Just a question. What do you do when people want to take things off a house pie, and then put something else on it in order to pay less for what they actually want. If they switch a vegi for a vegi should that be the same as switching a vegi for sausage? How stearn should we be when we say “Sorry, no substitutions?” Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
Our specialty pizzas are five topping pies and are charged accordingly – all the same price. We have two exceptions that are charged for two toppings – the hawaiian and white pizza. Some of the specialties may actually have six toppings but to keep things simple they are still charged the five topping price. There really is not a way for people to take advantage of anything with this system.
If you are pricing each specialty pie according to the actual cost of each individually I can see where this would be an issue with you. There a “few” holes in our pricing where someone could take advantage but honestly I have never seen it happen. I’m sure it could have happened but since I have never experienced it I would have to say its a non issue.
I know as an owner this can be irritating but trying to be a stickler over it is not worth offending the “few” that try it. If it happens so much that it actually affects your food cost (would highly doubt it) it probably means you need to adjust your pricing structure. Your low food cost pies should greatly out number your high cost pies which would make up for said substitutions.
People finding holes in your menu is going to happen just like employees finding holes in your system. You can’t prevent it completely but you can minimize it.
So they are changing a topping on a 4-5-6-7 topping menu combo pie and saving a dollar or two. ( on our menu, you save about $2 on the menu combos compared to ordering the same pie topping by topping)
I say " thank you for the business" and move on. It does not happen often enough to spend time on. In anny case, they are buying a high margin expensive item. What do you want to punish them for?
Are these people really trying to find holes in your pricing? I’m not an owner, so I wouldnt know. From my perspective, if I saw a specialty pizza, but wanted it slightly different, it would have nothing to do with saving a dollar over ordering it topping by topping. To me it would just be easier to say, “hey I’d like to have that pizza, but could i do it slightly different?”
Then again, I always tip on the high side (20-25%), so saving that 1 dollar doesnt usually mean a whole to me…just wasnt sure if you saw something in the way that i would normally order as looking for holes in a menu. I also hardly ever order a specialty pizza, so my opinion probably isnt worth a whole lot.
We have printed on our menu “ALL ADDITTIONAL TOPPINGS CHARGED FOR”. This mean even if they take off tomato and add bacon then they get charged for the bacon. The cost of bacon vs tomato is huge and if everyone changed around low cost ingredients for higher cost ones profitability goes out the window.
As we have 32 signature pizzas it becomes a headache chopping and changing so we went for they way we do it. Everyone knows it and this is the way it goes. Never get any complaints… but then again we are in Australia where we are conditioned to pay for extras, delivery etc. We call it “there is no such thing as a free lunch”.
Dave
we have a cap that is set on each size pizza…most of our specialty pizzas are almost at that cap so any changes would be a minimal extra charge
then again we get the occasional xtra chicken, extra cheese, sundried tomato, and shrimp which we adjust to our discretion.
The only thing I’d add to this conversation is we all might want to keep track of just what is being subbed on, or off. If we’re seeing a trend in say, swapping in onion for mushrooms, maybe it means we’ve got the wrong combination going for what our customers are looking for.
We substitute a meat for a meat and a veggie for a veggie. Our menu does say no substitutions but we occassionally still get some. Grateful for the customer why leave a bad taste in their mouth?
Kris
We also allow meat for meat, veggie for veggie, our POS will charge the difference if they upgrade. Allways extra charge for extra cheese of course. In my opinion if you upset the customer that studies your menu looking for ways to save $1 you’ve done a good thing. You don’t want that customer. Let them gag on Little Caesar or Dominos lol…
However, there are customers who like your listed pie but would prefer “No onions but olives instead”. Not a money thing.
Send out a bunch of coupons, discount your food, have price reduced specials on those slow Tuesday nights and I promise you that you will attract the “hole in your menu” customer. Can you imagine being a large “give away” chain having to deal with all those customers and they are your “normal” customer?
( I’ve now convinced myself that I must be related to Seinfelds “Soup Nazi” ).
I think this may be a situation to appreciate the order and move on unless you see an alarming trend that is bleeding money.
Don’t trip over the quarter to pick up a nickel.
For us, this happens on maybe 1-2% of combo orders. Of those, about half are people switching black olives for green peppers on our most popular combo.
Don’t forget rule #1 : Customer satisfaction.
Our average order is about $30 (higher in winter months). Switching green peppers for sausage costs what? 30-40 cents? (With our menu, chicken is a double price topping so swapping a veggie for chicken would result in a single topping upcharge)
Unless this is happening on every second or third order Nick has it exactly right; don’t step over quarters to pick up nickles.
