Welcome back Bruce Irving, Owner of Smart Pizza Marketing, to his third episode of Give an Ovation: A Podcast For Restaurants! Bruce is a luminary in the industry with over 350 episodes of his podcast, Smart Pizza Marketing, and was instrumental in helping get Give an Ovation off the ground – of our first ten guests, he was two of them!

Here’s one featured takeaway from this episode and Bruce’s answers to the questions Zack asks each guest:

Featured Takeaway: Less Is More

Bruce pointed out that you can walk into many pizzerias and find “5000” things on the menu. This dilutes brands because it’s hard to believe that they are really good at any one thing. Bruce recommends simplifying your menu to 10 items that you can prepare very well – this makes hiring easier too, as it speeds up the training period.

1: What is the most important aspect of the guest experience today?

How the customer feels about coming into your business. “If a customer feels uncomfortable when they come into your business, they’re not going to return. Even if you have the best food.”

2: What is something successful you have seen or tried lately?

Restaurants need to get on TikTok. “Did you know that the most famous people on TikTok are food content producers?”

3: Who is someone in the restaurant industry that deserves an Ovation?

Spencer Saylor, Founder of The Wizard of Za. “He serves pizza, but he serves it by appointment only…Six weeks ahead of time, he knows how many ingredients he needs. He knows how many people he needs on that particular day because he already has pre sold all of those pizzas. So now he knows how much revenue he’s coming in, and how much profit he’s going to make even before he opens the doors.”