Episode 12 - Jodi Boyce
Jen Kern: [00:00:00] Hi, everyone. Welcome to restaurants reinvented. I'm Jen Kern. And today I'm joined by Jodi Boyce, the EVP of Marketing at Teriyaki Madness. Hi, Jodi.
[00:00:33] Jodi Boyce: [00:00:33] Hello?
[00:00:34] Jen Kern: [00:00:34] Welcome to the show.
[00:00:36] Jodi Boyce: [00:00:36] Thank you.
[00:00:37] Jen Kern: [00:00:37] How are you doing today?
[00:00:38] Jodi Boyce: [00:00:38] I am good.
[00:00:40] Jen Kern: [00:00:40] Great. Well, really excited to hear about your brand Teriyaki Madness. I saw that recently you were on the movers and shakers list, which is awesome.
[00:00:48] Jodi Boyce: [00:00:48] Yes, very exciting.
[00:00:50] Jen Kern: [00:00:50] Got an great intro to you from our mutual friend, Tammy Billings. She's like the best networker on the planet.
[00:00:56] Jodi Boyce: [00:00:56] She does. She knows everybody on earth, I think, in marketing.
[00:01:00] Jen Kern: [00:01:00] Yeah. So welcome. Let's go ahead and get started. If you can give our listeners a little background in terms of your experience in the industry and what brought you to where you are today at Teriyaki Madness?
[00:01:13] Jodi Boyce: [00:01:13] Sure. I grew up in California. And then, my first job out of college, I went to CU in Boulder. And I drove the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile around the country for a year. So...
[00:01:23] Jen Kern: [00:01:23] Oh, my gosh.
[00:01:25] Jodi Boyce: [00:01:25] That's my claim to fame. That's it? I'm a hotdoger.
[00:01:28] Jen Kern: [00:01:28] That's awesome.
[00:01:30] Jodi Boyce: [00:01:30] Yeah, so it was an awesome job. It was all marketing and PR. We actually didn't sell hot dogs or. have anything to do with the, the actual food, unless we were eating on the news at 5:00 AM.
[00:01:40] But it was all about generating PR and media impressions. So learned a ton and that's what launched me into the food industry, being with craft and Oscar Mayer. When that was done, I went back to Colorado instead of California.
[00:01:54] And Denver is just kind of a Mecca for restaurant brands. And so I fell into it and I've been in food and restaurants and franchising for the past 22 years. Yeah, so I was at Quiznos during the height of their growth long time ago. Einstein Brother's Bagels. I worked on the agency side and, uh, Smashburger and then Teriyaki Madness.
[00:02:17] So four years ago saw this job pop up for Teriyaki Madness and I'd never heard of Teriyaki Madness And I was thinking how am I in Denver where there's a million restaurant brands and headquartered here and I haven't heard of them turns out actually started back in 2003 uh in Las Vegas And it was two brothers and their cousin Who grew up in Seattle and Seattle is kind of like Chicago hot dogs and New York pizza there's teriyaki on every corner in Seattle which I didn't know that either at the time they started the brand and our CEO Michael was involved more on consulting basis years ago and decided he wanted to buy the whole company And that's why you know we're a little bit like a startup in that sense even though we'd been around for awhile and that's why I hadn't heard of us So yeah I was really excited to come on board and a new growing brand and basically it had everything consumers were looking for Um so I said sign me up I'm in
[00:03:14] Jen Kern: [00:03:14] Oh fun So you like taking on the startup roles the smaller brands maybe not heard of now everyone I'm an East coast girl So so I've heard of teriyaki madness but I've never been there So when you joined how many locations were there
[00:03:29] Jodi Boyce: [00:03:29] When I started there were 30 I want to say 33 at the time should be 90 by the end of this year
[00:03:36] Jen Kern: [00:03:36] Congrats
[00:03:37] Jodi Boyce: [00:03:37] thanks
[00:03:38] Jen Kern: [00:03:38] you've tripled the growth
[00:03:40] Jodi Boyce: [00:03:40] We've had and that's including probably closing you know 10 or 14 shops over the last several years Just you know early ones that opened that either weren't in the right location or weren't the right franchise owner just natural franchise growth we've opened a lot of shops in the last few years
[00:03:57] Jen Kern: [00:03:57] That's great So I'm trying to get the visual out of my mind I'm having a hard time Cause my kids were huge fans of dumb and dumber and I still got the hot dog truck Is that what it looked like
[00:04:08] Jodi Boyce: [00:04:08] that's a dog that is a dog truck This is a hotdog Weinermobile is a 27 foot hot dog on wheels it had ketchup and mustard colored inside And yeah we drove the hotdog highways of America and there were six of us on the road at the time six weinermobiles Thirty of us for the summer and then they kept twelve of us on for the year So it was so fun I went to 24 States with my career Yeah that's great
[00:04:33] Jen Kern: [00:04:33] Is that just out of college
[00:04:34] Jodi Boyce: [00:04:34] Yeah They only hire newly college grads and it's a one year position or I would probably still be there
[00:04:41] Jen Kern: [00:04:41] It's so much fun So from your humble beginnings inside the hot dog through the different brands you mentioned Smashburger Quiznos Einstein bagels and now at teriyaki madness which you've helped grow a lot What have you learned through segwaying through those different Brands and then as well I know you were on the agency side a little bit
[00:05:05] Jodi Boyce: [00:05:05] I guess my biggest learning overall is to keep things simple to me I've always just naturally gravitate towards marketing it's not brain surgery It's bringing to light what people want Um you know what there are you're wanting we're basically telling them what we have and hopefully it's a match but just to keep it simple I don't think it needs to be complicated being on such a shoestring budget and being a startup you know our budgets are growing now but at the beginning it was real strappy so we did a lot of things everyone pitches in and our food represents so well and has such great flavor that it speaks for itself So for us it's all about getting food in people's mouths and that's the proof right there
[00:05:47] Jen Kern: [00:05:47] Great So for those listeners who might not be familiar with the brand you started mentioning a little bit it's bowls it's all natural give us a taste of it what's the teriyaki madness experience
[00:05:58] Jodi Boyce: [00:05:58] So we are a huge bowls of really fresh quality ingredients Asian inspired food mostly Japanese dishes we have fresh food We make it to order it's customizable like I said huge portions And so we're not cheap by any means but we have a great price value equation there we have a fun irreverent brand our name is Teriyaki Madness So we'd like to have fun with our brand personality really simple menu um not trying to be something to everyone we stick to our core we actually have gluten free sauces no MSG so a lot of great things but our biggest thing that our consumers told us in some research in 2019 is All of those things are what make us different But the number one thing is the flavor of the food far above everything else So we always say we're delicious food that's healthy or not healthy food That's delicious We're not trying to be a health and brand by any means but it's a nice little perk that it's good for you
[00:06:54] Jen Kern: [00:06:54] Yeah And I'm a big gluten-free junkie Most of the listeners know that by now so if you've got bowls with rice do you have lettuce as well And
[00:07:04] Jodi Boyce: [00:07:04] Yeah we have several different proteins and you either get your base of white rice Brown rice fried rice or yakisoba noodles or you can go no carbs and you'll all veggies on the bottom And then the proteins we have our teriyaki chicken our famous spicy chicken which is so good we have salmon we have steak we have orange chicken and then all of our balls come with veggies So they're steamed or stir fried and there's five that is broccoli onions carrots cabbage and zucchini And so they're all fresh and uh yeah you can make it as healthy or unhealthy as you want The orange chicken is fried not quite as healthy as if you got teriyaki chicken breasts with all veggies but yeah really simple Couple of appetizers Not a huge huge venue but you can make a lot of different combinations
[00:07:51] Jen Kern: [00:07:51] And how many States are you in
[00:07:53] Jodi Boyce: [00:07:53] We're in I want to say 35 States right now so we're pretty spread out these clusters are in Las Vegas where we have 16 locations and then we've got groups in Texas and Florida and California and Colorado We have five here in Denver and then we're fairly spread out but growing quickly
[00:08:12] Jen Kern: [00:08:12] Nice Nice That sounds delicious And it's actually lunchtime here on the East coast Sounds really good And the bowls it seems like the bowl concepts are faring pretty well during the pandemic correct me if I'm wrong but rice travels well you know it stays well so do most of the toppings that you're talking about tell me how you've been doing pre pandemic during the pandemic and up to today how have things changed and shifted for the brand
[00:08:39] Jodi Boyce: [00:08:39] We are lucky our food travels really well And actually before I was at Teriyaki Madness I was at Smashburger and that was four years ago And at the time Third party delivery was brand new And we were just trying to figure out how to work with them There was no national player at the time They were all small regional delivery companies And so when you know burgers and fries unfortunately just don't travel that well get soggy and kind of old And so one of my tests that I did when I went to explore a Teriyaki Madness I went ordered purposely made my order really difficult I just want to see how they would react and they welcomed it I knew from research we had just done that customizable ingredients are what consumers want right now And so customized my bowl It was all made fresh order And then the kicker for me was I took it all the way home which at the time was about 45 minutes opened it and it was still hot like steam coming out That had that and the fact that we did jump in with both feet on the third party delivery two and a half years ago has really saved us during this pandemic We were already working with third parties Uh we already had an app um online ordering and so we just cranked everything up you know with our marketing to let people know that this is available through travel as well it's all about convenience and so mid-March I think is when