00:00.00
vigorbranding
Um, yeah, cool hey everyone today I am joined by Adam Gallone he’s the president and Cmo of promante brothers out of ah, well based in western pa but rapidly growing Adam thanks for coming on the show say hello and give a little bit of history.
00:00.00
Adam
It says ready to record. Okay I think we’re meant perfect.
00:13.30
Adam
Yeah, hey Joe thanks for having me Adam Golum frommany brothers eighty nine year old iconic restaurant chain based in Pittsburgh I’m the president chief marketing officer just celebrated 3 years with the brand but have about twenty plus years in restaurant grocery store can be in store marketing and business management.
00:36.67
vigorbranding
That nice. so so I know because I grew up around a bunch of Steelers fans. So promante is an institution to say the least if you’ve watched any football games that are based in um in the Steelers nation as it were they probably covered promani every once in a while.
00:52.41
Adam
And.
00:55.25
vigorbranding
Um, but for those that don’t know explain the magic of romane brothers.
00:57.70
Adam
Yeah, so first off huge Steelers win last night end of the big ben era probably I think he’s still going to come back for another year just to pull it over everybody but found it in 1933 um, the idea was it was a sandwich cardt and the idea was that and there’s about 5 different stories out there but truck drivers in the produce yards of Pittsburgh only had 1 hand to eat so Joe Permani had this brilliant idea of taking french fries coleslaw tomatoes, cheese and meat and putting it all between 2 fresh baked. Slices of italian bread and fast forward to 2022? The brand is thriving growing but still true to its iconic roots to this tied to this amazing iconic sandwich. We call it almost famous but it truly is a famous sandwich and it’s. Ah, great ties to Pittsburgh but it’s really been able to transcend the Pittsburgh steelers and grow beyond that into kind of the the enemy territories.
01:58.44
vigorbranding
Yeah, it’s It’s actually amazing I mean rare is the case that I really focus in on food of course food matters. The quality of food. The flavor of the food people liking it of course matters. But usually it’s so much more and I think um with promante it really does start with that iconic sandwich. It’s ah. It is. It is truly a game day decadent meal it and it’s it and it’s delicious, right.
02:20.84
Adam
Yeah mean it’s It’s a it’s like a pound of food little unknown fact, there is less calories in a permani sandwich than in a chipotle burrito so you know you can that little known unknown fact. But yeah I mean it is a decadent. Oh you know.
02:30.90
vigorbranding
Oh well? Yeah, um.
02:39.60
Adam
Unbelievable kind of like all meal in 1 thing sandwich often imitated never duplicated and and then you know as the years have gone on. You know we’d love to have everyone have a sandwich every time they come in but we know that people want more than that. So we’ve expanded our menu with pizza and wings salads burgers. You know.
02:56.71
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.
02:58.65
Adam
Just really grow in the menu to give you kind of more variety even though the sandwich is still the hero of of the concept.
03:03.85
vigorbranding
Yeah, and and a hero it is for sure and it’s definitely talked about I mean once you’ve had a manty sandwich you you tend to tell a lot of people. Um, back back in 2018 you you joined the brand as cmo and then after a few years you you took the ah the helm you know as president.
03:14.68
Adam
The.
03:20.87
vigorbranding
And you’ve been doing a lot of great things. There. What what in your opinion has been the key to the success in your efforts for the brand and for your career as a wholeax because I think there’s there’s 2 questions there 1 is like I’m ah a you know, budding marketing person who wants to grow in the restaurant industry. So there’s that whole tract of your professional career. But then Formante’s been growing like you’ve said and this is a legacy ah could be a legacy brand but yet it’s maintained relevance and continues to thrive so some some tips and ideas of what have gotten you there.
03:45.31
Adam
yeah mean I think yeah I think that’s the first thing I mean we for 89 years old we’re still relevant. We’re not an oldies act. You know I mean I’ve watched many brands come and go and yeah, few have stayed relevant over the years so I think that’s the first things we’ve stayed relevant I think it’s. Being up to the times but also being kind of to the past but we’ve embraced technology in a big way. We look like the smartest people in the room because we did a lot of things pre pandemicdemic we are anything about the smartest people in the room from a tech investmentment I think we just made some really right decisions but you know the big thing I brought. My last job before joining promanities was with giant Eagle which is a large grocery convenience retailer about 500 locations but has the number 1 loyalty program in the grocery industry and I brought a lot of the thinking that I learned there over my seven years there to to the restaurant space of. You know, really insights based decision making you know how do you find things that make sense to people. How do you find things that in the in in your data and bring it to life in a restaurant was still the magic of an 89 year old brand. So we’ve got a lot It’s like the Willy Wonka or the wizard of oz we got a lot of things going behind the scenes that the we call our customers fans that the fan doesn’t notice but it allows us to communicate with them in a very efficient 1 to 1 method. You know on a smaller brand we’re we’re punching way above our way class with kind of the marketing technology stack. We built.
05:13.89
vigorbranding
Yeah I was really impressed by that when when you started talking to me about some of the things that you’ve been using how you’ve been integrating them and and the strides you’ve made forward and what I found with a lot of brands of similar size of Promante is getting that buy-in from leadership.
05:16.20
Adam
With a lot of great partners.
05:31.40
vigorbranding
A lot of times. It’s a little difficult. They see it as an expense, not an investment. They’re unsure of the return. How one if you could without giving away the the secret sauce talk about some of those systems that you have been integrating some of the data that you have been pulling in and how you’re using it. But Also how did you get that buy-in from higher Ups that may have been a little bit more resistant to the idea of.
05:51.54
Adam
Yeah I mean I think let’s start with the buy in piece I mean I was brought in to kind of you know what had got us. There wasn’t going to get us where we needed to go you know I think I have tremendous respect for the brand I grew up with Pramani so mean mutual respect for but what the. Marketing plan of the kind of the 2015 to 2018 wasn’t going to get us. You know to 2025 even without the pandemic I mean no one knew that was coming but we knew we needed to make some digital strides and you know started with our Ceo our board embracing kind of the play and I laid out you know and then it was getting. Kind of finance. It onboard you know I’m sure there are days the I t team does not you know, thoroughly love the work we bring but we have a strong point-of- sale platform underneath it all but ncrloha that kind of that’s the basis of everything we do is integrating in dar point of sale and then. Went out and looked at the marketplace and tried to understand are there. Um, best in class people or do you need to find somebody that can do it all and after looking in the space there really isn’t anyone that can do it all. Good. So we went out and put together a good. Marketing tech stack with a bunch of people that integrate into each other that were kind of besting class in their segment and build it off that.
07:13.12
vigorbranding
Yeah, the integration thing I think has been one of the biggest kickers I mean as as technology grows and innovation grows outside of the restaurant space. It seems like you have legacy systems like sorry you know and Ncr Aloha is they’ve been around forever who have tried to backfill that.
07:27.28
Adam
I think.
07:32.97
vigorbranding
That integration and connectivity and then you have systems like let’s say Q which they’ve been on the show. They’re friends but they they built their system api forward for integration and it just seems like there’s a gamut in between that all these different systems and if you’re not Careful. You end up with ah these software as a service like almost. Death by a thousand cuts when it comes to the monthly price. How have you negotiated prices that fit your budget found the systems that truly do integrate and don’t just say it. You know I Assume it’s been a bit of a challenge.
08:03.89
Adam
Yeah I mean I think we’ve looked for. We do do a lot of software as a service so I’m death by a thousand cuts is probably the model we go with but ah, you know I think we look for partners like olo like patronnis that are best in their space. Um, and try to bolt it on it actually from a software as a service standpoint you know having 40 locations. It’s actually very affordable because you can get big time systems and you don’t have to you know, build things. Also you know giant Eagle we had 400 people in IT we had 80 to 100 people who woke up every day and all they thought about was the loyalty program and coming into permannes I knew we weren’t going to build that you know so that was I think also a realization that you need to go out and find people that can build things for you that are building them for bigger restaurant chains that have a roadmap that are delivering product enhancements. Allow you to be part of that roadmap that was really key to us also was like trying to find partners where because we’re never going to be Anyone’s biggest client nor should I ever be Anyone’s biggest client at my size. Um, so it was like finding people that respected the brand respected us you know knew we were never gonna be their biggest client but knew we could do a lot of cool things and would. Allow us into kind of their footprint that was really important as we looked at partners.
09:21.55
vigorbranding
Yeah, and it seems like you found a nice suite that really do talk to each other we we come up. Ah upon tech stacks that where sales peopleople say they integrate and maybe they sort of do but not quite the level that we were looking for but integration is one layer I think it’s. Once you have this stuff integrated and you’re getting data and you know it’s the learning level where I think a lot of brands fall short because you can easily set it and forget it. You can easily say here’s our loyalty system. You know, buy 9 get the 10 3 or you know here’s your deal for signing up. Um, what’s been your approach to leveraging and really.
09:43.20
Adam
You know.
10:00.63
vigorbranding
Maximizing the opportunity from the data that you’re getting.
10:01.77
Adam
So I think it’s a couple things one we do have a kind of a set it and forget it. But the set it and forget it to get the data because you need something for people to give you their data especially in today’s environment so that’s the first thing we do have a set it called a set and forget it. We are ah actively always looking at it. But then. You know I I use the analogy when I came in is it was it was third and 10 you know and football analogy. It’s third and 10 and we were running the same plane expecting different results and and I might even steal or it might have been half the steeler season third and 10 and we’re trying to. We’re doing you know quick passes. But.
10:29.16
vigorbranding
Is that a raiders joke. It’s kind of messed up and.
10:40.12
Adam
That was really the key to the team was that and then partnering with you know, great partners and their teams and their analytics teams to try to understand and look for things in the data and then trying things I think that’s the biggest thing I believe in this idea of do it wrong quickly. Um, you know, kind of stole that from Google but the idea of. You know, trying a couple different things and seeing what works and what doesn’t work. You know I tell the team if we’re not failing. We’re not trying enough. You know if we’re not if we’re doing 10 tests and all we’re successful. We didn’t push the limits to where we need to go to try some things that aren’t going to be successful. So you know it’s really. Try things learn try things learn. You know, keep tweaking don’t be so don’t settle in you know, always try to beat the the best case so you know I think the big opportunity for us as we look into kind of 2022 is a lot of email sms subject line message testing to understand like which messages resonate the most in driving. Traffic through the door.
11:36.71
vigorbranding
Yup, yeah, it’s funny I’m on this um, losing mission to eliminate the word blast from the vernacular associated with emails because it’s such such the wrong mentality I wrote a book a few years ago called stop blasting my mama that that sought to help do that.
11:49.59
Adam
Go.
11:52.90
vigorbranding
Ah, because the idea is like the the person receiving this. It’s my mom. It’s your mom. It’s you know your dad like don’t blast them. They don’t want to get blasted. They they want something of value and that doesn’t necessarily mean a deal that can mean an insider track or information or something that they know that someone else doesn’t just something of value and as.
11:54.61
Adam
Um, yeah.
12:12.40
vigorbranding
Far as we’ve come with technology email is still a fantastic media outlet to actually communicate with the people that want to hear from you. Um.
12:18.12
Adam
I think I’ve told you this show is it it if you’ve never bought a kid’s meal from us I shouldn’t be sending you kids meal advertising so you know I think that’s the most base level thinking is is to start using the data.
12:27.40
vigorbranding
Um, right.
12:35.69
Adam
If you’re a wing buyer then let’s give you wing messages that make sense to you and then let’s try to stretch you. You know in the grocery store business. We you know that there’s something like 97% of americans buy toilet paper still trying to figure out where those 3% are that don’t.
12:46.90
vigorbranding
Um, yeah.
12:51.82
Adam
And you know and Nielsen brought that data to us when I was in grocery and we started looking through our data and it was like thirty forty percent of our customers had bought toilet paper for us and then you kind of dig into the insights of why and you go speak to people and it was a lot about price in size and you know my shopping carts already full I can’t fit it in there but it was really about. Looking at messaging looking at service looking at all those things to try to get that toilet paper sale because we know everyone’s buying it. So how do we make you know how do we get that sale which is once you get a storage it every sale ads up and and bring that thinking to the restaurant space. Also.
13:15.94
vigorbranding
So right.
13:22.89
vigorbranding
Yeah I think that’s really important to actually not just like look at the data acknowledge the data but dig underneath it and and gosh this sounds like trite Silicon Valley Marketing speak but what’s the story behind the data. Um, you know so I’ve said to a friend of mine recently he was trying to.
13:35.30
Adam
But.
