highly disengaged employees so that the restaurant managers can then take that information and have it for like an actionable one-on-one with that employee, so they can address the concerns before it turns
[00:11:40] into a
[00:11:41] iceberg.
[00:11:41] Jen Kern: I
[00:11:41] love that.
[00:11:42] Niko Papademetriou: Yeah, creating a feedback loop. I mean, that's what I was thinking in the first sort of half of your answer, right? And you're, you're really doing it in a even a bifurcated path, right? A feedback loop on a more transactional or tactical, like, you know, shift by shift basis, but also a feedback loop, even [00:12:00] just as simple as something like providing availability or dates or preferences or trading a shift or something like that.
[00:12:06] Just having the actual line to provide feedback in that regard, right? I mean, sometimes it's really hard to get in touch with the manager, right? I mean, what if your manager, they're probably working five, six days a week anyway, what if you're a part-time employee only work on Mondays and Mondays is usually the manager's day off,
[00:12:24] you know? You might not even get any face time with that person. You might not really be able to build report with your manager, your manager that's building schedules in an Excel spreadsheet, right? And, and so how do you provide that feedback back? So both on the labor side, the scheduling side, and also on the shift by shift, I think that's fantastic.
[00:12:43] That makes sense.
[00:12:46] Stacey Sikorski: Like the restaurant that I worked in, if we wanted to trade a shift, we literally had to go to the office in the back room and look at the list of contacts, and then call that list of contacts. Whereas in 7shifts you can literally be laying in [00:13:00] bed, maybe you don't feel like working that day. Shoot a message to anybody who's active, one-on-one chat, and you don't have to get into clothes to be able to go down there, to sit on the phone for half an hour trying to find someone.
[00:13:14] Jen Kern: Yeah. What about gamification? Have you looked into any of that sort of interactive, you know, application?
[00:13:21] Stacey Sikorski: Yeah. I mean, that's something that I think we definitely have coming down the road in terms of like a little bit of it employees. Just, I think it's so new to be able to have a tool like even competitors in our space. It's not the like user-friendly app tool. So I think it's just really what we've heard is it's very big user adoption 7shifts, so often we'll have employees that will go to other locations to work and then recommend that they install 7shifts. And then we have the manager calling us to be like, "Hey, my employee said that you should get this tool." So it [00:14:00] just when you have that employee voice that... it really helps, but in terms of gamification, not really anything too much in there yet. But they get to be able to see how many shifts they have coming, how much they're working and, how much they're earning their with their wage built-in.
[00:14:15] Jen Kern: All right. Well, you've got some interactivity built in there, it sounds like, so that is fabulous. And I think it comes down to communications, right? And there are so many places where I visit and you go into the restaurant and it's a fast casual or QSR, and it looks like it's being run by a 20-year old, which is fine, right? There'll be like maybe just one or two of them there now because the restaurants, so many of them are empty still around here, but that's fine. But then how is the manager communicating with him, if they're not on site? Like, what are some of the tools that they can use? Like you're talking about scheduling, are there other tools that managers that might not be able to be on site or the franchisee owners can use within 7shifts to do that communications?
[00:14:57] Stacey Sikorski: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Always speak to our [00:15:00] communication in our platform in three different areas. So we have manager communication, which is like a manager log book. A lot of the people would use like red book, place to record, important information that happened throughout the day, but it's all completely customizable and you can have auto send daily emails so that everybody's in the loop and on the same page. You can create required fields so that they have to fill it out before that email gets sent out and then that information stays locked in history after 24 hours. So you can still comment on it, but you can be guaranteed that that information did not get changed from the day that it was entered. And then the second part of it is announcement in one way communication with employees. So that's really important for multiunit operators. They can literally send a message out to everybody across the entire company that's scheduled today, all locations, or even set up future announcements. And while employees are not able to communicate back to those announcements, you can see, read receipts of people that have seen it, and it is in the history.
[00:15:58] And then the third part of it is our [00:16:00] messaging feature, which is very fun for the employees. We have gifs and emojis built in, so that helps contribute to like a fun atmosphere for them. And that allows same functionality in terms of all the locations. If you want to just message all of your servers, you can do that, but they can reply to things.
[00:16:18] They can upload attachments themselves. They can communicate. So it's that fun group chat aspect, but then also being able to communicate one-on-one or create their own custom chats within the organization. So that in terms of an employee perspective, being able to message anyone you need to is really valuable, but then from an employer perspective, never, ever having again, ever to provide contact lists of your employees to your organization, because anyone who's active within the account 'boom' and with privacy laws too, that's becoming more and more, more prevalent.
[00:16:54] Jen Kern: Right. So we've been talking about digital transformation and that's something that got accelerated [00:17:00] as well through the pandemic. Niko, I'd love to hear from you based on everything that Stacey's talking about with 7shifts how you see Qu and 7shifts working together, some of the efficiencies that we'll be able to bring with operators as an integrated system and team.
