About the Guest

Stacie Colburn Hayes is the Chief Marketing Officer at Oath Pizza, a Nantucket-born, better-for-you pizza brand with over 60 company-owned and franchise locations across the country. Prior to Oath, Stacie held marketing leadership positions at honeygrow and Chipotle Mexican Grill.

Episode Summary

COVID-19 has dramatically impacted the U.S. restaurant industry. In this episode, we talk to Stacie Colburn Hayes, Chief Marketing Officer of Oath Pizza, about how her team’s quick response to the crisis and strong digital infrastructure helped them minimize the crisis’ impact. You will hear about their overnight pivot to an 100% off-premises model and be inspired by their rapid innovations including a touch-less food truck and pizza kit care-packages now available nationwide.

Episode Transcript

Zach Goldstein

(00:01):

From fake meat and robot chefs to ghost kitchens and delivery drones. The restaurant industry is rapidly evolving. Welcome to Food Fighters, bringing you interviews with the leading industry trailblazers. I’m your host, Zach Goldstein.

Zach Goldstein

(00:18):

Welcome back to Food Fighters. I’m your host, Zach Goldstein. We’re recording this in early April in the middle of the COVID crisis. Stacie Colburn Hayes is the Chief Marketing Officer at Oath Pizza, a Nantucket-born, better-for-you pizza brand with over 60 company owned and franchise locations across the country. Prior to joining Oath Pizza, Stacie spent time in marketing at honeygrow and Chipotle Mexican Grill. Stacie, thanks for coming on Food Fighters.

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(00:43):

Thank you for having me.

Zach Goldstein

(00:45):

It’s obviously a pretty crazy time across the restaurant industry and frankly across the country. We wanted to have you on the podcast because you are really leaning heavily into digital innovation and it’s playing an impact in, in your strategy and you’re thriving through this crisis. So thank you for spending the time and we’re excited to hear about some of the things you’re doing that other restaurants may be able to learn from.

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(01:11):

I agree. I hope it’s helpful. This is a really challenging time, but whatever I can do to help other people out there, I, I would love to support however I can.

Zach Goldstein

(01:20):

Thanks. So your CEO, Drew Kellogg recently said, quote, “customers pay for three things: great product, great service and convenience. It’s clear that we live in an era where convenience is reshaping the landscape.” And I think that quote is, is remarkably true in general and has only been made more true when consumers are sheltering in place and the dynamic between a consumer and a restaurant has been upended. How are you thinking about consumer demand for convenience changing restaurants in general? And what has it meant to think that way in the middle of this COVID crisis?

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(02:02):

Yeah, I think it’s a really great quote as well. Um, looking back to the beginning of this crisis. It was definitely we thought before that people wanted convenience and accessibility and a seamless experience and that has multiplied drastically since this has been put in place. I think the easiest way to look at it is that teachers just as teachers have been forced to learn how to adapt and use technology to teach their students from afar and remotely. We are seeing that people who traditionally have gone in-restaurant to dine and enjoy that in-person experience have been forced or led to try online ordering, download apps, try the different services that exist to bring those meals to their homes. So people are, are looking for new ways faster than we thought that they would have before.

Zach Goldstein

(03:05):

Prior to the crisis, in particular, over the last 18 months or so, your team has been at the forefront of off-premise innovation, digital ordering, CRM data, and I’m sure that served you well in these last couple of weeks. Can you tell us a little bit about your focus over that 12 to 18 month period and how it’s changed your business in general and more specifically during the COVID-19 crisis?

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(03:31):

When I started with Oath a little over a year ago, digital was definitely the focus for me and for our team. And we were preparing for a time that we knew would get here eventually when digital would be the preferred method of ordering. We had a platform that worked but was not as convenient as it could be and integrated with the brand solutions for our teams and for our customers. And so we really spent the time to figure out how do we maximize the effectiveness of the digital ordering that we have in place today? How do we make third party delivery profitable? How do we capture data and learn more about our customers so we can provide them with what they need? And that was really the focus over 12 months and putting all of those things in place to come out with a solution that was really great for our business and also for the consumer and for our teams as well.

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(04:35):

And coming to this point, we’ve just seen that timeline of what we knew would eventually happen speed up considerably. And we’re finding ourselves in a place much faster than we thought we would be where we are having to adjust even more. But we got to a place a few months ago where we felt really confident about the platform that we had and the experience we were providing. And we put a lot of marketing behind that and the timing really worked out where we had a solution that we felt comfortable driving people to. So when this crisis hit and we were forced to look at what we need to do now, instead of looking at trying to implement things that would be the basic level of digital for our business, we can now focus on how do we adjust even more? How do we innovate? How do we provide our customers that we have in our database now with what they need? Which has been a really great opportunity for us that we wouldn’t have otherwise had.

Zach Goldstein

(05:42):

When you talk about that acceleration of the switch, that really resonates. I saw some data recently that showed for most restaurants that were doing off premise, that obviously excludes those, that that weren’t 80% of revenue or so was coming from, from on premise and 20% off premise. And that number has obviously shifted massively during the crisis for, for many restaurants, 100% of revenue, uh is, is now coming off premise. What are some of the key elements of that strategy that you had to get right? You know, in terms of the actual consumer experience, in terms of what functionality you needed to be there to actually incentivize consumers to come to you as opposed to go to third parties, as you mentioned.

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(06:26):

We first had to look at the platform that we had and how to make it a very easy, seamless, attractive solution for people. So we really had to look at what we had in place and what they needed and eliminate any types of friction that would exist in that experience. And so we worked really hard to make it easy to sign up for the program that we have and order online, made sure that our prices could be the same as the ones that we offered in store when we had pickup only and online ordering only. And then we integrated a delivery solution that we were directly responsible for, a white label solution on the backend so that we could drive people to our platform and offer both pickup and delivery from ourselves versus third party, which really helped us to make sure that we were driving our existing customers to order from us and then providing them with the different offers and solutions that they would be looking for based on their behaviors. One of the things that we did in the last few months was increased the incentive for people to sign up so that they were getting more when they were signing up to try us so that we could drive them to make that first purchase and then continue to market to them after that fact.

Zach Goldstein

(07:55):

That’s pretty interesting because there are a couple of places where you made key investments in terms of actually increasing the expense of running the program, giving a bigger incentive for consumers to come and place their first digital order with you being one example. And then there are other places where, where you went the opposite in terms of taking price on third party delivery platforms so that those could be more sustainable for you long term. That’s a big decision, to, to take price on the third party platforms and clearly try to drive consumers to your own channel. And it sounds like one that you feel is paying off. How did you think about that decision and doing those things in parallel? And what have the results been?

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(08:41):

When we made the decision to increase the price on third party there was a period of time where those vendors did not allow you to increase the price. And that really put restaurants like ours at a disadvantage because we were breaking even at best. And in a lot of cases we were not profitable on the orders that people were placing through these third party apps. But we had to do it because we don’t have the awareness that other people do. And it is a whole other group of people that we were able to get to try our product. When the ability was presented to us or we kept asking and found that we could increase the price. Really it was a matter of weighing the the convenience and the accessibility to people to be able to order through us from apps that they’re more comfortable with at first and making those profitable so we could continue providing that service through those different services. And so, you know, looking at the data, we determined that people that were ordering delivery at that time were not as price conscious and so they would pay for the convenience over being deterred from ordering on those platforms because of a higher price. So we, we put that in place and the feedback, we did not get any feedback from customers about increased prices or the price value. So it really has paid off and ensuring that we are able to make those profitable while also providing our own solution.

Zach Goldstein

(10:21):

And you’ve been able to lean into then the messaging that the best deal is actually coming direct to Oath properties, your app and your website, right? And so that, that reinforces why do you want a direct relationship with the customer because it’s actually better for the customer and it’s better for Oath.

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(10:39):

Yeah. And we got to a place when we were feeling really confident in our solutions in Q4, we really started to market that fact that they could get the best deal through our app and ongoing rewards and the best possible experience on all of the possible channels that we could. And that really paid off. We saw a huge increase in people that were signing up and a decrease in negative comments that might’ve come in the past from opportunities to make the app and online experience better. So it really proved out that we were at a place where we felt confident in our solution and we could drive people there and continue to market to them and, and have them gain that benefit.

Zach Goldstein

(11:29):

It’s a huge asset as you think about having done that since Q4 as you mentioned, you had a three month head start in building or really longer, but a three month head starts into reach that level of complete confidence in building this digital database of customers with a direct relationship to Oath. And that means when the crisis hit, it sounds like you turned to that database as opposed to we have to be able to serve consumers off premise so we need to figure out the third party delivery channels. You use yours as your primary, as your primary solution to the new COVID world.

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(12:08):

Yes, that was, that was definitely the benefit of building that up. Prior to that, we were able to put, you know, double down on food safety procedures and focus on having the safest experience, making our experience touchless on in our restaurants, on our food truck with the help of your team as well. And we first marketed to our existing customer base and we knew what their behaviors were. We were able to launch new products and promotions and drive them to free delivery from our app and our website. And we saw a really great response to that and an appreciation that it was something that we were offering and people wanted to support.

