Branded Strategic Hospitality Invests in Customer Experience and Engagement Leader Ovation Up

NEW YORK, Sept. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Branded Strategic Hospitality, "Branded," a platform that invests and partners with early and growth-stage Hospitality Technology and Food & Beverage Innovation companies, announced today that it has added Ovation Up, a direct to customer experience and engagement platform for brick and mortar businesses to its portfolio as an investment and advisory partner.  

Historically, online reviews are easy for the customer but tough on the businesses. Long surveys are great for the business and difficult for the customer. And customer behavior has leaned toward third party sites for feedback collection. Ovation was created to solve these operational problems by creating a tool to help operators gather 18x more feedback, win back 16x more customers, and shorten hours of digging through reviews down to 3 minutes.

"As operators who are also investors, we only partner with companies that provide solutions to real operational problems," said Branded Co-Founder and Managing Partner Michael Schatzberg. "After testing and vetting Ovation, it was clear that they have created a seamless platform that turned our unhappy customers into fans, and fans into loyal customers."

The online relationship between Brick and Mortar (B&M) businesses and their customers has always been rocky. The biggest hurdle is the plethora of review sites that provide third party platforms that promote extreme views and far more gripes than praise. Then there is the countless number of hours it takes to not only respond to reviews but to analyze and learn from the data. There are over 5M B&Ms stuck with using painful receipt surveys, antiquated loyalty apps, and good old fashion complaining. As a result, B&Ms are getting blasted online with negative reviews (each negative review costs a business $300-$500) and losing billions in repeat business. Ovation changes all that. Consumers interact with simple tools in the moment that incentivizes them to rate their experience and give their contact info directly to the business, reducing their chances of going to another platform to provide feedback. Ovation customers get 2-3x less 1-star reviews, 5-10x more 5-star reviews, and 5-10% more revenue.

Ovation's current top customers include but are not limited to Dominos, Halal Guys, Tucanos Brazilian Grill, Amergent Hospitality Group, Sweeto Burrito, My Pie Pizza, Yoshiharu Ramen, Honest Eatery, Roxberry Smoothies, Mo Bettah's, 5 Napkin Burger and Branded Restaurants.

Branded will be working with Ovation to sign new operators and build strategic partnerships with other technology companies with shared interests. 

On partnering with Branded, Ovation Founder & CEO Zack Oats says, "Branded is a landmark organization in the restaurant tech space with leaders who know hospitality from the ground up. Working with a team that has boots on the ground experience and understands real operational woes is instrumental in growing and expanding the Ovation platform."

For more information, questions. or to set up an interview with the Branded or Ovation team please reach out to Julie Zucker, CMO Branded Strategic Hospitality ([email protected]). 

About Branded: Branded Strategic Hospitality "Branded" is an investment & advisory company that leverages its ecosystem of hospitality venues, expertise, and deep relationships to influence, redefine and evolve hospitality technology and food & beverage innovation. www.brandedstrategic.com.

About Ovation: Ovation is a customer experience and engagement platform for brick and mortar businesses that enable operators to measure, build, and maintain trust with their customers. Ovation provides 3 easy steps to provide more reviews, more feedback, more revenue. For more information please visit www.ovationup.com.

SOURCE Branded Strategic Hospitality