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How to handle the sales

Adding drivers wouldn’t help at all. We are making about 10 pickup orders and about 6 deliveries at once. When the drivers leave we wait about 20 mins then start another 6-8 deliveries.

Im not a place that cooks everything in a conveyor I have fryers, grill, charbroiler too

We tell our pickup customers 40 mins when we are getting slammed, they show up in 20 and watch annoyed that other customers are getting their food first, so I have to skip other orders to get this annoying customer who thinks 40 mins was just a suggestion, their food faster. This scenario happens all night long.

Usually GF calls it in puts it under her name, BF shows up 10 mins later, gives his name for the order or gives his GF’s nickname and she gave her actuall name, has basically no idea what was ordered or that I asked for 40 mins bc GF didnt relay any of this info to him, just told him to pick up food while he was out. We figure out his order. He asks how much longer itll be to which I just want to reply with ‘itll be done when its done’ but I cant. He continues to stare at us. Now I guess I have to skip his order to front of the line
 
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this happens to us as well and most of the times we make them wait based on the times we quoted them. Personally, I think that you need to add drivers but that’s just my opinion.
 
We do have some customers that you could tell them there food will be ready in 2 hours and they will still show up in 15 minutes and stand in the lobby, arms folded, huffing that the foods not ready. I always assume we all kinda deal with the same things but its funny and relieving to see the stories shared.

We are trying to hire drivers, and really everything, its been difficult during the pandemic. Just about every time someone comes in and it seems like we are good someone quits or has to be terminated.
 
When the customer arrives at our place they check in and if the order is not completed yet we ask them where they are parked (we have our own dedicated parking lot so this would not work for everyone) and we have someone to run the orders to the vehicles when they are ready. Haven’t had any issues with this and it stops the customers from glaring at your employees.
 
We got slammed tonight. Quote times in store and online were 90 delivery and 70 pickup. Had customers coming in placing waiting orders. Had 140 items to make ahead of them. Can’t even push it ahead until it’s on our screen really. Only 1/4 of our oven tickets were hung up from 5-7, just couldn’t get to them. Multiple customers showed up (after ordering online with a 70 min quote time) within 10-20 minutes. When they come back looking for #220 at 6:00 and you’re only working on #150, yeah he’s still got 40-50 minutes. None were thrilled. I swear they think of they act difficult well just push it ahead. Sometimes we can and sometimes we can’t. When we were in tonight’s controlled chaos, it couldn’t be done. I think you reach a point where the amount of food that needs made/cooked way exceeds the man power due to availability/kitchen flow
 
We nr=ever get quite that busy, but I am changing from stone ovens to conveyor for this exact reason. We cannot make pizzas fast enough on Friday and most Saturdays. I don’t push any orders, which definitely upsets people. Issue is human nature, those customers that regularly order get their pizza in 20 minutes on non-busy nights and are conditioned to head to the restaurant right after ordering. I bought into the pizza business 4 years ago, and now understand why many pizzerias limit their menu on busy nights, saying no grill, and no special order salads that sap manpower when you don’t even have the SPACE in the restaurant to add employees, even if you could hire them.
 
Not much more to add that the others have not already stated.

But we started setting exact pick up times since COVID instead of using the standard 30-40 min.

Example: If it’s currently a 30 min estimated pick up time, we tell them 6:05 pickup or curbside. That tends to keep most of them from showing up early, and helps us stack the tickets accordingly. If they show early, I mention the exact time and most understand and are not as mad to wait.

With deliveries we still use the broad 45-75 min or 60-90 min .

What really will mess up the night are screw ups, which can have a domino effect.

Hope that helps.
 
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We suspend phone calls when we too far in the weeds. Usually 10-15-20 minutes until our ticket load times come back to an acceptable time.

We have set up our PizzaCloud with a nuclear button that will cut off phone calls until we hit the button again. We haven’t had to use it yet.

We’ve cleared 20K the last few Fridays, I don’t know how they do it? I hide at home.
 
I have used the STOP CALLS button the last couple weeks followed by pulling the plug on OLO in order for us to catch up. I am so glad I have these tool in our arsenal now that the outdoor establishments are dwindling and things will get crazy again. Glad to see that PC is working out for you!
 
contact them and tell them you want to add a toggle button to stop calls. You should record a message that says something to the affect that you are no longer accepting phone orders due to heavy call volume BUT are accepting ONLINE ORDERS! Please note that there are long wait times and orders cannot be cancelled. We have an auto attendant where people can press #1 if they are here to pickup for curbside so they are still able to get through in case of problems. They should put it on the 2nd page so that it is not pressed by accident. Very important that you remember to turn it back on after you get out of the weeds!
 
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