Pizza Hero

Pizzeria Management: Responsibilities and Essential Skills of a Great Pizzeria Manager

Marcel DeerAuthor

icon RESOURCE
How to manage a restaurant

How to Manage a Restauarant

Improve the way you manage your restaurant's staff, operations, technology, finances, and everything else in between.

Toast | BUILT FOR RESTAURANTS

Do you know how many slices of pizza the average American eats per year? 46. And with over 75,000 pizzerias in the US alone, there are plenty of places to choose from. With so many options, how can you make yours stand out from the crowd?

If you want to secure your piece of the pie, the answer might just be having a great pizzeria manager. This is a person who can take on the many responsibilities this job requires and possesses a unique skill set that will lead them to success

In this article, we’ll look at the skills and responsibilities of a superior pizzeria manager, with some top tips for pizzeria success thrown in for good measure. 

In this article, you will learn:

  • The roles and responsibilities of a pizzeria manager

  • The skills necessary for this role

  • Tricks and tips for pizzeria management success

icon RESOURCE

How to Manage a Restauarant

Improve the way you manage your restaurant's staff, operations, technology, finances, and everything else in between.

Toast

The Roles and Responsibilities of a Pizzeria Manager

Pizzeria managers have to wear many hats. They have to take on a wide range of roles within the pizza restaurant. These can vary depending on whether they’re running franchises or independent shops. These are the main responsibilities they usually have to take on.

Hiring and staff management

If you’re like me, your first thought when it comes to a manager is dealing with staff. This is certainly one of the biggest and most important responsibilities of the pizzeria manager. While bigger chains might have HR departments that handle recruiting, hiring, and training, these tasks are left up to the manager for smaller or independent pizzerias. The manager certainly has to monitor and supervise staff to ensure they’re doing things correctly and up to the restaurant’s standard, both in the back- and front-of-house.

Inventory management and supplier coordination 

Like any restaurant, a pizzeria needs a constant stream of supplies and materials coming in – so pizzas keep coming out. 

The manager might delegate stock-taking responsibilities to the kitchen staff, but in the end, they’re responsible for monitoring the inventory and making sure nothing ever runs out. They also need to coordinate with suppliers to make sure orders are placed, and deliveries made are on time. 

Financial management 

Everyone from cashiers to servers to delivery drivers might handle day-to-day customer billing and payments. However, the manager has the responsibility of overseeing these payments to make sure they’re being done correctly. But their financial responsibilities run deeper than that. They also may need to keep the books balanced, work with the business accountant, and keep bills paid. They may also handle bills, like utility payments, bill payments, and, of course, staff salaries.

Marketing 

If a manager is working for a franchise for a large pizza company, they might not have to develop marketing and advertising materials themselves. For smaller or independent pizzerias, though, this responsibility may fall to the manager. They may coordinate with a marketing firm or handle the development and implementation of a marketing plan on their own. This plan may include deals, events, and advertising, or even things like surveys used to determine levels of customer satisfaction.

Customer service 

Customer satisfaction is based on more than just great pizza, though this is certainly the biggest part of it. To provide an excellent customer experience, the manager has to ensure that the pizzeria provides the right ambiance, product quality, and, of course, service. Delivery service needs to be quick, while in-house service should be positive and attentive. It’s the manager’s job to train staff and monitor their work so they uphold the pizzeria’s service standards.

Regulatory, safety, and legal compliance 

When you work with food, you need to follow strict guidelines and regulations for safety, hygiene, and more. It’s typically the manager’s job to get everyone up to speed on safety and cleanliness and to make sure the premises are safe and accessible for workers and customers. Legal compliance for pizzerias also extends to safety and following the rules of the road when making deliveries. Once again, this is the manager’s responsibility to keep track of.

Essential skills of a pizzeria manager 

It may seem like managing a pizzeria is fairly simple and straightforward. All you need to do is take orders and turn out pizzas, right? Not with all the different responsibilities we’ve already discussed. To live up to these responsibilities, a successful manager needs to hold a specific skill set and experience relevant to the industry.

