By Kevin King, Donatos Pizza

In today’s world, technology is developing faster than ever before, and this evolution is having an immense impact on the franchising industry. This rise in technology emphasizes the importance of innovation and automation to businesses, reshaping the landscape vastly.

When franchises adapt and incorporate new technology into their businesses, it helps streamline operations and enhance customer experiences. At Donatos Pizza, we are wholeheartedly embracing this shift and are integrating automation, digitization and cutting-edge technology to push our business forward and deliver an innovative business opportunity to our franchise partners. Drawing from my personal experience in the pizza business, and technology advancement at Donatos, I am here to share insights that can help guide franchisees to the path of success.

At Donatos, we have always prioritized and continue to follow our unwavering commitment to technological advancements. The Grote Company, founded by Jim Grote, the founder of Donatos, has been a pioneer in food processing automation for over 50 years. The Edge Innovation Hub, our innovation arm at Donatos, was created in 2018 and has since evolved into a creative ecosystem dedicated to pushing the boundaries of technology. In 2022, Agape Automation officially launched as a standalone business dedicated to advancing automation technologies.

Going digital enables you to learn about your customers before they even set foot in your store, while automation affords you extra time to prioritize customer satisfaction.

At Donatos, we collaborate with all these businesses to create innovations that range from fully autonomous stand-alone restaurant concepts to compact prep-bots. The devices are built to free up busy workers and allows certain processes to operate with more ease. For instance, our “Peppamatic” automates the intricate process of slicing and applying pepperoni directly onto pizzas, a feat that involves positioning 100 slices on a single 14-inch pie. Meanwhile, our “Sm^rt Ring” and “Sm^rt Saucer” technologies ensure precision in sauce and topping application. Devices like this streamline the pizza-making process, ensuring that every pizza adheres to our high-quality standards at Donatos and that running the business is smoother for our franchise partners.

Today, most of our orders are placed online with minimal human touch. Guests have the freedom to explore our menu and personalize their orders. Mistakes are rare, and typically originate from the guest’s end rather than human error by our staff. If a mistake does occur, our staff has more time to address their needs and prioritize customer relationships. By automating tasks such as precise cheese distribution and perfect pepperoni slicing, our staff can focus on ensuring each guest leaves happy and well-cared for. This workflow can be adopted by many franchise businesses. Going digital enables you to learn about your customers before they even set foot in your store, while automation affords you extra time to prioritize customer satisfaction.

The true power of automation lies in its ability to deliver unwavering consistency.

The true power of automation lies in its ability to deliver unwavering consistency. Reliable preparation of pizzas and consistent delivery times result in happy, satisfied customers who trust our brand. This trust cultivates customer loyalty, ensuring they return to us time and time again. Without our emphasis on automation and technology, ensuring timely pizza delivery would be a considerable challenge. The labor shortage that plagues many businesses has made automation not just a choice, but a necessity at Donatos and many other establishments. Our intention at Donatos is not to replace our human workers, but give them the help they need to ensure consistency and excellence in customer service and, most importantly, to serve our customers their favorite pizza when they want it.

The labor shortage that plagues many businesses has made automation not just a choice, but a necessity at Donatos and many other establishments.

Looking ahead, we remain committed to technology and innovation. We are excited about expanding the deployment of autonomous restaurants through our innovative pizza vending machines with our collaborations with Agape Automation and Edge. I encourage other businesses to embrace automation, which helps Donatos enhance production efficiency and eliminate wait times for our guests.

While technology is a vital component of the Donatos experience, our fundamental mission remains unchanged: to serve the best pizza and make your day a little better. The pizza-making process has and will continue to improve, making it even easier for customers to savor our abundantly topped pizzas, subs and salads. In a world where the restaurant industry and the franchise landscape are witnessing a surge in automation, we at Donatos proudly remain on the cutting-edge of technology and innovation.

Kevin King is the president of Donatos Pizza. For more information about IFA franchisor member Donatos Pizza, please visit franchise.org/franchise-opportunities/donatos-pizza.

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