Zach Goldstein

(12:56):

That’s great to hear. Because restaurants overall as I know, you know, are down 60, 65, 70, 80%. Is it safe to say that while the, there has been an impact from the COVID crisis you’ve been able to sustain the business without such a steep dropoff because of this digital solution?

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(13:17):

Yeah, it definitely helped us to minimize the impact to our business. We, it’s hard to tell. It’s hard to say with certainty as things are changing every day and every week for us. But there is no doubt that we put ourselves in a really good position.

Zach Goldstein

(13:35):

That’s phenomenal. And for a brand that has been growing so well across the country, delighting customers, there’s plenty of brands that have been darlings in the eyes of customers and unfortunately are facing a very rocky economic period right now. And so to hear that yours is, is surviving through it and positioned to come out the other side is it feels very good to see some, some light at the end of the tunnel for restaurants. It’s not just your, your digital solution. I think credit goes to you and your marketing team for an amazing amount of flexibility and creativity in how to engage customers in this time. And I think we’ve seen that across the industry. But yours has been doing a lot with regard to new ways for consumers to consume Oath Pizza and new ways for you to be, play a role in your community. What are some of those short term actions that your team has implemented? That are both good for the business, good for customers or, or good for your communities?

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(14:39):

We really have always been a people first and a community first team and it’s something that I’m really passionate about as well. And so even when this happened and we were finding ourselves in a really challenging place, we wanted to find ways that we could support our teams, our communities, our customers. One of the first things that we did for our community was look to our food truck and say, how can we support the communities and provide meals to the people who are on the front lines? And we knew that we weren’t in a place to be able to give away a ton of food given where we were not knowing the outcome of all of this, but we quickly put something in place where we invited people to purchase gift cards from us. And for every $25 spent, we would donate five pizzas to a community in need.

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(15:32):

We were able to feed hospital staff, uh, staff at nursing homes, police, firefighters, and we also engaged with our customers to ask them where would they like us to go and what can we do for these communities. The team at Thanx was really helpful to us in changing our food truck experience to be completely touch-free and contactless. And so we were able to put the food truck on our app, have people order from that. We had a pickup shelf that was placed outside of the truck and I’m confident to say that we’re probably the only touchless food truck that exists out there. And so we’re able to not only serve these communities but do so in a way that feels safe and gives them confidence in what we’re providing as well.

Zach Goldstein

(16:17):

Food Fighters. Stay on the cutting edge.

Zach Goldstein

(16:19):

It’s a time that innovation has to happen incredibly rapidly. We all just experienced it, but the, the, the rapid change over the course of March, nationwide, but more severe in certain cities was just unbelievable how quickly it happened. And so you have to adapt quickly. And it sounds like your team has, and I know that you’ve even changed some of the form factors of the product so that people can cook at home or come up with other packages. How did you think about that type of innovation on the food side so that you could fulfill demand and, and more dining instances? Even if those are all happening at home?

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(17:00):

When this first happened the conversation was about what do people need right now? What can we provide that they need? And there was and continues to be a shortage of food in the grocery stores, essential items. So the first thing that we did was look at how do we create a product that people can enjoy anytime, anywhere. We rolled out a take and bake line of, of frozen pizzas that are a variety of our bestselling pizzas that are available to people. We were able to add those quickly to our online platform. And also third party. We rolled out pizza kits knowing that people were looking for fun things to do at home so they could build their own pizza with their family, with their friends, with their roommates, whoever they were with during this time. And we saw some great traction and people that were very excited about those offerings. And the most recent one that we have rolled out is care packages for people to send to their loved ones, friends, family. Right now locally. But next week we’ll be offering to have these things shipped anywhere in the country, which is pretty amazing to do it a couple of weeks and a tribute to the flexibility and commitment of our team to do whatever we can to make people happy and use our products to get them through this time. So it’s been, it’s been challenging, but really fun to see it all come to fruition in a very short period of time.

Zach Goldstein

(18:37):

Yeah, and a lot of people are speculating about what is the longterm impact, how does this change restaurants? I think one of the easy things to miss is that all of these digital purchases going through your platform, the pizza kits, the frozen pizzas, all of the different things you’re doing, you have a complete data record because that’s all flowing into your CRM. So it’s possible, I guess that some of these things may be here to stay. They may become part of the Oath Pizza brand and experience because you’ll know which customers are leaning into which types of products right?