13:42.26
vigorbranding
Throw stats at me to try to convince me of something and I was like that’s all well and good I was like here’s a stat for you. The majority of drownings happen because of water does that make water evil No, it’s just like let’s find out the story. You know the story that water may be the mechanism for the death. But.
13:49.66
Adam
Um.
13:59.27
vigorbranding
What caused that scenario. Oh if people don’t not have swim. Okay, let’s solve that problem and I think that’s where a lot of leaders maybe either fall short or don’t do enough work to find that next layer or the layers below it where you can actually start to identify opportunities like you said.
14:01.84
Adam
Yeah.
14:18.00
vigorbranding
Um, are there any scenarios that you’ve encountered where that that’s gone. Well.
14:19.74
Adam
No I mean I think the I can’t think of anyone off the head. But I think it’s the idea of asking why 5 times um see keep peeling back that onion that is Toyota yeah, so you know been through the lean manufacturing process and the whole you know world of Kaizen and all those things and um.
14:26.95
vigorbranding
So is it Toyota I believe yeah.
14:39.31
Adam
You know the Toyota model was to keep asking the word y 5 times until you got to the answer and I think it’s the same thing of doing data. You know when you look at your data is to ask is it causal is it correlated you know on on paper you go? Well we selling more of x well why are we selling more of x. And trying to understand that and trying to do some basket analysis and trying to understand you know are those things caus or that correlated and keep asking the word why multiple times I think is.
14:59.80
vigorbranding
So.
15:06.58
vigorbranding
Yeah, it’s a fantastic exercise I think Shameless plug mentioned it in my book in trying to find out the purpose of a brand and really trying to dig in. But if we take the drown just for people who are listening are unfamiliar if we take the drowning and water scenario that I just brought up ah as a joke. But. You know hey majority deaths happen the majority of drowning deaths happen because of water. Why Well people are swimming in quarries. Why because they don’t have access to public pools. Why it’s Underfunded. Why is it underfunded because other funds have been placed elsewhere. You know? Okay, So now we kind of know.
15:37.40
Adam
Driver.
15:41.84
vigorbranding
At least a couple layers of issues that we could potentially fix. Um, you know it could go another way too. Oh the quarry doesn’t have a fence around it. Why doesn’t it have a fence around it because it’s not required and you know and I think these these questions are really important to ask in a way that’s not confrontational but evocative. Um. Making sure that people realize that they’re safe at the table like you said to fail and I think that’s where quite honestly, a lot of ad agencies and those who hold the relationships with those agencies fall short where its ad agencies are brought in to basically have the solution and when there’s a miss. It’s immediately. Well they’re horrible. They don’t know what they’re doing or we can’t trust them. Um whereas I’m I’m with you where it’s like yeah we want success. We’re on the same page but you do have to dare to fail. You have to dare dare to miss the Mark. But so long as you’re learning from it and and growing from it. Um, you know what? what are some pivots that you’ve had to do or something that’s been surprising right? like you put out a promotion or you put out a new product and and you thought it was going to go gamebusters and it just didn’t and what did you learn from that. So.
16:48.12
Adam
Man I’ve had many of those in my life. Um, you know I mean I think there’s always I would say you get to you get to a place where you speak to yourselves. Um, and ah you think something’s better than it is um so you know we’ve had those I think we’ve had some of those learnings internally where we. Come up with an idea that we think’s better. Um, and it doesn’t come to life I think the um early learning was to try to understand you know we’re only as good as the operations delivers on so having working with our operators to make sure things are executable um is key you know pivot I mean we’ve pivoted so much in the last two years um you know we were pivoting daily. Um from that standpoint. So I think that that you know there was that piece to it. It was like almost ah a daily weekly pivot. Um and trying to understand I think the biggest thing is trying to understand what our operations team can execute on and what they can’t um and and giving them things that they can execute on. Because if it’s a greatest promotion in the world but it can’t be executed on. Operationally, it’s ah it’s a disaster.
17:48.11
vigorbranding
Yeah, every single time. Um, how do you guys go about I guess uplifting the skills of operations to make sure they actually can activate.
17:56.93
Adam
Yeah, yeah me, it’s a you know hey I’ve I have the benefit of the benefit in the curse that I now oversee operations in marketing. So the benefit is I can get things done. The curse is I no longer complain that operations can’t get thing done and no longer can operations complain marketing can’t get things done. Um, so you know that’s the.
