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Delivery Monster

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pizzapad:
If your driver leaves on time, gets rear-ended & delivers the pizza 1 hour late they are gonna be pissed, and don’t care if he is hurt or not, sad but true.
There is no quick fix, or sounds like…12 months searching for drivers, no not so quick fix either.
Bottom line is you work smart, effective, and never cut corners. When a customers calls & you’ve got 10 deliveries backed up, you simply tell them it will be 1 hour. If it is not acceptable to them at that point then that is their choice to not order.
As far as reasonable…ha! Resasonable can ONLY be defined by the guy holding the dollar (no matter how un-reasonable he may be!)
Remember, they choose us for a reason…quality, price, service, convience…each one different.
I think the flyer could work with some folks & could piss off some folks…remember they are only opinions!

Just my thoughts!
No problems with your thoughts and I agree with you.

What I am highlighting to our customers is that are times when things go astray and yes some couldn’t give a rats. It’s their choice to order again from us or not. If we can’t get it to them any faster then unfortunately this is the situation. They are free to order elsewhere but I know that no-one for miles around us can deliver any quicker.

We know that not one other shop within miles of us can match our service (all beit slow by standards of 18 months ago) - Domino’s quoting 2 hours, and I did mention this 5 months ago as well, others just unable to deliver at all because they have no drivers or only have one to do 15 - 20 deliveries.

I may be misjudging myself with this box topper but already we have had feedback thanking us for being upfront about our situation (these are probably faithfull customers or people who would never complain anyway 😃 ).

I guess if telling people that at times we can’t give them the service they used to get when unemployment was high, wages were low and people would do any work, because now the tide has changed completely, is AN EXCUSE then so be it.

I guess the same is for the tavern not far from us who only 4 months ago won the National title for best restaurant in a tavern taking out a full page advert in the newspaper stating that they have had to close the restaurant because they cannot get staff to fill the postions required to run it. Same for the restaurants and cafes who now open limited hours for the same reason and put big signs in their windows.

Im not hung up on the situation to the point I’m slitting my wrists because we are doing great business and are seeing strong growth but I don’t want my customers thinking that we don’t give a rats about them. That is why we are telling them that at times not everything is perfect and that despite the problems of securing drivers we are still striving to give them the best possible service.

When they order we estimate to the best of our ability a delivery time based on times logged over a period of time. We make it very clear when they ask “how long” we tell them “it will be at least xyz, but we will endeavour to get it to you as quickly as we can”. But the exceptions happen such as it starts raining after a long dry period and the roads are slippery causing an accident and the driver is boxed in the traffic jam, or a drivers car breaks down or just doesn’t turn up for his shift. Unfortunately we don’t have the backup staff to cover these situations, plus not everyone has family or friends who will come in at the drop of the hat.

I could buy 50 cars but still not get the drivers to drive them.

We do at times tell people that we couldn’t get a delivery to them for at least 2 hours (very rarely and only to extreme outlying delivery areas) and suggest they pick up. Some do some try elsewhere.

I still believe it is better to be upfront and honest with this boxtopper. They then know sometimes that they can possibly have to wait longer and if they decide to go elsewhere I know for a fact it won’t be any better than what we can offer.

They then have the choice to either order a delivery and take the chance that MAYBE there may be a delay, or not, or come in and pick up and get it quicker.

It is definitely a different market here to there and it makes me laugh to read the posts saying I would see an oportunity in your market, when in reality you wouldn’t beacsue you would be in the same boat employment wise.

Guys I’m not whinging or whatever. All I’m doing is telling it like it is and I think my customers on the whole would appreciate this honesty rather than be fed bulls*#t like PH and Domino’s do.

I stiunderstand a lot of the input and comment you guys are putting forward and this is a great thing of this forum that it gives everyone the opportunity to voice their opinions.

For a closing comment - tonight we had a driver who has been AWOL for a week or so (has some serious personal problems) turned up unannounced and filled in as an extra driver for the night and no delivery was later than 45 minutes, even though we were quoting up to an hour. And this was the 2nd biggest Saturday we have done, $2.500. Go figure this as I can’t :shock:

Dave
 
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Anonymous:
I’m truly stunned. I have respected the posts here for some time and I am stunned at the responses related to this situation.

Nick…when I said never it truly means never. I WILL NEVER collect money from any customer who has to wait 2 hours for a delivery.
Situation cleared up completely. It was simply a matter of pronouns and misundestanding what YOU do versus what Dave (or WE ALL) should do.

Every market is its own character, and we all wade in hoping to meet the customers’ needs as often as possible.
 
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Anonymous:
I’m truly stunned. I have respected the posts here for some time and I am stunned at the responses related to this situation.

Nick…when I said never it truly means never. I WILL NEVER collect money from any customer who has to wait 2 hours for a delivery.

IF it were to happen ONE time, I would re evaluate. I would stop delivering until I corrected the PROBLEM.

It is a SERVICE and they PAY for the SERVICE.

The next thing we will be doing when we are short on waitstaff is having the customer bus their own tables. I find the entire discussion ridiculous.

What would I do in this situation? I would call every friend and relative and tell them I need help. I would deliver myself. I would buy a vehicle and hire people to drive MY car. I would stop delivering…if at that point it is what we are still calling it.

I’m stunned!
I agree enitely with what you are saying about re-evaluating etc, and we do this if it gets out of control.

Some nights when we are really under the pump and know we cannot get orders out by a specific time we will tell customers we have a lot of deliveries and we couldn’t get the order out by whatever. We say if you really want it delivered this is what you will have to wait but we can have it ready in xyz minutes for pick up. The choice is theirs on if they want to wait for delivery, come in and pick it up, go elsewhere or go without.

