Simply over half of my product sales got here from house and enterprise deliveries. Through the years, we came across just a few concepts that made us stand out from the competitors. We had been the fi rst firm in our space to make use of car-top indicators. It was so way back I needed to make my very own from scratch. I completely mounted it to an outdated Chevy Vega. The “piglet” solely had a driver’s seat. The remainder was plywood and heated cupboards. Automotive prime indicators work. They’re nice advertisers and likewise give the shopper one thing to search for when the automotive cruises the road in search of the home quantity.
We observed that, not less than half the time, our prospects’ canine beat their house owners to the door once we got here knocking. My drivers at all times had canine biscuits of their jacket pockets. This scored large factors with the canine in addition to the proprietor. We additionally supplied small “kiddie doughs” to little individuals. This was not more than a small piece of pizza dough in a sandwich bag. Children like to play with Play Dough. We gave them the actual deal. We advised them to not eat it and to retailer it within the fridge. Anytime they got here within the restaurant to dine, they requested for extra.
Each supply driver depends on a lit home quantity. Each time we delivered to a house the place the porch mild was burned out, we requested permission to switch it. I made a case of 100 watt bulbs obtainable for my drivers to have of their again seats.
The very best thought I ever needed to make the drivers shine was “resort packs”. After I was interviewing motel house owners in my city to get permission to put desk tents and menus in all of their rooms, I used to be reminded that consuming pizza in a resort room might be messy. I invented an answer. Place two 9-inch plates, two forks and some napkins in a gallon Ziploc bag. Each time we delivered to a nondomicile (workplace, enterprise, motel) my drivers supplied the packs to the shoppers. They’d somewhat spiel that went like this. “I made up a bag with plates for you. Might you employ this?” Bam … immediate tip. Since we not often, if ever, received coupons from our motel and enterprise prospects, the fee was very reasonably priced. My drivers additionally requested the vacationers in the event that they wanted driving instructions to anyplace on the town. Who is aware of greater than a skilled driver on the streets in your city? FedEx got here to us once they had been misplaced!
These little acts of kindness got here again and separated us from everybody else. Give them a strive. ?
Huge Dave Ostrander owned a extremely profitable impartial pizzeria earlier than changing into a advisor, speaker and internationally sought-after coach. He’s a month-to-month contributor to Pizza As we speak and leads seminars on operational matters for the household of Pizza Expo tradeshows.
