In the latest episode of Turning Tables, host and growth strategist, Kathleen Wood, and her guest, Hanson Li co-founder and chief executive officer of Lazy Susan talk about what the restaurant industry needs to do to close the gap between customers’ digital expectations and their current digital experience.

Lazy Susan is a contemporary concept of Chinese American takeout company. Li says Lazy Susan, “this is an idea that is thirty-plus years in the making. My family first immigrated from Hong Kong to the states when I was twelve years old and my dad would often ask why isn't there a dominance of Chinese food. His point was that everyone gets Chinese takeout but there's no national brand.”

Li talks about purposely designing the concept and operations around delivery and takeout. He notes that over ninety percent of Lazy Susan’s sales are delivery and takeout. The delivery experience is extremely important and Li shares, “If you want to go out to a great Chinese meal, there are great Chinese restaurants that we can go out to. But if you want a lazy night in on a Wednesday night I want you to remember Lazy Susan. So we have great digital ordering, we have curbside pickup, and we have good packaging that carries our food.”

Wood and Li address the gap between digital expectation and analog adaptation. Li says “I think that the restaurant industry is literally the last big segment of our economy that has not gone through a digital transformation.”

The discussion between Wood and Li takes a deep dive into having a digital relationship with your customers, having software that is streamlined to be more efficient and effective connecting the front and back of the house as well as capturing customer data through loyalty programs and feedback.

To hear more about closing the digital and physical gap and Li turns the tables on Wood tune into this episode of Turning Tables Podcast on Apple Podcasts.