[00:17:13] Niko Papademetriou: Yeah. so I'm going to take this back to a couple topics ago and approach it, approach your answer from that lens. So we were talking about ways really to make the environment better for our employees, right, restaurant employees having a better environment. And we just talked about communication and how critical that is in that sort of engagement between the operator and their employees.
[00:17:35] And I think, I think even beyond, not beyond, but in addition to communication, it's also transparency and predictability. And I think one of the things, and I'll put my hat back on from when I owned my restaurant and my nightclub, what seems like a lifetime ago. But there are some decisions made economically that can be brutal for folks, that are on the front lines that are really working in the restaurant.
[00:17:59] [00:18:00] "Hey, I know I had five people on, two in the kitchen and three front of house right now, but you know, it's pouring outside and it's a Tuesday, so we're not going to get any happier crowd and whatever. So I'm going to cut one server and one in the kitchen," or something like that. How can you, I mean, I don't want to talk about like talking to her heartstrings and emotions here, but how can you do that, right?
[00:18:21] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:18:22] Niko Papademetriou: You do it because there's an economic decision. There's a reality that you have a lot of fixed costs in the restaurant business. You have a, it's a low margin business when you're doing great. And so on a day-to-day basis on even a shift by shift basis you can go under a negative margin easily, right? And labor is one of those variable inputs that, that is real.
[00:18:43] And so getting away from that is I think something that Qu and 7shifts can really do, right? So, Qu being a unified commerce platform is really bringing in an aggregating data. We're really creating the data in the form of menus across [00:19:00] all of your channels, delivery service provider, marketplaces, your native or owned channels, your in store, your kiosk, all of those different channels drive through, et cetera.
[00:19:08] And so from that holistic perspective where we have all of that data across any store or group of stores, maybe a franchisee owns three or five locations and uses employees across different locations, there's so much more access to data sooner that I always like to talk
[00:19:26] about. It's not just the data stupid, it's the insights from
[00:19:29] the data.
[00:19:30] And it's not just the insights from the data, it's the speed by which you can make actionable decisions and implement those changes based on the insights that you get from having holistic data fast. And so if you have that sort of holy Trinity, then working with a
[00:19:45] company through our APIs and through our cloud
[00:19:47] integration, you know, standard integration paths between 7shifts and Qu, 7shifts has the ability to
[00:19:53] consume a lot of that data, right? The ability to really look out and create much more informed projections around labor demand. [00:20:00] And so I'm bringing this full circle here. So I would argue that a restaurant using Qu and 7shifts has such better clarity around their future demand,
[00:20:12] that you can create the schedule that has a high propensity to actually be right.
[00:20:18] And so when you say, "I'm bringing five people on on Tuesday for this shift, or
[00:20:22] what is," there's a high likelihood that
[00:20:24] those five people are going to be there, they're going to be busy.
[00:20:27] They're going to, maybe some of them are making tips, others are getting paid, you know, salary and still others are making the majority or all of their of their earnings from hourly wages.
[00:20:36] But at least they have, you know, an understanding of their finances, right? They can, they can, they know what they're going to bring in that week or that month. And I think that, that certainty it's something that technology and this relationship can really bring the operators, which can end up with happier employees that are more fulfilled and understand how to pay their bills.
[00:20:58] Jen Kern: Right.
[00:20:58] Stacey Sikorski: Yep. [00:21:00] Absolutely. And I would just add to that and say like full circle back is that providing the employees with this information and these tools that, our restaurant specific, we have a feature, when, when you mentioned the having pulling on the heartstrings of letting the employees go early, we actually have a restaurant specifically specific feature that says when the shift starts to BD, meaning business decline. So those employees are coming in with the understanding already that they're going to be let go when the business declines, so it's not necessarily such shock to the system. If they thought they were going to work for five hours more and they're getting cut early, it's like, "This is the day that's happening, it's raining tonight." You're getting let go early and that expectation is already set there.
[00:21:45] Jen Kern: Right. Yeah. That's huge. That's huge. Yeah.
[00:21:50] I mean, being able to set expectations like that with the restaurant team, and then, you know, back to the communications aspect of that, I mean, it sounds [00:22:00] like a lot of different ways that you can do that with the system.
[00:22:02] Stacey Sikorski: Yeah. And I would also say like in terms of 7shifts and Qu working together, I'm a big, I love learning more about like emotional intelligence and all of that. And I just think like in a world of more AI and more automated things, people are still gonna want to work with people that they like. Humans are still humans.
[00:22:21] And you got to think about the people that are on the other side of these tech solutions that you are choosing and selecting and how your experience is going to be like on the other side of it
[00:22:32] once that sale is made.
[00:22:34] Niko Papademetriou: Well, dovetailing off of that, I always say that the partnerships the, the thing about partnerships that should matter most to our restaurant customers, right, our clients, it is a little bit less, I mean, it's, multi-faceted of course, but a little bit less about tech. The tech has to be there, the features have to be there, the right kind of architecture needs to be there.
