Little Raps - Restaurant Strategy Insights and Ideas

Joseph Szala
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Restaurant leaders are overwhelmed with a buffet of challenges from loyalty through ordering, emerging new tech and an ever-changing market mindset. It's a constant reality of spinning plates. On Little Raps we feed leaders with new ideas and inspiration to help maximize results. Whether it's interviewing leaders for profound insights or providing best practices from the minds of our team, these Little Raps are sure to add some spice to your digital experience strategies.

  1. 2d ago

    The Restaurant Digital Arms Race Isn't Over

    The restaurant industry's digital arms race is supposedly over. I call b******t. A new Ipsos study covering 40 major restaurant brands suggests that mobile ordering has become table stakes and operational execution is now the primary differentiator. But widespread adoption of restaurant technology doesn't mean we've come anywhere close to maximizing its potential. In this episode of Little Raps, Joseph Szala challenges the study's conclusion and explores why the next era of restaurant digital transformation could be the most competitive yet. From frustrating mobile ordering experiences and the overlooked importance of mobile web to the dangers of vendor-controlled technology roadmaps, there's still an enormous amount of work to be done. Joseph also digs into a problem he explores in his book The Quiet Killers: the organizational silos separating operations, marketing, finance, and technology. As restaurant systems become increasingly interconnected, those traditional departmental boundaries are becoming serious obstacles to innovation. The race to launch digital ordering may have matured. The race to optimize conversion, strengthen first-party relationships, and create genuinely superior guest experiences is far from finished. Topics: Restaurant technology, mobile ordering, QSR innovation, digital transformation, first-party ordering, restaurant apps, mobile web, and digital guest experience.

  2. Oct 12

    Bricks, Clicks & Billions: How Sonic Reinvented Itself with Clifford Hudson & Craig Miller

    It took Sonic more than 40 years to reach $1 billion in systemwide sales. It took just four more to reach $2 billion. Former Sonic executives Clifford Hudson and Craig Miller were there for one of the most remarkable transformations in restaurant history, helping turn what could have been dismissed as an aging drive-in format into a differentiated, technology-enabled national brand. In this episode, we go much deeper than the 30-minute conversation we started at QSR Evolution. Hudson and Miller explain how a franchisee’s ice cream program helped unlock explosive growth, why Sonic embraced credit cards at the stall before the rest of the industry caught up, how franchisee involvement created trust and accelerated adoption, and why the right question about technology isn’t simply what it costs—but how quickly it can create value. We also dig into build vs. buy, personalization, customer data, AI, privacy, progress over perfection and the technology infrastructure Sonic built years before many of today’s restaurant tech conversations became fashionable. And then we get into the painful part: what happened after Sonic was sold, what the new ownership failed to capitalize on, and why Hudson and Miller believe some of the company’s greatest opportunities were still ahead of it. Their book is Bricks & Clicks: How We Drove Sonic Into the Digital Age, and they’re now continuing the conversation on the Bricks & Clicks podcast. For anyone leading growth, technology, operations, marketing or transformation inside a restaurant brand, this one is loaded.

  3. Oct 7

    Who Sets the Price of a Big Mac? McDonald’s, Franchisees or AI?

    A Big Mac can cost one price at one McDonald’s and something completely different a few miles away. That’s normal. The more interesting question is who actually decided what to charge. A new proposed class-action lawsuit alleges that McDonald’s used a machine-learning pricing system informed by transaction data from across its U.S. restaurant system, potentially undermining the pricing independence of franchisees. McDonald’s disputes the allegations and says franchisees remain in control of their prices. Joseph Szala looks past the lawsuit itself to the bigger issue for restaurant brands: where pricing recommendations come from, when guidance starts looking like governance, and what happens when guests can compare location-level pricing with a couple of taps. For restaurant operators, franchisees, marketers, and technology leaders thinking about AI, dynamic pricing, restaurant technology, and the digital guest experience.

  4. Sep 17

    Why Restaurant Loyalty Programs Get Loyalty Wrong

    Restaurant loyalty programs have gotten remarkably sophisticated, yet plenty of regular guests still couldn’t tell you what their points are worth. The problem may be that restaurants are spending too much time on the rewards layer and not enough on what makes someone want to come back in the first place. I look at operational consistency, personalization, rewards and how digital restaurant experiences can start treating regular customers like regulars. And yes, the humble punch card still has something to teach us.

  5. Aug 17

    The Hidden Cost of Cookie Consent for Restaurant Brands

    Cookie consent may protect your restaurant brand from one problem while quietly creating another. As privacy requirements change how websites track guests, restaurant marketers are losing attribution data, Google Ads signals and visibility into what actually drives digital sales. Joseph Szala explains what happens after a consent banner goes live, why a drop in reported conversions may not mean sales actually disappeared, how privacy changes can affect Performance Max and other automated advertising, and what marketers should be asking their agencies and technology partners about Consent Mode, first-party data and conversion modeling. Privacy compliance is necessary. Implementing it without understanding the marketing consequences can get expensive fast.

  6. Aug 10

    The 87% Conversion Rate That Isn’t Really Yours

    Restaurant technology platforms love a great conversion rate. 87%. 91%. Sometimes even higher. And those numbers can be completely accurate while telling you very little about how well your digital experience actually converts demand into revenue. The problem is the denominator. In this episode of Little Raps, Joseph Szala digs into how restaurant digital ordering platforms define conversion, why “engaged guests” can dramatically inflate the number you see in a QBR, and the simple question every restaurant leader should ask before celebrating a spectacular conversion rate.

  7. Aug 3

    The Napkin on the Screen Door: Where Great Restaurant UX Actually Comes From

    What if your best UX research isn't sitting in a dashboard? What if it's taped to a wall in one of your restaurants? In this episode of Little Raps, Joseph Szala shares a simple story from a hotel on Jekyll Island that reveals a bigger truth about restaurant operations and digital experience. Every handwritten sign, laminated workaround, and improvised process inside your restaurants is evidence that someone has already discovered friction—and already tested a solution. The challenge isn't finding problems. It's recognizing that your operators have already been solving them. If you lead restaurant marketing, technology, operations, product, or guest experience, this episode offers a different way to think about innovation, usability testing, and why the best ideas often start on the front lines long before they reach headquarters. Topics include UX research, customer experience, restaurant technology, usability testing, Don Norman, Jakob Nielsen, design thinking, product management, operational excellence, and digital guest experience.

  8. Jul 20

    How Restaurant Brands Can Shift Guests from Third-Party to First-Party Ordering

    Third-party delivery offers convenience and discovery, but restaurant brands pay for it through lost margin, limited guest data, and less control over the experience. In this episode, Joseph Szala explains how multi-unit restaurant brands can earn more direct orders without fighting guest behavior. He covers the role of loyalty, why restaurant websites must become commerce epicenters, and what restaurants can learn from the digital experiences built by travel and retail brands. Third party can introduce the guest. It shouldn’t own the relationship.

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About

Restaurant leaders are overwhelmed with a buffet of challenges from loyalty through ordering, emerging new tech and an ever-changing market mindset. It's a constant reality of spinning plates. On Little Raps we feed leaders with new ideas and inspiration to help maximize results. Whether it's interviewing leaders for profound insights or providing best practices from the minds of our team, these Little Raps are sure to add some spice to your digital experience strategies.

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