FMN 020: Turning Customers and Employees into Brand Advocates with Pat Warner - a podcast by Blue Bear Creative

Today, we’re talking with Pat Warner, VP of Culture at the Waffle House. For those of you who are not familiar with the Waffle House brand, they have over 1800 locations in 25 states — they are huge!

They’ve also got social media presence that gotten them coverage on Colbert, ESPN, and TMZ — just to name a few. Waffle House has a case study of how to turn customers and employees into advocates for the brand and a lot of it comes from using social media and how it is intended to be used.

 If you’re interested in strengthening your company’s culture and how to measure the impact of your social media efforts, you’ll to take a lot away from this interview with Pat. 

Pat’s job is to focus on building the company’s culture, while always staying true to the brand. Here are a few key topics we discuss about how Waffle House has grown to 1,850 locations in a less than in-your-face restaurant marketing approach:

How can large restaurants listen to employee and customer sentiment at scale?
(You’ll enjoy this answer, because the tools Waffle House uses are at the fingertips of all CPG and restaurant marketing professionals.)

What are the driving forces behind culture at a successful restaurant brand? (Pat believes that each restaurant has its own personality, and you’ll get to hear how his corporate office enables, and even facilitates the uniqueness and culture people keep coming back for.)

Can social media be used for both PR and restaurant marketing? (Short answer: Yes. Social media is a perfect extension of the discussions being had in your restaurant – as you’ll hear from Pat, leveraging those conversations can land you on the Colbert Report when done well.)

Books mentioned in the episode:
Getting Things Done by David Allen
Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Crucial Conversations by Al Switzler, Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, and Ron McMillan

Links mentioned:
https://www.youtube.com/user/whregulars/feed
https://www.facebook.com/WaffleHouse
https://instagram.com/wafflehouseofficial
https://www.linkedin.com/company/waffle-house
Snapchat: @WaffleHousehttps://www.sprinklr.com/
https://www.google.com/alerts

Further episodes of Food Marketing Nerds Restaurant and CPG Marketing Podcast

Further podcasts by Blue Bear Creative

Website of Blue Bear Creative