Beginners guide to increasing sales through couponing and "deals" and stuff...

Pizza Shop Talk Marketing / Increasing Sales
1

OK y’all. I think that I am ready to begin offering some coupons. I have no idea how to do this intelligently though…

Currently we offer no coupons. We have a “frequent slicer card” which is a punch card where after you buy 9 slices you get the 10th free. I’ve looked into loyalty programs some, but I haven’t found a system yet that ties in our online ordering with our in-house stuff with our gift cards etc etc etc. Basically I haven’t found a K.I.S.S. system.

Classically we get people in the door by consistently making great tasting pizza, and charging a lot for it. I’m intimately aware with the food cost and contribution margin of every item on the menu. Also let’s assume that all hours of the day operate with impeccable service, and that lousy operations aren’t a cause of lower than ideal sales.

I know that I want to be busier for lunch daily. I know that we could/should be busier monday through wednesday dinners. I know that we have room to grow as far as delivery goes. I also know that I can’t/don’t really want to be any busier friday and saturday nights…

Do i just start testing things? Flood the streets $X off an 18" pie coupon? Offer something bigger to repeat customers after so many visits? Do two for one slices on tuesday? Offer a different style on mondays? 12" one topping pie happy hours? Do I have to put tons of restrictions of everything so that I can quit doing them at anytime?

Also how do ya know how low to go before it’s not worth it any more? Is this really gonna make me any more money? How do ya ramp up volume without giving away the house? It may be good for my ego to do %10 more on those slow nights, but if it’s costing me %10 more do I really need to bother?

Thank y’all.

2

If I was focusing on building early week sales I would have coupons titled “Monday Madness”, “Two for Tuesday” and “Wacky Wednesday” or Wing Wednesday". The best way to get a return on these without bringing much extra business to your already maxed Friday and Saturday nights are to market these to your current customers via boxtoppers. It will help get some of your regular customers ordering more often, as well as move some of your weekend sales to the early week, opening room for new customers on those weekend nights. I wouldn’t make the offer too aggressive, just enough to get them thinking of you on Monday night. If you have any hospitals in your delivery area, they are a good place to start increasing your lunch business. I do over $30,000 annually with a single hospital. Just remember that lunch business more than dinner is extremely time sensitive. If you can’t get the food out quickly, you’re not going to be their go to choice. Another idea to build lunch is to open a little earlier than some of your competition. We changed for advertising an 11am open time to a 10am opening and it’s a rare day that we haven’t taken at least 4 delivery orders by 11am. A lot of times we get calls even before 10am to place an order to be delivered later in the day. If we weren’t there to answer the phone, they likely would have found someone else to order from.

3

wondering what did you end up doing? I am in a similar situation…

4

thanks,good info!

5

Its really helpful for me to boost up my business.
Thanks for sharing this useful information.