If they decide to wait 2 hours, a hopefully no-one decides to, and we delivery by this time we have upheld our part of the service. It doesn’t matter if it is 20 minutes quoted or 2 hours quoted, if they accept the time line then they pay the delivery fee. Different story if they are told 45 minutes and get it an hour and 45 minutes later. I wouldn’t charge them the fee and would give them a free delivery note for their next order.

If you quote a time and this is accepted then the service is completed as agreed then they pay. They are getting the service as quoted.

It may not seem to you as “SERVICE” as you probably live in a perfect world with no problem getting staff. I am glad you could stop deliveries until you corrected the problem. The way it is here at the moment you wouldn’t be accepting any deliveries for a very, very long time, full stop. If anyone could correct the problem every pizza joint here would hire them as the delivery trouble shooter.

What happens when you go to the doctors surgery for a 10am appointment and you don’t get in to see the doctor until 10.45am because they are busy. I bet you pay without comment. You haven’t got the service but they still charged you.

Even Domino’s here have taken their TV ads off because they can’t get deliveries made like they used to. They used to have an ad saying “call us now and we will delivery - Domino’s the pizza delivery experts”. Yeah and they then say it will be 2 hours. REAL delivery experts!

We will continue to do deliveries and tell the customers how it is right up front. If they want to wait then so be it as well as if they decide to go elsewhere, and you know what? I won’t be STUNNED.

Dave
 
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Question - Is there a demand for a different level of delivery service? As in - “There in 30 minutes?”
If there is a demand for THAT service (which NO ONE ELSE OFFERS, by the way) - then there is a value and can be a price for that service.

I’d consider offering regular delivery (which you do now) and maybe launching - along with the kind of explanation you seem to like to give your customers - an “expedited delivery” service that costs $5. At LEAST $5.
And give the $5 to the driver. You’ll have delivery jobs to offer that earn up to $25/hour. And you’ll have a unique service that competitors don’t have. And you’ll keep both types of customers happy - the ones that want a good deal and can wait, and the one’s that want pizza NOW and don’t mind paying a little extra for it.
 
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MM:
I’d consider offering regular delivery (which you do now) and maybe launching - along with the kind of explanation you seem to like to give your customers - an “expedited delivery” service that costs $5. At LEAST $5.
And give the $5 to the driver. You’ll have delivery jobs to offer that earn up to $25/hour. And you’ll have a unique service that competitors don’t have. And you’ll keep both types of customers happy - the ones that want a good deal and can wait, and the one’s that want pizza NOW and don’t mind paying a little extra for it.
I love the idea of dining out if there is a demand for that kind of service. I’m pretty dense on that sort of thing, and would need an abacus and Oiuja board to schedule the runs to keep the food flowing.
 
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MM:
Question - Is there a demand for a different level of delivery service? As in - “There in 30 minutes?”
If there is a demand for THAT service (which NO ONE ELSE OFFERS, by the way) - then there is a value and can be a price for that service.

I’d consider offering regular delivery (which you do now) and maybe launching - along with the kind of explanation you seem to like to give your customers - an “expedited delivery” service that costs $5. At LEAST $5.
And give the $5 to the driver. You’ll have delivery jobs to offer that earn up to $25/hour. And you’ll have a unique service that competitors don’t have. And you’ll keep both types of customers happy - the ones that want a good deal and can wait, and the one’s that want pizza NOW and don’t mind paying a little extra for it.
Thinking outside the box is great to see and I like your way of thinking. From this type of brainstorming answers come up every now and then.

I guess if we offered an “expedient” delivery tier then in time everyone may want it and then we are back to square one. Domino’s used to advertise “calls now and we are delivering now”, or, “we have drivers ready to delivery now” . This advertising has been off the air for some time now because they can’t deliver on their promise.

No-one does quote 30 minutes here mainly because no-one can get enough drivers to offer a service to meet demands. Everyone is strung right out.

At the moment our minimum delivery fee is $5 up to $7.50.

We have a competitor a mile outside the far extremities of our delivery zone who has been advertising for drivers for over 6 months and hasn’t been able to get any and they are offering $15 per hour - don’t know if this includes delivery fee as well (and another close to me has offered $150 signing on bonus). Anyway most nights he can’t do any deliveries, except for weekends and then they are long waits. We are getting calls from his area for us to deliver.

When we tell them we don’t deliver there some people offer $5 or $10 on top of our fee to get delivery and some just get abusive. This is how bad the delivery situation is in general in our neck of the woods. People are so cashed up now they want evryone to wait on them hand and foot and they don’t want to get out of their comfort zone to come out and pick up their order.

The delivery time problem that exists all comes down to not having people out there who want to work as delivery drivers. Unfortunately affluence breeds comtempt and arrogance and at the moment we are in a financial boom with 3% unemployment (and these are the ones who are unemployable or just don’t want to work - same thing) and unprecedented high wages.

If I could get extra drivers we would be doing most deliveries by 40 minutes and some probably would be going out by 30 and probably less on quiet nights, without having to surcharge for “expedient delivery”. This would also mean this initial posts would not have eventuated 🙂

The thing is that a lot of customers are now saying to us “that will be an hour, will it?” when they order for delivery. They have grown to accept it but still I find it hard to swallow and hate it. My standards are better than this and I guess this is why I get a bee in my bonnet about the waiting times and why I decided to send out the box toppers in the first place. At least my customers know that I care about our service and take the time to keep them informed rather than being thought of as the pr*#k down the road who takes the money and runs.

Anyway MM, thanks for the input and ideas. I guess we are all looking for that competitve edge and what you suggested could under the right circumstances be a real winner.

Dave
 
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