Grimaldi’s® Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria certainly has earned its stripes as having one of the most iconic pizzas in the country. With its signature recipe based on pizza-making traditions that date back over 100 years, the company knows how to hold its own in the current market. By Kelsi Trinidad
THE BUZZ
Modern technology attracts customers of all ages
Grimaldi’s® Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria certainly has earned its stripes as having one of the most iconic pizzas in the country. With its signature recipe based on pizza-making traditions that date back over 100 years, the company knows how to hold its own in the current market.
In October 2020, Grimaldi’s launched a modernized online ordering service in response to its growing to-go business. With this new direct-ordering system, franchisees have an easier and more reliable online ordering experience and benefit from data insights unavailable from third-party platforms. Also, guests benefit by receiving loyalty points for their orders and the ability to save their favorite orders.
“Millennials and Gen Z prefer to use their phones to place orders for food,” explained Director of Marketing Pam Nedwetzky. “We wanted to make sure that they were ordering from Grimaldi’s website and app directly instead of third-party providers.”
In January 2021, Grimaldi’s also launched an app that enables customers to place orders and accrue points that can be redeemed for rewards. The Grimaldi’s Rewards program offers customers various rewards, including a free appetizer upon signing up, a free pizza on their birthday large enough for three people to share and opportunities to earn double points and other surprise rewards.
“People just absolutely love the program, which has increased our guest engagement and visit frequency,” said Nedwetzky.
While Grimaldi’s locations are available and listed on most third-party apps, there are big business advantages to funneling customers to its own platforms. Nedwetzky explained that orders through the website or app would then be delivered using the third-party apps, but each order would only incur a flat fee by the third-party platforms instead of a percentage of the order. Additionally, this allows both franchisees and the corporate team to gather more data on their customers, such as contact information, order frequency and preferred menu items.
“I’ve never had a franchisee say no to participating in any of the programs that we do on the app,” said Nedwetzky. “It’s a very cool program, and the rewards work.”
Kelsi Trinidad