H.O.S.T.: Hear them out. Offer a solution. Solve the problem. Thank them. Write this down and make it protocol to your team. Review sites have had a shot of adrenaline recently where more people are encouraged to give reviews, and it’s the jet ...

On the Line The pizza business is uniquely dependent on takeout and delivery orders, so it’s critical to have a phone system you can rely on. A good phone system should improve the customer’s experience as well as make the most efficient use of y...

To answer the question of whether to charge your customers a fee for delivery, let us begin by reviewing the history of pizza delivery from the 60s through today. DO: Learn about the history of delivery fees In 1965, a man by the name of Tom Monaghan...

The amount of e-mails and text notifications we all receive has grown to an insane quantity. As an owner or leader in your company, your ability to communicate quickly and effectively will lead to profit and peace of mind. Still, it’s so hard m...

Back when Michael Oshman founded The Green Restaurant Association (GRA) in 1990, environmental sustainability hovered as a fringe issue. The popular press rarely reported on climate change and plastic waste was only beginning to find a spot on consum...

RECYCLE When we think sustainability, we immediately think recycling.  Waste is a huge issue that must be addressed appropriately, whether viewed at the level of a single pizzeria or the nation as a whole.  According to the Green Restaurant Associa...

Safe! Is your kitchen safe? Hopefully, right? But is your kitchen as safe as it could be? If your protocol assumes that your staff will use common sense rather than train protocols, then your kitchen is vulnerable. You are vulnerable from injury to t...

Get your house in order for killer sales days It’s the most wonderful time of the year. The “Pizza Holidays” are soon to be upon us. Those would be Halloween, the night before Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and of course Supe...

Fire! So, we had a fire at our main Tulsa location. Something like that is scary, and it freaks you out and makes you wonder how close you came to losing it all. Of course, we have insurance, but not the level of insurance where you can burn down our...

Flooring Matters When it comes to restaurant flooring, Allison Westrick embraces a pragmatic approach. The co-founder and design principal at Sketch Blue, a Columbus, Ohio-based design firm specializing in hospitality spaces, Westrick understands the...

Going beyond customer service If you’ve sat in on any of my seminars you may have heard me ask the question, “What is the difference between hospitality and customer service?” It is such an interesting question because there are such diverse an...

Plan for a busy winter party season  The winter holidays are just around the corner. Even though the weather is still warm and no one has finished their gift shopping yet, people are eagerly booking parties for fourth quarter. Pizzeria owners say th...