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Thank You from Gob-Pile Pizza

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gobpile

New member
I want to thank everyone who posted to my question last week. We started implementing ideas immediately. I’m not sure what happened, if it was the constant door hanging, business tagging or what but this week has been crazy. We’ve never had sales on weekdays like this.

As I told you we had anywhere from $300.00 to $400.00 dollar days on Monday thru thursday. Starting Tuesday, we had $700.00, Wed 900.00, Thurs a little over $1000.00 and tonight the phones have been ringing off the wall and we are at 1300.00 net so far. Day shift and night shift are having competitions on which shift can make the most sales.

These sales are not buffet either. They are mostly delivery which is what we have been pushing this week the most.

We are seeing a whole new customer base also. People are walking in stating that they have never been at our place before. We make sure that we give them special treatment and tell them about our restaurant, our specials and what we offer.

We did find out that our competition has raised their prices - not sure why unless it has to do with the minimum wage increase. We have churches that have come in, told us that Dominoes has increased their prices and wanted to know ours. Apparently Dominoes was giving the churches and schools 1 topping large pizzas for $3.50, now they have raised that price to $7.50 - or so we are told by 2 churches that have come to us. We already planned a month ago and implemented price increases for the minimum wage hike, so our prices look pretty good to people now.

Anyway, thanks again and PMQ is the site for great advice!! I’m on here almost 3 times a day checking things out!
 
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congratulations and good luck with everthing… I agree with you, this site is the best and like you I’m in here at all times, like now I just got home from working 15 hours and iam on my cell phone typing now while I eat my dinner too lol… we are all PMQholics…
 
Yes! was wondering how things were going over there… glad to see things are working out!
 
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Great job gob !

I know that doorhanging was the key to the success I had at my last corporate pizza shop. When I took over, the store average $8,250 a week. Once I cleaned the place up and got operations under control we did 25-30 hours of doorhanging each and every week. When I left a year and a half later we were averaging $12,675 and had broken the stores sales record 4 times.

Now I have my own store and I’m fighting to get 15 hours a week in. Between the single digit temperatures and employee issues it’s been tough. I’ve installed a new program where drivers can take a delivery and door hang as long as they can before another delivery is up. When they get back they tell me what houses they did on that street. If any of those houses order, I give them 10% of the order(pre-tax and delivery charge). It’s been working out well this first week of doing it. The drivers are motivated by the extra cash 10% of order + .80 mileage + tip. However it doesn’t compare to being able to get 500 door hangers out in one day.

My sales are horrific right now and we’re fighting to stay afloat. Something has to change… quickly.
 
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congrats on your success…
now, you have to take special care to make sure these new folks don’t forget about you in a few weeks.
try to get everyone a carryout menu, maybe a magnet, frequent customer card, anything with your phone number. If you are using Grande cheese, they will give you materials for free to print on. (which will run through your computer’s printer, by the way.)
And try to get them on a mailing list, or an email list. Even if you don’t exactly know what you’re going to do with the info, just start collecing it asap. I’m sure there are plenty of post regarding these topics…but don’t lose this opportunity to keep the ball rolling!!!
 
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great stuff! just keep the train moving! You know what they say its easier to keep it moving then to get it going! Make those customers feel like your friends. Customer satisfaction sucks but customer loyalty will make you lots of money, good luck!
 
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Re: Thank You from Gob-Pile Pizza READ THIS

It is 5:30 pm on Sunday evening - generally very slow for us and we are now at $1085.00 NET!!! Unbelievable for a Sunday for us!!! On the way home this afternoon, my husband and I doortagged for a couple of hours. My staff today was so glad to see night shift walk in the door. We had to call in staff today we were so busy!! We didn’t even get to take the buffet down today (which we usually do between 2 and 4) and the deliveries were fantastic!

We are almost out of dough, we ran out of lettuce and cheese (had to make a quick trip to Sam’s Club). Thank God the truck comes tomorrow!!

Magnets are a definite. More door hanging and business tagging this week. That is the only thing so far that really works! This Saturday is our customer appreciation day so we are hoping for another good week and weekend. Staff has been giving flyers to everyone walking in the door about it. We are going to have a business appreciation day the week after next.

So many good ideas, positive attitudes and support on PMQ!
 
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Re: Thank You from Gob-Pile Pizza READ THIS

Nice work!

Just out of curiousity, what ended up happening with your kids? And did you change the buffet price point and/or focus MORE on pizza and less on the expensive pasta and potato items on the line?

If you are getting tons of customers I would strongly suggest that you have all changes you are making in place NOW…nothing would hurt your business more than if you bring in these new customers who are used to certain things and you change them soon after.
 
Re: Thank You from Gob-Pile Pizza READ THIS

gobpile writes:
It is 5:30 pm on Sunday evening - generally very slow for us and we are now at $1085.00 NET!!!
Click to expand...
Hold on a second there gobpile. Now you’re starting to whoop my butt! I only had $645 at 5:30. Geesh. You give a person a couple hints and they start to take over the place. -J_r0kk

P.S. Congratulations! Keep it up.
 
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Re: Thank You from Gob-Pile Pizza READ THIS

In answer to the kid question, the son-in-law immediately got an interview with Papa John’s Pizza in a town about 20 miles away and I believe that he started working there although we haven’t asked and haven’t been told.

Our daughter stayed with us, is working very hard on the marketing and in managing the store. She was one of the ones today who couldn’t wait for night shift to walk in. She’s put in a total of 55 hours this week in the restaurant.

We have four one topping pizzas on the buffet, one semi-supreme and cheese sticks. We also kept the baked potatoes as they are cheap and filling. We have spaghetti, nacho cheese sauce and chicken alfredo in the steamer on the buffet. We keep two to three dessert pizzas on the dessert buffet. Usually a fruit (strawberry or cherry), a cinnemon and a chocolate. Of course we also have a salad bar.

If a customer wants a special pizza, such as bbq chicken or spinich alfredo or a rancheroni on the buffet, we implemented that they can have the pizza taken to their table first for an extra $1.99. We serve to them what they want of it and then it goes on the buffet.

Seniors were getting a heck of a discount but on buffet only. We changed it to 15 percent off of anything on the menu. We had some grumblings but we told them that we felt that they deserved to get a discount on all our great menu items and not just the buffet. This answer satisifies them and they have started ordering off the menu instead.

The one thing that we know brought up our sales this past week was the door hanging. We printed up our own flyers and used our extra direct mail flyers and had people out everyday. Our labor didn’t go up as we bartered pizza instead of pay. We pushed delivery and menu items big time and it really paid off!!

Next week we start the $4.49 buffet with purchase of a drink on Monday nights.

We also targeted churches and the hospital. My daughter personally went to the hospital administrator and they are putting our flyers in their payroll envelopes. She also offered them special discount prices for any meetings they may have. The very next day, the hospital called and ordered 8 pizzas for a little party they were having for an employee’s birthday.

Labor cost was a biggie and my daughter has worked out a schedule where labor is low. Plus, we are saving $600.00 a week already because my son-in-law is no longer there. We are using our two salaried managers and my husband, myself and my daughter most of the time. 1 hourly driver Sunday through Thursday as we all can drive also. 2 to 3 drivers on Friday and Saturday. However, this week ended up adding some hours because we had to call people in to help the craziness.

We aren’t out of the woods in just one week, however, we feel that maybe in a few months we can break even and eventually start showing a profit. We just have to keep reading PMQ, stay consistant with our product, service and pricing and do that door hanging!!!
 
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WOW…reading these posts gave me goose bumps 😉 Seeing all of the operators in the Think Tank come together to help each other out and it actually making a difference is the fuel that keeps us running here at PMQ. A big ‘thank you’ to everyone who has thrown their suggestions, advice and tips in here to help Gobpile out and congratulations to Gob on getting “the train rolling” from everyone at PMQ.

If you guys ever need anything, my line is always open (662-234-5481 ext 122 or email at [email protected]). Don’t forget, PMQ’s New York Pizza SHow is March 4-6, 2007 at teh Jacob Javits Center in NYC. OVer 600 exhibitors and estimated attendance is over 18,000. If yo are there, be sure to drop by PMQ’s Pizza Industry Information Center and say hello to all of the PMQ staff.

Tom Boyles
 
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Up23… hows sales doing since the doorhanging, etc…? never doorhanged before… and getting ready to…
 
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