CASE STUDY
More Feedback, More Wins: How Blaze Pizza Achieved a 56% Guest Recovery Rate
About Blaze Pizza
Blaze Pizza pioneered the build-your-own fast-casual pizza model, offering unlimited toppings at a single price across 250+ locations in 37 states — plus international locations in Canada, Bahrain, and expanding into Central America and Saudi Arabia. As the brand grows, keeping every guest experience consistent across a large franchise network is both the challenge and the mission.
“If you’re not paying attention to what the guests are saying, you’re probably missing the feedback loop — which is the most important part of the guest process.”
A Feedback Gap at Scale
Blaze Pizza knew they had a guest feedback problem — not a lack of effort, but a lack of reach. Their existing survey platform required guests to complete lengthy forms, leading to high abandonment rates and a trickle of responses that didn’t reflect what was actually happening in restaurants. Managers had no fast, reliable way to identify and respond to unhappy guests before those experiences went unresolved.
Simpler Surveys, Faster Recovery
After evaluating Ovation for nearly four years, Blaze Pizza made the switch, and the difference was immediate. Ovation’s SMS-based, one-click survey eliminated the abandonment problem entirely.
“With one click you can get a response, plus they SMS the guests. We no longer get abandoned surveys because it’s an SMS message.” – Chris Demery
The simplicity wasn’t just good for guests, it was a game-changer for franchisees. With real-time alerts delivered directly to their phones, managers could now reach unhappy guests and make things right before they walked out of the brand’s life for good.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
In just three months after rolling out Ovation, Blaze Pizza saw their online response rate climb 400% compared to what their previous platform was delivering, and recovered 10,000+ guests. Since launching Ovation, they’ve achieved a 56% guest recovery rate — and as Chris noted, guests who are recovered and return spend more, making each save a meaningful revenue event, not just a service gesture. They’ve also lifted their average online rating by 0.2 points — a small jump that matters, with every tenth of a point translating directly into new customers.
Ovation as a Franchise Performance Tool
Blaze Pizza didn’t just adopt Ovation as a guest recovery tool, they embedded it into how they evaluate and coach their entire franchise system. All 250 restaurants are segmented into quartiles based on Ovation data, and locations that aren’t actively saving guests receive direct coaching from the corporate team.
“We use it in our weekly metrics — our KPIs — in order to evaluate restaurant response rates.” – Chris Demery
The franchisee reaction said it all. When Blaze Pizza’s COO, Jamie Denny, announced the move to Ovation at their annual conference, she received a standing ovation from the room.
“You want to make a difference? Sign up with Ovation — you’ll get a standing ovation. Your response rate is going to go up 500 to 600%.” – Jamie Denny, COO, Blaze Pizza
“Our franchisees have immediate access to a guest that’s unhappy. They can get it right on their phone, they can save a guest really quick. The involvement of the manager and the franchisees in saving those guests is the real significant change.”
