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This week, we’re spotlighting Ray Gallagher, VP & GM Engage. Ray joined Olo as Vice President of Customer Experience in 2021 through our acquisition of Wisely.
Ray has over 20 years of experience in strategic leadership and operational excellence on both the brand and technology sides of the restaurant industry. He has a track record of fostering cross-functional collaboration and executing dynamic strategies across product, data, customer success, sales, and marketing.
As VP & GM, Ray is focused on driving the growth and success of Olo’s Engage product suite.
Keep reading to get to know Ray and learn how his team works to solve the pain points of busy restaurant marketers and operators every day.
Looking back on your first two years at Olo, what are you most proud of?
Ray Gallagher: I’m incredibly proud of our team and what we accomplish together daily to provide excellent products and services to our brands. The Engage team at Olo is hard-working, intelligent, and an incredible group of talented individuals. As our team continues to grow, we are thrilled to enhance the product suite based on evolving market needs and brand feedback.
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How has the Engage suite evolved since the Wisely acquisition?
RG: There have been meaningful benefits from joining Olo, including significant resources and support available to our teams as we scale the platform.
Our Guest Data Platform (GDP) launched Computed Properties this year, which allows brands to create customized attributes for advanced guest segmentation and ultimately improve personalized marketing communication.
We also recently launched generative AI features in our Marketing and Sentiment products, which support busy marketers and operators.
In your conversations with restaurants, what are brands looking to accomplish?
RG: Brands are doing more with less and expectations to drive incremental revenue are higher than ever. Also, brands are looking to reduce complexity and consolidate their tech stack to drive efficiency. We are always listening and looking to drive our products forward with this feedback in mind.
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As more restaurants recognize the value of data, how will guest lifetime value come into play?
RG: A framework we like to talk about is Collect / Analyze / Act. Once brands have their guest data collection dialed in, we guide them toward thoughtful analysis before batching and blasting the same marketing message to all guests.
The Engage product suite makes it easy to segment guests based on enriched data attributes, including AI/ML smart properties such as Predictive Guest Lifetime Value (GLV) and Six-Month Churn Risk. Once you identify high-value guests, you can drive various strategies to act on the data, including automated journeys to win back lapsed or high churn-risk guests, or drive high-potential guests to a higher sustained GLV.
We encourage brands to leverage GLV data for any key decisions in marketing, menu engineering, staffing, feedback, and real estate site selection.
What is one piece of advice for restaurants today?
RG: Get control of your first-party guest data. Third-party marketplaces can be a meaningful revenue stream. However, brands do not own that data or the guest relationship.
Prioritizing your direct channels for both on- and off-premise allows you to truly own your guest data, which unlocks your ability to personalize interactions and drive GLV by making every guest feel like a regular.
To learn more about Team Olo and apply for one of our job openings, visit our careers page.
