Q: Why was this decision made to go all-digital?
A: Pizza has been around for a long time, but the industry hasn't innovated much, and we like to be pioneers of something new. We want to be the first digital pizzeria, to show the industry how it's done - and that it can actually be far more efficient.
Q: So does that mean you're like a virtual restaurant with no physical storefront or is that the plan?
A: No, the key is to maximize your business, not change it.
Q: What type of research went into this decision, if any?
A: Thirty years ago, nobody had a cell phone. Now, imagine someone without a cell phone. We know that more and more orders are moving to digital, and soon, it will be a learned behavior that everyone will use. Whether its one year or five years down the line, we want to stay ahead of the curve.
Q: What about provisions in the kitchen and for delivery and pickup? Do you have to make special accommodations in that area of operations?
A: Orders are received & tracked via (the) WizeChefOS (tablet) ... a POS system provided to us by WizeChef. By partnering with the WizeChef team, we can concentrate on preparing the food vs dealing with order taking. It cuts down our labor so we can focus more on preparing, packing, delivering and taking care of our clients. They handle all the digital, we just focus on the food.
Q: Catering appears to be a heavy emphasis.Why is that?
A:Yes, catering is a major component of our business. We prefer large orders to go through WizeChef because they take care of all the processing and digital receipt, which is what these big companies want. Companies are happy to provide meals for their employees to encourage them to work more hours. So together with WizeChef, we make ordering easy and convenient for them - they want pizza, we give them pizza easily.
Q: What plans are being made for outages both along the power grid and in online access?
A:(WizeChef has) a backup plan for every power outage. If they can't transmit the orders to us via internet because our power is out, they call it into us directly, so we're always covered. If we managed our own online ordering, we'd lose business because we could never handle outages and tech operation the way they do.
Q: Does this increase or decrease costs and how?
A: Overall, it decreases cost and maximizes our potential — these orders come from customers we wouldn't normally have if we didn't have a world-class online presence from WizeChef. Digital orders help us prevent mistakes that can happen when we take down orders over the phone too (when) we're busy and it's loud in our shop, so it's hard to hear. Plus these online orders are a lot larger than our typical phone orders due to the ease of placing an order for groups online. Which is great for us.
Q: Where do you see this going, if successful?
A: By 2020, we anticipate to be laying out a plan for national and potentially international expenditure. But first, we want to make sure we get this right.
