Happy Thursday team! Today we say good-bye to April! May has all kinds of special days coming up! We've got Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Armed Forces Day, Cinco De Mayo, & of course... The Kentucky Derby! The most famous horse race in the world... and sponsored by Yum! as always! Break out your derby hats and mint juleps!



Stay tuned for all kinds of updates and information! Have a great day and a great weekend!

Busy as a Bee! It's Friday again! Time to feed Central Florida! Take your places Customer Maniacs and let's get those phones answered and those pizza's delivered fast, hot, friendly, and with a smile! Have a great weekend!!!

Hey teams we're just one day away from Friday again and we all know what that means! The whole world is going to want pizza! And not just any pizza... PIZZA HUT pizza!!!

Let's make sure we've got the phone staffed and everyone has a smile in their voice! Take excellent care of our customers and be sure to execute Champs and Customer Mania 100% with every guest! And if we make a mistake, fix it fast using BLAST! Let's make sure that our production teams and drivers are ready to hustle! Let's psych ourselves up tonight to get ready for a fabulous weekend!

And don't forget, if there's something on your mind you'd like us to blog about simply send us an email at: cflpizzahut@yahoo.com

Happy Thursday!

Hey teams! We had an excellent question come in from one of our managers:

QUESTION:

I would like to ask a question about the new way we package our cheese sticks...

Many of our customers are very upset about the way we now place the cheese sticks in the bag instead of the box. And to be honest with you, I must agree that the end result does not turn out well..

I did wanted to see what the customer got when they had their cheese sticks delivered in a bag vs. a box. Boy! what I ended up with was a mess. The sticks in the bag did not look good after being delivered. The bag was greasy, the sticks all twisted and stuck together and the sauce cup was even greasy. The box, has the sticks presented well and "clean" when handed to the customer...the box was not all greasy looking like the bag.

We did some digging, and spoke to the folks in Restaurant Readiness, and here's what we found.

ANSWER:

We have had this question come up a few times and have looked into extensively. We have tested this multiple times and could not duplicate any sticking in our labs or in restaurants that we have visited. We even went as far as using over spec cheesesticks and crushing the cheesesticks in the bag to try to duplicate the problem. The interior of the breadstick bag has a smooth surface that helps avoid any sticking. The only time we have seen any sticking is if the cheesticks are being cut in separate pieces and/or cut in half. The more greasy appearance is something that happens, but customer feedback has been minimal on this.

Best advice is to ensure that cheesesticks are spec’d properly and that they are put into the bag 5 across without being cut. While we would all agree the box does overall work easier and looks nicer than the bag, there is significant cost savings (Bag $.01 vs box $.11ea).

If you are seeing complaints or examples of this, please forward the complaints and/or any pictures you may have so we can look into it further. If you notice any pattern to it, that would be helpful too.

Thanks,
Robert Para
Restaurant Readiness
972-338-7627 Office

Happy Earth Day teams!

Be sure to do something GREEN today and help keep Mother Earth clean!

Some ideas:

Recycle!

Plant a tree!

Buy Earth friendly products that aren't overpackaged!

Turn off lights and electronics when not in use!

Turn off the water while you brush your teeth!

Try reusable water bottles and coffee mugs!

Start a compost bin!

Try reusable shopping bags!

Remember to enjoy Earth, but also to protect it!

Super huge congratulations to Ernie Gilbert, RGM of the Bayside store in Brady Webster's area! Ernie is show here accepting the "THINK BIG" personal recognition award from our Head Coach Scott Kilburn for Ernie's fantastic Champs results - 90% 100s after the first 4 periods of the year!!!

Awesome job Ernie! You have great people -huge smiles & a wonderful staff!

Another important message from our Loss Prevention Manager... Mike Keeler! Check it out! It's a Driver Hospitality course developed by Dana Freeman at PHI that is posted to the PHI Learning Zone.

Dick played a major role in getting safety & security awareness into this important training video.

Go to:

www.infinitudecreative.com/ph/ph_driver2a/player.html
User name: pizzahut
Password: review
*After you are logged in, it will direct you to open the file.

Because this is just an executable file, there may be some delays in between screens. If you want to navigate using the left-hand navigation bar to click on each item to go to, you can do that instead of just using the blinking arrow at the bottom of the screen.

You may need to scroll slightly down if your screen size does not show the blinking arrow button.

This is a grea tool for all our team members to check out, but especially our drivers!

Hey team! We've got a truly awesome Customer Mania story that RTM Adam Switzer from St. Cloud sent in to us... we just have to share it with everyone!

On Tuesday April 14th the power went out at around 4:30p.m. There was a customer in the dining room that had waited for her pizzas but they couldn't be cooked properly without power. The lady was not leaving without pizza. Teresa Little was the manager on shift at that time. She called our sister store in Narcoossee and Brad Winslow the MIC at that store made the order for her and our driver Jonathan Shuttera went down and picked it up so the guest would have her pizzas. That is Customer Mania on a grand scale exhibited by three people in two seperate restaurants working as one brand! Kudos to Teresa Little, Jonathan Shuttera and Brad Winslow.

Now that is true Customer Mania at it's BEST! Kudos from the entire Region to the amazing people who pulled this off! Way to think outside the box, and way to work together as a team between stores! We need more of these!

Thanks teams, and have a great week!

Hey Teams! It's Friday again! Let's make sure we have an awesome weekend! CSR's, get those phones answered fast, friendly, and with a smile in your voice! Drivers, let's hustle on our feet, make sure those orders are on time, and check them before you leave the restaurant to make sure they are correct! Our production teams... the front lines, let's make sure they have fresh stocked make-tables, plenty of ready for revenue, and get organized to turn out 100's of pies tonight! Managers, fire up the teams! Start with a quick pre-shift meeting, do a Champs cheer! Let's have an awesome night and have fun!!!

