The restaurant industry has never been more complex. Rising food costs, labor shortages, endless tech tools, and shifting guest expectations have created a perfect storm for independent operators. But in a recent Restaurant Rockstars Podcast, host Roger Beaudoin sat down with someone who’s been solving these challenges at the highest levels: Jason Abraham, Product Management Director at Menufy.
Before joining Menufy, Jason helped lead game-changing digital transformations at Pizza Hut, including the company’s early curbside system and mobile order experience. Today, he’s bringing that enterprise-level expertise directly to independent restaurants.
Below, we’ve broken down some key insights from the conversation to help operators understand where the industry is heading and how they can stay profitable in a digital-first world.
1. Friction Removal, Not Feature Addition, Drives Digital Revenue Growth
When Pizza Hut launched enhanced mobile ordering and curbside pickup, revenue didn't triple because they added more features—it tripled because they removed friction points for both customers and staff. The lesson: evaluate every digital tool by asking "Does this make ordering easier or harder?" If a system requires extensive staff training or creates extra steps, it's working against you, not for you.
Tip for Restaurant Operators: Audit your current ordering process. Time how many clicks or taps it takes a customer to complete an order. If it's more than 5-7 interactions, you're losing sales.
2. You Don’t Need to Become a Tech Expert—Demand Tech Partners Who Are Restaurant Experts
Independent operators don't have the luxury of IT departments or dedicated digital teams. Yet most tech vendors expect you to become an expert in their platform overnight. This is backwards. The right technology partner should understand your business deeply enough to implement and manage systems for you.
Tip for Restaurant Operators: When evaluating any tech provider, ask these three questions:
Do you offer 24/7 phone support with actual humans (not chatbots)?
Will you build and maintain my digital menu, or do I have to?
Does your system integrate automatically, or will I need to manually transfer data between platforms?
If they can't answer "yes" to all three, keep looking.
3. Your Online Presence Is Now Your Front Door—Treat It Accordingly
Guest discovery has fundamentally shifted. People don't stumble upon restaurants by driving past them anymore. They find you on Google, AI search platforms, social media, and review sites before they ever see your physical location. If your digital information is inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated, you're effectively locking your front door.
Tip for Restaurant Operators: Google your restaurant right now. If your hours, menu, or location information is wrong, you're probably losing customers today. Claim your Google Business listing immediately and ensure all information is current. Better yet, use a system that automatically updates this information across all platforms when you make changes.
4. Reviews Between 4.0-4.5 Stars Are More Trustworthy Than Perfect 5.0 Ratings
Counterintuitively, restaurants with perfect 5-star ratings often generate less trust than those with 4.0-4.5 stars. Consumers are sophisticated—they know real businesses have occasional problems. What matters more than your rating is whether you respond authentically to negative reviews.
Tip for Restaurant Operators: Aim for 100+ reviews minimum. If you have fewer, implement a systematic way to request reviews from satisfied customers after their experience. When negative reviews come in, respond within 24 hours with genuine acknowledgment and a path to resolution.
5. Use Marketplaces for Discovery, Your Own Platform for Loyalty
Delivery marketplaces like DoorDash and Uber Eats serve one purpose extremely well: putting your restaurant in front of new customers. But at 30% commission, they're too expensive for repeat business. The winning strategy is to use marketplaces as a customer acquisition channel, then convert those customers to order directly from your website.
Tip for Restaurant Operators: Include a conversion card with every marketplace order offering 5-10% off when customers order directly next time. Track your conversion rate monthly. If you're not converting at least 15-20% of marketplace customers to direct orders within 3 months, your direct ordering experience has room for improvement.
6. You Can Use Marketplace Delivery Drivers Without Giving Up Customer Data
Many operators don't realize you can access the same DoorDash and Uber Eats driver networks through your direct ordering platform, which allows you to keep 100% of customer data and relationships while still solving the delivery staffing challenge. This is a game-changer for restaurants that want delivery revenue without marketplace dependency.
Tip for Restaurant Operators: If you currently use third-party delivery, ask your online ordering provider if they offer integrated marketplace delivery fulfillment. This lets you maintain customer ownership while leveraging driver networks only when needed.
7. Modern SEO Isn't About Keywords, It's About Information Accuracy Across Platforms
Search engine optimization used to mean stuffing keywords into your website. Today, it means ensuring Google, Bing, and Apple have accurate, up-to-date information about your hours, menu, prices, and location. When you change your hours or update a price, search engines need to know within 24 hours, not weeks or months.
Tip for Restaurant Operators: Test this: change your hours on your website. Check how long it takes for that change to appear on Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Bing. If it's more than 48 hours (or never updates automatically), you need better integration.
8. Capture Problems Before They Become Public Reviews
The best time to handle a customer complaint is before it hits Google. Automated feedback systems that reach out within hours of an order can capture dissatisfied customers and give you a chance to make things right privately. This protects your public reputation while building stronger customer relationships.
Tip for Restaurant Operators: Implement a feedback system that contacts customers 2-4 hours after their order. Offer a simple rating system, and if someone rates their experience poorly, immediately alert your team and provide a direct path to resolution before they post publicly.
9. Four Orders Create a Habit. Build Systems Around This Threshold.
Customer behavior research shows that after someone orders from your restaurant four times, they become a regular. Your digital marketing should be laser-focused on getting new customers to that fourth order as quickly as possible through strategic promotions, loyalty incentives, and reminder campaigns.
