The only problem would be that some customers may end up going to a review site anyway because you basically refused service. It’s a slippery slope with people anymore. For instance, we had a customer call for a delivery yesterday… wayyyyyy out of our area. He threatened the order taker with bad reviews and said the owners takes this order all the time. It was slow at the time so we delivered it, but it’s the first thing people jump to anymore, regardless of if there was an actual issue or not. It’s beyond the point of negative reviews actually meaning anything these days
The way I handle request for well done is to tell the customer we set our ovens so all pizzas are well done. If they are not happy with the way it comes we will gladly remake it for them. I have never had to remake a well done request.
I can live with that one. I would respond with why. I think people that actually read that stuff would get it. One time we had a 1* review because someone called to order on a day when were closed in the off-season and that they ordered from a competitor and recommended them. I responded with something along the lines of “Thank you for the 1* review when you never actually placed an order and never had our pizza. I am happy you found an alternative that you were happy with when you tried to order when we were not open. Nice guys over there.”
I can live with that one too. As you say, it is beyond the point. I think the people reading them get that too. I would have still declined the order. (We do this a couple of times a month). If they wrote the review I would respond with “Customer was frustrated that we do not deliver to his address which is several miles outside our delivery area. Sorry to disappoint. We offered a special carry-out discount if he could pick up but that did not work for him.”
we actually get that request (along with crispy, which is not as well done, lite cook and half cook) all the time…95% of our pies are cooked fine for most people but luckily for that picky 5% we have a Bakers Pride countertop dual stone oven that we use for slices. This also serves this purpose wonderfullly for our setup of double stack EdgeWB60 that are full and we would not be able to accomodate those requests otherwise.
Just to toss my hat into the ring; If I were getting a lot of requests for well done pizzas I might be tempted to rethink how I’m baking my pizzas in my air impingement oven in the first place. We bake our pizzas to our customer’s demands and likes. If your customers are used to a deck oven bake maybe you need to bake your pizzas a little longer? I’m not talking about adding another minute to the baking time, just 30-seconds can make a WORLD of difference, I’ve seen cases where all we needed was a little more color on the pizza as the bake time was just fine, we resolved this issue with a simple change to the top finger configuration (if the top of the pizza was light). User a more open finger at the end of the oven. If the issue is more with the bottom of the pizza, since most of us are running a full open bottom finger configuration the options are a bit different, we can slow the oven down a little as mentioned above, we can increase the baking temperature by 25F but be prepared to play with the baking time and possibly the top finger configuration as they MAY need to be tweaked, or lastly, a change in the baking platform (pan, disk, scree, etc.) to allow more air to impinge directly on the bottom of the pizza as opposed to the baking platform itself. In a few cases we have been able to go from a light colored baking platform to a dark colored baking platform (same platform just darker color), such as in using a bright colored pan or screen and replacing it with a dark color anodized one or just seasoning it well to achieve the desired results. If you want to look at an easy way to get more color t just the bottom of the crust, as opposed to a stronger bake, you might consider adding or increasing the amount of sugar used in the dough formulation. Increasing the sugar slightly won’t affect the crust flavor but it can help you achieve a darker crust color if that’s all you need.
Lots of options to consider.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor