Papa John’s Please Don’t Call Our Stores

Technology has replaced the phone almost.  Papa John’s in an effort to drive operational efficiencies wants to take the phone out of the restaurant and replace it with more relevant technology. Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru®, at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® knew this day would come when he sold the first 7 national chain restaurants cyberslice / Food.com online ordering back in the day and Papa John’s was the first.

Today, about 30% of orders at a typical Papa John’s now come in through the old-fashioned method, but it’s still disruptive enough that the company is introducing a call center to take those orders in a system called Papa Call.

CEO Rob Lynch said in an interview with Restaurant Business, “Phone answering is almost always a secondary piece of the operating model,”. “It can be something that takes away from what a driver is supposed to be doing and it can increase delivery time by a few minutes. Or it may increase the time it takes to get a pizza in the oven. This removes all that.”

Here is the point, the Papa Call center eliminates the need to take phone orders inside the restaurant, which frees up employees to do deliveries or make pizzas. The company is rolling it out to all company restaurants and plans to have it available systemwide by the second half of the year.

 More than just the phone there is a new piece of equipment. A new dough spinner that they tested inside of its company restaurants.  It reduces about 80% of the labor involved in flattening and stretching out pizza dough. That saves time and money driving incremental operational efficiencies.

Are you looking a customer ahead?  What steps are you taking to drive customer relevance and operational efficiencies?  Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization? Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.