Tip for Restaurant Operators: Analyze your customer data. What percentage of first-time customers make it to a fourth order? If it's less than 30%, you need stronger retention marketing between orders 1-4. Consider a "fourth order free" promotion or escalating discounts for orders 2-4.
10. AI Discovery Is the Next Search Revolution—Position Your Restaurant Now
Just as Google replaced phone books and TripAdvisor, AI platforms like ChatGPT are becoming the new way travelers and locals discover restaurants. When someone asks an AI to "plan a day in Chicago including lunch and dinner," you want your restaurant in that itinerary. This requires ensuring your digital footprint is comprehensive, accurate, and rich with the details AI systems need to recommend you.
Tip for Restaurant Operators: Test how AI platforms see your restaurant. Ask ChatGPT or similar tools to recommend restaurants in your area matching your cuisine type. If you don't appear in the top 5 recommendations, your digital presence needs strengthening—starting with complete information on Google, comprehensive website content, and consistent details across all platforms.
In short: technology should make restaurants more profitable with less work.
Are you looking for a tech partner that is also a restaurant expert? Don’t go it alone.
Many thanks to Roger Beaudoin and the Restaurant Rockstars podcast for this conversation, where Jason shares how independent restaurant owners can use the same technology that he used to help transform Pizza Hut to simplify operations, boost profits, and take back control of their online presence and guest experience.
Now enjoy the full conversation below!
*Heads up: this transcript was auto-generated, so it may contain mistakes. For the most accurate version of the conversation, please listen to the episode.
Roger Beaudoin: [00:00:00] Hey there, rock stars. Welcome back to the show. What if your online ordering system could triple your revenue and you didn't have to lift a finger? During the pandemic, Jason Abraham, my guest, helped steer Pizza Hut through one of the biggest digital transformations in restaurant history, launching a new mobile app, curbside ordering and technology that changed how guests order with restaurants.
Now as product management director at Menufy, he's helping independent operators harness that same technology without getting lost in the noise. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by too many platforms, too little time and shrinking margins. This episode will show you how to simplify, scale, and take back control of your guest experience.
Again, Jason Abraham with Menufy.
Podcast Intro: You are tuned in to the Restaurant Rockstars Podcast. Powerful ideas to rock your restaurant. Here's your host, Roger [00:01:00] Beaudoin.
Roger Beaudoin: Menufy works with the best independent restaurants in the business to not just compete, but stand out. Menufy uplevels SEO, takes direct online orders, markets to your guests, and manages your online reputation. You get a custom branded SEO optimized website. Powerful data that you control without losing 30% to third parties.
Automated customer feedback, loyalty programs, marketing tools, built in chargeback protection, and 24 7 support. Menufy is simple, powerful, and fully managed. Learn more at restaurant.menufy.com.
Welcome back to the Restaurant Rockstars Podcast. So glad you're here. And Jason, welcome to the show today.
Jason Abraham: Roger, thank you for having me.
Roger Beaudoin: You've got a wealth of experience, and I know you've spent many, many years with Pizza Hut. Everybody knows what Pizza Hut's all about, but you achieved some remarkable things there. But just tell us about your
[00:02:00] tenure and what your position was and what you've done to obviously up level our industry from a tech standpoint.
Jason Abraham: I was lucky enough to be at Pizza Hut during some pretty wild times.
Roger Beaudoin: Keep going.
Jason Abraham: The pandemic, for example, changes in how we view technology. During that time I was product director over the mobile app, online ordering, the technology. And we released things during that time that were pretty momentous, completely new app, which changed the way we dealt with guests and how they interacted with a large enterprise like Pizza Hut and multiple franchisees.
We had curbside ordering during that time. Really major shifts in the way restaurants work with guests.
Roger Beaudoin: And that was a pivotal time, right? Right around the pandemic. Everything shifted when everything went sideways and then when the dust all settled and suddenly online ordering became huge.
It was a thing just before that. But then mobile apps just really exploded and guest convenience. It was really all about that. There is a statistic where you were able to [00:03:00] increase revenues through your mobile app, and that was just huge for Pizza Hut.
Jason Abraham: But dramatically, I mean, we the big key there for Pizza Hut was figuring out basically how to serve guests and the customers that we all have.
Right. And during this transition, right before the pandemic, the idea of really understanding what guests and customers are looking for out in market. That understanding, applying technology to solve those problems and make it easy for them really basically tripled, quadrupled the revenue gained from just something as simple as a mobile app.
A big key was looking at a guest and where they were going. Like, understanding where the customer was in market and what their expectations were. Which is really tough for restaurants, right. Pizza Huts fantastic because you have tons of people and personnel hyper-focused on customers, and a lot of our [00:04:00] restaurant owners now don't have that opportunity.
So when we talk about releasing a mobile app at Pizza Hut, the level of experience of learnings I gained there were amazing, an amazing opportunity that most of our restaurant owners really just don't have right now.
Roger Beaudoin: Amazing. So would you say that some of the challenges and pain points from the pandemic have remained, and what are you seeing today as being some of those biggest challenges?
Jason Abraham: I think they have absolutely remained. If anything, they've, it's sort of like a wave that's grown over time. I think we have a period of struggle for restaurants that have continued to get worse.
