For a lot of pizzerias, call-in orders are a considerable a part of their enterprise. Whether or not it’s households or school co-eds, clients are used to choosing up the cellphone to order their favourite pie. You’ll be able to capitalize on these calls by making certain that each caller has the chance to listen to your promotions through the use of a custom-made maintain system. Make the correct supply, and you’ll elevate your common ticket by as a lot as $2 (or extra) per order. It’s a sensible funding for any restaurant.
Mike Ulrey, vp of selling for Flyers Pizza in central Ohio, says maintain programs are a no brainer as a result of it’s one thing that impacts your clients earlier than you even get the prospect to speak to them. “I did an evaluation of a specific month with a few merchandise that we had on our message on maintain specials, and we discovered that we’re doing wherever from a 30- to 45-percent enhance on these explicit merchandise that we use for the particular throughout that month,” he says. Maintain programs are a novel advertising device for up-selling merchandise to call-in clients; you’ve already bought the client in your restaurant whether or not by means of a promotional fl yer or tv advert so why not sweeten the deal? “You’ve acquired the client to name into the shop, and as soon as they name in you must capitalize on that decision and up-sell,” says Rick Stanbridge, president of Constancy Communications, a cellphone service firm that providers the short service trade.
There are two choices for maintain programs: a normal maintain characteristic and a sequencer. Each may be efficient, and which one you select on your restaurant will rely in your funds and gross sales objectives. Customary maintain options are solely used in case your CSRs are too busy to take a brand new name and often price from $300 to $600. A stay individual solutions the cellphone and tells the client to carry. Whereas ready, the client hears recorded promotions or music. “Sequencing is the place an on-hold gadget truly solutions the cellphone and mechanically up-sells the client with a brief upfront particular after which places the client on maintain till an obtainable CSR can take the decision,” says Stanbridge.
What’s the distinction? “When you’re taking a look at a strictly on-hold characteristic, the benefit clearly is which you can regularly promote your restaurant and specials,” says Stanbridge. “The opposite factor is, significantly on a Friday night time, a buyer may be placed on maintain for an exorbitant period of time and the time will go by quicker, it doesn’t matter what you place in your message even in the event you solely put music on there the time to the client will go by significantly quicker. Now we have accomplished research the place the notion of the time on maintain is a couple of third of the particular time after they’re listening to both a message or music.”
One other distinction is the value of a sequencer with an preliminary outlay between $1,500 and $2,400. Nonetheless, the benefits of a sequencer shortly add up: each buyer will hear the message — and as soon as they attain a stay CSR, they won’t be placed on maintain once more throughout the decision.
At Flyers Pizza, call-in clients are offered with the choice to listen to the specials by a name sequencer (they’ll additionally select to opt-out and go on to a CSR). “Our focus is on the household; that’s our goal market,” says Ulrey. “What we’ll do is bundle a pizza, an appetizer and a mushy drink collectively. We wish to set worth factors that we predict households will discover very interesting (comparable to $19.95). The one approach clients hear concerning the dinner particular is by listening to the promo maintain message.”
Pizza Inn, headquartered in The Colony, Texas, additionally makes use of a sequencing system for call-ins. Madison Jobe, vp of growth, says that their franchisees swear by the messaging system. “It reduces your hang-ups and name backs, as a result of at the least clients know that they’re ready in a queue; so it’s not only a ring or busy sign. Our franchisees really feel that their hang-ups have diminished, at a minimal, by half, and doubtless greater than that at most shops. Early on, we tracked outcomes extra intently than now, however tickets elevated wherever from $1 to $2 per order after the system was put into place a number of years in the past.”
There are a number of choices for the manufacturing of your maintain messages. Some pizzeria house owners select to file their very own messages, whereas others rent an expert service to deal with the manufacturing. “Message on maintain suppliers will let you know that it’s higher to make use of the skilled greetings,” says Stanbridge. “Nonetheless, relying on how savvy you’re or if in case you have somebody with an excellent voice working for you, you are able to do it your self.” Ulrey says their maintain messages are all the time high performers by way of ROI. “The dinner particular from message on maintain is all the time within the high 5 when analyzing our completely different promotions.” ?
Win ’em Over Whereas They Wait
Investing assets and time into your on-hold messaging system is a worthwhile funding. Up-sell your clients on each name with the following tips:
? Maintain it quick and candy. “We wish to preserve messages a minute or underneath,” says Mike Ulrey, vp of selling for Flyers Pizza. “It’s extraordinarily necessary as a result of folks wish to get off the cellphone. Individuals have much less time now than ever, and to have a prolonged on-hold message … folks will flip it off in a short time. Essentially the most we’ve provided on one message is 2 specials, and we preserve messages very temporary so we don’t get the client ticked off.”
? Bundle up. At all times create a bundle deal on your on-hold promotions by combining pizzas with appetizers and/or soda combos. Ulrey advises coordinating your specials together with your soda and appetizer producers. “We’ll get them to assist defer a number of the meals price, and mainly we do a bundle deal,” he says.
? Rotate promotions commonly. Pizza Inn likes to change their promotional messages on their system at the least as soon as a month. “We characteristic gives which might be solely obtainable to these on maintain, and we observe them with a particular code,” says Madison Jobe, vp of growth.
? Store round. Googling “on maintain advertising” yielded greater than 18 million outcomes. Discover the one which most closely fits your wants and your funds.
Denene Brox is a contract author specializing in meals and enterprise subjects. She lives in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas.
