David has been in the hospitality industry for 32 years. He started in the industry as a dishwasher and is now the owner of DASH Hospitality Group, a management and consulting company for start-up and existing restaurants, hotels, and other food and beverage services. Before starting DASH Hospitality Group, David held the role of COO for the Buckhead Life Restaurant Group overseeing 9 restaurants in Georgia and 4 in South Florida. Technology plays an important role in restaurants, but human connectivity is still an important part of the dining process. Regular and immediate employee recognition is the key to retaining top-performing employees. Recognizing employees with social media posts can be incredibly effective. General managers need to get out of the office and be in the restaurant. They need to run the shift instead of having the shift run them. Quotes “Our philosophy is ‘The answer is yes, what’s the question?’ You have to give the customer what they want.” - David “You have to use technology to stay one step ahead with everything. The people connection is still very important. You still have to have that personal touch.” - David “We’re fully capable of ordering for ourselves. We check ourselves out at grocery stores, we order ahead now. Even my mom is ordering ahead. But we still need that touch and that true customer service.” - Joseph “Every day I’m learning something new. It’s about surrounding yourself with people who have knowledge. You have to listen. Everybody brings something to the table.” - David “We have clients that say ‘This is how we’ve always done it” and I tell them they have to think about two, five or 10 years from now, not two, five or 10 years ago.” - David “The most important thing (for employees) is recognition. Just thanking them, even in the middle of a shift saying ‘Great job with that table’ in real time. Don’t wait until the end of the shift.” - David “On social media, highly styled and perfect photos get zero traction. People want to see realness. They want to see the ooey, gooey awesomeness of what you’re eating.” - Joseph Transcript 00:00.00 vigorbranding Everyone today I'm joined by my friend David Abus who is the owner of dash hospitality group David has quite a name here in Atlanta and not to stroke your ego too much. Actually I don't think you have an ego but you come with a lot of clouts for a reason so why don't you say hello and give a little bit of backstory. 00:08.61 David Abes For fair guy. No so. 00:18.22 David Abes Yep, how are you? Ah yep, David Avis Dash hospitality group been in the hospitality business now 32years plus started when I was 15 at gd ritzy's a hamburger hotd dog place based out of Columbus Ohio that came to Atlanta. Kind it all basically from dishwashing all the way up to general manager started with Morrison's corporation and their casual dining with ln seafood. It was like getting your masters. It was amazing. Great training program wanted to get a little more fine dining so went and worked with ah panda at the atlanta fish market during the olympics. What a time what a time to be there. Um, from there I worked my way up to be in the director operations for here to some restaurants Tom Katherine and I had a great run 14 years and then worked with a company in New York and then back to pano for at bucket life as a c o. And I really enjoyed a panos and icon and it was amazing but it was time for me to do my own thing so started dash hospitality group four years ago management consulting company we own some restaurants we do it all back at house front of the house cooking. You name it systems and I love it. I love it. 01:28.93 vigorbranding That's amazing. Yeah I mean so you spent what I would call the meat of your career at the now defunct tiered to serve restaurants. So for those that don't know here to serve as a multiconcept hospitality company with I would say iconic Atlanta brands like