It's the hardest time it's ever been. Staffing during the pandemic was virtually impossible. That's eased up a little bit, but not by much, and it's not going back. The cost of labor has increased. Your cost of goods are, impacting margins in a way that restaurant owners that have had restaurants for like 40 years are now experiencing a crunch to their [00:05:00] margins that they feel that they can't move. They feel that they can't make decisions because they're afraid of losing whatever profit they have. And then overall, like technology is exploded, right? Your customer behavior and guest behaviors completely change in what their expectations are. And the technology is very complex and it feels like there are aren't really clear guides out of this quagmire.
Roger Beaudoin: Do you see that a lot of independent restaurants or operators are still sort of behind the curve when it comes to technology? Because there's so much out there and it's really hard to differentiate between this platform and that platform, and there's just, it's new coming out every single day and it's kinda like, oh my gosh, you just put your hand up and you realize that some of this stuff can really improve your business.
It's cutting through the clutter of everything out there and figuring out what do I really need in my tech stack besides a point of sale system? And besides online ordering and there's so many pieces, so it's, you'd say that you are seeing that?
Jason Abraham: It's absolutely overwhelming for restaurant operators.
[00:06:00] Solutions are popping up here and there. There's tech solutions that are tied together. So for example, your POS might offer something that you can use. What's not clear for a lot of our operators is they're experts in how to run their restaurant, right? Like they know every aspect of the kitchen. They know, how to handle customers and the tech world isn't right?
Most folks got into the restaurant business not to be experts in digital media and, technology. And so, the actual technology offered to them, although could be very relevant. It's like they have to become experts now in technology just to make a decision.
Roger Beaudoin: And then there's the time of evaluating all this technology when all you're trying to do is run your restaurant, especially when you're short staffed.
Jason Abraham: Yeah.
Roger Beaudoin: And then inflation of course is crazy and margins are shrinking. The problem that I've seen a lot is you, you can only, there's a ceiling to how many price increases you can pass on to a guest and still offer value when you're short staffed and perhaps the [00:07:00] hospitality isn't being delivered to the point that it once was.
So these are all challenges. And now the owner, if he wasn't tied to the store 24/7 before, it's certain, we're certainly seeing a lot of that right now. That's just unfortunate, you know, missing your kids growing up and all that kind of stuff, just because I have to be there.
Jason Abraham: Yeah. We hear a lot from restaurants actually, that when we talk to them about offerings and technology, and specifically with Menufy, we reach out to our customer base. One of the big things that we hear often is, I just don't have time. Just to make a technical decision, you have to do a lot of research.
If you're chopping onions, running payroll, answering phones, the last thing you want is a tech guy come into you and be like, this is important for your business and you need to make time for this.
I think technology often will offer a do-it-yourself approach, and I feel that a lot of companies just don't get it. It's like if you were hiring a manager, you would be actually dumbfounded if that manager came and said, here, now [00:08:00] you do all the work. And, that's the approach that I think a lot of tech companies completely miss, really.
Here's what I can recommend to restaurant owners. When you're looking for tech, you don't have a lot of time, so there's some key points to really ask and to inquire. One is support, and that's something that a lot of companies don't talk a lot about, but it's super supported. Some of Menufy's most valuable, most loyal customers came to us because when there was an emergency, they were able to reach out and actually get someone on the phone that had the ability to help them.
Like that is immense.
Roger Beaudoin: And not being in a queue and waiting for the phone to call you back when you're in the thick of it.
Jason Abraham: One hundred percent at the right time, right? Restaurants do not have normal work hours, so you need to be able to call either when the emergency happens, when you have customers waiting on you, right?
You need to be able to call after everything is done and you are finally getting some rest, and you have a little bit of time to figure out and solve the problem. And so that means that having [00:09:00] a company that has a support model that fits your time, your schedule, and that you're able to communicate with is super important.
So that's number one, support. The next is guided experts. Someone can give you all the tools. Like our restaurant owners, they're experts in their menu. They know every aspect of it. They're not experts in a menu creation system. And to ask them to build their own menu is a little ridiculous because customers expect a different experience on their phone than they do walking in and seeing a printed menu.
And so there are services like us that offer guided experts that actually help run the business so that's something to ask for. When you're looking at technology, think about applying that technology to your business because that takes time. The last is there's, like you said, tons of technology. It's getting the different pieces to work together, right?
They're not just lego blocks, you wanna make sure that you don't need [00:10:00] to be the one that takes an order and transfer the contact information to another system so that system can track. So we take orders from your customers, right? We look at their order behavior. For example, we can tell when someone who normally orders once a week office stones starts slacking. Let's say maybe they ordered maybe three times this past month.
The system says, hey, let's send that individual family an email with a coupon. Let's encourage that frequency to get it back up. Once that happens, it's tracked. It's like, Hey, did they respond to the coupon? You know, are there other
things? Is it loyalty? Is there other things we can push? And then we provide that information back to the restaurant.
That is huge. It's in essence, four different systems all talking to each other, and the restaurant owner doesn't have to do anything. And so it's, it's not just. The capabilities that tech companies offer, it's like how much time is it gonna take from you as a restaurant operator to actually take advantage of those capabilities you're looking for? If you're looking for a question to [00:11:00] ask in that scenario would be, "Great, what do I have to do to get that value?"
Roger Beaudoin: Wow. Two points come to mind. Competitive advantage and peace of mind. Because the last thing you want are more stresses and more headaches when you're running your restaurant.
Jason Abraham: No kidding.
Roger Beaudoin: Yeah. And this is the only business I know where people walk in the back door with no appointments unannounced, trying to sell you things, and then the phone rings off the hook all day. And so many operators are sort of reactive and not proactive, and that's really what you need to be.
What have you seen about changing guest expectations or what they're seeking in their dining experiences and just consumer behavior in general? Because you do speak to lots of independent restaurants.
Jason Abraham: The massive shift in the past few years away from the classic model of like, "Hey. People talk to their friends, they find out about new restaurants in the area, they drive passed them, they walk up to the restaurant." They sort of, step in, try it. It's the classic model that we used to have where good service, good hospitality kind of grows and it's sort of an organic way of getting new customers.
It's completely changed.
Roger Beaudoin: The word of mouth thing [00:12:00] used to be the most point.
Jason Abraham: That's exactly right.
Roger Beaudoin: So where is this leading you?
Jason Abraham: It's all online now.
Roger Beaudoin: Yeah
Jason Abraham: And it's funny, when we, when I describe this it does make sense, but often people don't sort of lay it out this way.
So the concept of people talking to their neighbor and suggesting a restaurant is now transformed. It's Google reviews. Right? The concept of walking down your street and looking at a new restaurant and maybe checking out the online menu is searching online and like finding out information about the restaurant.
It's to the point of knowing what to order, when to go, is there parking? All of that has moved online.
Roger Beaudoin: Yeah.
Jason Abraham: Right? It feels like they have sort of less control. So we're talking about Google reviews, we're talking about your Google listing searches, local search on Maps.
It's the same activity. Then the same behavior is now just moved almost entirely online.
Roger Beaudoin: Okay. That's that's obvious. And you know, there's been such an emphasis on the importance of responding to your [00:13:00] online reviews, and that's just one more thing that needs to happen. Reputation management, and we're gonna get into that a little bit more, but, isn't it funny? I've said this before on this show, that it seems to be human nature that you can have a fantastic experience and unless you actually ask someone to leave a review, they're not necessarily gonna dive right into their computer and leave you a great review, but the minute the slightest thing happens where your experience goes sideways.
Humans are just so quick to slam a restaurant.
Jason Abraham: Yeah.
Roger Beaudoin: And you need to make things right online. You need to obviously, explain the situation and you know, take responsibility if you did mess up and then make it right for the guests. But I always thought it was kind of unfortunate because we do encourage through this podcast and you know, when I ran restaurants, it's like, let people know if you had a great experience.
We'd certainly appreciate you leaving us a review. That's like you said, how most people find us. And if the reviews are stellar, and if you're at the top of the list, then chances are you're gonna have a busy restaurant.
Jason Abraham: So things we've sort of discovered just in general, talking about [00:14:00] reviews in restaurants.
So studies have shown that for restaurants you need to have at least a hundred reviews, anything under a hundred. Not only does Google kind of view it as sort of questionable, at least initially, but also just like your general average consumer looking at it, they're looking for restaurants that have a lot of reviews.
The magic star count is really between Forrow and like four having perfect. Let's say you had like 200 reviews and they're all five star. No one trusts it, and you can sort of think of it as just your general pub. They're smart. They understand that in real life business is tough and that people are gonna have problems.
So for restaurateurs, a batter view won't break you, but what the actual guests are looking for is like. Real life they're looking for. Did the restaurant respond? Is it a genuine response? Was it a problem that's probably the guest or was the problem the restaurant? And it kind of goes back to. When we think about it of just human [00:15:00] nature, it all makes sense.
The big downside is it's just a lot of time like it, it would go back to the original conversation you and I had about just expecting restaurant operators, managers, folks to, let's say you're really popular and you get a, got a lot of reviews. It's a lot of stuff to deal with. It's a lot of going online for sure.
Answering questions. I think a lot of things bubble down to time, and so this is one of those things where there's technology solutions out there that can help and. Part of the key in the question that we have to look at is, does it save you any time?
Roger Beaudoin: Bottom line. Yeah. Let's dive into the online ordering thing, because years ago, obviously, well, you mentioned it earlier, the technology has to speak to each other, but you can't have too much stuff that doesn't, and I remember there was a time when, you'd have a different tablet for every online ordering platform there was.
There'd be five tablets and orders would be coming in all over the place. It's like, I can't imagine being a host or the person in charge of taking that. Then
there's the controversy about the percentage of fees that get taken [00:16:00] and operators need additional business and they welcome the business. But at what cost, the profit margin decrease when an in already shrinking margin business.
How have things evolved now and tell us about the future of online ordering. What are you seeing?
Jason Abraham: Yeah, so marketplaces are a big deal, right? It does feel like that when someone takes 30% of that order from you.
Roger Beaudoin: Exactly. And that's still the amount.
Jason Abraham: It's an emotional thing. Right. Well, here's the thing, the reason why they feel they need to have it is because it's bringing in new customers. It's a, it's a tool just like any other sort of marketing platform.
I think what we've kind of learned over time is the balance between marketplaces and online ordering is great. Use it for what it's good for, right? It gets your restaurant in front of new eyes, and that's wonderful for that, right? It makes sense to spend 30% of that order you really want it to be part of your own website. So there's some techniques. You can do. So, for example, with Menufy, we offer what we call conversion cards. They're cards that you can place in with the [00:17:00] food that the actual recipient, the guest are, is encouraged or incentivized to get, maybe get like 5% off for their next order if they order directly from you as a website.
Basically reinforced some healthy practices for restaurants. One is you're using an advantage that you have that most of the guests already know that if they're gonna get a better value for their dollar if they went directly to you.
So you're just reinforcing that, and that's something that anyone could do. You don't need a service to basically inform your guest per order going out. Hey, we encourage you to order within. The next thing is if they do order with you. Make sure your ordering experience is good. Because really you're competing with the marketplaces, in that case. You're trying to earn that customer, that person ordering is now your customer. So you want that online ordering to make sense. You want your menu to make sense. You want to sort of incentivize them to keep using your platform and your restaurant website with like loyalty, with discounts, with like with things that basically make it a pleasure for them to order directly from you as a [00:18:00] restaurant and that's how you keep them.
Because they could go back to DoorDash, for example, or Uber or any of the marketplaces. The last is you gotta be front of mind, right? So you wanna create a habit. If it's a family of four, ordering pizza on a Friday, you want to come up again the next Friday. And so email marketing, text marketing, it's interesting because the clip, when we say online ordering now, it used to mean just taking an order.
But now the concept of online ordering really is. Tying together the whole experience. It's like how do all the different parts work to, and in this case it's to solve the problem of, Hey, how do I use marketplaces to get those new customers, but quickly convert them so they become my customers and not the marketplace customers?
Roger Beaudoin: Well, the marketplace doesn't really like that idea too much, but it's, you know, I always had this expression, the money's either in your pocket or it's in their pocket, so anything you can do to. Be proactive, be competitive, and to own the data. Let's talk about that, because originally the marketplace would take all [00:19:00] that customer data and use it for their own purposes, but the restaurant had no idea who these people were.
They couldn't capture any of that information, but all that's shifted too. Would you like to speak to that?
Jason Abraham: Yeah, so there's some things the marketplaces are great at. We just talked about getting new customers. Wonderful. They're great at delivery, right? So if you're starting up a restaurant, or let's say you have delivery and you just know that you have, let's say on Tuesday, it's really tough to get drivers in staffing becomes a problem, right?
Roger Beaudoin: Sure.
Jason Abraham: These marketplaces, they realize that and they've evolved. And so there are ways that even with systems like Menufy, you can take advantage of aspects of that without spending 30% of that order and giving them the customer and so systems like Menufy will use those same company. Like for example, marketplace compa nies that specifically use their drivers. And so you can still run your online order, have orders come through you, they're your customers. You have all the information about the customer, including contact inform
e Doordash and Uber Eats drivers to actually deliver your food. So you get the advantage of a pretty huge driver network. And to be honest, they do a really good job.
Roger Beaudoin: Yeah.
Jason Abraham: Like people have their complaints, but running that, it is a massive deal because you are working with them.
They want that relationship with that restaurant, right. They still have that relationship, so it's not like. You are against the marketplaces. It's really allowing restaurants, cannot use the marketplaces, what they're good for, and focus on the cores of the business, which is, hey, are you tracking new customers?
Are you keeping the customers that you have?
Roger Beaudoin: There's definitely an advantage to that too. I know when I ran restaurants, we did our own delivery and occasionally it was challenging getting the drivers, but then the insurance rates kept going up and there's definitely liability you have to worry about, and it's like, is it really worth it?
If you can take that off your plate and still, you know, make a reasonable margin, why wouldn't you wanna do it?
Jason Abraham: That's exactly right.
Roger Beaudoin: I'm glad, glad you shared that. Let's do a [00:21:00] deep dive into Menufy. Give us the 30,000 foot view. Tell us. I mean, there's so many features, there's so many benefits that I found very beneficial when I owned restaurants.
Obviously, all these things, you know, I can list 10 different things that Menufy does, but let's start at the beginning and just walk us through.
Jason Abraham: Yeah. It's a pretty big deal and it's something as someone who's been with the company now for two years and especially focusing on product where you're in the deep part of it. It's hard to describe even for me, but the gist of what we offer from a very high level is we focus on what are the things that make a restaurant successful it's the digital world. It's the online ordering, it's the reaching out to the customers. It's the loyalty programs. Imagine that it's another front of house.
Roger Beaudoin: I like that analogy.
Jason Abraham: It works. And it's the easiest way to sort of explain, especially because the tech is so complex. You have the technology to advertise the business. So you have your storefront out there, right? We are showing, [00:22:00] we are connecting to Google. We are pushing your menu, your prices.
If you change your hours on your website, we inform Google, Bing, Apple. We do all of this work to make sure that your digital front of house is accurate. It says when you're open, it shows your price. It basically attracts the walkup virtual customers. To your restaurant and shows you from your own brand.
Say a customer comes in and orders, we make sure the ordering experience makes sense, that we're showing them what makes your restaurant special. It's your food. The menu's super important. We make sure that the menu makes sense for someone ordering online and matches their expectations because they're experts now using online to make orders.
We make sure that we handle any problems that arise. That third party delivery that we talked about, like if you're utilizing DoorDash or Uber Eats, we coordinate with them to make sure the right drivers picking up the [00:23:00] food, they're ready and prepared with the right size. Both vehicle as well as any special packaging that needs to be there.
