Reporting that only tells you the news.
Ken Hoffman is COO of Dividend Restaurant Group, which operates Sullivan's Steakhouses and Eddie Merlot's, and previously ran Romano's Macaroni Grill. Like most multi-unit operators, he had reporting tools that could tell him labor ran high or turnover ticked up, and then stopped, right at the point he needed help.
"Expo is not just reporting the news. It gives you the solution to the news. That's extremely rare."Ken Hoffman, COO, Dividend Restaurant Group
The distinction matters to him. Most systems give a general manager a number and a percentile. Expo gives the number, the percentile against the rest of the system, and an action plan for the one or two outlier areas to focus on.
Three years, real basis points.
Hoffman is specific about the results over three years on Expo:
- 50 to 60 basis points off hourly labor
- 30% reduction in hourly turnover
- A measurable drop in management turnover
- Guest counts up, and bottom-performing stores climbing on total KPIs
"When you do the multiplier effect across the brands, that's dramatic savings."Ken Hoffman, COO, Dividend Restaurant Group
On turnover, he points to visibility as the mechanism:
"We have a flashlight on it. We can see when turnover increased, what month, which managers, and we can build action steps."Ken Hoffman, COO, Dividend Restaurant Group
Integrating a new brand.
Eddie Merlot's, acquired about a year ago, had been running sales and guest counts out of Excel spreadsheets emailed every afternoon. The numbers arrived at 4 or 5 PM, too late to make decisions about labor, guest counts, or sales that day. After Expo, the data arrives in the morning.
"Sales roll in in the morning, labor rolls in in the morning, all your data points are rolling in. You have the ability to act first thing in the morning."Ken Hoffman, COO, Dividend Restaurant Group
For a newly acquired team often wary of change, Hoffman describes it as a positive change rather than a burden.
"If you make something easy for the team and give them valuable data points, there's a lot of buy-in. The brands use this on a daily basis."Ken Hoffman, COO, Dividend Restaurant Group
Visibility across the organization.
Everyone at Dividend has access to Expo, from restaurant managers and GMs to executive chefs, district operators, VPs, and the corporate team. Same numbers, top to bottom.
"Visibility is critical for the culture of our company and for change. If everybody's not aligned with what the true number is and where we're at, we can't make changes. Visibility heightens accountability."Ken Hoffman, COO, Dividend Restaurant Group
Everything gets an ROI.
Hoffman evaluates software simply: "Everything I do gets an ROI." Dividend started with one concept and added others over three years, putting Expo on each.
"If I didn't get an ROI, I wouldn't have put it on the other brands."Ken Hoffman, COO, Dividend Restaurant Group
Read the transcript
"The most critical thing with AI — which Expo has — is it gives you the road map to solve the problems. Here's your problem, here's a solution. I've been using Expo for three years. It has shaved off at least 50 to 60 basis points in hourly labor. It has reduced hourly turnover by 30%. When you do the multiplier effect across three brands, that's dramatic savings. It's reduced management turnover, and it's given my team back time — time they can spend on guest experience and team-member experience instead of in the office.
Expo creates financial outliers and an action plan for my managers. If I'm the general manager, it shows what percentile I'm in versus the system on each KPI we track, and an action plan for what I need to focus on to improve any outlier areas. It's not just reporting the news — it gives you the solution to the news, which is extremely rare. A lot of sources just give you the report, the data. Expo actually helps my managers solve the problem.
Everything I do gets an ROI, and I've been with Expo for three years. If I didn't get an ROI, I wouldn't have put it on the other two brands. I've seen guest counts increase. I've seen our bottom performers improve on total KPIs. I've seen labor, turnover, and hourly decrease — because we have a flashlight on it. We can see when turnover increased, what month, which managers, and we can build action steps.
Right now we have three companies under Dividend Restaurant Group: Romano's Macaroni Grill, Sullivan's Steakhouses, and Eddie Merlot's, which we acquired about a year ago. Eddie Merlot's was fully integrated into Expo, and it was a paradigm shift for them. They'd been using Excel spreadsheets for sales and guest counts, emailed out every day, taking hours — it would come out at 4 or 5 in the afternoon, and by then you can't make decisions about labor, guest counts, or sales. With Expo, sales and labor roll in first thing in the morning, so you can act first thing in the morning.
Why should you use Expo? It saves you a tremendous amount of time. It's a one-stop shop. It identifies what you do well and your areas of opportunity, and it helps you create an actionable plan to get better. It holds people accountable — you can't hide. Everybody in our organization has access to Expo, from restaurant managers to GMs to executive chefs to DOs to VPs to our corporate team. Visibility is critical for our culture and for change. If everybody isn't aligned on the true number, we can't make changes. Visibility heightens accountability. I'm an evangelist of your product. Everything I asked for, you created and gave me — exactly what I was looking for to make my life easier and my company's results higher."