everything really got scary we all went home So Mid-March through April was a little rough I think the most our sales were down though was about 40% and there were brands that were down 60 to 90 so we were still feeling okay and then we came up with a promotion Um and it wasn't even a promotion it came about because our people in our company including our CEO who really led this we were all feeling just hopeless at home Like what can we do to help while all these doctors and nurses and everyone were going out there And so we put together a whole pay it forward promotion where it was a meal for 10 people consumers customers anyone businesses could order it for a hospital or first responder of their choice And so they pay half we covered the other half and we called every single customer individually and asked where they wanted it to go and then our franchisees delivered it So it was really cool It was a win-win everyone felt great about the promotion there was a lady in Las Vegas who just a regular you know consumer out there She'd had our food a couple of times She heard about us on TV and she purchased a couple from her own family four people and then her boss and they worked at a law firm Her boss found out what she was doing and said that's really cool Why don't you order $3,000 worth And just spread it around Vegas And so they ordered combined $3,500 of food for doctors and nurses and firefighters or whatever And then our shops went and delivered it all around Vegas so that through may and June got us back on track we recovered completely and we did some pretty quick Cuts internally as well a lot of us took a pretty hefty pay cuts We did have to lay off half of our company in preparation for who knows what was going to happen but by the end of may we rehired everyone and our company which I thought was really cool recovered everybody's cut pay
[00:12:10] Jen Kern: [00:12:10] That's awesome
[00:12:11] Jodi Boyce: [00:12:11] Yeah And everybody chipped in it was all hands on deck A couple of months
[00:12:16] Jen Kern: [00:12:16] that is so cool I love that campaign I've been hearing about all sorts of different things Innovative marketers are doing through this podcast It's just so much fun but I haven't heard you know what I love about it is the phone call
[00:12:31] Jodi Boyce: [00:12:31] it was really cool And I was on the end of a lot of those falls and It was just really rewarding and the people were surprised to say wow someone's actually calling and we'd say Hey we're Jodi from Denver Thank you so much for what you've done And where would you like it to go And sometimes they had a hospital in mind and they even knew my daughter's a nurse at such and such hospital and sometimes they said I don't care where you send it Whoever needs the food the most So it was really rewarding
[00:12:59] Jen Kern: [00:12:59] That is so cool And so was the marketing team involved with managing a lot of that communication and organizing where the delivery Cause that's a lot of logistics We did a similar program and it's a lot of logistics involved
[00:13:10] Jodi Boyce: [00:13:10] Yeah a hundred percent once the idea was created I'd say we put together the whole program and maybe three or four days including the all pop we even put together a few TV spots very scrappy but through those together we had TV we had some radio a lot of social media and then had to integrated it with our POS or it was done through our catering platform through all low as far as taking in the orders All of our dining rooms were closed down at that time too Yeah it was a lot of pulling it together We did a very quick webinar with all of our franchisees to say everyone jump on board by the way this is program starting tomorrow And our franchisees were all really excited It was like I said everybody wanted to do something to help And it really did feel like we were helping and we ended up feeding over 6,000 healthcare workers and firefighters
[00:14:02] Jen Kern: [00:14:02] Wow That's so cool Thank you that's just such a neat program and it sounds like it also helped boost you like you said you were about 40% down And do you credit that program with bringing you back
[00:14:16] Jodi Boyce: [00:14:16] I think it's a combination of just promoting the fact that we have delivery We were doing some other things too we always had the ability to do curbside but it just wasn't part of our model before prior to COVID we were doing about 60 to 70% of our business was already to go orders and obviously now it's 90 to 100% we added curbside for shops who didn't have it which was 90% of our locations and then we even in some locations turn them into drive-throughs there was a few where we did it in the parking lot we made a quick sign our POS is an iPad They're able to take out of the shop and everyone was just really flexible and we we're doing whatever we could to get the food in people's hands So it was a combination of doing some of those things on this promotions and that was a big ticket item too so yeah our sales recovered fully in may and we've been up 15 to 20 year over year since then
[00:15:14] Jen Kern: [00:15:14] great and in terms of the channel traffic and where people are coming mostly if you were to split up just roughly like the curbside slash drive through Versus delivery Where re you netting out Right And I don't know how many of your stores or open versus like maybe in store how has that netting out right now