We do that work to make sure that the end customer gets the food and it's a good quality. It represents the restaurant as best as it can. There's a tool we have called the Feedback tool that reaches out right after they make their order and says, what was your experience like?
For most of the experiences for these guests, it's gonna be great. And they're gonna tell us it's great. It's really tough because people who have good experiences don't make ratings and reviews. We'll encourage them to do so. We create
Roger Beaudoin: Terrific.
Jason Abraham: We basically reach out and say, Hey,
Roger Beaudoin: Love it.
Jason Abraham: Please share this information with the public on Google. Let's say there's a problem. We actually capture those problems before it becomes public and we share that back with the restaurant so the restaurants is able to solve that problem before it becomes big. A lot of these guests,
Roger Beaudoin: That's huge.
Jason Abraham: They're just looking for someone to hear them, and it just happened to be their only venue they had was Google reviews. Lastly, after that's done, we actually reach out to them [00:24:00] again. We put your restaurant in front of their face. We make sure that those customers remember they had a great experience with you.
Right? So the next time they're making their decision, you come up. We also know that habits are built up. If they order from you four times, you've got them right. They're gonna become recurring regulars. It is this kind of cycle of working with attracting new customers, keeping the customers that you have now, and like making sure that we have kind of like a system that feeds in itself.
To like make the business healthier. It's super important because hospitality has dramatically changed in a very short amount of time. And we've come to realize even ourselves that the experience that our restaurateurs want to give to people who walk through their door, we've gotta emulate that virtually because you may have someone who finds out about your restaurant using Google, receives or order from a delivery driver that doesn't work for the restaurant.
May experience a problem and then complain in a public forum that's not the restaurant. And as [00:25:00] a restaurant operator, how do you connect to that person? And that's one of the big, I think, struggles that a lot of restaurants have that we've kind of realized, you know, online ordering has now become very complex.
It is the new version of hospitality.
Roger Beaudoin: Where's it going in the future? Yeah. Like where do you see this whole thing evolving Right? Along with other technology that just keeps going. AI, everybody's talking about ai. You know, that's somewhat intimidating to it's independent operators. It has so many uses to it that'll benefit a restaurant where you can do things so much easier.
It's a time saver. It's accurate. It can do well, it can do immeasurable things. What about online ordering and other parts of technology? Where do you see the future of that going?
Jason Abraham: Yeah. Just sort of an example that I did before, which is that sort of virtual storefront. If you sort of imagine like when we were sort of attracting customers as restaurants, we, you know, we had like pamphlets, we had flyers, we'd canvas neighborhoods, you would, you would do those things.
Roger Beaudoin: The old school stuff I used to do back in the,
Jason Abraham: You know, it's funny in some areas it's still working. When things started to shift, you [00:26:00] used just new avenues to sort of get in front when marketplaces started coming about even with it or if you have a good location on a street, you sort of changed your approach to attract customers.
Technology's no different, so AI, and it'll give you a very specific example. So let's say you're, you're traveling into Chicago and you're like, man, I'm excited. I'm gonna see what, what are the places I can go eat? What are those locations? And you're not, by the way, you're not
looking for the Pizza Hut's in the world, right? As someone who's traveling, you wanna find a local mom and pop shop that best represents that community that you're gonna be in, in that world. I think what you used to do is you'd go to TripAdvisor, you'd go look and see, okay, what are the locations that I need to visit? What are the attractions I need to do, and what are the restaurants?
I think we're evolving to the point where now you're gonna see AI taking over, that people already going to ChatGPT and asking, you know, give me an itinerary for Chicago. And it's important that, as a technical company, that we're looking at where are the guests looking [00:27:00] and how are they gonna discover these restaurants?
One thing I can say that is true is it's gonna get more eyes than it ever had before.
It's people are, have moved online and droves and online was really fast. It's unfair for restaurant operators to be like experts in this. It's really tough and it's something that I think it's important that whatever technical company you choose, they're with you in that guide because it's hard enough to just run a restaurant, right?
Adding all of the complexities of understanding technology and the trends that are happening. So you want a group, and this is actually one of the big benefits of having a technical firm that you're working with, is that you want someone constantly looking at the numbers, someone's constantly looking at the trends that's, that's running tests, that's actually helping see what that future looks like, so you don't have to carry all the weight of that change.
Roger Beaudoin: An expert partner in your corner.
Jason Abraham: That's right.
Roger Beaudoin: It keeps an eye on what's coming and lets you know about it and even rolls out new features. Are there new [00:28:00] features coming?
Jason Abraham: Absolutely is. Now a lot of it ends up being secret, but I can say this.
Roger Beaudoin: Tell us what you can.
Jason Abraham: We focus a lot right now on restaurant profitability. Like what are the things that we can provide restaurants in a very short term to address cost of goods sold, the thinning margins, the staffing problems. So we're looking at ways to improve the fee structures, right?
We know that there are limitations specifically on just keeping increasing your prices. So we're improving our discounts. We're, we're basically enacting new ways for surcharges to be applied. So, for example, we know that in some areas of the country, there's like a 10, 10 cent bag fee.
It's hard to work in the POS and in the online world. So we wanna create tools that let restaurants compensate for these sort of surprise taxes. Surprise fees for example, now that we're relying much more on third party delivery, you have to have better packaging. You wanna make sure your food survives the journey. [00:29:00] So
Roger Beaudoin: Absolutely true.
