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Pizza biz revenue-redoubling plan: Office networks

Lest anyone doubt it, even the top brass of the biggest companies like a great pizza for lunch now and then. That could mean a great new source of revenue for pizza brands that just keeps coming back from the office building or large employer down the street.

August 22, 2018

By Ray Reddy/Ritual CEO

Pizza is professional, regardless of whether you eat yours with a knife and fork or a half-slice at a time. This fact is proven daily across the globe in everything from Fortune 500 board rooms to departmental meeting spaces where some enlightened office administrator dialed in a few pies for this week's planning sessions. These business sources can be a real windfall for pizza brands, since meetings have a habit of returning weekly or monthly year-round.

But how to get a foot in the office building occupant's door? Below are strategies for restaurants to get on the radar of all those office administrators ordering lunch for all sizes of workplaces, while building word-of-mouth in your local community as a preferred eatery. 

Getting the ball rolling with office-based outreach 

Education and awareness are the first steps to creating a solid customer base and buy-in for your lunch offerings at office-based functions. With that in mind, ask your regulars where they work, then educate them on the ease of your ordering process for team lunches and keep collateral print materials in-store for office workers to take back brochures on catering, delivery, your orodering process and anything that helps make the path to your door clearer and more accessible.

Likewise, if you're location is a tenant in a large building, get to know your property manager. They can also help you create customized offerings for building tenants.

Offer discounts or other bonuses for those groups that hold a high potential to become regulars, which also builds paths to closer relationships with customers who work nearby. This gives you a positive voice in-office, since these satisfied customers are all the more likely to refer your restaurant to their administrators for the next team lunch or client event. 

Nailing down the details of a solid office-based network program

Once you've got a solid path to customers, make sure you also understand what office administrators looking for when it comes to ordering for their workplaces and that your brand is also equipped to handle those needs. As online food delivery has overtaken phone ordering, administrators are seeking "safe" great pizza-centered meeting food options that offer healthful variatiions, as well as restaurants that can become their reliable go-to source for sustenance at office-based events. 

Even though it might seem like ordering lunch isn't a very high-stakes game, administrators can't afford mistakes in their orders. A bad lunch experience that they organized can look bad on them, because the mistake doesn't just affect one person, it affects an entire team.

Likewise, most office administrators are immensely busy, so simplifying their ordering process and making it foolproof is essential. It pays to know what these individuals are typically looking for when they place lunch orders with pizza chain, including: 

• Reliability
• Promptness
• Competitive pricing
• Differentiated menu offerings 
• Customizable menu options for special diets and allergies
• Ease of ordering via mobile or online channels.

Investing in the quality of your restaurant's ingredients and offerings improves your brand's reputation. Office administrators invariably need to stay within fairly fixed budgetary constraints, so truly competitive pricing puts you ahead of the guy with those "other" pies across the street. 

Overall ease of ordering is also one of the top reasons administrators keep coming back to a particular restaurant. In order to keep your hat in the ring, ensure that your digital ordering platform or website is easy and intuitive for clients to use and re-use, with a record of previous orders accessible for repeat office events. Rewards programs and even subscription services enhance the attractiveness of your brand in the office admin's eyes.  

Pizza, in all its many variations, is firmly planted in the restaurant landscape worldwide. But staying that way means using every avenue at the brand's disposal to build business for years to come. By making office-based ordering super easy, with reliable service and differentiated menu offerings, your brand can stand out  even in an ultra-competitive sector of the restaurant business.

Photo: iStock