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(19:10):

Exactly. And we’re finding customers that were always ordering food the traditional way are ordering these types of products and finding that they really enjoy them. So I expect that we’ll grow our database considerably as well to meet the needs of people that may not have dined with us before. So that’s very exciting.

Zach Goldstein

(19:33):

This is a challenging question that I know everyone is struggling with, but with so many locations that have been shut down or at least shut down for uh in-restaurant dining, if not, shut down entirely. How did your executive team think about when and how to make that decision and perhaps even more pressing, how are you thinking about when to make the call to reopen those locations?

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(19:59):

Yeah, that is a really difficult question that I know a lot of people have had to think about and for us, all of the effort that we’ve been putting in place is obviously to help our business to survive. But really the thing that has been driving myself and my team to work around the clock to try to find solutions for this is to try to avoid closing as many locations as we can and keep them up and running and save jobs and make sure that we’re protecting our team and our people first. At first we were closely watching and analyzing the impact on all of our locations and in the beginning we were looking at the sales read every hour and having updates come out to our teams, checking the numbers, talking about what we can do if we adjusted hours. We were fortunate to get to a place where we only had to temporarily close two locations so far.

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(20:57):

And the decision for that was that one was on a college campus and one was in a train station and those are two locations where we know that traffic isn’t returning at least for the next few weeks. And so we also knew that we could service those areas with delivery from other nearby restaurants. So those are the only two corporate owned locations that we’ve had to close so far. And we feel fortunate about that. In terms of reopening, I think, you know, no one is sure of timing, but we’ll continue to keep up with what’s happening in the world and what people need. And if those locations are, when those locations get to a place where people return, I think it’ll be an easy answer to, to open them. I don’t think the reopening will warrant traditional marketing that we’ve done at new restaurant openings or reopenings, you know, with balloons and ribbon cuttings and PR or promotions. I think it’s going to be more about how do we continue to make people feel safe? How do we continue to provide an experience that is touchless as much as possible and give them different ordering options that meet them at their comfort level and provide them with different ways that they can order based on that.

Zach Goldstein

(22:13):

It’s uplifting to hear your story. And I know it’s come with a lot of hard work over the last a year plus and then even more in the last couple of weeks to innovate quickly. But it’s uplifting to hear the story of a great brand that is able to execute through this crisis and that we as consumers can confidently know, will come out the other side and be even stronger. So congrats and thanks to your team for, for all your hard work. I generally ask a question as we get towards the end of these podcasts, given that the podcast is called Food Fighters what the biggest food fight is that you see facing restaurants coming up. But I think coronavirus has answered that question for us. And so I’ll change the question slightly: as you think about some of the things that you did, you’re better positioned to survive and ultimately thrive in this crisis than many restaurants. What advice do you have for restaurants that have survived but are feeling pretty uncertain about their future? Where should they be investing, uh their energy, their time, their money so that they can come out the other side stronger based on your experience?

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(23:27):

I would give the advice to develop a digital strategy, whether that’s evolving the digital strategy that’s in place today or putting something in place that’s completely new and identifying what they’re able to accomplish in the short and the long term, given the impact of the crisis on their business. And invest in direct digital solutions when possible so that they can understand who their customers are and continue to provide them with what they need. Third party is definitely a short term solution that feels like it could be, it could be something that saves the business, but in the end it’s important to make sure that the strategy is diverse and so, and give you the ability to really build that database to have a really strong future.

Zach Goldstein

(24:19):

Yeah, it’s, it’s tough to think longterm, I think in general, as a rest, as a restaurant when there’s so much pressure and, and margins are always pressured, it’s tough to think longterm. I think this crisis is undoubtedly making that even harder. But to hear you emphasize some of the longterm strategy of having your, your own digital channel as opposed to relying on third parties and some of some of the things that will allow you to survive. I think that’s a unique perspective and one that comes from your actual experience because you had been thinking longterm and it seems to be serving you and Oath Pizza well. Thank you for offering that perspective and and thank you for joining us on Food Fighters, especially during this hectic time.

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(25:01):

Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it and all the support that you guys have provided to us as well.

Zach Goldstein

(25:06):

Thanks Stacie.

Stacie Colburn Hayes

(25:10):

Thank you.

Zach Goldstein

(25:10):

You’ve been listening to Food Fighters with me, Zach Goldstein. To subscribe to the podcast or to learn more about our featured guests, visit thanx.com/food-fighters. That’s Thanx, spelled T H A N X.com/food-fighters. This podcast is a production of Thanx, the leading CRM and digital engagement solution for restaurants. Until next time, keep fighting Food Fighters.