Operations

5 ways pizza brands can build sales in a pandemic winter

Pizza brands, particularly those in northern climes, face a cold pandemic-ridden winter that threatens to limit the dine-in business they built this summer with outdoor dining options. But there are ways to survive, and here are five tips to get your juices flowing for your own brand.

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November 18, 2020 by Lydia Fayal — Head of Grwoth, Workstream

With colder weather quickly approaching for most states, restaurant owners are preparing for the first "pandemic winter" of their lives, where so many brands have relied on outdoor dining to support their dine-in sales — at least during warmer weather.

Many pizza concepts are planning to continue some manner of outdoor dining on all but the most wintry of days, but all should be well into the process of planning and allotting to pay for the strategies they adopt. The following five points can help restaurant leaders get their colder-weather acts in optimum gear.

1. Prepare for cold weather dining outside and in: If your stores have outdoor dining areas, it's hoped that you've secured outdoor heaters already, as they are selling out fast across the country. Setting up insulated tenting can help as well, but keep in mind that the entire point of outdoor dining is to have adequate airflow to disperse the coronavirus. Most cities require that at least half of tents' sides to remain open for airflow.

2. Put staff and customer safety above all else:The absolute worst-case scenario for your pizza brand would be to invest in COVID-19 winter preparations, then need to close for weeks due to a case tracked to an employee or customer, so pledge now to keep your guard up to prevent this, whether the caseload locally is high or not.

Reman diligent about your safety and hygiene precautions, beginning with ample training for staff both inside and away from the restaurant. Remind employees that a single positive test affects the whole team, underscoring the absolute criticality of constant and thorough sanitation efforts, correct mask-wearing, social distancing and surface sanitation, and as a restaurateur consider more contactless practices, like swapping out menus for QR codes.

City officials are taking contact tracing seriously and closing down restaurants all the time for violating pandemic restrictions. By staying vigilant and putting your staff and guests first, your location will have the best chance of remaining open for business.

3. Hire seasonal workers quickly: Despite high unemployment, the race to hire seasonal workers is well underway, with delivery workers among those most in demand, just as pizza shop owners need more of these essential workers.

Given the fact that hiring has been tough for years now, as Pieology franchise owner Tara Lindstrom recently told us at Workstream.

"By far hiring is our top challenge in the restaurant industry," she said. "Not only getting qualified applicants but getting back to them in a timely manner before they accept a job somewhere else. The managers work the line during lunch and dinner. And so by the time they call them back, they might have taken another position."

With a larger pool of candidates, the job of sifting through hundreds if not thousands of unqualified applicants can be a chore for you and your team. As seasonal hiring ramps up, you will want to get ahead of the curve by taking stock of your current hiring funnel and see if you can speed it up in any way. Consider adopting automated hiring solutions to increase the speed of the hiring process.

4. Double-down on digital:As most restaurateurs are well aware, pizza — particularly quick-service pizza — has fared better than most restaurant sectors this year, as consumers look for convenient, low-cost meals that have the added benefit of being comfort food during these troubling times.

During winter, consumers will opt even more for pickup and delivery so brands that invest heavily in digital, like Domino's as Pizza Marketplace has reported, serve themselves well. Take a cue from those success stories and make sure your mobile ordering experience is a good one or invest in an upgrade.

Another idea is to make pickup easier with dedicated five-minute parking spots for order retrieval at stores. Even consider converting multiple parking spots to "pick-up only" areas, where staff can deliver orders to waiting customers.

5. Market these new innovations: Budgets are tight, but unless your customers know about your location's updates, it will be tough to reap any benefits from your investments. To keep costs low, use social media to spread word of your newly heated outdoor patio, your commitment to safe indoor dining or new digital delivery options.

Managing your social media campaign doesn't have to take up your time or be too expensive. For instance, Upwork reports that part-time social media managers are paid from $20 to $50 per hour. Contracting an expert for just a few hours a week to run awareness campaigns on Instagram and Facebook can pay off.

Word-of-mouth is the ultimate marketing tool of course and it's heightened by repeat-business. Loyalty program are critical in these efforts since they extend brand discounts and freebies to repeat customers .

And finally, be honest about your predicament. Despite these rough times, communities are banding together to help local businesses all the time. Brands that ask the community to support your restaurant can and do raise awareness and attract more diners to their doors and delivery portals.