How can I get my Pizza's to customers hotter

G

grapsta

New member
Am starting to think my pizza’s aren’t arriving hot enough…have a pretty large delivery area. Are there ways i can get them there hotter. My driver reckons Domino’s boxes are way thicker than ours . Is there a big difference between bags ???
 
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If you are using flat cardboard rather than B-flute boxes the boxes could make a difference. Good bags also make a difference but perhaps the biggest difference short of going with heated bags is whether your pizzas wait on a warmer for the driver to take them.
 
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we use the electric bags from www.hotbags.com at one of our stores - they work great - better than and “just bag” or even the heated plate insert and bag. They are expensive though, and you have to make sure your drivers plug the bags in in their cars - or it doesn’t work. The logistics of using the bags can be a problem - again, making sure the driver has the proper working connection in is/her car, etc.

I did a temperature test with these vs. plain bags when we were bidding a school contract. If I remember correctly, 3 16" in these bags bottomed out at about 150 degress in about an hour, while the plain bag was at 150 in about 1/2 the time.
 
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Gerorge, I know. As I stated in my post: “the biggest difference short of going with heated bags”
 
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I’ve heard that Domino’s have just approved a non-heated bag to be used in store after they’ve been testing for quite some time. Aparently there is very little difference in pizza temperature between both heated and non-heated bag after 10 mins in the bag but of course the cost of the non-heated is much less.
 
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Hi Bodegahwy:
Sorry guy I should have addressed my post to grapsta.The originator of the thread.

George mills
 
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I used generic bags when I opened up and they were crap… i have a delivery radius of 15min one way and usually items WERE cold.
I bought 4 bags from http://deliverybags.com/ and have been using them for almost a year now and I havent really had any problems with temp.

The only problem i HAVE had is when were super busy and i have a driver take 4 deliveries at once… by the time they hit that 4th house it’s luke warm.

Looked at http://www.hotbagdelivery.com but the cost was way to high for my budget.
 
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I think that you may be doing yourself and your customers a disservice. I went through the same process as you and initially rejected spending so much on a heated bag vs a “non heated”. It may be hard to believe right now, however, they will more than pay for themselves within the first few months. You will ELIMINATE all complaints of “it was cold” with the subsequent no charge replacements. Your drivers tips will increase. If you are using heated bags and your competition is not, advertise the heck out of that. If they ARE and your not, you are losing customers.
When you get slammed and that order sits on the oven for 20 minutes or more, then sits in the drivers car, your customers not only get the food late, it’s dried out and cold as well. With the heated bags they can sit in store for 20-30 minutes, plus delivery time and the customer still gets HOT food.
I rank our POS, Hot Bags and new oven as all equally important in our ongoing growth (50% last year). Clive.
 
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boatnut:
You will ELIMINATE all complaints of “it was cold” with the subsequent no charge replacements.
Click to expand...
nah you’ll never eliminate them. I’ve always used heated bags, I’ve a good POS, plenty of drivers and strive to get orders OTD in less than 15 mins. BUT even doing so I’ll still get orders delivered at like 20-25 mins and complaints they are cold. Now either my drivers take the pies out of the bags and strap them to the roof of the car to cool them quickly OR customers will always try this one to get something for free.

We had a re-occuring problem with one customer when we first opened than I took one our our temp probes out with me an probled the pizza at the door step to prove it was hot - her answer - we’ll you’d make sure it was hot this time wouldn’t you!!

Customer - just love’m
 
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Ok, there is allways the “extreme” customer. Maybe I should have said “eliminate all legitimate” complaints. We (as I’m sure you do) track any complaints in the customers file. Once, OK. Second complaint about same thing that we know is bull, we tell the customer " Sorry, we are not able to keep you happy, we would both be better off if you tried another store". We mean it. File is flagged so manager has to approve any further orders from that number. If they call again their complaint history is reviewed and if that doesn’t make them hang up (usually does) we will accept a prepaid order only.That said, I checked with my manager and she confirmed that she is not aware of any “cold” complaints since we introduced the hot bags.We deliver up to approx 15 minutes one way.
Drivers will not plug those bags in (especially on the return trip) unless you spot check them all the time!!
 
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What I’ll never understand is when customers pick up pizza, they don’t seem to care if it gets cold on the trip back home WITHOUT pizza bags and probably sitting on a cold leather seat.
 
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  1. It is more important that the pizza have a driver ready when it comes out of the oven and a limited delivery area than if it is in a heated bag. The life of a cooked pizza is very short and even if you have it sitting on a warming shelf, it is going to degrade in appearance and crust quality. The heated bag is really only valuable if you have a really large delivery area. You can have a piping hot pizza in an unheated bag if you time your cooking to the availability of drivers.
 
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Those are very good points and mostly true. However, I have personally seen the HUGE difference between a pizza kept warm on top of the oven for 15 minutes, in a regular bag for 15 minutes or a heated bag for 15 minutes. On top of the oven: Dried out and oily on top. Regular bag: Wet box and “cardboardy” smell plus major loss of crispiness in crust. Heated bag: Dry box, still acceptable crust and HOT (165 deg). Sure would be nice to have the luxury of timing output from oven to match driver availability every time! We do match output to driver availabilty when possible, however, having the ability to produce faster than we can deliver (and shrink that line of orders) and then hold and still deliver a quality product really helps in the flow on a crazy night. Not possible without the heated bags. Again I am convinced one of the best things I did was our heated bag system.
 
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The plans for my store are based upon my experience with many delivery stores. They cook then hold. Heated bags help tremendously in this situation because the pizzas have cooled considerably by the time they go in the bag. PJ’s uses them. I observed that keeping them plugged in was a problem, though.

I am hoping it is not impossible to hold pizzas before baking rather than after baking. We are implementing the following system in order to shorten drastically the baked-to-customer time:
  1. Nextel phones for our drivers to know when they will return.
  2. Expediter is responsible for the flow of pizzas to the counter and drivers. If there are not enough drivers, he notifies the front counter people to update the POS with a longer delivery time quote and notifies the make line to rack the uncooked pizzas until the drivers catch up.
  3. When the pizzas again begin flowing into and out of the oven, in store personnel need to bag the orders and get them out to the drivers as they pull up.
  4. Our POS (Firefly Phoenix) can also text message the customer (they opt in) when the order is dispatched. This allows us to remind them to make sure the porch light is on.
This plan requires more teamwork and communication. It will be more difficult. But as an independent without brand recognition or economies of scale, we believe that the best way to compete is on consistent service and the best crew (which requires a culture of teamwork, employee longevity, and above-average wages).

If it doesn’t work, I may just go back to pimping or black market importing.
 
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