Tripleseat Insider: Restaurant Group Insight from our Tripleseat Expert

If you are an event manager or owner of a restaurant group, you may be considering Tripleseat event management software. Want some restaurant group insight and an inside view into using Tripleseat in the world of managing events at many store locations? Today, we feature Taylor Duncan, Account Management, Team Lead at Tripleseat. She shares her perspective on working for FB Society (formerly Front Burner Restaurants), a concept creator and operator, and her experience using Tripleseat’s event management platform as a Director of Sales.

At Tripleseat, we like to say that our event software solutions are built for hospitality professionals by hospitality professionals. It all began with our CEO’s 20+ years of experience and passion for hospitality, which continues to be the foundation of Tripleseat’s core values and products. But what does that mean?

When developing features for our hospitality software, we strive to solve industry pain points. But how can someone truly understand the nuances and moments of high stress if they haven’t lived and breathed it? That’s the sentiment behind hiring team members who have past roles in restaurants, hotels, and other unique venues. They truly bring passion and a genuine understanding of the hospitality world.

Most of Tripleseat’s team have proudly and passionately had experience working in hospitality! But even more amazing, and what many don’t realize is that many of these professionals used to be Tripleseat end-users themselves! This offers a unique and insightful inside view, enabling the Tripleseat team to innovate and create impactful products. Additionally, our customers can gain valuable insights and benefits by revealing more about these event and hospitality experts.

Taylor Duncan | FB Society, Dallas, Texas

Interviewer: Catarina Martins is a Tripleseat Marketing Manager. In this new blog series, she will share conversations with various team members about their past hospitality and Tripleseat event management software experiences. More interviews to come!

Interviewee: Taylor Duncan is a Tripleseat Account Management, Team Lead. Before working at Tripleseat, she was a Director of Sales at FB Society.

Q&A

Catarina: Hi Taylor and thank you for being part of our Tripleseat Insider blog series! I know you have some juicy event stories, so I hope the audience enjoys this read while sipping on a Pumptini … Okay, let’s get into it – tell us where you worked, for how long, and your job title.

Taylor: I was the Director of Sales at Front Burner Restaurant Group based in Dallas, Texas, for about two and a half years.

Catarina: And during your time there, were you guys already using the Tripleseat platform, or did that come after you started?

Taylor: They were actually already using Tripleseat but were only scratching the surface with the platform. There were so many features they weren’t actively using, so I had to train myself on how to better utilize and get the most out of the platform. 

Catarina: How am I not surprised that you rose to the occasion and got stuff done? After you became essentially a Tripleseat champion, how would you say it made your job easier? 

Taylor: I mean, I’d say that there were many ways in which it made my job easier. I was able to properly track sales goals versus actual sales for all 20+ stores while only needing to be in one place! Being able to input sales goals and utilize the Event Sales Summary Report for all of my sales managers helped me keep track of everything (and everyone). Merge fields were also great because they made responding to my guests so much easier (we had numerous spaces and locations, so being able to utilize templates to input the info was a game changer). Oh, and batch printing BEOs! I didn’t learn this until later on, and it became a ritual to batch print all BEOs at the end of the day on Friday for my team before heading into the weekend.

Catarina: Safe to say you were and still are a Tripleseat fan! Okay, sounds like this may be a difficult question, but if you had to pick one Tripleseat feature as your favorite, what would it be?

Taylor: That is a great question. Hmm, my favorite Tripleseat feature? There are so many that I used! Automatic tasks! Probably that one because they helped us with all the pertinent parts of our event business.

Catarina: I’ll take it! Okay, bear with me now because I’m trying out a new question for these interviews. Do you have any event management hacks or tips that you could share as a takeaway for our audience?

Taylor: Putting me on the spot now!

Catarina: I know I’m sorry. Just anything that could be useful for them to use today.

Taylor: This would be more useful for current Tripleseat customers, but utilizing custom fields for your contacts is a great way to track your customer’s favorite drinks, birthdays, dietary restrictions, or any other personal information. This helps you develop that relationship with them so the next time they come back, you already know their wants and needs and can better provide a memorable and personal experience for them. For example, if it was for me, I like a bold Cab.

Catarina: Ooh, that goes for me too [laughter]. That does sort of remind me of the “The Bear” episode “Forks.” Not sure if you’ve seen it, but there’s a part in the episode where the restaurant has a staff member doing research on their patrons to make their dining experience memorable. So, instead of having a person do that, Tripleseat does it for you by reminding you that your guest likes a bold Cab or whatever else you make notes on to enhance their experience.

And speaking of experience, it’s finally time for you to share your favorite memory while working at Front Burner Restaurants.

Taylor: My favorite memory was hosting Lisa Vanderpump at Sixty Vines for the launch of her new label, Vanderpump Rosé! I had the pleasure of meeting Lisa, Ken, Pandora, Jason, and their adorable dog, Puffy! We had a fabulous time, and the event went off without a hitch. They are amazing people, and it was so lovely to meet them.

Catarina: I feel like there is so much more to tell! Spill. What was she like? Tell me more.

Taylor: She was such a queen. So nice and hilarious! There was actually this ginormous bottle of her Vanderpump Rosé, as big as the top half of her body, and she let the servers take turns pouring from it. It was so much fun!

Catarina: I wish I could have been there! Thank you so much for letting me interview you and for sharing your story!

One Amazing Tool for Many Amazing Locations

Tripleseat is a modern software that will help your venue whether you have one location or many. Are you ready to grow your event business? Schedule a Tripleseat demo to take a closer look at our event management features.