"Restaurants in residential areas are seeing takeaways as people step out for chores": Neha, Pizza Hut India

We spent the first couple of weeks taking stock of back-end operations - where the raw materials and other goods were stuck, etc. We quickly learnt about 'contactless' initiatives from our global counterparts, who were affected before India. We were able to pivot to contactless delivery by April, and that made a lot of difference. Again, we were already adhering to all of the quality practices. It was a lot easier for us to explain this to our customers.

Pizza Hut is all about daily sales between a certain time in the morning to a certain time in the evening. The uncertainty around the schedule of lockdowns/unlocks added to the problem. It was an operational nightmare to be up and running in a time like this.

People are returning to our restaurants but it is because of trust and our quality.

The other aspect is, it is mostly the youngsters, young adults and young couples, who are coming back. The family audience is going to take time. Our observation has been that people with elderly parents, or young children, are hesitating. The younger audience, which make up the larger chunk for a brand like us, is all definitely out and about now.

After delivery, the next channel that picked up was takeaways. Restaurants located in the high streets, where people go to spend time, are seeing a lot of dine-in orders. The ones located in residential areas are seeing a lot of takeaways, as people step out into their neighbourhoods for chores, like getting groceries, etc.

We had a hypothesis that takeaways might fall as dine-in increases. We thought consumers were choosing takeaway as they can't dine-in. Interestingly, that's not the case. We are currently clocking even higher takeaway numbers than last year.

We have also introduced on-the-go takeaway, wherein the staff delivers the food straight to the customers' vehicle parked outside, so that they don’t need to enter the store.

It is unfortunate. We are getting many new users, but that's because we attract consumers for our value and brand name. The source of business, at the moment, is our own consumer base, which in itself is quite large. It is a matter of bringing them back.

The average cheque size is up, and that is because there are more people living together. A lot of people have travelled back to be together with their families. The 3-4 members group is the dominant one. We are seeing very little of the two-member order size in home deliveries.

We have also launched ‘My Box’ in select cities for solo consumption, as people will be conscious of sharing.

The consumption of vegetarian offerings has traditionally been far more than non-vegetarian. Unlike a wrap, or a burger, pizza is a shared food. Even if you are a non-vegetarian, and somebody in the friends/family group is vegetarian, all decide to have vegetarian pizzas. Also, children love our veg margherita pizza.

Initially, there was a bit of a fluctuation in the non-veg consumption, but nothing too significant. It went back to our pre-COVID mix of veg and non-veg pretty quickly. We have a lot of Indian flavours. They have done well in the past and seem to be doing better today.

We have seen recovery coming from both. Our key markets, Delhi NCR, Pune, Bengaluru and Mumbai, have outperformed others. We saw a shift towards delivery in the smaller towns, but it is market and circumstance-driven. They, in a way, had no choice. But this has led to bringing home delivery to their lives as a habit. It will be interesting to see if the habit goes back to stepping out of their homes, or a mix of the two, as we move ahead.

The lockdown timings have made a difference in the ordering times. In some states, we are required to shut down by 9 p.m. and we have to take our last orders by 8-8.15 p.m. That's pretty early for an Indian.

Dinner continues to be our biggest share, but the entire snack period (post-lunch, 3-7 p.m.) has picked up because of the timing. People know that stores won't be open so they were ordering early. We've also seen instances of families (who are now together) using evenings to spend time together. Pizzas are a great complement to that.

In markets like Chennai, which has weekend lockdowns, people start planning shoulder dates, i.e., Friday and Monday as a weekend. The peaks on Friday and Monday are making up for the weekend loss.

We were curious to see how celebration days like Independence Day/Rakshabandhan that see high comsumption in restaurants, fared in the COVID scenario. They continue to cause spikes, even for our delivery business. Independence Day, this year, clocked a higher number than last year. These days still hold the same significance (a bit more, even) with people at home.

We are working on products and value deals that are designed for group occasions. We are also expecting delivery to pick up even more during the festive season.

The relevance of trust was big and so we've been talking about contactless deliveries/dining experiences, etc. We also realised that there was a frugality mindset coming into the picture. Consumers don't want to spend during uncertainty. We have also been talking about value because it would make it easy for the consumer. We have to assure the consumer that buying into the brand is a right call.

If we can go back to the original communication, it depends on the equity and foundation of trust. People come and see our safety protocols, and are very appreciative. Once we have built the foundation, then maybe we can go with a different relevant topic (say, a value offering, new innovation, etc.) to draw consumers in.

We have something exciting around the Pan Pizza coming up in a month or so.

The biggest change has been going completely digital. What has really shone on the digital front is the engagement. Social engagement has become even more critical. You have to deeply listen what consumers are saying. They can immediately give you a thumbs up, or down, about an initiative.

Towards the beginning, we launched something called #QualityTimeOfQuarantine, where we changed the narrative. We felt that the consumers also want happy conversations beyond assurances of hygiene and safety. Subsequently, we made our frontline workers the face of the brand. We got a big thumbs up for that. We have also had some experiments with radio. We have also tried i-radio, or the Internet radio.

With digital, you have to be on round the clock. We have kept our agency partners really busy in the last few months.

Unlike in other categories like, say, FMCG, where there is a factory and logistics, etc., ours is a lot about people. Every store is an individual unit with an individual set of people. They have to be happy so that they can, in turn, make the consumers happy. We imparted all our best learnings that we accumulated across global markets.

The first post (covid related) on digital featured a team member from Mumbai. While it was liked by consumers, our team members loved it. They felt pride, and that their job was a lot more than just delivering pizzas. We also got a lot of support from out partners like PepsiCo, whose celebration of our staff helped on both the consumer and employee front.

There are two ends of the spectrum that kept me awake. One was people thinking that we are being tone-deaf and unaware of the world around us. The other was being seen as opportunistic. This at times, can be really tricky. None of us has experienced this, so it is as much a risk as it is a challenge. I have the opportunity to tell a story in a way that nobody has done in the past. We could also end up doing something that would eventually end up being a bad idea.