Jason Abraham: You wanna be able to say, Hey, if you purchase a particular food item, you as a guest should get better packaging for that particular food item as it's being delivered. So giving our restaurants the capability to compensate for the different costs and the complexities in that world is super important.
That's something we're working on now. Another element is we talked about the marketplaces before. We wanna make it incredibly attractive for guests to use your restaurant website and not go back to the marketplaces, right? Along with loyalty that we already have, along with marketing discounts we wanna make it so easy that they can make an order in no time if they have a family of four and each person in the family wants their own different version and configuration of any of the particular items, when they visit your website, we wanna remember that. They don't have to reselect it. We wanna remember any special recommendations they have. We're looking at how can we make it [00:30:00] incredibly easy so that if that guest decided to use another platform, they're losing something.
It's like, oh man I should just order directly from the website. They know me. That's the new world of hospitality. AI and integration with that. It's not far. We gotta start now. We already know the big guys like Pizza Hut are doing it right.
We already know that folks that have entire marketing divisions and engineering divisions looking out for them, they're doing that. We need to do the same, right? And our guests want that too, right? As they get more comfortable with doctor's visits online with even ordering groceries online now, like our mom and pop restaurants need someone to support them so that their businesses show up just like any other business that you can access online
Roger Beaudoin: everything you mentioned is highly relevant and value added to operators, and I speak from experience when I say that you triggered a thought earlier when we started talking about the automatic updating of your Google information, and that happened to me last week. I was traveling for a speaking gig. I was in Wichita, Kansas, a city I'd never been to before. The [00:31:00] reviews were good, but then when I typed it into the GPS, it said they were open at such and such in hours.
And then when I actually drove miles to get there, the place was closed. So obviously it wasn't updated. And then I had to go through the process all over again, go find another place, the inconvenience and all that kind of stuff. So you're right, that was just one small detail that made a difference in my experience that is automatically handled that that would give you peace of mind.
Let's go back to the marketing piece and some SEO, because I know you do SEO optimized websites and SEO can be a mystery because I've heard you need to spend so much money in SEO and it's gotta be repetitive over months and
months and months, and to keep staying on top of the searches and all this kind of stuff.
No restaurant one has the time for it, can afford it, or really knows where to begin with it. So you take all of that over as well. Can you explain that?
Jason Abraham: It's a very complex topic. We have folks calling our customers and suggesting search engine optimization marketing, and as a restaurant operator, you hear the term [00:32:00] SEO all the time and don't necessarily know what it means. So I'll start there. The gist, what we're ultimately talking about is if most of your customers are coming through a venue like Google, they're also Google customers. When someone types in, Hey, I'm looking for pizza near me. Google wants to find an answer that's most relevant to their users. So when we talk about search engine optimization, we're really just talking about making sure Google has all the information to provide the right answer to the customer.
What it used to mean, like 15 years ago, it was like. The visible and invisible website content. Right. You used to be able to put tons of information and text on your page. When Google popped up the world has changed dramatically and so what we're really talking about search engines now is not just, does the text on your restaurant website say what you guys make?
We're talking about, does Google know your hours? Are they [00:33:00] integrated into your online ordering platform? Do they know that if they send a customer, so Roger's traveling, if Roger asks, Hey, I'm looking for food near me. If Google is gonna provide you that answer, is the restaurant open? Is the restaurant near him?
Are people happy with what they've ordered from the restaurant? The world of SEO has gotten so complex and Menufy, we kind of view it as one, we wanna make sure that your restaurant and the text in your restaurant one is super useful for your guests. Meaning if guests view your restaurant website, do they understand you? Do they understand your brand? Do they understand what differentiates you from others? That's always helpful for search engines because that helps Google answer that question two.
We fully integrate with Google, Bing, Apple. Not only do they know your menu, not only do they know your prices, we update it within 24 hours so that they know that if an appetizer changes prices, they know. They know if you put holiday hours, they know that. They [00:34:00] even know if you have
construction and you move the front door of your restaurant to the side of the building way.
We provide them that information. They know the latitude and longitude from every aspect.
Roger Beaudoin: That's amazing.
Jason Abraham: What are the hours on your website? What is your menu? We have all that information and so we immediately connect with them. So you as a restaurant operator, don't have to remember to go do that.
And then the last part is we have tools like our feedback tool that encourages ratings and I can't stress it enough. It's super important nowadays for restaurants. And so we save restaurants time. By helping coordinate that, by encouraging good reviews and capturing the bad ones that may end up in Google and letting you as a restaurant operator, answer them.
So those are sort of the three pillars of modern day SEO that a lot of people don't talk about because a lot of the consultants that call up our restaurants or talk to our restaurants, can't do the last two. They could only fiddle with the words on your website, and that's becoming less and less important, and especially when you think about search engine [00:35:00] optimization is, does Google have the right answer?
To provide to Roger when he is traveling, it's obvious, like they want accurate, up to date, relevant information, and so it takes really companies like Menufy to really, have your restaurant show up.
Roger Beaudoin: You know, there's another pain point, and I'm going back to my restaurant days and I sold my restaurants like 12, 15 years ago, whatever.
But back in the day, whenever there was sort of a chargeback dispute, yeah, someone would have to dig through boxes of like receipts to find the actual credit card slip that was signed by the guest to actually verify that it was signed by the guest. Now that's a feature. There's like chargeback protection.
Jason Abraham: Yeah.
