Sep 16, 2026 · 22 min · 8 segments
We have more guest data than we’ve ever had. And somehow, we may know our guests less than we ever did. Jen Dodd has spent more than 30 years in the restaurant business and believes data is…
Jen DoddGuestAnthonyHostYeah.
I mean, I think you're right.
But I think the interesting thing is that example you use, you were right next to him in the restaurant to be able to put the headset on and live inside those four walls.
But at scale, especially at your position, right, we can't do that every single day.
And we try to collect the data to figure that out.
But ultimately, that doesn't tell you the experience that you just went through, right? Unless you're just going side by side.
So do you think all the data that we're collecting, all this information that we have, is it making operators or franchisees really know the guests? Or is it making us just kind of know our numbers? I think there's a difference.
And that's like the struggle of the dashboard and all the data coming out versus knowing that that guest at that time heard that gentleman passionately speak about something.
That doesn't come out in any data.
That's just the day of.
So like, what's, how do you manage the two? And do you think, again, my original point, like, it feels like we have so much information on our guests, but yet we rely so much on that to take away from that simple moment with a headphone, which the Red Book, I love the reference too, because it's like, I remember those, right? But there was something about the analog component of a guest that I feel like is being lost with the data.
How do you feel about that?
Like if we get quiet right now, we'll hear the air conditioning running in the background or whatever, a power voltage.
That comes down to operations leaders that are in the stores, you know, watching shifts.
There certainly have been some times it turned into a not validation, but then that's a coaching moment.
Yeah.
I mean, I think you're right.
But I think the interesting thing is that example you use, you were right next to him in the restaurant to be able to put the headset on and live inside those four walls.
But at scale, especially at your position, right, we can't do that every single day.
And we try to collect the data to figure that out.
But ultimately, that doesn't tell you the experience that you just went through, right? Unless you're just going side by side.
So do you think all the data that we're collecting, all this information that we have, is it making operators or franchisees really know the guests? Or is it making us just kind of know our numbers? I think there's a difference.
And that's like the struggle of the dashboard and all the data coming out versus knowing that that guest at that time heard that gentleman passionately speak about something.
That doesn't come out in any data.
That's just the day of.
So like, what's, how do you manage the two? And do you think, again, my original point, like, it feels like we have so much information on our guests, but yet we rely so much on that to take away from that simple moment with a headphone, which the Red Book, I love the reference too, because it's like, I remember those, right? But there was something about the analog component of a guest that I feel like is being lost with the data.
How do you feel about that?
Like if we get quiet right now, we'll hear the air conditioning running in the background or whatever, a power voltage.
That comes down to operations leaders that are in the stores, you know, watching shifts.
There certainly have been some times it turned into a not validation, but then that's a coaching moment.
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