Jacob Stephens, owner of Post Game Pizza, has built a dynamic brand with three bustling locations across Southwest Missouri. Post Game Pizza is a unique, independent-style operation, preparing pizza from scratch with homemade dough and high-quality, fresh ingredients.
The Challenge: A Lagging POS System
For years, Jacob navigated the competitive pizza market with a point-of-sale (POS) system that, despite affordability, simply “was not meeting the needs of our brand.” What started as a “shoestring budget” operation evolved, but the technology didn’t keep up. Jacob vividly recalls a breaking point in 2022: his previous POS system had “completely crashed out on us.” Daily, he and his managers spent 45 minutes to an hour on tech support calls.
“Stuff’s not working,” Jacob remembers. This instability had a profound impact, especially on his team. “The employees are losing faith in us,” Jacob explained. “The one thing that you don’t want to do with an employee is… give them the perception that you’re messing with their money.”
This ultimately led to a “really high” turnover rate and immense stress for management.
Jacob was looking at alternative systems like Arrow, Adora, PDQ, and Toast, but found them “severely handicapped” with reliance on “third-party this, third-party that,” creating too many “fail points for the software to communicate properly.” He needed a unified solution that wouldn’t compromise.
The Solution: A POS System Specialized for Pizza
In a moment of frustration, Jacob received a call that changed everything. A contact recommended FoodTec, noting, “They’ll be your best fit.” Jacob quickly found that FoodTec was designed for growing chains like his, unlike his previous system which “lost their niche on pizza.” He describes FoodTec as a “space shuttle of a POS System.”
The transition was more than he hoped for. “What I’ve gotten out of the FoodTec system has outreached my expectations,” Jacob enthusiastically shares. “It is overachieved on that level… it actually works. And that’s invaluable.”
Revolutionizing Jacob’s Operations
FoodTec delivered on Jacob’s critical needs and brought unexpected advantages, transforming daily workflows and team morale.
Streamlined Scheduling & Employee Buy-in
One significant improvement came from FoodTec’s integrated Employee Management for scheduling. “When we switched to FoodTec and the scheduling went directly to their phone and their app, they stopped trying to whittle around” when picking vacations dates – no longer hovering around the vacation date calendar in the store to see when others were taking time off. Jacob states. “[FoodTec] really made a relaxed system happen.”
FoodTec’s scheduling even offers forecasting capabilities, predicting staffing needs based on projected sales – a feature Jacob “never had before.”
Dynamic Scoreboards & Real-time Delivery Tracking
A win for Post Game Pizza was the implementation of FoodTec’s Performance Reporting scoreboards and Delivery Monitoring driver maps on large screens in the store. “No employees like seeing red,” Jacob observes. “When that red pops up there for delivery times or out-the-door times or our sales… they’re all trying to chip in and help out to get those times back in the green, which is something I never had before.” This fosters a proactive team environment.
For deliveries, the real-time driver map provides immense peace of mind. “You’re so secure when you can see [drivers] on the map… you can really help guide them,” Jacob says. “They have trust in you and they’ve bought in.”
Integrated Marketing & Customer Journeys
Beyond operations, Post Game Pizza also took advantage of FoodTec’s integrated marketing features. The system captures real customer behaviors and data, allowing Jacob to push smarter, more targeted campaigns directly from his POS. Jacob notes: “The other thing that I wanted to be able to do was offer things online for in-store purchases, but not for delivery. And that was a big one-off that my current system would not do.” This helped Jacob boost customer loyalty and repeat business without third-party systems.
Advanced Couponing & Flexible Online Offers
FoodTec significantly upgraded Post Game Pizza’s couponing capabilities through its Loyalty Programs. “You can buy a large… you can buy an extra large… you can set it for a cheese pizza up to a certain amount of toppings… the couponing and features with FoodTec were very imperative to me and my customers.”
Precision Inventory and Flawless Order Accuracy
FoodTec’s deep integration brought unprecedented control over inventory and order flow.
Smart Inventory Management
Jacob praises the system for its ability to track inventory precisely with Inventory Optimization. “When you’re using the inventory management system and they’re going around with their phone and they’re counting, everybody counts pretty much the same,” he notes. The system then generates a variance report, quickly identifying “which top 10 variants are wrong… and you’ll probably diagnose the problem very quickly.” This reduces human error and teaches operators to be “more tuned, more clear-cut, more calculated.”
Even better, the system’s vendor integration allows Jacob to “toggle between who’s going to be the least expensive that week.” He states, “Not only does it keep them honest, they have to update that price every week. And when that price updates, I get the email. And then if they don’t win the bid, they don’t get the order.”
Enhanced KDS and Deferred Order Mastery
“Definitely better order accuracy,” Jacob confirms, thanks to FoodTec’s Kitchen Systems (KDS). The new system displays “order boxes,” streamlining the make line, printing labels precisely when items are bumped, and ensuring the cut table always knows what’s coming. Previously, “deferred orders were a nightmare.” Jacob recounts, “The old system would do deferred orders… 25 minutes before they were due… this was probably our biggest number one complaint.”
Now, “our deferred orders are on time. They’re accurate.” This single change solved a major customer complaint.
The Impact: Building a Stronger Brand for Post Game Pizza
For Jacob, the past couple of years with FoodTec haven’t been solely about profit. Instead, he’s focused on “rebuilding the brand” by empowering his team and improving core processes. “When the employees are happy, and the customers are happy and there’s no problems, everybody’s… in a lot better ecosystem,” Jacob concludes.
FoodTec has given Post Game Pizza the foundation to thrive: “I’ve kept better employee retention. I’ve got better food costing… better reporting, better marketing, better rewards program. And these are the things that I can build a brand on.” Jacob sums it up perfectly, reflecting on the philosophy of helping others to achieve his own goals: “FoodTec… has given me the tools to be able to fulfill that promise that I can now give everybody everything that they want. And then in return, I can have everything that I want.”
The partnership with FoodTec has equipped Post Game Pizza for continued success and growth in the competitive Missouri market.
Are you looking to rebuild your brand with powerful, integrated tools? FoodTec Solutions offers digital tools designed specifically for pizzerias to help you grow.