How to Get Good Service When Ordering Pizza

You may need to register before you make your first order with a restaurant. This will mean entering your name, your physical address and phone number, and your e-mail address. You'll also be asked to open an account with a username and a password. If you plan on ordering from the restaurant in the future, this adds a level of convenience. Your information will already be stored so you won't have to enter it in again the next time.

Step 1. Figure out what you want ahead of time. If you first want to see what specials the place you're calling is currently running, check websites or call the store and politely ask what the current promotion is. Many stores now employ "call catcher" systems, which will play a recording of the current specials for this very reason. So if an automated system picks up, listen to it. One of the most frustrating things is answering the phone in these stores only to be greeted with "What specials you got?" or some other variation of the same thing.

Step 2. Know your current phone number. You'd be amazed at how many calls I take a day that when asked for a phone number the person on the end has to pause a significant amount of time to recall it. Folks, this is your own phone number. The joking response of "I don't call myself often" is worn out. You're ordering a pizza, you know they will need it, so know it. Besides, it's a basic thing you should have memorized anyway. Also, do not give and continue to use an old, non-working number. If we need to reach you, there's a reason. Thus, a working, current phone number is important.

Step 3. Confirm the correct address. Most people who work in pizza shops are trained to confirm the address. However, most customers are paying little to no attention to the portion of the call set aside for this. The why of that is beyond me since if the shop has the wrong address, it's going to take significantly longer to get you your food. This amount of time is often tripled if you weren't paying attention to the end of Step 2.

Step 4. Choose the proper payment type in advance. If you're ordering a special, especially, you should know roughly how much your food is going to cost. Since you have a rough idea, you should also have a rough idea if you have enough cash to cover the pizza ordering system. Basically, check your wallet/purse/whatever ahead of time. Very few pizza shops employ remote credit card swiping. It does exist, but it's much more expensive and let's face it, you really shouldn't need it for pizza. This leads to a separate subject...

Step 5. Have your credit card ready in advance if you're paying credit. In the amount of time the average person spends locating, retrieving, and readying their credit card to be run, the average pizza cook can slap out and top an order. Think about it, that's one order closer to making your food. It's not that much time individually, but this occurs between 3 and 12 times in an average day for me. And we're not THAT high volume a store. It adds up to be a big difference.

Step 6. Understand that the person on the other end of the line is a human being. Too frequently people call a company. You're not calling a company, you're calling a person who happens to work there. They might even just do it part-time for some spare cash. There are absolutely zero reasons to have any sort of rude or offensive behavior when you're calling. If you're calling to complain about something, it's moderately unlikely that the person you get when you call had anything at all to do with your service. That's a fact. Even if they do, understand that mistakes happen. Especially in a place with as frantic a pace as a pizza shop on a Friday night, for example. Seriously, was your side of the ranch really that important?