And remember, if something goes wrong, work quickly to make it right! It's easier and faster to work on the solution to an issue than it is to try and figure out why or how it happened! If we have an unsatisfied customer, make sure we execute BLAST 100% and win that customer's confidence back in Pizza Hut! Let's see if we can go the whole weekend without a single 1-800 customer complaint! Infact, let's use the 800 line for customer COMPLIMENTS! Let's see how many of those we can get!

Thanks for all your hard work! Have a great weekend!

Hey teams! Our fabulous Marketing Team Kristen & Meghan have been doing some incredible BCM training in the Region with our Dine-In restaurants and they would like to recognize some of our stores that are doing extremely well with BCM Dine-in service!

Yalonda @ Eustis had a perfect score! Awesome!

Gareth @ Maguire missed one Great Job!

Naomi @ Umatilla missed one Great Job!

Kristen & Meghan are an excellent support in the Region and we apprecaite all their hard work!

Hey team! Some more important information from our LPM Mike Keeler:

Team,

The recent storms may have caused some power interruptions to our CCTV systems. If yours is not working properly call Checkpoint at 800-888-4443. However, At no time should the person calling in the repair speculate what caused the DVR to need repair. It is Checkpoint’s responsibility to inspect the DVR and advise us what caused the failure. Checkpoint might ask if the restaurant got struck by lighting and our response should be that we do not why the equipment is not working.

And on another note...when the weather is bad please make sure our drivers are being extra careful on the roads and that we have our wet floor signs clearly posted in our lobbies and entry ways. Thanks so much and have a fabulous Wednesday!

Good Monday morning team! Hope everyone had a wonderful Happy Easter weekend! Just wanted to do a little recognition from Meghan & Kristen, our fabulous Marketing Team! The girls would like to recognize Arlee and his team at the Palm Bay MP for running a successful RAN! Keep up the great work!

If you'd like to contact Meghan & Kristen for Marketing support in your restaurants feel free to call them at the Region Office at: 407-859-2290 (Extensions: Meghan 4084 Kristen 4083)

Have a great week team! More bloggin' to come soon!

And rememeber, if there's something you want us to blog about, or a question you have; please email us at cflpizzahut@yahoo.com

Happy Good Friday Team! Hope everyone has a wonderful day! Just wanted to remind everyone that this Sunday is Easter. We here at Pizza Hut would like to wish a very Happy and Safe Easter Holiday weekend to all of our team members and their families!

May your baskets overflow with yummy chocolate bunnies and no rotten eggs! :)

We've had our first question - It simply asked why we can't mix the noodles & sauce together for Tuscani Pasta's - then just spoon the total weight into a pan.

I thought it was a great question & had to go straight to the RSC "Pasta Guy" for our response - Here is his response:

During the early stages of Tuscani Pastas mixing the sauce and noodles was a process that was
tested. However, there were a couple of issues identified with the process that led to the current
method of building our Tuscani Pastas products.

· The sauce is designed to be placed on top and then coat the pasta as it cooks.
Changing the process would possibly change the taste profile of the product.
· The sauce helps to insulate to noodles and prevent drying out during the cooking
process while still allowing us to reach food safe serving temperatures.

Thanks for the question!

Doug Hubbard Restaurant Readiness Coach 972-338-7786

Feel free to send in more questions or suggestions!!! I'm off to spend the day with Mo & Keith (we're going to get into some trouble today :-)) Have a great day!
Carl

Good afternoon CFL Blog readers :-)

Just a couple quick reminders:
We have our bi-weekly Jumpstart call this afternoon at 4:00pm. It's scheduled every 2 weeks - and the call is open to anyone on the team!

Blast - Our team had 81 customer concerns in the last 6 days! WOW
Please put yourself in our customers shoes & let's offer great solutions with a sincere apology when we make a mistake (I know we are shooting for perfect - it's just as important that we respond the right way with mistakes)

Last weekend the entire AC team & myself did Mystery Shops throughout the Region. We called a competitor & our local Pizza Hut at the same time & placed orders. Our goal was to see how good our service levels are & experience what our customers experience. WOW - it was an eye opening experience - Here's how we rolled up:
Overall:
Our competitor kicked our butt in 8 out of 11 experiences (judged on speed, friendly, product)

Our average delivery time was almost 36 minutes (some as high as 55 minutes)
Our competitor averaged 29 minutes (They had 5 orders arrive in sub 20 minutes)

Our phone service was better in most instances & overall driver hospitality went to the other guys.
We've made some progress in the last year; Our competitors are raising their game at the same time. It makes me wonder what it's going to take for us make a BIG MOVE with Delivery Service...................
If you have an idea - send it to me at carl.vannostrand@pizzahut.com or email our Blog address at cflpizzahut@yahoo.com
Thanks,
Carl

Happy April team! Hope it's off to a great start for everyone! Just a couple things we wanted to highlite for you from our LPM, Mike Keeler!

We have to be very careful about robberies when it comes to exiting the building after close. The driver door is not to be used for any reason after close. Anyone exiting the building after close must exit thru a full glass door, so that the surroundings can be checked prior opening the door and leaving the building. The staggered exit procedure must be followed per safety/security procedures. If you are a closing team member and you are NOT familiar with this procedure please see your RGM immediately for details and information!


On another safety note: Not all slip-resistant footwear is created equal. DON'T BE FOOLED! Always wear Shoes For Crews – The Shoe That Grips. Our micro-channel tread pattern and rubber compound grips wet and greasy floor surfaces with unbelievable traction! Make sure you are wearing Shoes For Crews too! Not only are they super safe, but they're comfortable too!

Stay tuned for more safety updates and information. Have a great weekend!