About Veena Stores
Veena Stores is a legendary South Indian breakfast joint in Malleshwaram, Bangalore, started in 1977 by Mr. Suryanarayanan. It's famous for its spongy idlis, vada, delicious chutney, Kesari bath, and more.
Satish Aski: Hi everyone, my name is Satish Aski. I am the co-founder and CEO of GoSelfServe. At GoSelfServe, we are digitizing the user experience in brick-and-mortar outlets. We all have seen how India went through a leap of growth after embracing digitization, starting with UPI, BNPL, then e-commerce, online ordering, delivery, etc. But more than 80% of the business happens offline in India. And when it comes to offline, the in-store customer experience has seen very little improvement. This is precisely what we are bridging. We started GoSelfServe two and a half years ago, focusing on the QSR segment, quick service restaurants, where we have processed more than 80 lakh orders.
Satish Aski: We are working with 300 brands and have generated more than 100 crore worth of revenue for our restaurant partners. We always wanted to talk to our restaurant partners, get their insights, learn from their feedback, and evolve as a product.
Satish Aski: We are starting this kind of podcast where we will be talking to our restaurant partners. Today we have Pradeep from Veena Stores with us. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule and coming to our office. Giving us this opportunity to host you here and talk to you about your journey. Before we start, tell us about who is Pradeep beyond Veena Stores.
Pradeep Hegede: My father is behind Veena Stores. My father started Veena Stores in 1977. After my education, I continued my father's business.
Satish Aski: What did you study, where did you study, and how did you get into Veena Stores? Was it by choice or by force?
Pradeep: I joined by choice. I studied Electrical Diploma at Dayanand Sagar College in '84. I joined Veena Stores in '87.
Satish Aski: That’s awesome. The size of the food joint was probably like a 10 by 15 store, and now it is really a big one. So, how has the journey been so far for you?
Pradeep: Very interesting and good.
Satish Aski: As a quick-service restaurant, you come across a lot of challenges daily. Labor also, there is a high churn, right? So, how do you mitigate these issues and keep your quality consistent?
Pradeep: Labor is a big issue. So, daily there are challenges for this thing. Quality, personalized supervision makes quality consistent.
Satish Aski: We keep coming to Veena Stores. We are staunch followers and staunch fans of Veena Stores. Every time we come, the idli will be like that same fresh idli, and the chutney is world-famous. How do you maintain that consistency?
Pradeep: We have fixed ingredients and irrespective of the ingredient cost, we do not compromise on the quality and quantity of the ingredients. For example, today coriander may be 5 rupees, and tomorrow it may be 50 rupees. But we don't compromise on the quantity. Whatever the quantity we should put. So, the ingredients are fixed, whatever the price. No compromise on the quality. First quality ingredients, whatever the rates may be.
Satish Aski: If I take you back to the '80s or '90s when you just graduated. As a young Pradeep, what inspired you to come into Veena Stores and build it as an iconic brand?
Pradeep: Actually, it was all my father's effort. I just helped my father. I just wanted to help my father after my studies. As I don't have any brothers, I am the only son. So, I thought I should continue my father's business and family legacy.
Satish Aski: So, what are some of the biggest challenges that you have faced in the last 30-odd years that you have been at Veena Stores?
Pradeep: COVID was one of the biggest challenges. The churn of labor is one of the biggest challenges. Keeping the quality consistent. Inflation is another reason why the rates fluctuate. All these are the challenges. In other commodities, any vegetable, there is a daily, day-to-day rate. There is no loss for them. Because whatever they bring, they keep their margin and sell at that rate. But we can't do that. We can't daily change our rates. For a minimum of one year, we should maintain that rate only. Irrespective of the market fluctuations, we will not change our prices. So, profit will be going up or down, up, down. When our rates are down, our profit will be up. So, when our rates are up, we should compromise for lower profit.
Satish Aski: We all know Veena Stores had a 10 x 15 store. Now, it is a bigger one. How did that transition happen? Can you take us through that?
Pradeep: Due to COVID, the neighboring shop was vacated. COVID was a blessing for me in terms of expansion. I can provide more comfort for the customers. So many people said, why are you expanding? The same customers are going to come, so we don't have, only expenditure will be more. But I said I don't mind about the expenditure. All these years, customers have cooperated with me. So, I should give back to them. So, I started. By God's grace, it's good now. Old customers are coming back. Whenever I used to meet them outside, they used to say, “I can't stand and eat. I am old now.” So, it was in their mind. So, I thought, for them, it would be better to sit and eat.
Satish Aski: Especially when legacy brands like yours think more about customer experience, giving it back to them. Kudos to you for taking that step. We see more and more people, especially the elderly, sitting there inside, enjoying the food. So, thanks to you for expanding. I am very happy.
Satish Aski: Tell us about how important the customer experience is in your point of view.
Pradeep: Actually, the final customer experience is very important. So that they will come back. Then only the business grows. Otherwise, if they don't come back, then the business won’t grow.
Satish Aski: True. How has the self-serve technology you have adopted in your restaurant helped in your daily operations?
Pradeep: Self-serve technology has helped a lot. My headache is a little bit less now. They can come and have food by themselves. Before, they used to stand in a long queue, only one cash counter was there. So many people used to avoid coming on Sundays due to the long queue. Now, due to self-serve technology, they are also coming back. They can order themselves. The waiting time is less now.
Satish Aski: What are the technologies you have explored in your restaurant, apart from GoSelfServe? Like any scan and order code. Apart from your Zomato Swiggy.
Pradeep: Zomato Swiggy, that's one thing. So many people can't come, they want to have food. They can order through Swiggy and Zomato. That's one advantage.
Satish Aski: Apart from that, are there any other technologies that you have used?
Pradeep: Paytm and PhonePe are others. It’s very good. No headache of change. Coins are the biggest problem. You don't get coins. With Paytm that problem is not there. The agony of giving eclairs and Alpenliebe is not there.
Satish Aski: Thanks to you, you were one of the early adopters of GoSelfServe. So, how has your journey been after installing GoSelfServe kiosks at your outlet?
Pradeep: It's really amazing. I'm very happy. At the right time, I got to know about you people, and I adopted them.
Satish Aski: So, you adopted all of us. I still remember you started with one. Then you upgraded to one more. Then you were like, I need one more. I don't want people to stand in the queue at all. You said this is adding a lot of benefits to the customer experience. How has the transition been? Like you rightly said, there used to be hundreds of meters of long queues. Now, you don't see that. So, what have customers told you? What was their feedback?
Pradeep: I'm very happy that there's no need to wait for the order. And they can order themselves and have food. After ordering at the kiosk and eating food, then they come and talk to me.
Satish Aski: So you still keep that personal touch with your customers.
Pradeep: Some say, “Hey, I ordered this at the kiosk. So, after eating, I should say hello.”
Satish Aski: You were one of the early adopters and you have done thousands of orders. How has GoSelfServe been useful in your daily operations?
Pradeep: Our headache is less. If the cashier does not come, then for standby I should put in one more cashier. So, I don't have any of those headaches. Work will go on.
Satish Aski: You must have faced, I mean, we were also in the very early stage when we started the association with you. I'm sure you have faced issues. So, how was GoSelfServe's after-sales support?
Pradeep: Fantastic. Whatever problems I reported have been rectified. They made improvisations on top of that. The support is very good.
Satish Aski: One more thing I would like to talk about is how we can enhance your customer’s experience and how we can enhance the monthly revenue also. We launched the beta version of the AI recommendation engine at your outlet. Any feedback on that?
Pradeep: Recommendation, the AI. This also helps a lot. Some people are fixed to one or two dishes. They will not see or try new dishes. So, when it comes in front of them, they think, hey, today I will try this for a change. So, it can upsell. It's a good advantage for the shop.
Satish Aski: Last question, any advice you would like to give to young people who want to start their own restaurant?
Pradeep: Yeah. Just think, maintain the quality. Automatically, the people will start coming. Okay. And good customer experience.
Satish Aski: So, customer experience and quality are the two most important quintessential factors for a restaurant to flourish, in your opinion. So, as an iconic brand, how likely are you to recommend GoSelfServe to other restaurant owners?
Pradeep: Yeah, very much.
Satish Aski: And lastly, any advice to GoSelfServe? Because we want to go big. We want to serve as many customers as possible. Last week only we crossed 100 crore total revenue generated through restaurant partners. So, any advice to us?
Pradeep: You are working amazingly. Whatever the problems are, you attend to them quickly. And you are doing a good job.
Satish Aski: Thank you very much. Your words mean a lot to us, sir. Thank you again for taking the time out to come and see us.
Thank you. Thank you.
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