Pizza World, a rapidly expanding pizza franchise with 14 stores in Florida, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri (and 12 more stores coming soon), was grappling with a common challenge for growing restaurant chains: a disjointed and unreliable Point of Sale (POS) system. Their previous provider, Hunger Rush (formerly Revention), had frequent system crashes, communication breakdowns between online ordering and in-store systems, and a frustrating lack of essential features. Ryan Wortham, Vice President Director of Operations and Training at Pizza World, describes the situation as a “nightmare.”
“Our system was down all the time, and it was usually always on a Friday night,” Wortham recounts. “The online ordering wouldn’t update. We had text marketing, and we wouldn’t even get the text orders, and people would be showing up saying, ‘Well, I placed an order, but we never got it!'”
Ryan and his team voiced their frustrations repeatedly, even presenting a detailed list of problems at Pizza Expo in 2022. Despite promises, nothing changed. Something finally changed when Ryan met Andrew and Chris from FoodTec. “Anyways, the rest is history from there,” he says. That’s when Pizza World’s journey upgrade to new technology started to turn around, and Ryan finally found the solution and partnership to build on.
Getting Customers to Spend More Online
For Ryan, one of the biggest changes came with Pizza World’s Online Ordering system. He saw a clear, dramatic impact on sales. “Our average ticket over the phone, the last time I looked, was $28. But our average ticket online is $42,” Ryan reveals. “FoodTec’s suggestive upselling had the biggest impact.”
Saving Thousands on Food Costs Annually
Ryan also found a big help in FoodTec for controlling costs. Using Inventory Optimization led to quick savings. By keeping close tabs on what they had and how much they needed, Ryan found his store was saving about $500-$600 a week in ordering, which totals “$2,000 a month that’s going in my pocket.” He emphasizes the huge impact: “That overpays for the system a couple of times over… just that feature alone was awesome.”
Training New Hires in Minutes
Before FoodTec, getting new team members ready to take orders was a process that took days. Ryan described how FoodTec totally transformed this for him. “Everything’s on one page; it’s so simple and easy that training somebody went from two or three days to about 10 minutes,” he shares. This quick training meant his staff could become productive much faster, saving time and money on training.
Never Losing an Order Again
Ryan pointed out a big improvement in daily operations: the ability to easily answer customer questions without stopping the order process. He really liked FoodTec’s tool that lets staff switch between screens without losing any progress on an order. “If you’re taking an order and somebody says, ‘How long is it going to be for delivery?’ you can click over to the delivery screen, see how many orders are queued, and then go back to the order page without losing any of the order,” he explains, a huge difference from their previous system where “if you exit out of the order screen and went to the delivery screen, you lost everything.”
Running Marketing Campaigns His Way
Ryan felt held back by his old POS system’s limited marketing and promotion options, which stopped Pizza World from being creative with their marketing strategy. With the Target Market application from FoodTec, he found flexibility. “With FoodTec, the options are pretty much unlimited for what you can do with coupons,” he states. These new capabilities allowed Pizza World to create special offers, like a “buy two, get one free” offer that was impossible before, giving them a big advantage in the market. Of course, detailed reporting on open rates, redemptions, and incremental revenue allowed Ryan to measure each campaign.
Tracking Every Delivery in Real-Time
Delivery Monitoring, also referred to as Delivery IQ, has been a game-changer for Ryan. Drivers can download a free app from Apple or Google Play, which enables a comprehensive driver and order tracking feature. “The best thing is, for me, is it tracks the delivery drivers,” Ryan says excitedly. “I can see where they’re at, if they’re going different routes, if they’re stopping by their friend’s house… It holds them accountable to get back to the store.” This way of keeping an eye on things even led to lower insurance costs for Pizza World, and customers appreciate seeing their order and delivery progress in real-time.
Boosting Sales on Slow Days
Ryan used FoodTec’s Loyalty Programs to build stronger customer ties. The chain implemented double points on Mondays, a day that was usually slow for Pizza World. “It’s really helped our Mondays pick up too,” he noticed. He’s also seen businesses placing larger orders under their accounts to collect points, essentially “feeding their family for free on the weekend.” The ability for customers to use their points at any Pizza World location across the country makes the program even better and gets customers to come back more often across their growing number of locations.
Scheduling His Team in Minutes
Managing his team’s schedules used to be a job that took a lot of time for Ryan. With FoodTec’s Employee Management features, he can create a primary schedule template for managers and easily populate it, allowing them to generate a full schedule in about five minutes. The system also sends employees a notification an hour before their shift, “so there’s no excuse for them to be late or say they forgot.”
Automating Marketing to Drive More Orders
Ryan has used FoodTec’s smart marketing tools, including smart text and email campaigns, with great results. He sets up automated campaigns that run weekly, allowing for a “set it up once and let it run” approach to marketing. He describes an especially smart use of SMS text marketing that goes after “lazy customers”: if a customer orders twice a month, the system sends them a text on their “off weeks” with a special offer like “$5 off $30 or more” to encourage more frequent orders and get them to spend more.
Delivering Perfect Orders, Every Time
For Ryan, getting rid of order mistakes was a huge win. Thanks to FoodTec’s Kitchen Display Systems and label printing features, he proudly says, “We hardly ever mess up orders.” The system generates labels for boxes, indicating the total number of items and their corresponding numbers (e.g., “1 of 5”), ensuring drivers check everything before leaving the store. “I mean, things still get forgotten once in a while, but hardly ever anymore. And that’s one thing that our customers have to say in the reviews: They never mess up orders. They never forget things!”
Empowering Franchisees with Real-Time Business Data
Pizza World is growing fast, aiming for 50, then 100 stores. FoodTec is a big reason they can grow. Ryan explains that his franchisees “love that they can look on their phone and say, ‘Alright, this is who’s on the clock, this is what our sales are… if there’s any voided orders, if there’s any comps.’ They could see what’s going on in the palm of their hand if they’re not in their store. They think it’s the coolest thing.”
Supporting All His Stores Centrally
As Pizza World expands, Ryan’s ability to support new locations efficiently is crucial. For him, the ability to remotely log into any store’s computer and provide real-time training and support has revolutionized his role. “It makes it so much easier being a trainer than it has been in the past,” he says, contrasting it with the old days of needing to travel or relying on cumbersome third-party software. This capability is vital for managing a rapidly growing franchise network spread across different states.
Ryan Wortham’s experience clearly shows how an up-to-date, fully-featured and highly reliable POS system can be a powerful driver for growth and efficiency. FoodTec helped him create more streamlined operations, increased customer satisfaction, drive incremental sales, and reduce inventory costs. FoodTec has been a key partner in their success.
Is your restaurant ready to experience a similar transformation? Contact us today to learn how FoodTec can help you achieve your operational and growth goals.