[00:15:33] Jodi Boyce: [00:15:33] So you know prior we were doing about 30% dine-in and 70% takeout and the takeout would include delivery that has shifted to about 90% take out that is a split with delivery through our rail system or through third party delivery or ordering ahead and doing curbside and picking it up So curbside is still a fairly low percentage as far as the way people are doing it but it was growing very quickly
[00:16:00] Jen Kern: [00:16:00] Yeah And are all your stores back open
[00:16:02] Jodi Boyce: [00:16:02] We had a couple closed just for a few weeks here and there the only one that's still closed right now is actually in Mexico city it's located in a mall where there's a big office building above it and it's downtown Mexico City so that one's still closed but yeah everyone else's is back open
[00:16:20] Jen Kern: [00:16:20] Great And so I love hearing about the campaign Bring me up to where you are today Where are you focused today in terms of marketing strategies at the highest level how you're targeting the guests how you're speaking to the guests the types of things that you might be planning to do in the next six ish months where's your head at there
[00:16:41] Jodi Boyce: [00:16:41] So everything we've been talking about on a strategic level and moving forward is around technology Just how do we stay ahead of the curve Because this is not going away anytime soon as far as people wanting convenience there was so many people who are kind of forced to order online or through an app for the first time And so a lot of people are introduced to it and love it I didn't even use it that much as a consumer And now that's all I do so staying ahead of that with making everything seamless and how do we make it more convenient and just easy for consumers So yes we launched curbside but now what we're doing is making that an even better experience for the customer where we're adding into our app or they press a button to say I'm here so there's not that back and forth of running outside to see if a car showed up or what So the other thing that we're hoping to look into as a next step is a voice activated ordering we think that's probably where things are going if convenience is set in stone and people want that moving forward that's probably a easy next step where they say you know Hey Alexa order my favorite T-Mad so yeah and then as far as promotions we love doing the pay it for promotion and the funny thing is now at school started we came up with one just yesterday that we're going to probably go out this fall my kids started on Monday and it was a complete disaster because zoom went down apparently nationwide and all I could think was those poor teachers and the principal who were getting hundreds and hundreds of Phone calls and emails and panic and they handled it really well And so yesterday we were like you know what We should do something where we could feed the teachers and bring food into the schools And so we're looking at doing something similar that we did for the hospitals and doctors and nurses and now paying it forward to the teachers and all those people out there who are trying to teach our children
[00:18:36] Jen Kern: [00:18:36] Oh I love it I love it I mean talk about a profession That's going through massive disruption right we all have been going through some disruption at some level but Those teachers the educators right now That's depending on where you are in the country it's different everywhere Like we were talking before the show that's awesome I love it I love holding them up as the new heroes
[00:18:57] Jodi Boyce: [00:18:57] yeah And then we're really just pivoting things that we had originally planned for fall and winter you know LTOs and whatever they were We're just re-looking at all of that And families are home right now and so changing it up So we're doing family style meals and really great deals we're not huge into discounting but people are struggling right now so many people are out of work And if we're going to discount now's the time to just to help people out
[00:19:25] Jen Kern: [00:19:25] Yeah I couldn't agree more I love how you said earlier in the program you said our bowls are big there's a lot of food in them and that's so important right now I mean we've been talking for weeks about just the importance of value right now and yet not every brand can afford or wants to do the discounting but people want to get a deal today people are still hurting And there's the fear and the uncertainty that just exists everywhere in the world right now makes I mean I don't know for me it makes me a little bit more like covetous right let me get a little bit more Let me bring him a little bit more food Let me stack the refrigerator a little bit more You know so the fact that you're like topping out the bowls you know and I actually ordered from one of my favorite local bowl places more of a salad place the other day And it came and I had ordered two dressing So they put the two dressings like in the bowl and it took up so much space that there was like hardly any room for the food And I complained like I sent them an email I'm like yo cause by the time you get the bowl and you spend for the delivery it's 20 bucks and I was hungry after I ate it
