Did you know the average customer will hang on for 15 seconds during dead-air silence over the telephone? Did you also know when you use music or some sort of message during on-hold, that time doubles? If delivery and carryout are a large part of your business and you don’t have a phone system or an on-hold message to keep your customers entertained and informed, you could be losing business, creating unsatisfied customers, and losing potential money in bundling and upselling. Although on-hold messages are one of the most important features to having a good phone system, here are some other advantages and reasons why your pizzeria needs a good phone system, and also some tips on how to know when yours may need an update.  

How phone systems work for the pizza industry
Finding the right phone system for your pizzeria depends mostly on the size of your store. Over 90% of the average pizza shop’s business comes in over the telephone. A small store that has one phone line with call waiting needs more lines in every case. If your pizzeria is doing any delivery or carryout business, it’s crucial to have a telephone system—but not the office-type telephone system. Pizzerias need industrial telephone systems because pizza stores are industrial environments. The biggest difference between an office phone system and an industrial system is in the phone itself. You don’t need a lot of buttons on these phones. You mainly want something that’s going to work if you spill a drink on it, and something that will hold up with flour and cornmeal floating around.

Most phone systems will come with a Key Service Unit (KSU) that controls all the phone functions: the ringing, the phone lines, the digital display, the caller ID…etc. Everything goes into one box and from there it goes out to the phone set. These types of phone systems work perfect for the pizza industry because they have the ability to transfer calls from one set to another, and also give you the ability to put callers on hold. The newest technology for telephone systems lies in Call Sequencing, which actually answers the phone with a message, and it controls how long the customer will have to wait before being connected to a person.

These messages are used to upsell the customer, and to thank them for calling, but from the pizzeria’s standpoint, it acts as a controlling device to keep calls organized. After the message plays, the customer is put through to the cashier. With a call sequencer, the timing is built into the system, so nobody will be on hold longer than 15 or 20 seconds. The specific messages can be allotted to play at certain times of the day, or certain days of the week. So, if you want to sell two large pizzas for the price of one on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the phone system allows you to play that special message on those days. On those days that may be less busy than you’d like, remember that it costs just as much money to deliver one pizza as it does two pizzas, so if we can increase the average ticket order, that’s a huge win for the pizzeria and for the customer.

How to upsell using your on-hold message
For years, fast food companies have been masters at upselling because they’ve been able to get their employees to offer the meal deals and to upsell side items such as French fries and drinks. Imagine being able to increase your average ticket order by 50 cents or more. Doesn’t sound like much, but to the pizza guy that does 1,000 orders a month, that’s a huge increase. The important factor here is not being able to draw in new customers, but to take those existing customers and raise the revenue from them, as opposed to trying to bring new customers into the store. Bundling items together, such as the price of a pizza, some wings, a salad, adding all that together and calling it the Family Meal Deal, doesn’t reduce prices but makes it that much easier for the customer to make a good decision for the family. Promoting it on the front end of the call through a short message really gets their attention.

Creating an effective message can be tricky and here are a few things you need to know. The upfront message for the call sequencer should be around 15 seconds long. It’s usually going to say the day’s specials, which is going to be the bundle, and research has found that $19.99 is the magic number because most customers are prepared to spend $20, and we wouldn’t want to disappoint them by selling them only $15 worth of food.

 There are services out there that will update your messages for you with professional voice talents, and on average, cost around $40 per month for unlimited updates. Most companies actually encourage their customers to update the messages at least once a month to keep it fresh—something as simple as just changing from a man’s voice to a woman’s voice can actually trick customers into paying attention.

How many phones do you need?
Most pizzerias will need between four and six different lines, depending of course on how much phone business you do. If six people call at once, and you have six lines, the next customer to call will get a busy signal. But that’s really a good thing because you don’t want more business than you can handle. Hearing a busy signal gives customers a sense of urgency. Some of today’s systems can even generate reports to let you know how much traffic your phone lines are receiving, and when it’s time to update to more lines.

Although there is an alternate solution to using phones in your store, it’s not as personable or as trustworthy. Using a call center is one of the most popular alternatives to taking calls in the pizzeria. Call centers can be effective, but often take the personal touch away from the pizzeria and also, if you’re a multi-unit chain using a call center and something goes down at the call center, they’re taking your business down with them. Albeit, many people believe the myth that having a call center alleviates the need for extra staff, the reality is you still need that labor because someone has to put together the boxes, keep everything clean, refill the make lines, etc.

Phone systems and technology
Integrating with your POS system is one great advantage to having a phone system in sync with your POS. Through caller ID, pizzerias have been able to bring up a customer’s information immediately when they are transferred to the cashier. This is a great feature, but compared to some of the new options available with phone systems, that’s nothing!

One platform-based system that’s new to the market offers courtesy callback, survey abilities, and a VIP feature that allows the pizzeria to market to existing lost or lazy customers. It is designed to offer even the smallest pizzeria some of the luxuries the large guys are getting into. The callback feature works like this: when the driver takes the order out of the store and clears it from the POS, it calls the customer and lets them know their order is on the way. The message is fully customizable to fit your needs. This can be especially useful in the delivery business because the anxiety level of customers waiting is so high: the customer will call in, and if you said the pizza was going to be there in 40 minutes, at 30 minutes they’re getting ready. At 40 minutes they’re looking out the window; at 50 minutes, they’re on the phone calling the store. It’s also useful for pizza stores in bad areas because with the callback feature, the restaurant will know immediately if the number was a bogus number.

The next feature offers a customizable survey to customers. This makes a huge difference in comparison to mystery shopping, which can cost upwards of $50 each visit. It also allows you to do 100% of your customer base for pennies. At the end of the day, an email with all the survey results is sent to the owner or manager. The final option, the VIP feature, allows the pizza store to contact all the lazy or lost customers that haven’t been in for 30 to 90 days. To do this on a slow night makes sense. You can offer them a return VIP special that will really grab their attention. Thirty percent of everybody you call will order from you sometime in the next seven days. With direct mail, you’re lucky to get a two percent response.  

Conclusion
So by now, you’re probably asking yourself how much all of this costs. The typical pizza shop can plan to spend between $2,500 and $3,000 for a good phone system. Some of the newest systems, such as the platform mentioned above with the extra options, are included with some new POS systems and price depends mostly on which functions you’re using and how often.

With a good phone system, and all the features mentioned above, you could literally run all of your store marketing yourself, keep your customers satisfied with on-hold entertainment, and upsell through bundling and special offers.

Here’s a list of telecom companies to get you started: