Do you use coupons? If yes, what is your most successful offer? If not, why?

Keith Toppazzini - Yes, we do coupons: in fact, we use them specifically during our grand openings. Like most Ontario-based chains, our regular campaign fliers include LTO’s (Limited Time Offers) that do not require a coupon to be redeemed; however, we do offer coupons on our New Customer Magnets, in our Grand Opening Fliers and in the form of $5 OFF Post-it™ Notes that we distribute on newspapers or on the doors of non-customers. Our $5 OFF coupon is by far our most successful. In a marketing focus group made up of women with children that we conducted, we asked what it would take for a new pizza company to get them to try its pizza. They responded, “$5 off or free samples.”

Dave Thompson - My most successful offer is a coupon booklet that gets sold door-to-door with $200 plus value for $20. It has a variety of offers combined all into one booklet. A company in Niagara approached me and said, “We do this in other markets and were wondering if you're interested.” I have a friend who owns a pizzeria, tried it and told me that I wouldn't believe how well it worked. My return has been huge for this. They did the printing, the sales...everything. All I had to do was give the specials, such as buy-one-get-one-free and free pizzas. It has been an awesome promotion!

Tony Loschiavo - I don’t use coupons—we’ve never tried it. We thought about using them, but we felt that coupons cheapen our product. We’re full-dining as well as offering pizza, including a wine list with 600 choices, so coupons wouldn’t really work for us.

Do you use a POS system? If so, how do you use it? If not, what has prevented you from purchasing one?   

Keith Toppazzini - We began using a computerized POS system in 1989 called Deliver Plus, primarily to improve order taking and to capture our customers’ data for their next orders. At that time, the key reporting features were included in a weekly OSA (Operations Sales Analysis) report. The OSA would not only break down sales, but would also provide an inventory usage report that would compare actual inventory versus ideal inventory, then calculate a variance for the operator. Over the past 15, years we have expanded the reporting features to include labour-cost analysis, day-part sales, customer frequency reports and many other areas. In fact, we have become so reliant on this daily and weekly information that it’s impossible to imagine a day without computers.

Dave Thompson - I don't use a POS system: just a cash register. I've heard that there are a few good systems out there, such as the software Big Dave offers (FoodCost Pro). I'm such a small operator that it's hard to afford that sort of stuff: they're fairly costly. If I had one, I'd want it to do inventory and be connected to a scanner to keep up with food costing. The biggest challenge with a POS system for the independent operator is coming up with three or four grand to try to put one of these systems in place. Anything under a $1,000 is more realistic.

Tony Loschiavo - We use our POS system for placing orders in the kitchen, daily and monthly reads, rebating taxes to the government and using it to review which items sell and which items don’t. We use the system for wine inventory, but not the food. Our POS system does everything but make the pizza.

Do you offer appetizers? If so, what kinds sell the best? How do you market them?

Keith Toppazzini - Appetizers are definitely a growing part of our business. Breadsticks and cheesesticks would be our most popular items, and we offer them as low-cost and tasty additions that add value to the family meal. Considering our 100-year old family recipe for Authentic ItalianBread Crust™ is the base for our Breadsticks and Cheesesticks, they are in higher demand and are particularly enjoyed by our younger customers. We often promote these menu items by offering bite-sized samples to a busy lobby full of customers during a Friday dinner rush.

Dave Thompson - I offer homemade "doggie bones." They're soft breadsticks, brushed with garlic butter and they come with dipping sauces. They're in the shape of doggie bones. I market them as an add-on and as an appetizer. An ongoing issue is people think the doggie bones are actually for dogs. We also do onion rings, potato wedges and Pinty's Delicious Food's "Chicken Chips,” and "Flings," etc. I try to keep everything as simple as possible. It just makes life easier. I used to do jalapeno Poppers® and other stuff, but the menu got to be too big, making the inventory too big and financially costly to stock.

Tony Loschiavo - Caesar salads are our biggest seller. Number two is grilled calamari. Since our menu is designed along healthier lines, people assume they’re eating healthier with the salad, regardless of the amount of oil on the salad. To push our appetizers, we have our waiters push items unique to our restaurant.

– PMQ –