It was hectic. But everything went well. Our installer made sure everything was foolproof and working as it should. The whole process was really satisfactory."

The Dykstras noticed immediate improvements with SpeedLine:

• Right away, SpeedLine helped improve speed of service and accuracy:
  "When we did everything by hand, an employee would take an order on the phone and I would notice that this wasn't what the customer usually ordered," Angie recounts. "So I'd have to call back to check. But now, with SpeedLine, we have the ability to recall orders, which is a huge plus. When customers phone, our staff can bring their order history on the screen and ask them if they would like to order the same thing again. This cuts back on mistakes and saves time."
  
• The system also gave the Dykstras more flexibility when setting prices:
  "When we used paper tickets," Angie says, "we wanted to make things easy, so all the prices came out to an even dollar amount, with the tax included in the price. Now that we have SpeedLine, we are able to set whatever price we wish and the system keeps track of the tax for us."

"There is so much we like about SpeedLine," Damon adds. "We haven't even been able to use all the features yet, because we're too busy. But it's good to know those capabilities are there and they'll be waiting for us when we're ready to start using them."

Size Experiments: Adding Customers, Growing Profits

Shortly after they installed SpeedLine, the Dykstras experimented with their pizza sizes in order to streamline operations. "We decided to sell only large pizzas," Angie says. "Since we make our dough fresh in the store, having one cut instead of three is a whole lot easier. And we were also hoping to promote pick-up to reduce our labor and delivery costs. So we changed our menu and reduced the price drastically to make it reasonable and attractive for our customers. We sold a large cheese pizza for $5, plus $1 per topping. And we would charge $3 for delivery."

But by popular demand, Hawaiian Pizza went back to offering a variety of sizes in March. Their extra-large pizza is especially popular. "The chains are not selling extra large," Angie says. "Our customers kept requesting the bigger pie, so we decided to bring the sizes back."

"We gained a lot of customers by drastically lowering our prices," Damon adds. "But the first month after we brought back the sizes — and adjusted our prices — we saw a $5000 increase in our monthly sales. And sales haven't slumped. This month looks like it could become the second busiest month we've ever had."

"We're still value priced and competitive with the chains," Damon adds. "But we make better pizza. And we decided we don't want to build our business around people who only buy on price. We have a lot of customers who come in and say 'This is the best pizza I ever had.' It's exciting to see that this is where a large portion of our growth comes from."

The Dykstras love making good pizza: One highlight is presenting customers with hot pies right out of the oven. "It gives us a lot of satisfaction to watch their reaction when they see their pizzas," Angie says.

With a growing reputation in the community and solid sales to boot, Angie and Damon began to contemplate expansion. When an opportunity came up to open a second store in a better location, they jumped at the chance. It was a big change: "Both of us used to be in the store all the time," Angie says. "Now that we have two locations to monitor, we no longer have two sets of eyes constantly double-checking everything. That's why we're thankful we can rely on SpeedLine to help us manage efficiently."

The second Hawaiian Pizza is located in a bigger strip mall with higher traffic. "Our first store is not in a hot spot location by a long shot," Angie says. "The grocery store that anchors the mall is old and there are a couple of empty spots. Our new store will definitely get more exposure since it is near a destination exit for restaurants and in a much newer and more attractive shopping area."

The grocery store in their new mall location prints Hawaiian Pizza's advertisements on the back of its register tapes. "When we first started out, having offers on the back of grocery receipts was a good way for us to get our name out there," Angie says.

At first, getting widely known had been of prime importance for Hawaiian Pizza. "We were not members of the community," Angie says. "We didn't have friends or family members who could help us out by spreading the word about our business."

In addition, they used bulk mailers to target the neighborhoods surrounding the store. "We got a very good response from using Valpak mailers," Angie says. "That was a great way to get our menu out there. We had extra copies printed so we could use them in the store as well."

"Two months after we opened, we also got a billboard," Angie adds. "It was pretty cool to see our name way up there like all the large companies."

But now that they have established a solid customer base, Angie and Damon are ready to use their POS system's marketing capabilities to reach their existing customers and build loyalty, frequency and order value. They recently started using SpeedMail, SpeedLine's turnkey direct mail marketing service. They are now mailing offers to encourage repeat business from new customers, increase sales to loyal customers, and recover customers who are potentially lost to the competition.

Damon and Angie are also working on setting up SpeedLine Inventory to control their food cost. "We'll be able to track everything even more than we do now," Angie says. "It will help our bottom line."