This is a topic that we review again and again in our weekly staff meetings. Directly, or indirectly, all of the systems that we have in place are directed to one focused goal; how do we earn new customers and maintain and grow our existing customer base? Today’s consumer is much less apt to just “deal with it” and still continue to maintain loyalty to any given brand. La Nova strives to keep abreast of basic fundamentals as well as new technologies to meet and exceed our customer’s expectations. With the rise of new and aggressive competition in and outside of the pizzeria trade, we can never sit back and hope that the customer will order again. Here are a few things we do to try, and I emphasize try, to keep our customers ordering again and again. It is an ever evolving process that we try and enhance every day.

1. Personal Touch: There are two specific situations where we directly contact our customers no matter what. One is to remedy a complaint. The other is to communicate regarding large ticket orders. In regards to consumer complaints, there is a thin line between love and hate. We love to see our customers feel like they have received outstanding service and a remedy that exceeds their expectations. At the same time we hate the feeling we get when we feel like we have been taken advantage of by a customer in regards to a quality issue. We have a handful of these situations to deal with every week. After we deal with them, we review every week what we did and gauge our success. A member of my family or one of my lead managers personally contacts the customer to see what the issue is. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the time the complaint is justified and we replace the product or give the customer a gift card in excess of the value of their purchase. We always request that the customer holds onto the unused portion of their order and return that here so that we might be able to diagnose why it occurred. In order to protect ourselves from being taken advantage of, we keep a log of service related responses and the customers’ information. We cross reference that list and insure that we are not having repetitive issues that might relate to manipulation. Giving more than what the customer asked for in return insures that we have done our best and we have seen a high percentage of return orders from those customers we have taken care of.

For the large ticket orders, anything over $100-$150, we contact that customer directly to thank them for their business. Each and every customer gets a personal call and they are normally very surprised and pleased to hear from us. We call after the order is received allowing us to do two things: We can gauge the quality perception of that customer and if they are satisfied with their food. Secondly, we can stimulate a repeat order by offering a small deal or an add-on to their next purchase. Many times these large orders are from businesses or schools that continue to order on a regular basis. Offering a marginal discount or terms on their purchase makes them customers for life.

The key is the call! No matter what response you have in place or what systems you use to keep orders coming, the personal contact is where the value is. It is a win-win value for both the customer and for us. And the time and cost of picking up the phone is miniscule in comparison to maintaining their business for the long term. Ask yourself, “When is the last time I called one of my customers personally just to thank them?” It’s probably been too long.

2. Charitable Efforts: This is not individual customer focus, but nonetheless, it is a great development tool in enhancing consumer loyalty. We often discuss where and when we are going to donate food, and I stress FOOD, and to what charities we will support. We are inundated by requests and at the same time not only feel the desire, but the obligation to support these endeavors. The benefits are high and the real costs are low in comparison. La Nova has reaped many rewards and developed as well as maintained customers through these charitable efforts. The focus is our commercial partners. The charities we support all have other partners that are in different business arenas. They feed their staffs, have events they need pizza for, and employees who order individually. When the CEO or president of these companies states that La Nova is their brand of choice, the business falls in line. It is another scenario where everyone benefits. We put our amazing pizza into more people’s mouths and at the same time develop relationships based on our giving to others. Every benefit needs food, and having consistent brand recognition in the charitable arena can do nothing but help people think La Nova.

3. Technological Advances: The last of my three customer loyalty suggestions is utilizing the new technologies that are available to us. We grind out reporting from our POS system to track new customers, order frequency, and lost business. We send appropriate mailers that are personalized to these different groups to stimulate the business. We can give the customer a much more individual focus during their ordering process utilizing their embedded information. And it allows efficiencies to us while at the same time maximizing our opportunity to raise ticket averages and upsell the customer. When we add new items to our menu or run LTO’s in order to see if a new item is going to be successful, the POS system provides all of the information we need to tailor the information our customers receive to their personal tastes. It is all about making the customer feel as if they are being cared for individually. Now with the incorporation of our gift and loyalty cards, we have taken this to the next level. We reward our repeat customers with incentives to buy from us again and again. La Nova loyalty cards repeat incentive cycles more frequently than our competition. And the feeling of someone opening their wallet, purse, or drawer and having a La Nova Card in their gives a visual trigger to continue to purchase from us.

Altogether, we are very aggressive with all of these strategies in maintaining and growing our core customer base. Individually, they are all good moves to make. Collectively, they are a dynamic customer management force that stimulates our business growth exponentially. When it comes down to the bottom line, it is all about people. Personal contact, a smiling face, a welcoming voice on the other end of the phone, a quick and decisive positive response to any and all concerns, and thanking people for their business are core practices for any successful brand. Without those structures in place in your culture, you could use any strategy you want, but it would be in vain. Treat your customers as good or better than you want to be treated and you will have success in spite of the many obstacles we deal with in our business every day. It starts with the owner taking a personal stake in his customers level of satisfaction.