18:11.82
vigorbranding
Yeah, you’re you’re like the Spiderman meme where you’re pointing at each other.
18:16.51
Adam
Um, yeah, exactly? Um, but no I think it’s it’s It’s first off building um, building relationships you know coming in and finding out who are the um, the people who will tell you the truth. Um and getting people that have good credibility in the system. So when we have ideas you know there’s a. People I go to first we’ve got some people that will test technology that are great testers of marketing technology that are in are very honest, um, with their feedback. You know last thing you want somebody say it’s great and then you roll it out and it’s a disaster I Also you know say hey guys this is your reputation you’re putting this out there that you’re saying it’s you know.
18:46.10
vigorbranding
E.
18:53.60
Adam
It works. But that’s always the first days always go with my group of operators to understand what works what doesn’t work with them. Um get their thoughts and then from there you know, usually we put it into a real world test couple locations and then work out the kinks and then go to um for roll out um and read and iterate. On feedback. You know, interesting enough. 1 of my tech testers is probably the worst at technology in our company and he’ll tell you that but I always say if he can execute it. Anyone can execute it now. So so you know I mean those are the yeah I think it’s the key is having those relationships. Um.
19:17.67
vigorbranding
Um. Um I like her to say was my mom but that’s yeah.
19:31.61
Adam
You know supplier relationships supply chain can’t be even more important today than it’s ever been making sure you build relationship with suppliers to make sure they have your product less. You would do is drive traffic into the restaurants and you don’t have product available.
19:34.58
vigorbranding
Frame.
19:43.20
vigorbranding
Right? Well and so that that uncovers a and a unique element of a tech scenario in the story which is the usability that user experience and I feel like um, you know, historically a lot of tech brands have created a system that.
19:52.33
Adam
Um.
20:00.85
vigorbranding
Actually works really well like the underbelly but it has this highly unusable face. Um, and there’s also that brand level of like what is the promante experience versus Burger King versus a salad company. You know.
20:03.73
Adam
Those things.
20:13.49
Adam
Yeah, ah.
20:18.43
vigorbranding
Um, and it houses it different I think that’s been one of the issues that I’ve had let’s say with olo which is great system best in class for a reason but unless you invest a heap of capital into creating your own usability experience on top of it. You’re really stuck with what they have. And um, there’s seems to date have been just giant divide between brand website http://wellcall.com and ordering experience and I don’t think many people have really fused it well enough maybe Taco Bell a little bit. Um but they they were built on um, Tilster last time I checked which is a bit of a bumpy platform.
20:45.20
Adam
Um, ah.
20:57.28
vigorbranding
Um, how how have you guys smoothed over that transition and how have you been able to at least control enough of the usable the the user experience to make it unique to promantees. Okay.
21:06.00
Adam
Yeah, may I agree with you I think all those weakness is their frontend. Um, you know a tell that to their face. You know they spent 3 years on that serve refresh I was like who spends 3 years developing a frontend in this environment. You know? um, but we we build our own custom frontend. Um, we used a company called Capri out of Columbus Ohio um that bolts into olo um you know I think the biggest thing is use. We use the same design firm. Um, ah a Pittsburgh design shop to do to the design of our website and the design of of our online ordering so at least it feels together. Um, we’re in the process of redoing our online app so that everything feels like it comes out of the same um platforms that doesn’t feel with disjointed. Um, so that you know that’s really the the key and you know for our size chain. We’re we’re thinking about this completely different than most people I don’t think any very few 40 location chains are designing custom front ends to alllo.
21:48.82
vigorbranding
E.
22:01.44
vigorbranding
So right.
22:02.82
Adam
Um, you know so I think yeah I think that’s the key is you got to you have to know what works for you. Also I think for us we wanted to feel like the Bram we want to feel contemporary but authentic, um, and historic. We don’t want to feel flashy. We’re not. We’re not sweet greens. Um, you know so it’s how do you.
22:16.79
vigorbranding
Right.
22:20.82
Adam
How do you start with the design tenants and using a design from it does a lot of our design work and a Pittsburgh based design firm that lives eat sleeps. The brand has been powerful um to at least keep the look and feel consistent across the board and then you know.
22:32.30
vigorbranding
E.
