Americans eat approximately 100 acres of pizza a day! By the end of 2018, there were almost 77,000 pizzerias in the U.S. working to meet the demand. With so much competition, it’s not enough just to make great pizza—you also need to create a fantastic customer experience every step of the way. Savvy pizzeria owners are leveraging technology to gain a competitive edge. Here’s how the right pizza point of sale (POS) system can help you build better customer relationships and increase your profit margins.
Focus on Pizza Delivery Operations
The 2018 Pizza Power Report from Pizza Magazine (PMQ) revealed that the two biggest desires of pizza consumers are customization and faster delivery. Moreover, a survey by AlixPartners showed that 71% of the people who order delivery would prefer to receive it directly from the restaurant, rather than from a third-party delivery service such as GrubHub or DoorDash.
Knowing this, your pizza POS system should have several features that will improve delivery efficiencies and optimize delivery operations.
- It’s important to have an intuitive driver dispatch screen in your point of sale software with color-coded order timing and alerts that visually show which drivers are on the road or in the store, and how long they have been there, so you can help better gauge delivery times.
- When the POS includes a mapping engine, you also can give your drivers optimal routes and turn-by-turn directions based on the most up-to-date information. This keeps them off of their own phones during a delivery.
- Another useful feature is the ability to manage multiple delivery zones by creating a geofence perimeter around your delivery area, then adding the zone name, fee, and driver compensation.
Make pizza customization easy and convenient with online and mobile ordering.
Repeat customers are key. Research has shown, and probably your own personal experiences have proven, that attracting new customers costs five times as much as retaining existing ones. It pays to increase focus on providing an exceptional customer experience to earn repeat business to your pizzeria. If patrons are happy with their end-to-end pizza purchase (from multiple ordering channels to consumption), they’ll be more likely to come back—especially when prompted by personalized offers created from your pizza POS system.
Offer multiple ordering channels for placing a pizza order
Multiple ordering channels , including both online and mobile, are an essential convenience you should offer if you are looking to increase revenue, especially from the younger, tech-savvy generation. These customers tend to dine out more often and have come to expect the availability of digital ordering. Online ordering solutions generate more revenue, with the average online food purchase averaging 15% more compared to in-store ticket sizes. Customers are less inhibited when ordering in comfort and with the privacy of their own devices, rather than standing in line or waiting on hold by phone.
It’s important that all of your food ordering channels work with your point of sale software. This creates a single source of orders coming through your POS into your kitchen display so that will be fulfilled in the order they were received – regardless of where they originated.
All of your ordering channels should also include a consistent brand and user experience that’s simple for customers to set up and use, and allows them to earn and redeem loyalty rewards. By using your Pizza POS system to manage in-store, phone, online and mobile orders your messaging can be the same and the experience for customers consistent.
Make it easy to customize their pizza order
One way you can use your Pizza POS system to increase customer satisfaction is to give them the all the same customization options they need to make ordering as easy as possible – whether in-store or online. Intuitive order screens should include ingredient information, accurate pricing for add-ons, combo pricing, and suggestive selling prompts that will increase ticket size.
Process pizza orders quicker and accurately.
“Hangry” is a real thing, and it’s not pretty. To avoid hangry customers, you need an intuitive pizza POS system that helps you get their orders done quickly and correctly. Ensuring order accuracy reduces wasted food and prep time.
Getting the orders prepared in the correct order is also critical. Your pizza POS system should integrate orders from all channels—mobile, online, phone, and dine-in—so that your kitchen staff can process them quickly and in order. Using the POS to manage all of the pizza order intake also reduces the possibility of a dropped or overlooked order, thus increasing customer satisfaction and retention.
With such high customer expectations and heavy competition, operating a pizzeria is no small task. It requires you to perform a constant balancing act between costs and profits, labor and traffic, inventory and sales. The best way to make sure you are tipping the scales in your favor is to leverage innovative POS technology designed specifically for a pizza shop.
HungerRush Pizza POS solution is backed by thorough knowledge of the industry and reliable 24/7/365 US-based customer support. To find out more about how our integrated POS solutions can help you improve your efficiencies, connect with your customers, and increase your pizza profits,