[00:20:28] Jodi Boyce: [00:20:28] Oh you should definitely try our food cause you will never
[00:20:32] Jen Kern: [00:20:32] I don't think you guys have places here You don't have anything in DC Do you
[00:20:36] Jodi Boyce: [00:20:36] We don't but we're growing so fast we will be out there very
[00:20:39] Jen Kern: [00:20:39] I can t wait I can't wait Well so speaking of the menu and the deals curious have you thought about I mean you talked about how simple you are have you thought about adding new items and what's your role in terms of menu innovation and transformation around the menu and the types of foods that you're offering and where do you see that going
[00:20:58] Jodi Boyce: [00:20:58] So back in March actually right before COVID we did a menu change and the point of the menu change was to keep it simple but to also remove items that just maybe weren't the best sellers even though some people love em and they taste really good Our goal is to keep the menu simple but also to improve the profitability for our franchisees and so I am tied with our R&D department called mad labs and um We are looking at all kinds of new fun innovative products a really really really spicy sauce a mad sauce that we're looking at rolling out and a new appetizer but ultimately we are always looking at the profitability and if it doesn't make sense if it's one skew that's not used across the board we're not going to do it we're small enough that we can make quick changes which is nice But our R&D department is really focused on how do we get our franchisees to be more profitable and making our core products really well
[00:21:58] Jen Kern: [00:21:58] are you a hundred percent franchisee
[00:22:00] Jodi Boyce: [00:22:00] we are yeah we used to own a couple of corporate locations and we'll probably have some in the future But we're a hundred percent franchise
[00:22:07] Jen Kern: [00:22:07] Okay And what is your role in that in terms of developing more franchisee relationships and maintaining the ones you have
[00:22:14] Jodi Boyce: [00:22:14] We have a really great group of franchisees and I've worked at several franchises and I've been on both ends of the spectrum and Collaboration is one of our values And we really do have a collaborative group our franchisees are really great about bringing in new franchisees because they want to see expansion too I think that the more we have in market penetration in their own markets the better for them as well so yeah I'm involved in and going after new people and we'll look at anybody who is willing to put in the work it doesn't necessarily even have to have the restaurant experience Our brand motto is opportunity for success for all And so we look at that not only for our franchisees but people we hire corporate even our vendors and our partners so yeah we have a pretty diverse group of people And yeah willing to take on anyone who's willing to really put in the work and kind of gets our brand and fits our culture that's awesome That's great And let's talk about your team a little bit as you mentioned a lot of us are working with smaller teams smaller budgets if any budget and being scrappy and there's nothing shameful in that right Like smaller teams but curious what your team is looking like today so there are five in the marketing department I think we have about 45 total in our company now And so when I started there was I think 16 of us So it's huge to me now A lot of them are trainers though cause we are opening shops and we've opened I think 11 or 12 shops since may during COVID and we weren't sure how that was going to go and they've been fantastic openings that's you know really will continue So there's time investment in the marketing department We have one designer and she's awesome She does everything from creating our website to greening all the POP we have two people who focus on local shop marketing who work with our franchisees on very localized plans marketing plans our director of marketing works a lot on the digital feed side and loyalty and social So we all wear a lot of hats even though we're home we're on zoom calls five days a week all day long But yes it's really proven you know even though we're a small team we're small but mighty and can accomplish a lot and you know still have fun doing it We even have our happy hour over Zoom
[00:24:27] Jen Kern: [00:24:27] Yeah that's the best That's the best That sounds like a great team structure
[00:24:32] Jodi Boyce: [00:24:32] Yeah it works really well and we'll be growing we'll be hiring again soon one day
[00:24:38] Jen Kern: [00:24:38] Exciting let me know So I can advertise on the podcast Yeah I want to know like when people are hiring and I've had some folks on that are looking too keeping that networking going In the midst of losing like the events right The in person events and stuff one of my objectives here so that's great And you talked about this keeping things simple is one of the first things you said keeping things simple and the focus and you've mentioned so many different areas that you're executing on the pop the local store marketing the social media the campaigns the TV help us and the listeners understand how do you in the universe of marketing that is today so big how do you execute in all the correct channels while keeping that focus and that simplicity