Leadership 

How will the staff work effectively without an effective leader to look to? A pizzeria manager should be able to offer an example for their staff. They ought to be dedicated to the job and motivated to provide great products and service. They also need to display integrity and responsibility, plus the ability to provide guidance to their team. Empathy and people skills are essential to help them work with both staff and customers and succeed in this competitive service-based business.

Communication 

Without great communication skills, a pizza restaurant manager will quickly find themselves in hot water. Not only do they need to be able to speak clearly with their staff to address concerns, give directives, and delegate responsibilities, but they also need to communicate with their clientele. This can be verbal when solving problems or written when providing information about products and services. Let’s also not forget how essential it is to communicate clearly with suppliers and delivery drivers as well to keep everything efficient.

Organization 

If a manager wants to be successful, they need to be organized. This is as true in a pizzeria as in any other business. Managers need to make sure that staff schedules are filled appropriately, and workflow is progressing properly. Both in-house and delivery orders need to be coordinated, and the premises need to be opened and closed on time, well-maintained, and cleaned. Naturally, the manager also has to ensure their own tasks and timetables are kept in order.

Problem-solving 

No business is immune from problems, and a pizzeria is no exception. There can be issues with supplies and ingredients, deliveries and in-house dining service, staff schedules, and, of course, customer complaints. All of these issues usually fall to the manager to fix. So, any pizzeria manager who wants to succeed will need to have strong problem-solving skills. They’ll need to be able to come up with creative and acceptable solutions to keep the business running smoothly and customers feeling satisfied.

Understanding of the industry

If a manager has never worked in the pizza industry, they will find the job of managing a pizzeria extremely challenging. That’s why experience in pizzerias is essential for managerial success. They need to understand the limits of their business and the things that customers are looking for so they’ll be able to hit the mark.

Tricks to being a successful pizzeria manager 

Build an outstanding company culture

Building a positive and inclusive work environment and empowering your staff can work wonders for their happiness, productivity, and retention.

As Domino’s founder, Tom Monaghan, says, “I believe in giving people responsibility, and I insist on letting them make their own mistakes.”

A successful manager helps to build a company culture that values staff and makes them feel important and recognized.

Create a great guest experience

Excellent pizza isn’t the only thing that’s going to get customers on the phone or walking through the door. People come back to businesses when they get what they want, and what they want is a great guest experience combined with fantastic food. This can be provided through creating a welcoming atmosphere and, most especially, by giving customers top-notch service that they’ll appreciate as well as recommend.

Stay up to date with staff training and cross-training

Managers always have to make sure new staff are trained on intake. However, when changes to policies, procedures, products, and equipment happen, this can necessitate re-training everyone.  Cross-training is also an important tool to help staff learn how to do other jobs and create opportunities for switching jobs within the pizzeria. Cross-training also helps staff empathize with their teammates and fill in on shifts in different roles as needed.

Never stop learning 

People have been tossing pizzas for hundreds of years, but the pizza industry still continues to change and develop over time. If you want to stay relevant as a pizzeria manager, there’s no reason to ever stop learning. You can take courses and get certifications to upgrade your skills, or you can find innumerable resources online to improve your knowledge of the industry. 

Great Pizzeria Managers

A pizzeria manager has to have the right skills and the willingness to take on a diverse array of responsibilities to succeed in this competitive business. They should have experience and knowledge of the industry and be able to leverage this to produce the best products and services for their customers. This is how success will come to both the pizzeria manager and the business.

icon RESTAURANT RESOURCE

Training Manual Template

Use this restaurant training manual template, a customizable Word Doc, to provide your staff with the rules, guidelines, and clarity they need to do their jobs efficiently.

Toast

Is this article helpful?

DISCLAIMER: This information is provided for general informational purposes only, and publication does not constitute an endorsement. Toast does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of any information, text, graphics, links, or other items contained within this content. Toast does not guarantee you will achieve any specific results if you follow any advice herein. It may be advisable for you to consult with a professional such as a lawyer, accountant, or business advisor for advice specific to your situation.