Operationalizing data-driven hospitality for a national fine dining chain

Improved data, improved service. Bigger checks, more frequent visits.

A national fine-dining chain had built a guest-data platform for marketing, but needed help to make that actionable to improve guest experiences. The opportunity was to help managers understand guests better, personalize their experience, and create more high-value regulars.

Decisions and actions

I advocated for an accelerated, collaborative product process that brought restaurant operators, corporate leaders, data scientists, and product teams together within tight budget and timeline constraints. This helped get early buy-in for what opportunities the team would pursue.

Working with operational teams, we were able to tailor the tool for use in existing service routines-back-of-house preparation and reservation workflows rather than asking them to adopt an entirely new process.

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The product also had to create trust in a counterintuitive recommendation: spend more to earn more. By increasing complimentary gifts to targeted guests, they would in turn come back more often—and spend more each time. We showed managers their gifting budget, explained recommendations clearly, and paired quantitative results with direct manager feedback so we could refine both the algorithms and their presentation. Data-driven recommendations with human expertise and judgement put the experts in control.

• The program was on track to produce a 1.5% EBITDA lift in its first year.
• Targeted guests increased both average spending and visit frequency.
• Restaurant feedback created a practical learning loop for improving recommendations and integrating the product into daily operations.