[00:22:52] But it's as much about the people behind the partnerships and the trust that we have, right, that, that Qu has with 7shifts and [00:23:00] vice versa. the escalation paths that we have, the maturity that our organizations have in working with one another, and the trust that we have in each other, again, bring that back full circle because how is one of our customers or one of our mutual customers going to be the winner? By the way, they should be the winner.
[00:23:18] That's the point, right? How are they going to be the winner, if, if we don't work well together or if we don't know each other well, or if we don't care about each other and want to hold, you know, prop the other one up and be good for our mutual customers, be good partners? So, I think we have a a budding relationship. We've known each other for a while.
[00:23:35] We, I think we really enjoy where each other's companies are continuing to grow and go, and, and how we think about the customer, and being successful for them. And I think that's super important when it comes to partnerships.
[00:23:45] Stacey Sikorski: Yeah, absolutely. And I always will fall in love with the story behind a brand which is why I'm still at 7shifts. So our one of our co-founders and our CEO, Jordan Boesch, he actually created what is now 7shifts [00:24:00] while he was in high school because his dad owned a couple of restaurant franchises. And he saw what a pain scheduling and communication was for his dad, whipped up something in high school, and this is what it is today. So it's a really big like passion project and we still very much always number one, have the user in
[00:24:19] mind because of it.
[00:24:21] Jen Kern: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you definitely hit a hot button with me as well, because one of the things we say in our messaging is that Qu is the anti vendor. And one of the reasons that has come up is because it
[00:24:34] goes back to what we're talking about, which is change your mindset about the industry. Let's do things differently.
[00:24:39] Let's get a reset. Let's reinvent how we're thinking about the employees, the restaurants, the whole experience. And I think the old school way in this industry was, "We're vendors." The technology people are vendors or suppliers. And we talk about being a technology solutions partner, a technology [00:25:00] solution provider.
[00:25:00] Yes, at the core of what we're doing is we're delivering a technology, but to your point, Stacey it's the people behind our company that are working on that tirelessly day and night that have that same passion that you and Niko have shared working in the restaurant industry, to make sure that we're doing right by the end-users, which are both the operators and the guests,
[00:25:23] right? And so,
[00:25:24] I really try to self-correct and, and correct others when I hear them talking about vendor, vendor, vendor, vendor, vendor, 'cause it feels like such a cold exchange. And that's not what this industry is about. And if we're going to attract better talent and people in the industry, then we need to not only treat them better, but treat all the people in the ecosystem
[00:25:47] better. So I don't know. It's a little bit of a soapbox, I guess.
[00:25:51] Stacey Sikorski: No, I totally agree. Like you're not buying a dishwasher that you're never going to hear from the person again anymore. Like you're you're buying a tool [00:26:00] that is used by your employees and used for your operations and for your guests. So, yeah, it's it's important, it's an ongoing relationship. And, and also I know that, I know, I know Qu is really good at this too, but accepting consumer feedback and, sorry, client feedback and just really taking that seriously into account rather than like another feature request that might not get recorded.
[00:26:30] Jen Kern: Yeah.
[00:26:31] Niko Papademetriou: Yeah. I mean, we're delivering really complex solutions to, again, the only industry where you have a factory, you have a production facility and, and a retail environment in one brick and mortar location, and now you're layering and not just one, but multiple digital channels and, and both, you know, owned customers or native customers
[00:26:55] and third-parties all coming to one physical location to, to consume this [00:27:00] product. There are so many opportunities to fail in that equation. And because it's evolving so quickly and because so much of those evolutionary tracks have been compressed and accelerate because of the pandemic in the last 18, 20 months, you know, I think we really are in a position where, where there's a lot of demand from the operators as well for solutions providers to evolve their products, their solutions.
[00:27:22] And I think as soon as you look at
[00:27:25] a vendor or a technology solution provider as just that as a vendor, you're, you're kind of hurting yourself. Because, because then mentally, whether, you know, you're doing it or not, it's not your fault per se, but you're commoditizing us here, right? And gosh, if we, if we were just trying to build another of some other POS company and slap a different logo on it, then... well, I can tell you, I wouldn't be at the company.
[00:27:49] And there, there could be some companies doing that, but that's not us.
[00:27:52] and we have to take a stance and we have to really
[00:27:56] be passionate about what we're developing and delivering. [00:28:00] And we'll make mistakes here and there, but it's that, that relationship and trust and, and the thought leadership that we can bring and I know that
[00:28:06] 7shifts can bring from a labor perspective to the table. And so the more yin and yang that we have, the more bi-directional trust that we have with our, with our clients, I think the better, right?