Have you ever went to a retail place (paint store, auto parts, flooring, etc.) and wanted a deal. Or, wanted to switch a muffler for a muffler even though they have a no return policy? Have you ever painted you house and tried to get a deal because you were buying a lot of paint? When the normal cashier dude can’t help you or get you a deal, he gets you his general manager, and what’s a good general manager do? He takes 10% off and thanks you for being a wonderful customer and buying his paint. He doesn’t explain to you how much it costs him to switch sausage for peppers, or how it will be added labor to tell the line cook to make a change. He just takes care of you. And when you leave you say, that guy does a great job, what a great store.
When the guy doesn’t take care of you, you walk out and say “what was his problem, didn’t he care that I chose his place over the other paint store”. So what if you give away 25 cents on a pizza and and your food cost went from 25% to 25.5%. Your business needs customers, bottom line, and when you take care of somebody they tell their friends, and you get more customers. Someone’s continued business is much more important than their extra quarter on their visit.
When I’m in the store and I see one of our good long lasting customers, it’s not uncommon for me to just take care of their bill on that visit. They walk out of the store, think that I’m a pretty nice guy and that we run a good business, and then TELL ALL OF THEIR FREAKING FRIENDS about our restaurant.
The others are correct, you’re mindset is off if you care about substitutions, in the scheme of growing a world class business, it’s not in the equation.
Very nicely put mandino!
Officially we won’t substitute a meat for a veggie and it states it on our menu. In practice, we always do it. I think it makes people feel special when we say “We don’t normally allow that, but we will for you tonight.” We make it official in case it ever becomes an abuse, but that has never happened. It’s probably once per week that someone wants that substitution.
It’s the same reason we “officially” charge for ranch but then always give it out for free to anybody that asks. The official policy is there for the person that wants 40 ranches delivered with their pizzas.
We only allow one substitution per pizza, however, and we’re firm on that. The POS won’t even allow a second one and a manager isn’t going to override it. Our specialty pizzas are discounted and designed to offer a good value while we still make our margin. We can’t have somebody turn a veggie pizza in to a all meat pizza at the veggie price.
RE:
We also allow meat for meat, veggie for veggie, our POS will charge the difference if they upgrade. Allways extra charge for extra cheese of course. In my opinion if you upset the customer that studies your menu looking for ways to save $1 you’ve done a good thing. You don’t want that customer. Let them gag on Little Caesar or Dominos lol…
However, there are customers who like your listed pie but would prefer “No onions but olives instead”. Not a money thing.
Send out a bunch of coupons, discount your food, have price reduced specials on those slow Tuesday nights and I promise you that you will attract the “hole in your menu” customer. Can you imagine being a large “give away” chain having to deal with all those customers and they are your “normal” customer?
( I’ve now convinced myself that I must be related to Seinfelds “Soup Nazi” ).
I have to completely disagree with this line of thinking. If only for the fact that a dissatisfied customer will tell other people about their dissatisfaction. you have to realize that the one sale is not the value of that customer…that customer’s value needs to be added over time…how many people do they tell, do they come in with a group next time?? That customer is worth a heck of a lot more money than that $2 or that $1 savings they are looking for. If that is all it takes to get them to say something nice about you…then hell yeah it is worth it EVERY TIME!
I would say unless it is something outrageous like asking for shrimp in lieu of onions…than why not make a person happy…A Happy customer is far and away the best advertising you will ever get…
We do substitutions all the time. Some toppings are double toppings and we charge single for those subs. What gets me is the guy who wants to sub sausage for the sprinkle of basil we put on some of our pies. That I won’t do. It just seems crazy to me.
That is when you know you are being hustled. I think most people want to be fair and reasonable. Subbing a meat for another meat or a meat for x cheese is fair…in most people eyes…a veggie for veggie is OK…I think you send the wrong message to the customer when you flat out say no…How many of you offer sun dried tomatoes or artichoke hearts and do you charge more for those…
Double priced toppings: Art hearts, Sundrieds, Cashews, Chicken
Triple priced toppings: Pheasant, Wild Boar, Elk, Buffalo
If somebody subs a regular topping for another regular topping there is no charge.
If they sub a regular topping for a double or triple topping the POS system charges them the difference. It also works in reverse, if they sub a double price for a regular price topping they will save the difference.
It is really easy, the computer does it automatically. We don’t spend any time on the issue (more time spent on this thread than in the last 10 years)
What else do we do? We say “thankyou”
Exactly how we do it. Its very straight forward. How can there ever be an issue here?