[00:25:28] Jodi Boyce: [00:25:28] I would say part of it is our limited budgets kind of force us to prioritize And we don't even use a full service agency by any means We have a freelance copywriter and we do have a PR agency and we have small areas where we do get help but because we're not doing huge media budgets we don't have the funds to had a ton It helps us prioritize and say okay this is what we're doing Not only from a promotional standpoint but on the tactic side it helps us stay focused but I also feel like it's the right thing to do we've had tremendous growth using social media and using the tools that we already have at our fingertips using our website social media our email club texting all those pieces that we've already had going that are just growing and just Maybe you can't add all the bells and whistles all at once but it helps us keep it simple
[00:26:21] Jen Kern: [00:26:21] yeah there you go I love how you said reusing that stuff That's already there The tools that we already have sometimes we overlook the Most basic tools the website
[00:26:31] Jodi Boyce: [00:26:31] Exactly Yeah
[00:26:33] Jen Kern: [00:26:33] we've been focusing on our website a little bit more now too I'm a team of two you know we also are very limited in what we can focus on but the website I mean much more important Are we all like Oh my God the website because everyone is like there's so many more people going to the website Our traffic has been up a lot And same with social media There was a stat out like the second month of COVID that adults in the United States are spending like 30% more time on social media
[00:26:57] Jodi Boyce: [00:26:57] Yep Which has really helped us out And our brand voice is a little irreverent and fun and edgy And so it lends really well to social people will see it in either Laugh and share it with someone or get angry And I can't believe you guys said that write us back but Hey they're still engaging social has really helped grow our brand and we do it all internally and a lot of trial and error and learning which targets were best But um I'm pretty glad it's there
[00:27:24] Jen Kern: [00:27:24] Yeah And keeping the humor having an irreverent brand that's so fun but keeping humor and someone else mentioned that just like remembering to stay light like it is a heavy time most days right Because and remembering to stay light and having your brand already positioned that way and being able to put the fun in it We want fun right now too We want value We want fun We want comfort
[00:27:47] Jodi Boyce: [00:27:47] We always say We take our food seriously but we don't take ourselves seriously
[00:27:51] Jen Kern: [00:27:51] Oh I love it
[00:27:52] Jodi Boyce: [00:27:52] Yeah So you should definitely follow us on Facebook and Instagram Cause some of the stuff just absolutely cracks me up and we do use independent copywriter and our photographer who helped put the content together We'll give them direction but the stuff they come up with I mean we'll look at it and we're cracking up there's some stuff that we're like we can't show that Let's show it anyway So It's fun
[00:28:12] Jen Kern: [00:28:12] That's what makes our jobs fun Yeah There's as I call my copilot Alicia Hamani she's my other team member She is amazing on social and she comes up with this stuff and I see it Same thing I just am like said I just start laughing It makes you feel so good Like it's just these awesome designs And it's like Oh wow that's so fun So it does it makes our jobs so much more Exciting and rewarding So you touched on technology one thing that I'm pretty passionate about is the data and getting that single view of the guest and how are companies doing that And what are the obstacles that are in your way
[00:28:48] Jodi Boyce: [00:28:48] Yeah data has been a huge focus for us this year So I had hired a guy in our department named Nathan a couple of years ago he's just very technologically savvy just by nature great Self-learner and so eventually we switched him out of marketing and he kinda runs his own department now which is great And it's all about the data And so we are mining the data pulling it in integrating between our POS and our loyalty and all low and third party delivery and everything we can so that not only can we tell our franchisees and help them paint a picture of here's what the profitability of your shop is right now and here are the things you can do to improve but it all so it helps us on the marketing side you know do this campaign work One of the hardest things that used to be was to prove that social media converted into sales We can prove that now with black and white data to show that when we boost and target and post in this new market and we see X amount of engagement we know that's going to be an opening that's X large So we're all about the data this year and we're all about making it easier Cause we did a lot of manual pulling on time And he's building all kinds of systems now to tie it all together
[00:30:04] Jen Kern: [00:30:04] So you're pulling it into like one large sort of BI database
[00:30:08] Jodi Boyce: [00:30:08] Yes correct Yeah And he's building it all
[00:30:11] Jen Kern: [00:30:11] Wow Do you have all the open APIs or you're working to get the API is open so that everything's integrating right
[00:30:18] Jodi Boyce: [00:30:18] exactly Yup The majority of our partners have open API and if they don't he's working on it
[00:30:24] Jen Kern: [00:30:24] Yeah And who do you use for loyalty
[00:30:27] Jodi Boyce: [00:30:27] For loyalty we use Punchh
[00:30:31] Jen Kern: [00:30:31] Okay
[00:30:31] Jodi Boyce: [00:30:31] For our menu piece of that is Olo
[00:30:32] Jen Kern: [00:30:32] Okay Okay Great that's awesome Cause I've spoken to a lot of people are just really struggling with getting the data getting that one view of the guest and particularly one of the biggest pain points that I'm hearing I Donna Josephson from corner bakery and I talked about it for a bit is the single menu like having that one menu Across all the different places So it sounds like you've got a grasp on that That's great That's great so what would be your advice to marketers today in terms of we're living in some challenging times there's a lot of folks out there in the workforce that We've seen a lot of heartbreaking in a lot of people losing their jobs looking for jobs young marketers really anyone but what's the biggest piece of advice you have for marketers
[00:31:19] Jodi Boyce: [00:31:19] I think in the same vein as keep it simple it's about not fragmenting the message So just pick one or two things and stick to that message there's a lot of clutter out there and we need to break through be known for one or two things Not trying to be something to everyone it makes your marketing even easier too because you're constantly repeating yourself in different ways rather than trying to get 27 different messages out there it's we're all about convenience and ordering on the app and getting the food in your hands right now but yeah it's not brain surgery to me so yeah just keep it simple
[00:31:55] Jen Kern: [00:31:55] Yeah absolutely And in terms of biggest challenge that marketers facing
[00:32:01] Jodi Boyce: [00:32:01] right now it's staying ahead technology just has moved so fast I feel like we were really scared four years ago when we jumped in with both feet with third party delivery we just said let's do it and figure it out as we go And I'm glad we did because we're ahead of the game compared to a lot of brands who are much larger than we are but now what's the next thing And that's why we think whether it's voice activated ordering or what other ways to make getting the foods into your hands more convenient it's going to be some kind of technology And so we're starting to look at what is that going to be used so we can get on now and you know be with it while making its own improvements
[00:32:39] Jen Kern: [00:32:39] Yeah So doubling down on tech and you've mentioned voice a few times which we're very bullish about voice too and all its different forums And so we've got some beta products out there that we're testing with voice so testing To see That's a really interesting cause Like you said I'm using voice more than ever I mostly only dictate to my phone anymore
[00:33:01] Jodi Boyce: [00:33:01] Absolutely I know And I'm so curious how it all work because this is where such customized food I just am curious how is it going to work with all the different modifiers and all the different options and all different franchisees price points and I'm sure Yeah I'm sure there's someone out there working on it
[00:33:18] Jen Kern: [00:33:18] Yeah it won't be an easy one It won't be an easy one Great Well thank you so much for your time today Is there anything that we didn't cover that you'd like to cover I always give time at the end for guests to give like quick infomercial or put a plugin for a campaign or community initiative or your team whatever you want to wanna say
[00:33:38] Jodi Boyce: [00:33:38] I would say if you haven't tried Teriyaki Madness you should absolutely try it it's just one of those products where you got to taste it to believe it. But it's really good and it's really addicting and it happens to be pretty good for you and, bold ingredients. You can get it how you want.
[00:33:53] So. Yeah, we have 79 locations. We'll be 90 by the end of this year and 140 by the end of next year. And we're we're going quick. So yeah, go out here and try it.
[00:34:03] Jen Kern: [00:34:03] Awesome. Well, if I could get on a plane
[00:34:08] I was trying to figure out how to go out and see my stepson out in LA. And he just flat out said, don't come, I don't want you in a plane for that long.
[00:34:15] You know, you're gonna have to ship me a bowl.
[00:34:17] Jodi Boyce: [00:34:17] Okay. It's probably still be hot. I'll try it.
[00:34:21] Jen Kern: [00:34:21] I love it. I love it. Thank you so much for your time today, Jodi. All my best to you and Teriyaki Madness and your lovely irreverent brand, then I'm going to jump on Instagram and started following.
[00:34:31] Jodi Boyce: [00:34:31] Perfect. Thanks, Jen. I appreciate it.
[00:34:33] Jen Kern: [00:34:33] Yeah. And best of luck with the continued growth.
[00:34:36] Jodi Boyce: [00:34:36] Thank you. I'll talk to you later.
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