[00:28:19] Jen Kern: So one thing I'd love to hear from you, Niko and, you know, obviously I'm here, I'm a Qu employee as well, but help the audience understand some of the things that Qu has done. And I don't want to lead the witness here, but during the pandemic, like different things we've spun up that could potentially help with the labor challenge that is going to be longterm, right? This is not going to be resolved anytime soon. And, you know, talking about those quick development cycles that we're able to do with our API first, microservices not to throw too many jargony words out, architecture, how is Qu address this?
[00:28:53] Niko Papademetriou: Yeah, I think three things come to mind and I'll try, I'll try to do them quickly. You both know, we will only have to know that I don't do things well [00:29:00] quickly.
[00:29:00] But we developed and launched an app as part of our platform called our Notify app. and our Notify app is, it's really focused on, on insight quickly, right? I think we all know that you can build cool software, you can build cool products across any industry, but if they're not used, doesn't really matter,
[00:29:15] right? And so we care immensely about user adoption. and you were talking earlier, Stacey, about the messaging features and such within the application and that's those are all, they all go along the same path, the same mentality of how can we make it easier and fun and exciting for people to use this solution, because they will provide, they will receive value from it if they use it.
[00:29:34] So we have a Notify app that, that brings insights through machine learning and there's even an AI component to it. You can, you can chat with it to a bot, and you can talk to it, et cetera. And it'll provide you real-time feedback and it'll start, it'll actually reach out and tap you on the shoulder proverbially when something's out of whack. And it'll start learning trends and such.
[00:29:52] And so I think that first of all, we were able to release that in, in, in just a couple of quarters. And that's been [00:30:00] adopted rapidly across our community. So it can help managers and GMs and our GMs et cetera, really spend more time with the staff and with the brand and the business, than trying to sort through reports to find a number.
[00:30:13] So that's one thing. Another thing is, is our sort of our OMS solution, our Order Management sol, Solution that we brought into the restaurant that can more seamlessly aggregate all of the orders coming from all of your digital channels in one, in one screen, if you will, or one place. You know, we've always had the ability to, to consume and aggregate those orders through the cloud into the POS and into the kitchen, through KDS systems and printers and such, but we were able to d to deliver really in, in just a couple of months. Bring your own device, solution that can run on, you know, Android or iOS or what have you. That again, brings all of those digital orders from third-party marketplaces or native channel or, or app or other into one place, and you can sort of kick them through the line, you know, accepted, received, accepted in progress and out the door.
[00:30:57] So that's been super useful. We've got a [00:31:00] lot of positive feedback about that.
[00:31:01] Jen Kern: That's called KitchenUP.
[00:31:02] Niko Papademetriou: KitchenUP. Sorry. I refer to it as it's it's a practical application, not its name.
[00:31:07] Jen Kern: We have lots of pages on the web.
[00:31:10] Niko Papademetriou: It's enough. It's enough. The third one, is, is something that's been a passion project for me personally, for, for a bit.
[00:31:18] You know, there's a lot of talk about kiosk. All these conversations they're always pendulum's swinging, right? What is a kiosk? And the answer is, it could be many things. Is the kiosk, the kiosk in your pocket, right? Is the kiosk that beautiful but mind bogglingly expensive, you know, 10 or $15,000 static thing that you have to jackhammer up the floor and run conduit for electricity and a wired network and so on and so forth, or is it something in between? Now at Qu we focus on fast casual and quick serve brands, and so we certainly have a particular lens by which we view what a kiosk could or should be for the operator, but for us, [00:32:00] there's a product called flex. And I like to say, you know, you're never going to be faster getting people through the line than a great cashier on a great user experience on a POS, right?
[00:32:12] You're always going to have more accurate orders, better speed of service, and ultimately have a happier customer and drive revenue. So for the 20% of your day where you do 80% of your business, the 90 minutes at launch and the 90 minutes at dinner, you want those four POS terminals or whatever you have in your, in your fast casual or QSR staffed with a cashier. But for the other 80% of the day, that you're open, right, you might be open 16 or 18 hours a day, but again, you get most of your business from 2, 3, 4 hours. For the other dozen hours that you're open, why not be able to just turn that POS terminal around and have that be a user engaging, beautiful, rich user experience for customer service, for customer engagement.
[00:32:54] And we all know, I think the things we get out of that you get better guest information, better opt-in. If you [00:33:00] have loyalty programs and marketing technology and such, you get better guest engagement to customer in many cases. If the customer is more introverted, they love that. They'll just go to the kiosk, even if there's nobody in front of the cashier.
[00:33:10] And when I say kiosk, I'm not just saying stripping some cash manager buttons off the user experience and turning it around and having red and green and purple and blue buttons. I really mean it purposeful kiosk user experience, that's built to really drive a great engagement with your brand.
[00:33:27] So I think those are our three top things that we've either re-engaged or, or really gotten right out of the gate during this pandemic.