22:36.34
Adam
Doing things behind the scenes like Ai driven um upsell recommendations people don’t need to know that’s happening just that the upsell recommendation makes sense to them when it comes to checkout. Um, you know that’s the stuff that behind the scenes can be flashy and doesn’t need to be um, people don’t need to know that’s happening.
22:48.60
vigorbranding
Right.
22:55.30
vigorbranding
Yeah, like you said if I’m checking out I Really don’t need to get upsellled to a kids’ meal. You know.
22:56.28
Adam
Um, so. No, but if and if you have a you know you have a drink in your cart. Why would I suggest you another drink. Um, you know? yeah.
23:05.27
vigorbranding
The right needs to be pretty intuitive. Um, and that that seems to be missing as well. I mean the systems are catching up and I think um, you know 1 of 1 of the predictions I have for this year for the industry is we’re going to sort of see a bit of more convergence either by way of acquisition and integration like that. Or by rebuilding systems so they’re stronger like you know, harping back on emails I feel like email marketing is something that’s tacked on to every tech system but none of them do it very well like being able to a b split test being able to create responsive emails into the stuff that like mailchimp and some others do very well.
23:38.24
Adam
And.
23:44.89
vigorbranding
Ah, but we we’ve got to start seeing some convergence happen. Otherwise it is you know your budget ends up being all these line items of software as a service as opposed to like maybe 1 chunk. That’s a little bit less and optimized I think that’s something that we’d all like to see and it even gets more exacerbated as you start to bring in third party delivery and their fees and everything which. Don’t vilify them for I mean that’s their business model and if you were good enough. You would create your own to for e system for your restaurant. Um, but it’s it’s pretty tough. So what? What do you think the restaurant industry needs to you know How do they need to adjust to get better at adopting and integrating tech.
24:05.31
Adam
Yep.
24:22.88
Adam
I think the um you know I think the biggest opportunity. Um and I use Magenta when I did some ecommerce works I’ll go back to Magento but really shopify probably is Magento of today Magenta was you know, unbelievable back in the day. Um, but the idea of a plug and play ecosystem.
24:24.12
vigorbranding
What needs to happen.
24:41.35
Adam
Um, where you don’t need developers to um, plug a module in um I think that’s where olo could really take it to the next level. Um, and they’re getting there. They’re starting to build an ecosystem but my ability to go look and go Wow! There’s this really cool. Um.
24:47.44
vigorbranding
And.
24:56.90
Adam
Chat Bot tool that I could plug into olo. Okay, well here’s the click this button click that button and it’s live. Um and that’s what shopify magent. Yeah I mean that’s shopify magento built um and shopify’s you know it’s it allows a smaller person to rival the the the big guys. Um.
24:59.63
vigorbranding
Um, sort of like sort of like wordpress.
25:13.76
Adam
You know I think that’s where the the biggest opportunity comes and I think just continue to integrate more? um and it’s it’s been. You know we’re we’re pushing more and more stuff through the ola platform. All third parties go through there because it makes operations life easier to have those orders automatically injected into the point of sale versus tablets.
25:25.53
vigorbranding
Um. Yeah, the the the bank of tablets that you see. Yeah.
25:32.26
Adam
So yeah, yeah, that was a big q 4 initiative was to get rid of tablets. Um, which we’ve done. We still have two tablets. We still wisely which is now o low for waitlist and it’ll be interesting to see how olo integrates them and we have fly by which is our Gps curbside pickup system. Um.
25:49.10
vigorbranding
A.
25:52.90
Adam
So we still have tablets but not all the the tablets we had before for third party which has been a real win for operations.
25:56.94
vigorbranding
Yeah, and and just user experience there too I mean it’s ugly to see all that stuff I mean now.
26:02.33
Adam
Yeah I mean done Nice jobs Hey I give our construction team a lot of credit and a lot of our operators credit to cleaning it up and getting some nice racking and charging stations but still at still you know tablets or tablets. Yeah.
26:09.40
vigorbranding
Yeah, yeah, you end up with that like grandpa like you know, ah power strip with all these wires and I mean and you guys are a little bit lucky because you know you do have a bar but you all you are full service for all intents and purposes.
26:20.22
Adam
Yeah.
26:23.66
Adam
No.
26:26.53
vigorbranding
Whereas you know Qsr is and fast casuals I mean you have that thing behind the calendar. It’s It’s just an eyesore. So it’s definitely something that has to be figured out.
