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The old retail maxim "Location, location, location" is one that Laurie Freisinger defies everyday with Slice of Life, her 16-seat pizzeria on Vancover Island, British Columbia, in the tiny town of Duncan (Pop. 4,800). "Years ago, a highway was built to bypass downtown, and we're located downtown," she says. "All the fast food places opened on the strip, and they get a higher volume of traffic. Our town is only three blocks by three blocks, and we're in the third block. It's like we're separate. Realistically, our location really isn't ideal. It could have been better. But we've made it work for us."
Duncan is located in the Cowichan Valley, which translates as "warm land" and is known for its outdoor activities and 80 totem poles located throughout town. The island is 320 miles long and aproximately 150 miles wide. The mountains and water help bring in a substantial tourism industry to the highway strip, so Duncan is crowded with businesses, including many serving food. To compensate for the lack of location, Freisinger implemented the oldest business strategy: she rolled up her sleeves and went to work.
"I'm glad I bought a business that was already started," she says. "It was already a pizza place, and we just put in some minor changes, an espresso bar and more baked goods and salads. I had to put in a lot of elbow grease at first." Laurie says taking over an existing business in a small town can be tricky if the new owner comes in and makes drastic changes.
"There are some local merchants, who come in every day for coffee, and they get the old owner's price," she says. "I upgraded the coffee to a higher grade, but I kept the businessman coffee and the old price. I understand they could be some of my most regular and loyal customers."
Low carbs, high volume
Laurie says that while her business isn't exactly where she thought she'd be at this point. (She celebrated her fourth anniversary in September.) She says happy to have a thriving business for her and her three full-time employees.
"We serve a quality gourmet pizza like no other in the whole area,"she says. "We don't do two-for-one here but our 18-inch is just a fraction smaller that two large two-for-ones at the other places. We have an exclusive dough, not a traditional pizza dough, which our customers rave about." "We offer our exclusive whole-wheat and a white crust. We use a pizza sauce, but add our own herbs and spices. We use only quality ingredients and make homemade food. People really love our pizza. People continually rave about it, and it took me a while to realize that they really mean it.
"We added a low-carb pizza selection in response to the low-carb craze. This crust has become very popular. It is a very thin whole-wheat crust, and we offer two selections, one vegetarian and one meat, although the crust can be ordered for custom takeout. We mostly market it in-house by the slice. We can't make it fast enough!!"
Big Ad
Even in a small town, a small business has to get the word out. Laurie says she used a trial-and-error approach in her advertising. "I tried radio and newspapers and even a billboard, and I think the in-house promotions and coupons work better," she says. "It was fun having a billboard and having people come in saying they saw it, but dollar-for-dollar, it's not even close to in-house marketing. Everything that I have done: radio, billboard and newspapers didn't work individually, but layered together, they all have added somewhat to the growth of my business.
"They are very expensive marketing strategies that would work better if used in the long-term and if used consistently. They are not short-term bring-the-customer-in-the-door marketing strategies."
So what does bring the customer in the door? Laurie believes a business that wants to be supported by the community has to support the community. "We've done a lot of local trade shows, a three-day folk festival, we do outside events, local exhibitions of art and music. As we grew in the café, we couldn't do the outdoor events anymore. We began in-house promotions, giving out coupons toward future orders and at Christmastime we gave a certain amount off on their next order. Whenever a charity comes for donations, we give away whole pizzas. Twice a year I do a large donation to my favorite charity where whoever purchases the lucky ticket wins one of our huge 18-inch pizzas once a month for a year. People love it!"
The old "location goblin" came back to haunt Laurie at Halloween. "We have a citywide Halloween party each year where we give out coupons. I gave out 70 coupons. The business one block closer to our city hall gave out 250. It really shows what a difference a block makes."
Disorder in the House
After four years, Laurie feels like the Slice of Life has turned a corner and will be a mainstay of Duncan. With the success also comes the inevitable business problems, including the one of a harried staff getting an order wrong. Every operator has their own way of dealing with refunds and complimentary pizzas.
"It depends on the circumstance," Laurie says. "Usually, I try to just make it work for the customer. I've had people ask for a whole new pizza even if they kept the one they had. I'd much rather do that than take the money out of the register for a refund. For instance, we had someone order a pizza on whole-wheat crust and they got a white crust, and they ate it and then asked for a whole new pizza. We don't make a lot of mistakes, but when we do, we evaluate it and we talk about what we can do to fix it. In this case we gave them what they requested, no charge to them.
"We had a customer come in just before a shift change and order a pizza and then went shopping," Laurie continued. "The shift change happened, and that order didn't transfer to the next shift so when the customer came in, his pizza wasn't made. We sat down and talked about it and one of the staffers said he was at fault. I told him it wasn't about fault. We just need to figure out what went wrong and establish a procedure so that it will never happen again, because in my book, once is an oops but a second time is unacceptable. In those cases we feel the customer out and ask the customer, 'What can we do to fix it?' and they usually say, 'Free pizza.' So that's what we do. I think the goodwill that that brings, outweighs the loss of product. But, honestly, we really don't make many mistakes."
Slicing the Future
From business plan and elbow grease to maintaining and possibly expanding a flourishing business, Laurie sees a bright future for Slice of Life.
"Our little community is starting to get a name for itself: Duncan, Vancouver Island, it's incredible. My daytime business is really strong, so I'm going to work on getting my nighttime business stronger. I have a tremendous takeout business going. Right now 60 percent of our business is takeout."
Like every owner of a pizzeria, Laurie has to deal with the issue of delivery. She says delivery is currently such a small part of her business; she actually makes the deliveries herself.
"I paid a freelancer five dollars a delivery, and nowadays, I do them myself. It's minimal. I had two last night, and none the night before. People prefer to come pick up their orders."
Customer service is obviously an important part of the food business. The staff represents the owner and deals directly with the public. Their attitude and performance are crucial to the business's survival. Laurie says she feels particularly blessed by her staff. All the food ingredients, preparation and marketing wouldn't make any difference if the employees didn't care. At the Slice of Life Café, Laurie says she has been able to create an uptown feel with a relaxed atmosphere with great food to distinguish herself Laurie in a crowded market place. Repeat business is essential and Laurie says the human touch and attention to detail go a long way to building a clientele.
"I have a wonderful staff," she says. "They all work very hard in this cafe to ensure that our customers are always treated well, that they get served promptly and get great, well-prepared food and pizza. They are great at creating relationships and making everyone feel welcome."
- PMQ -
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