[00:33:37] Jen Kern: And, and I'm very passionate about the three things that you talked about, and, and, you know, that said the Notify as this voice enabled app, like Niko was talking about so that saves time, money. And like you were saying, you can spend your time as a restaurant manager, operator, franchisee, engaging with your employees... instead of yeah, instead of putting like, you know, Stacey were talking about the Excel spreadsheets. I [00:34:00] mean, how many operators still use Excel spreadsheets? A lot.
[00:34:02] Stacey Sikorski: A lot, like
[00:34:03] 70%.
[00:34:05] Jen Kern: Yeah. Oh, gosh. And then KitchenUP that we talked about is a great easy to deploy product for cloud kitchens, virtual brands. So talk about saving on labor, I mean, virtual brands are, are, an option for people. Cloud kitchens, virtual kitchens.
[00:34:22] Niko Papademetriou: You have your, you have all your native channels coming in for your brand, your corporate.
[00:34:26] Oh, why not spin up two or three or four virtual brands on the Qu platform and only have them come in through digital channels and aggregate those multiple brands even on one screen so that somebody can be responsible simply for being an expediter, if you will, of all the virtual business.
[00:34:42] Jen Kern: Right.
[00:34:42] Niko Papademetriou: Right?
[00:34:43] That kind of, that kind of a value creation is so important.
[00:34:46] Absolutely. And then the flex, which is purposeful, as Niko mentioned for either being a POS that can be run by your, by your insert team, or you can flip it around and it can be a kiosk. So, so those are pretty exciting [00:35:00] things that we've worked on. Thank you for, for giving details on those. Stacey, how about you guys at 7shifts? What are some of the things that you did during the pandemic?
[00:35:07] Stacey Sikorski: Yeah. I mean, initially when it hit, obviously was a shock to everybody, but just to give you a little bit on how our company runs and how user-focused we are. What we actually did during that time 'cause it was like, "What does anybody do during that time?" Our entire customer and partner facing teams buckled down and called every single one of our customers. And we called them to have the conversation with them and understand what their needs were. So did they need a couple months free to get through this, did they want access to resources, did they want to cancel their account. We personally called every single customer to address their needs specifically. And that's what we did for the first, like three weeks when nobody had any idea what was going on.
[00:35:53] Niko Papademetriou: Starting March 11. I remember the day. I'm sure you started March, maybe March 12.
[00:35:58] Stacey Sikorski: March 13. [00:36:00] That was the day when the NBA announced that there was all, it was, it was all done. Yeah. I'll remember that date forever.
[00:36:07] Niko Papademetriou: Yes.
[00:36:08] Stacey Sikorski: So, in terms of the way we changed our roadmap and features we built, initially we had really pivoted quickly to develop like a health check, a health screening. And when employees check in, that is still used by smarter things might not be as relevant as we're continuing to make our way out of this, but could still be an important feature for people to use, we built an entire part of the employee life cycle hiring.
[00:36:34] So that's to address being able to track those candidates and have them create that link for them to be able to apply and then easily onboard them into 7shifts which is what we're working on now. But we also have really been focusing on our open API. So as these brands are meeting to, I'm sure you guys are, we're like no restaurant group, no restaurant runs
[00:36:58] the same as [00:37:00] another one. So being able to provide that platform where they can actually go in themselves and have those resources and a lot of the companies in the mid-market and enterprise space, do have those resources to be able to like develop specific needs because you're not, I mean, amazing if you find one tech solution that fits all of your needs and checks all of your boxes, but that customization is available for those who, who need it.
[00:37:24] And then are just the apps for the employees that we have created, so we initially launched the ability for employees to log in themselves and did geo-fencing so that they can only do it while they're in the restaurant. And that was at first, because you wanted less touch throughout the restaurant,
[00:37:43] you didn't want one screen where everybody was coming to, but now it's kind of a tool just to make those employees more autonomous. And we know that's really important to the millennials and gen Z, people that are the ones that we need to bring back to the industry. [00:38:00]
[00:38:00] So providing tools with them to feel like they're more autonomous in their, in their job and, and then addressing those needs in the industry side in terms of like hiring and retention, and then just being user-focused and catering towards our client's needs. So I would say that's how we changed specifically, although it may have been on the roadmap, it just
[00:38:22] was accelerated for us as
[00:38:23] well.
[00:38:25] Jen Kern: Okay. And at 7shifts you focus on fast casual, QSR and you do table service as well?
[00:38:32] Stacey Sikorski: Yeah. Any restaurant, we have all different types of restaurants using us in terms of mid-market and enterprise. Definitely, I find that a lot of the clients that we've had that have been very successful with 7shifts have scaled with us. And I know there's a lot of like emerging brands out there, brands that are really positioned well for like a crazy growth period coming up in the next two to three years.
[00:38:55] I, because I've, I've onboarded numerous of clients when I worked on the [00:39:00] post-sales side that were only at 20 locations that are now at 150 locations, that have grown with us.
[00:39:06] So also providing that scalability with the
[00:39:09] product. Yeah.
[00:39:12] Jen Kern: Yeah. Would you like to talk about a few of your customers?
[00:39:16] Stacey Sikorski: Sure. Well, I was referencing Clean Juice, just being able to onboard them and then see them scale to where they have. But a lot of that, those QSR brands, somebody who I really love in, in talking about the industries that the &Pizza, leadership team, they have very forward-thinking in terms of labor management and employees and stuff like that.
[00:39:38] So always like, very grateful to hear from our, our clients and, and just feel grateful for being at the company for this long, to be able to witness the growth that people have experienced even with the pandemic which is usually those ones that were set up for success before. I remember reading an article and the pandemic first hit saying that 70% of restaurants were going to close, [00:40:00] I don't think it was actually as high as that, but the person in the article was saying, "Don't worry about it. It's going to happen, but then there will be 70% more restaurants on the other side that will be better and better suited for growth and a better working environment." So I often think back to how right that guy was when it was like month one, and nobody had any idea what was going to happen.
[00:40:24] Niko Papademetriou: The phoenix rising from the ashes, right? I mean, I think we've seen that actually pre pandemic even, right, in, in some of the sub verticals of the restaurant industry, right? Casual dining has been challenging over the last four or five, six years, but I think casual dining is on fire right now. And I think it's due to a lot of the pain
[00:40:42] that maybe that's a vertical felt again from 3, 4, 5 years ago and, and made some changes and, and was actually so much better prepared for this unforeseen, like a pandemic coming,
[00:40:55] than they would have been if they had not had that shift of demand just a few years before. [00:41:00] So yeah, I mean maybe some portion of the industry fails or gets
[00:41:07] cold for lack of a better term. I mean, that's a cold term to use, but sort of cold, but there's so much new oppor opportunity and pent up demand. And you mentioned &Pizza. I mean, Michael Lastoria is certainly a leader in the way that he views his brand and the way that he
[00:41:26] leads from labor perspective.
[00:41:28] And so, you know, we're, we're in Bethesda, Maryland, we're a mile from DC. I grew up in DC. I love &Pizza. We, we love &Pizza. And so there are a few people I think that are as outspoken as he is. And as forward-thinking as, as he, and they have been since day one, right? And I mean, those guys didn't have any labor turnover when the pandemic started.
[00:41:54] Not...
[00:41:55] Stacey Sikorski: Yep. they actually gave their employees raises when the pandemic [00:42:00] happened.
[00:42:00] Niko Papademetriou: And they get pizza free, free pizza to everybody, to, to hospitals, to everybody, to any employees. I mean, just the amount of... now look, they're well-funded and they've got great partners and those things are important. But it's because they're well-funded and they have a great partner, 'cause they're a great brand and they're delivering a great product and they care about their people. That's coming out I think in the quality of their food and the quality of their business, it's better today than ever.
[00:42:26] Jen Kern: And you're so right. It's been so fun to watch them grow. I mean, if we talk about &Pizza too long, I'm going to get one on the way home, because there is one literally right down the street and they're amazing. And Andy Hooper has been on the podcast. He's....
[00:42:41] Stacey Sikorski: Oh, awesome.
[00:42:41] Jen Kern: Early episode. Yeah, the president. So, speaking of customers, what are some of the tangible benefits, Stacey, that you hear from your best customers. Ones that are using the software diligently,
[00:42:55] what are the types of things that they're saying to you in terms of real benefits and [00:43:00] returns?
[00:43:01] Stacey Sikorski: I would say one big thing that we hear that, that people don't really have a handle on before 7shifts but we make it easier as like overtime and maxing out those employees that you have now is, is even more prevalent now. So something as simple as when the scheduling manager is creating a schedule. They're alerted if they put them into overtime. When you're writing on Excel, it's a lot of calculating hours
[00:43:25] and not really, even sometimes the manager, even knowing until after the fact that there was this much overtime. So instantly they will see benefits in that if overtime is a, is a problem. There's even warnings that come up when people are at risk of going into overtime to the manager on duty, while they're on floor being like, "This person's at risk of going over time with what they've already worked and already what they have scheduled this week."
[00:43:52] So, that's one big thing. So, in terms of return on investment, reducing those labor charges and the overtime is a huge part [00:44:00] of that. I really think it's just a way of like surfacing that data and making it easy for an industry, like you think about the actual users and the people who are creating the schedule, they're not necessarily tech savvy people. So, 7shifts makes it so easy to be able to create a schedule and copy a schedule and, and fill in shifts. We have things that will say, "Fix these warnings for you," and it will, you click the button it'll automatically fix all the conflicts. So just empowering their team with a tool that is easy.
[00:44:32] And then the feedback they hear from that, so I would say like the reduction of, of labor costs and surfacing that data, and then the feedback that they're hearing from their team that they're happy about a tool like 7shifts.
