Did you know that pizza has been part of American life for more than 100 years? The first U.S. pizzeria opened in New York City in 1905 and soon there were more pizzerias in New York than in Rome or Milan. In those early days, pizza was a delicious taste of home for Italian immigrants. It took decades for pizza to become the American standard we know today. In 1954, when Buddy LaRosa opened his first pizzeria on Cincinnati’s West Side, many Americans hadn’t even heard of pizza but it’s now a family favorite from coast to coast. As Americans’ demand for pizza has grown, LaRosa’s Family Pizzeria has grown with it. The company now operates 65 locations in and around Ohio and every one of those restaurants still has the LaRosa name on them. Ensuring the highest-quality food and experience remain the highest priority for company management, many of whom are family members. LaRosa’s Family Pizzeria is achieving the brand consistency the company needs to succeed with AuditApp by MeazureUp.
How Much is Brand Consistency Worth?
Studies estimate that, across industries, it costs a business up to 25X more to attract a new customer than it does to retain one. Further, customer loyalty correlates to frequency of visits, per-visit spend, and customer lifetime value (CLV). When a company achieves an increase of only 7% in brand loyalty, the CLV of each client can rise by as much as 85%. The most loyal customers are also the most valuable. Finances Online reports that:
- 65% of purchases come from repeat customers.
- 52% of customers are willing to go out of their way to purchase from a trusted brand.
- 43% of customers pay more for brands they are loyal to.
Brand Consistency is the Key to Customer Loyalty
The most successful multi-unit restaurant chains are those that provide diners with a dependable, excellent experience. A recent KPMG survey found that the only factors more important to consumers’ spending decisions than consistency were quality and value. Defining brand standards and holding franchisees and employees accountable for upholding them creates the consistent brand identity needed to attract and retain customers, drive sales, and increase profitability. Consistent branding increases revenue by creating a sense of familiarity and trust with customers that builds loyalty. When customers know what to expect from a restaurant chain, they are more likely to return, and recommend the chain to others.
Brand consistency can also help improve operational efficiency by reducing the complexity of managing multiple locations. When all stores follow the same processes and procedures, it becomes easier to train new employees, manage inventory, and maintain quality standards, reducing costs and improving profitability.
LaRosa’s Family Pizzeria is Achieving Brand Consistency with MeazureUp
Brooke Stock is a Field Operations Specialist for LaRosa’s Family Pizzeria. She goes out into the field to conduct site visits and then uses what she discovers to ensure the quality of food and experience at each location meet brand standards, and well as to plan and develop materials for employee training. She and her team conduct anywhere from four to 20 audits at each location annually, focusing on food, service, security, and more. They use AuditApp by MeazureUp to get the job done.
Stock reports that, prior to making the transition to MeazureUp’s digital field assessment tool, she would begin her process by searching for old audits to analyze. Then she’d make her site visits with paper and pen in hand, recording observations and making notes before returning to the office to write a report and share it with her colleagues. MeazureUp has made her process easier and more efficient. Everything she needs to know about what her stores are doing well and what they need to improve is at her fingertips. “I’m really impressed with the range of questions we can use,” she says. “It opens up a whole new world of what we can go in and look for. We’ve got yes/no, temperature ranges, and timing of tasks. Previously, I had to sit with a stopwatch in my hand!”
Spotting problems quickly means that Stock can give suggestions to the stores and correct them before they become trends. She says, “I ask myself, ‘Is there something we need to do to give the stores backup?’ Using the AuditApp dashboard, I can graph results over multiple audits and multiple stores to know.” This critical feature helped LaRosa’s recently by highlighting a food prep consistency issue. Stock tells the story. “We switched how to make the lasagna and, thanks to AuditApp, we realized that stores were confused about the new procedure. It helped us make new training tools and signage so they understood how it should be made and then we stopped seeing the repeat offenses.”
When asked what she prefers about AuditApp, Stock doesn’t hesitate with a reply. “The biggest benefit is the actions button. All the district managers love being able to follow up without going to a store again. I can do an audit, then assign an action to a specific person, give it a due date, and receive emails to let me know that it’s completed.” She says that many of the district managers take advantage of the app’s photo and video capabilities, something that their old pen and paper couldn’t support.”
The managers also enjoy sharing information and photos of problems they’ve solved with their peers on the LaRosa’s team, holding each other accountable and knowing how their stores well their stores are competing with other locations. These store performance rankings can be used as a tool to motivate franchisees and managers by establishing clear performance goals and providing recognition and rewards for high-performing locations. Before switching to MeazureUp, stores were scored in a color range – green, yellow, red. Now managers have detailed percentage scores to understand how their stores are performing per section and overall.
AuditApp’s accessibility, portability, and flexibility has streamlined and optimized field audits for LaRosa’s Family Pizzeria. What could our digital field assessment tool do for your company? Let’s find out together. Schedule a demo today.
