Pizza Today - February 2025 - 27

hand out the pizzas, " Scardino says.
The adhesive tickets are one way
to ensure the orders go to the right
customer or delivery driver. In the event
that someone gets the wrong order,
Professor Pizza is quick to communicate
with the person who picked up
the food. Sometimes they are willing
to come back and wait for the correct
order. Other times the customer lets
the pizzeria know that they received
the wrong order, or part of the order,
and the damage control begins. " Take
responsibility even if it's not your fault, "
Scardino says. " At the end of the day
they decided to spend their money on
your pizzeria, and they could have spent
money on literally any pizzeria in town. "
PREVENT ERRORS
Having systems in place can help
staff assemble the carryout orders
quickly and without errors. " The thing
that makes the biggest difference is the
prep side of it, " says Finley Hunt, who
with his wife Amy owns Feral Pizza in
Austin. " There almost isn't too much
preparation you can take. "
The pizza trailer does almost exclusively
takeout business, and most of
that is through online orders. When
an order comes in, the crew bags the
non-pizza items and sets those aside.
When the pizza is ready, it's easy to
hand everything to the customer. " We
also call back the order to the customer
when we're handing it to them, " Hunt
says, " 'We have a pepperoni pizza, two
ranches and a cookie,' just to hopefully
catch anything they bought and we
missed. "
One way to prevent mistakes is to
offer a limited menu. Although there
are several options for build-your-own
pizzas, additions and substitutions are
not allowed on the specialty, or Feral
Pies. Besides the pizza, the only other
menu items are sides, which are small
cups of Ranch dressing, red sauce or hot
honey, and there are a few desserts.
In the early days Feral Pizza made
mistakes and occasionally gave the
wrong orders to people. " In the beginning
we were taking phone numbers
with orders, we misremembered who
had which order, " Hunt says. " That was
one pivot, that we make sure to take
the name as well as the number to go
with it. "
It helps to have the first and last
name of the customer, as there are
often duplicates. There was one day,
Hunt says, that Feral Pizza had six different
orders for people whose first or
last name was Ryan, and another day
with four Owens.
EMBRACE THE TECHNOLOGY
Third-party delivery services can
help a pizzeria expand their reach
without having to hire drivers, but the
drivers can make the carryout area of
the restaurant more crowded. That
could cause confusion around which
order belongs to which customer, and
could lead to people picking up food
that does not belong to them.
A simple way to prevent theft and
confusion is not to leave the prepared
orders within reach of drivers and customers.
" You have to talk to the host to
get your order, " says Mike Friedman,
chef/owner of All-Purpose Pizzeria,
with three locations in the Washington,
D.C. area. " They have to show us
the order on their phone. We don't give
an opportunity for them to grab the
pizza. "
If a third-party driver delivers the
wrong order and the customer calls
All-Purpose Pizzeria, the pizzeria
contacts the delivery company. " We call
the support line and we make a new
order, and we say, hey we need a credit.
They know who the driver is. We are
not responsible for that. "
To maintain good relations with the
delivery company, Friedman recommends
having someone in the restaurant
who is responsible for learning the
technology related to the third-party
app. This tech-savvy worker should
meet with the rep, and get to know the
back end to the system such as how
to add photos, how to incorporate the
system with the pizzeria's POS and
other tasks.
The goal should be to make the
ordering seamless for the customer and
mistake-proof for the pizzeria. There is
much work on the technology side to
make sure the order comes in, the ticket
goes to the kitchen and to the host
stand, and the number on the ticket
matches. " Then there is training, " Friedman
says. " How do we greet the drivers,
how does the product go from our hand
to their driver, to the guest. "
Still, if there is a mistake, it doesn't
hurt to extend some goodwill to maintain
customer satisfaction and loyalty.
" If they send a picture that looks like
this pizza was dropped or turned over,
maybe something slipped through
the cracks, " Friedman says. " To make
sure we keep that guest, make sure we
provide hospitality, we give a gift card.
A $25 gift card goes a long way. "
NORA CALEY IS A FREELANCE WRITER
WHO COVERS SMALL BUSINESS,
FINANCE AND LIFESTYLE TOPICS.
FEBRUARY 2025 / PIZZATODAY.COM / 27
http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - February 2025

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