[00:44:44] Jen Kern: Right. right. That's great. And Niko what would you say are some of the key benefits that you hear from our customers in terms of not, not necessarily just labor, but in terms of the impact of an integrated ecosystem like Qu and 7shifts are setting up with the front and [00:45:00] back of house. What are some of those, those savings?
[00:45:02] I mean, efficiency is definitely always won, but...
[00:45:05] Niko Papademetriou: Efficiency is a soft savings though, right? I mean, I like to stray from that and I think, Stacey, to your point earlier, we can all use technology to sort of make something a little faster, a little better, a little bit more streamlined. I think that speaking of the sort of POS or greater POS world that's where POS has been stuck for 30 years,
[00:45:23] right? I mean, I'm going to take it from a cigar box to an NCR cash register with metal buttons,
[00:45:30] and now I'm going to take it to, you know, a 35 year old micros terminal that really started digitizing the engagement with the kitchen. And that's great, and it was all about cost reduction, increasing margin through cost reduction.
[00:45:44] And, you know, I invest in the stock market a little bit. I used to be in
[00:45:48] finance. Right? That's two times I said that. But, but, but you know, if you're playing opt-ins, you know, theoretically the sky's the limit, right? Like if you buy something really low and that stock price [00:46:00] goes up and up and up, there's literally no cap to the amount of money that you can make.
[00:46:04] But if it goes down, there's a floor, right? So if we're just focused on minimizing expenses or maximizing savings, same thing, there's a floor to the amount of value we can bring to a restaurant. Well, that's not awesome.
[00:46:20] That's the definition of commodity, right? If we were building to that, we would just look at the feature list of, you know, insert other POS company here
[00:46:30] that's been around for 30 years and has a big install base. We'd build every single one of those features and we would try to sell on, you know, "Do you need these things? We have all these things. We'll charge half as much and put it in the club". That isn't who Qu is. What we focus on is of course, the table stakes of being able to run and manage your business, being able to accept payments and, and accept and create food and get that out the door. And all of the
[00:46:55] channels and order types that make sense for that.
[00:46:57] But where we really focus is how can [00:47:00] we continue to deliver a resilient and scalable solution that delivers all of those things, but that pushes the industry forward that acts as a thought leader, that challenges the idea that, again, that I need something that has a purple button here, that's this big.
[00:47:16] And instead maybe says, "Well, let's talk about what that purple button does. What, what is it that's in?" And so I would argue that creating value is really everything that we want to do. And that value might be helping labor costs. That value might be increasing guest engagement on-prem. That value might be helping to programmatically or even automatically offer AB test scenarios on digital channels, whatever that is, is what we provide. A nimble platform, and the thing I'll end on here, 'cause I know we're up against it, but you know, I like to say that most restaurant technology today holds the restaurants back.
[00:47:58] And that's antithetical [00:48:00] to the concept of technology. So, we're technology provider, if we're an innovator, we darn well better be thinking about innovating
[00:48:10] and about figuring out ways to help empower restaurant brands and not hold them back.
[00:48:15] It doesn't mean you get everything tomorrow, you know, that you just dream up today, but it does mean that we eat, breathe and do nothing, but figure out ways that we
[00:48:25] can help drive forward. And we can always
[00:48:27] build a platform that can deliver on the next thing instead of the thing that was important to evaluate on 10 years ago.
[00:48:33] Jen Kern:
[00:48:33] Yeah.
[00:48:34] Stacey Sikorski: Throw out the checklist and tell me what problems you're trying to solve and what value you're trying to add. Like take away that checklist and tell me what you want to do with your
[00:48:46] business.
[00:48:49] Jen Kern: Yeah. And a little bit, what I heard from you Niko is like challenging the status quo a little bit, the old way of doing things again, we're back to like, how are you really reinventing yourself? How are you thinking outside of the box and [00:49:00] welcoming and dreaming up new ways of doing business, right? And thinking differently about what does a POS mean,
[00:49:07] what does labor management mean, right? And integrating it into a full ecosystem of culture and being great, right? I mean, yes, and driving revenue and sales obviously, but you can't do that before the people and the culture and the brand. So, one thing, and I know we are, we're coming up against it here.
[00:49:27] You both have mentioned scalability a lot, and I just want to ask the obvious question to both you, why does that matter to an operator?
[00:49:36] Stacey Sikorski: It matters because if you have positioned yourself well in terms of the pandemic, or even beforehand, you have an opportunity to grow like the world has never seen in the restaurant industry. And I think that providing a tool or choosing the tools that allow your company to grow with it is, is very important as we [00:50:00] continue to come out of however long this
[00:50:02] pandemic will last.
[00:50:05] Niko Papademetriou: You can't fix an inability to scale in the moment. And scalability isn't just a good clean architecture or, you know, the ability to have a billion cloud hits in a day. Scalability's so much more at an atomic level, even than that, it's it's what ha what kind of database do we have and why? W what is the architecture of our platform and why?
[00:50:30] If you don't have those foundational pieces laid out and you're not five years ahead there, you're, you, you will reach a point by which you can no longer scale. And so, I think getting ahead of that is the only way or the best way, and it won't even always work, but it's the best way to set yourself up for success from a scalability perspective.
[00:50:53] Stacey Sikorski: Yeah.
[00:50:55] Jen Kern: Great. Great. Well, and then our final coup d'état here [00:51:00] before we close. We've talked a lot about culture and people and I keep bringing up brand of course, because I'm a brand marketer. Let's talk about our, our cultures and our visions here at our combined companies. So here at Qu I'll go, I'll go ahead and go first, and, and this is kind of summarizing everything we've talked about. Our mission is to infuse speed, agility and innovation into restaurant operations, so they can seize new opportunities and drive growth. And that's our mission and our law, our lofty vision and purpose is really to fuel the whole restaurant commerce revolution, right? And we say, "Join the movement," right? Like, and I think you guys at 7shifts are joining that movement with us. Would you like to share with us Stacey, your, your mission, vision and culture statement?
[00:51:49] Niko Papademetriou: Oh, we lost you.
[00:51:54] Stacey Sikorski: You,
[00:51:55] you think that we would be over this by now, so long into the
[00:51:59] pandemic, [00:52:00] but I just managed to do it at the end of the podcast.
[00:52:02] Jen Kern: No worries. No worries.
[00:52:03] Stacey Sikorski: So I think that, being a user-focused company and keeping that in mind, our support team is the, the heart of the business and the ones that for all those problems our CEO and co-founders are very protective of our, of our culture. 7shifts has an amazing culture so much, so that if you don't align with the cultures of the values, it's quite obvious if not at initially it becomes quite obvious. And then our mission, which we live by every day is to simplify team management and improve performance for restaurants. So we say that at the beginning of every meeting, every team meeting that we have, and we, we really live by that. We have our, our beams and our values, which being radically candid, acting like an owner, solving with simplicity. You can look them up on the 7shifts website, but it's, it's a really, we're not just a company [00:53:00] that says those values and it looks different on the inside. We really, truly do hold every individual person up to those
[00:53:07] values and
[00:53:08] our, and our mission statement.
[00:53:10] Jen Kern: Fantastic. Fantastic. In closing, I'd like you both to let our listeners know how they can reach you. If they have any and want to reach out to you and then any partying, parting words that you have.
[00:53:22] Yeah. So
[00:53:23] Stacey Sikorski: I'm Stacey Sikorski, you can find me on LinkedIn, but also super easy email [email protected] S T A C E Y, the other one also routes to me at 7shifts.com, number seven. And find me on LinkedIn, I also have an Instagram handle at staceyat7shifts. And yeah, I just really enjoyed the time with you today, and it's really a pleasure to be able to have these conversations. I've been saying COVID silver linings the whole time, and while this was very traumatic for our industry, I think it also created a lot of really [00:54:00] great opportunities and I've been so grateful to work somewhere where I'm right in the industry. And one of the industries that was affected the most throughout this, so this is, I really enjoyed my time here.
[00:54:12] Niko Papademetriou: Niko Papademetriou. You can email me, don't worry about the last name, you can also email me at Niko N I K O @ qubeyond.com. Q U beyond.com. I am a prolific LinkedIn user, so, please, please give me a shout there, give me a look there. I'm on Insta and TikTok at through Niko, Through Niko's Lens.
[00:54:34] So that's through OU, the real spelling of through.
[00:54:37] Through Niko's Lens, so give me a shout there. And excited to connect with anybody about really anything. I mean, let's talk restaurants, let's talk tech, let's talk culture, whatever it is.
[00:54:46] Jen Kern: Let's talk boys.
[00:54:48] Niko Papademetriou: I mean, I got an eight-year old boy, so.
[00:54:52] Let's
[00:54:52] Stacey Sikorski: I have seven-year old boy.
[00:54:55] Niko Papademetriou: There we go.
[00:54:56] Jen Kern: I have 20 something year old boy. [00:55:00] It's all good.
[00:55:00] Niko Papademetriou: I got started late.
[00:55:02] Stacey Sikorski: I also have four-year old daughter. So
[00:55:04] we'll put a one
[00:55:04] girl in there.
[00:55:05] Jen Kern: Oh, fun. Fun, fun, fun. Well, thank you so much, Stacey. Thank you so much, Niko for joining us on Restaurants Reinvented and talking about all things fresh new and restaurant tech today. It was such a pleasure getting to know you better, Stacey and always a pleasure, Niko spending time with you.
[00:55:20] So make it a
[00:55:22] great rest of your your day.
[00:55:23] Stacey Sikorski: Thank you so much, Jen.
[00:55:24] Niko Papademetriou: Thanks,
[00:55:25] Stacey.