Operations

Pizza Guys CEO relays year of change, adaptation, challenges

Pizza Guys CEO Shahpour Nejad shared his learnings and thoughts for the road ahead after the rocky one restaurateurs have been traveling this year.

September 21, 2020 by Shahpour Nejad — PRESIDENT/CEO, PIZZA GUYS

When the Covid-19 pandemic first struck in the U.S., restaurants across the country were faced with a variety of challenges and questions about how they could continue operating while keeping customers and employees safe. In order to help other brands, I wanted to offer some insights about how my brand, Pizza Guys, approached these issues.

Whole new kinds of challenges

Pizza Guys is a takeout and delivery fast-casual pizza concept with 70 locations throughout the West Coast. One thing we knew right from the beginning is that our model would position us to stay open and continue serving our customers.
However, just because we were open, didn't mean this would be easy, especially not with such a large system. While we did see an increase in sales throughout the pandemic, one of the biggest challenges we faced was implementing and training employees on the new policies and protocols needed to adapt the brand to new health and safety concerns and regulations.

We had to keep up with the seemingly endless mandates and guideline changes made by local and federal health agencies. Not only did we have to effectively implement these changes, we had to make sure the new policies were being adopted across the Pizza Guys system.

Another challenge we faced was finding enough hand sanitizer, masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment for our system. As the daily news headlines made clear, these products were already in short supply due to healthcare demands for them, adding to the stress of locating them for restaurant needs.

We wanted to secure these supplies so that we could create an environment where our employees felt safe coming to work, and help our customers feel comfortable ordering from us. Likewise, as a franchisor, it is our responsibility to ensure that franchisees have the resources, protocols and procedures to operate effectively.

As a result, we did what all of us have had to do: adapt. We worked quickly to develop procedures that kept our employees and customers safe, while continuing to let them be productive and effectively provide our customers with a high-quality product.

Stabilizing the supply chain

I have always been a strong believer in the idea that "communication is key." The truth of this statement has never been more evident than during the pandemic.

In our nearly 35 years in the pizza industry, we have maintained an open and transparent relationship with all of our vendors. From the very beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, we made sure that our vendors could provide alternative solutions in the event their factories were impacted by the pandemic.

Being able to have those conversations with our vendors was absolutely vital to ensuring that our supply chain remained strong. Additionally, our corporate team was also tasked with developing several of our own substitutions for products in the event our vendors weren't able to continue providing us with our needs.

Having multiple backup plans is very important, especially when things are changing rapidly and nothing is certain. Through our consistent communication with our vendors and strategic thinking, we were able to stabilize our supply line and ensure that our customers continued to get the same high-quality food that they have become accustomed to at Pizza Guys.

A word about change

Nothing about change is easy, but it is crucial that business owners during these times be prepared to take immediate action. COVID-19 only reinforced the importance of being able to make quick decisions.

Business owners that were able to quickly develop plans and adapt to their circumstances are continuing to have success today. Not only do employees feel more confident in their leadership when decisions are made quickly and plans are implemented efficiently, but customers notice and appreciate the changes, especially if they are being made to keep them safe.

Another piece of advice about change is to reflect on the changes you made and see if they have a future in your current model. Many changes that Pizza Guys has made during the pandemic are now here to stay for our brand.

For example, our tamper-proof packaging, cashless payment and contactless delivery are all features that our customers really appreciate. So once the pandemic has passed, we will still certainly keep these features for the convenience of our customers.

Making the marketing work

One of the main things we have adjusted during the pandemic is the ways we reach our customers. Door-hanging was one of our main sources of advertising prior to the pandemic. But with fewer people physically coming to the store, we had to switch up our marketing methods.

We have increased our digital marketing efforts and now send out more e-blasts with special offers, and rely more on our social media channels to advertise and engage with our customers. We also have increased our budget for Google Ad Words and are in the process of launching text marketing.

One initiative that we have very recently begun is offering more lunch deals to reach people working from home. Pizza is traditionally thought of as a dinner food, and the longstanding metric for most pizza restaurants has been 80% of sales come from dinner, while only 20% come from lunch.

The pandemic has changed that narrative for us and now we are developing promotions for people who are working from home and don't have time to create their meals during the day. This will also fill the need for parents who are trying to balance their jobs while also helping kids with virtual learning. This is an exciting initiative and we have already seen interest from both audiences.

The restaurant industry has taken a major hit due to Covid-19. It is crucial that restaurants develop new ways to keep customers ordering and coming through the door. This pandemic has proven that concepts that are able to adapt and adjust to the changing landscape will be able to not only survive, but also thrive and continue to grow.

All photos: Pizza Guys