Roger Beaudoin: Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Jason Abraham: This is a big deal and a big differentiator and I don't think I make a big enough point on this. One major risk restaurants face right now, especially with online ordering. For the internet connection can use your website, your ordering platform to not only just use a fake card and pick up food, but test credit cards.
They get big list of credit cards and they're just running through your, system. [00:36:00] They're causing pain. For a lot of our operators, they inevitably result in a chargeback. Even though the charge may only be like $2, the chargebacks like $35 to $45, and you've seen that as they flow through as a penalty to you as a restaurant.
Online ordering has a lot of risks. One of the things Menufy offers that is a game changer, and I should lead with this to be honest, is to offer full chargeback protection. Meaning if there is a fraudulent charge and there is a chargeback because of that fraudulent charge, it does not go to our restaurants.
Menufy absorbs it fully. We have a really good and robust fraud detection system. We save you from the chargebacks. because the Lord knows it eats in profits.
It comes in months later and it's a complete surprise and disrupt your business. But because we catch these problems earlier, you're not creating the food that just sits there. So if you receive an order and you send out that food and there is a [00:37:00] chargeback, you've gotten paid for it, it was not wasted, and it does not impact your business.
Roger Beaudoin: Several aspects of benefit there. What about onboarding and getting up to speed with the platform? Depending on how robust, an operator wants to go with this, like what's the timeline and what can we expect and how easy is it?
Jason Abraham: Yeah. The analogy of the front of house that's virtual, you get a full staff, that's one huge differentiator for us as well. So we have teams of expert that help you craft what makes sense for your customers and represent your brand. We don't expect you to do it yourself. That's something we've actually, it's kind of a core tenant of our business really early on.
We want to partner. We're restaurant folks selling technology, not technology, folks selling to restaurants, right? We know. We know that people don't have time. We know that staffing and training is difficult and so you're given. You're given an expert, a customer success expert that first of all sits not only with your
initial onboarding journey, but sits with you through [00:38:00] your entire journey With Menufy, you get special onboarding team members that are dedicated to making sure your website represents your brand.
Properly represents what makes you unique in your cuisine. You get menu experts that craft that menu I talked about a little bit earlier is you may be an expert in menu but you're not an expert in the setting up the menu and the expectations of customers when they're ordering, like how to configure and what should that look like and should it be a button, a click, a radio button? Like it's, it's, it's really complex. And so we have that for you. We have folks that are focused on your Google business listings. If restaurants out there, if you guys don't own your Google business listings, if you don't have one, my recommendation is go get that set up.
Now, you Google right now want you as a restaurant and they wanna provide information about your restaurant. That has pictures, that has hours, that has, et cetera. All the information I said earlier, you can do yourself it does take time, but you wanna set that up. We have folks that'll do that for you.
We [00:39:00] will work with you to make sure it's right. We'll work with you on making sure images are relevant, that you're providing the right information so that when those virtual customers are looking for restaurants like you that they're getting the right information use.
Along with that, we talk about coupons, email campaigns, feedback. We sort of set that process up. A lot of work is upfront, so when you sign up, we have probably about a week and a week and a half to actually get your website, your ordering set up so you can start receiving an order, but it doesn't end there.
There is work that we're doing afterwards to then optimize how you look in search engines. We're doing work afterwards to see is it effective? We're coming back to say, Hey, we looked at these numbers. We recommend using this particular feature that you've already paid for and let's leverage it and make it work for you as a restaurant.
Or your staff in that virtual restaurant that's coming to you, you make the decisions. You're not alone, right? But we're giving you that guidance and help so that you can make the right decisions for your business.
Roger Beaudoin: Wow. I'm a [00:40:00] huge believer in systems, and that is one robust system and everything that you shared with us today, you made something seemingly complex really simple to understand. You showe
so simply and easily, and how you really zero in on what's most important to an operator. So thanks so much, Jason for being with us on the show.
Jason Abraham: Thank you for having me. And I hope I represented the folks at Menufy really well because we have really incredible folks and it's sort of a, I think the reason why we have such loyal restaurant customers is because we're like them, right? We know. We understand the business. We're all restaurant people. Whether we used to be restaurant people, some of it's still a restaurant.
People now, it's in our blood.
Roger Beaudoin: I think that's very important because there's a lot of technology out there that doesn't necessarily, have the expertise of running restaurants behind it.
You understand the pain points, the ins and outs of daily operations. It clearly sounds like you've got that dialed.
Jason Abraham: Yeah. Thank you.
Roger Beaudoin: Thank you, Jason. That was the restaurant Rock Stars podcast. Thank you so much to our audience for tuning in, thanks to our [00:41:00] sponsors this week, including Menufy, and we can't wait to see you all in the next episode.
So stay well and stay tuned. And that's a wrap. See you next time.
Final Thoughts: Restaurants Don’t Need More Technology. They Need the Right Technology
Solutions like Menufy aim to change that.
With Menufy, independent restaurants get:
A strong digital footprint
Direct ordering with better margins
Review and feedback tools
Integrated loyalty & marketing
Marketplace delivery without losing customer ownership
24/7 multi-lingual support
Technology that fits into real operational workflows
To learn more or explore how Menufy can support your restaurant, visit restaurant.menufy.com.
This post is based on the Restaurant Rockstars Podcast interview with Menufy Product Management Director Jason Abraham. For the full conversation, check out the episode.