26:31.23
Adam
So yeah I think the other opportunity. Um, which I haven’t seen anyone do this yet and I’m sure somebody out there has done it but the ability to use um an ai tool to look at volume in the restaurant and then throttle online ordering based on what’s going on in the restaurant.
26:48.53
vigorbranding
Um, a.
26:49.93
Adam
In realtime. So I mean I’ve there’s many you know, even olo has a thrtting tool but that looks at what’s going on in online world. Um, which doesn’t know what’s going on in the restaurant in realtime. So you know I think that’s the that’s the Holy Grail to be able to say okay, it’s two. O’clock
26:58.40
vigorbranding
Right.
27:07.10
Adam
Um, there’s no one in the restaurant. So normally I say 20 minutes for an online order. But since there’s no one here I can do it in 8 minutes um or it’s seven o’clock on a Friday night and my restaurant’s packed and I can’t pump out these orders in 20 minutes um
27:12.68
vigorbranding
Um, right.
27:22.00
Adam
And in real time looking at the queue in the restaurant and adjusting traffic ba but justing timing based on that I think the the real win and I think ultimately you know you got to look at we got to look at our kitchen. It’s harder to go back in retrofit 40 kitchens but we got to look at our kitchens going forward and understand. Do we need equipment. Do we need process. Do we need layout.
27:35.33
vigorbranding
Oh.
27:41.73
Adam
Um, to handle online online is not going away Off-premise isn’t going away. Um, you know I hate to say new normal but it is the new normal that Off-premise is a dramatically bigger chunk of the business. Absolutely as that’s um, cold Mr as nicemanies was.
27:51.81
vigorbranding
Absolutely a measurable and that’s every single model. Um, cool. Well so what? what is the? what’s next for permantes. What’s the growth of feature look like um, what can we see coming down the pike the the turnpike to the exact.
28:01.14
Adam
Future like yeah literally down. Um, so ah, looking to so we just opened a location in November im excited to open a location after about a year and a half um about an hour outside Pittsburgh doing phenomenal. You know, but. Traffic backup stay of opening unbelievable applicant flow for new jobs. We’ve got a couple locations. Um this year. We’re going to announce hopefully soon Um, we got one that we are just in the we are like the one yard line um and then we’ve got you know we’re going to do some remodels some expansions. We’ve got some opportunities out there in existing buildings. Um, and investing in kind of the curbside. Um, you know we rolled curbside I out out and about I want to say three weeks was probably probably shorter than that we need to go back and make some facility improvements. Um, one for the fan and 2 for our our our team so it makes their lives easier to operate this takeout business. Um.
28:47.83
vigorbranding
Well.
28:59.68
Adam
You know, continue to be digital continue to drive loyalty. Um, you know online ordering as we’ll continue to focus on that and push it and prove it. You know would at least constantly reiterate and iterate and try to make it better for the the the user and but we’re still going to be. You know. Pump it out the sandwich. It’s still about what we’ve done for 89 years you know we’re going to make some some new items hopefully salber steel or super bowl. maybe yeah maybe not but you know it really excited about 2022. The company is you know, coming off a great 2021? Really you know.
29:23.97
vigorbranding
And.
29:36.93
Adam
Um, saw some great results fans just really embrace the brand and we’re excited as we get into 2022 and you know hope to have another 89 years
29:44.48
vigorbranding
I love it. So probably the most important question the entire interview which is if it’s your last night on earth. What is the final meal and drink that you would have it doesn’t have to be a premante. It can just be in general.
29:56.30
Adam
No I mean I think you know my my wife and I did our honeymoon in Kawa um, at the Princeville resort and there’s this room there called the living room which is really a take part of the lobby and open up these windows over the ocean and having sushi there so that’s that I think that’d be it in a ah.
30:08.91
vigorbranding
Families.
30:15.40
Adam
Our goal is to get back there at some point um you know for a a anniversary trip but that really would be where I’d end up probably and see if we could get a permani sandwich there. Also next to the sushi.
30:24.36
vigorbranding
I love it. Yeah how it shipped in at least until you can expand there Adam this has been fantastic. Thanks for your time your insights and your brilliance and we’ll talk real soon.
30:30.38
Adam
Um, yeah, thanks Joe. Yeah.
