The technological competition that is seen to be between Papa John’s and Domino’s is good for both brands, says Motley Fool.
“The result…is that they have left the mom-and-pop stores and regional chains in the dust as consumers turn to digital orders more and more, even if it means giving up their more-favored local and traditional pizza store,”
I hear the above all the time- and I’m currently a franchise.
I think there is some validity to it but I think it’s more complicated than that and you only hear the above from those trying to push and/or perpetuate their own agenda.
For example, while many people will only order with an app on their phone (which locals CAN have), many other people will never buy a pizza from a chain so…
Just curious as to the opinions on the above statement.
I’m working on starting a new location/concept and have talked to many people in the area, the one thing many people have told me is, "we’re tired of all the chains here " " if you are an independent and your food is good - people will come in droves for your pizza ",trying very hard to do everything ( think wood ) to not look like a franchise, no drop ceiling, no formica, very lite on signage, no delivery, etc, guess i’ll see if it works ! food quality and ambiance will never go out of style , waiting on building permit, another week or two, , ,
When i first purchased my store we were doing online ordering thru Reventions portal. After about 9 months i got so fed up with it that i pulled the plug. And i have not looked back.
Yes some people complain because they can not order online, and i am sure some have refused to order from us again because of this. But my business is running smoother and more profitable.
The big chains like Dominoes push online ordering because corporate operates the system and collects fees from the franchises for each online order that is placed. More online orders more revenue. They even ran a commercial that illustrated how much of a pain calling in and order to them was.
I like to represent ourselves as a chain type to the people who like chains and as a Mom and Pop for the people who like that. They all spend the same green money.
We do online ordering and pay good money for it. About $1700 a month. We make good money off of it because it knocks down labor cost a little and the ticket average is $2.50 higher when they order online. There are problems like people ordering the wrong thing or checking the wrong box. Putting the address in the wrong field, or whatever. Its no more or less the number of errors than if they called the order in.
We are at about 25% online orders right now and will need that to be at 33% by this time next year. By 2017 we are going to need to be at 50% online to offset the $13 an hour minimum wage we are looking at.
I will say, IF the min wage gets raised that high here. I would rethink the whole online ordering, and just deal with all the problems that came along with it. Because it would allow me to cut my staff size in half.
What was so problematic with Reventions online ordering system? After a year of use we love it, and it’s 70 bucks a month or something like that.
We are definitely mom & pop since my wife and I both work here and are the ‘faces’ of the business. I think we’ve found a nice balance between franchisee professionalism and mom and pop charm. We’re still way more franchisish than I would want to be (drop ceiling, flur lighting, flooring etc) as I would love to re-design our lobby to add more wood (counter), ceiling, lighting, and flat screens for our menu board. Sort of a rustic meets modern look (delco with a somewhat small lobby so it really shouldn’t be much $ to make it really pop). But online ordering is not just for the big 3 anymore, I can’t imagine getting ‘out teched’ by the big guys as I’m not sure what else they could possibly add that would make me say, ‘Well, I simply can’t do that’.
I was wondering the same thing. We have been using it (HungerRush) for about 10 months & online sales account for 20-25% of our business. We will be adding the apps this fall for ordering. I love it! The customers spend more, makes my staff more efficient, but CAN be confusing because online customers like to change MANY things on their items (if you let them). On an average week we gain 4-5 hours of efficiency because we don’t have to answer the phone for those orders. Maybe it was a problem of your menu setup was confusing or too many options for the customers? Don’t be afraid to tweak the menu to make it easier for you and your customers to order online.
Some interesting stuff, all.
One thing that I have found is that you do get institutionalized when you are within one system for 30+ years.
Somebody from corporate will say something to me and I’ll just reply “Please tell me you don’t believe that crap?”
And correct, too, as somebody mentioned- they collect the .25/order and get to control the entire process and push their corporate offers. I think Mel Brooks said it best when he said “It’s good to be the King!”
I beleive that all the technology that is created, pushed, promoted, etc by the chains will trickle down to the locals and the field will be level.
The same corrugated boxes, insulated hot bags, car-top signs, makelines and conveyor ovens that were developed by the delivery innovator are now standard tools to compete with them.
The problem i had was not to do with the menu system, or even the coupons. It was the backend and the database system that they use.
The biggest failure for me was the fact when a customer types their address into the system incorrectly, i had NO way of correcting it on the online side. Which meant everytime the order came thru, we had to manually fix it. So everytime they ordered online, it created a new line under that phone number. I found one customer who had 75 ! entries because of this. I have spent the last year cleaning up this crap.
There are other problems that i had, but they were all on the backend.
Well, if it makes you feel any better, D9, the number one pizza delivery company does no better- I have the EXACT same problem with the on0line issue and addresses, etc.
Matter of fact, when I call a customer back and actually get the apt number, or change the street to the correct one, etc, a CSR standing next to me will often say “Should we change and save the file” and I reply "No, it won’t transfer to the next order and they’ll just screw it up again… each and every time.
I agree with everything here except my fees are approx $500/month with Foodtec…I have heard that Revention has much better pricing but I cannot vouch for their online ordering.