Cheddar: How Wing Zone Provides Contactless Delivery Amid Coronavirus Crisis

The food and restaurant industry is having to adapt due to consumers social distancing in order to keep their doors open during this time. Friedman tells Cheddar, “That’s the thing about Wing Zone. We’ve been in business for 27 years and we’ve been delivering food for 27 years”, emphasizing their expertise when it comes to the delivery business model. “We've been impacted in some of our international markets, but domestically our model is really about take out and delivery so our business is actually thriving right now. I think it’s important to let your viewers know that there are some positive stories out there when it comes to business”.

In terms of revenue, Friedman reports, “We’re up over this same week, last year”, highlighting how much their business truly is thriving, even with March Madness being cancelled, dine-in becoming unavailable, and college markets becoming desolate due to campus closures. “We’re really reaching out to a lot of locals and people that live in these areas and markets to promote our free delivery now at wingzone.com but also that we’re providing a safe delivery experience to our consumers”.

Friedman confirmed to Cheddar that the brand has a shortage of delivery drivers and are hiring in all of their locations. “The fact is, the delivery demand is here, it’s been here for many years, but there’s been a great surge in the last two weeks”. While franchisee also remains at the forefront of their decision making, he states the pandemic has “really become an aggressive marketing campaign for us to promote our direct delivery, free delivery, and contactless delivery. And that’s really what the consumer wants right now”.

When asked on how Wing Zone is supporting their franchisees, Friedman says, “We started off with a great communication plan getting them on an important webinar with a member of the CDC, communicating to our consumer what safe delivery is and ultimately what we’re going to do to make sure it’s contactless”. The executive team is also supporting their franchise community by providing things such as banners to put outside their stores, other ongoing marketing support, giving away free product and offering system wide webinars with their franchisees just for a simple Q&A session.

Friedman ends the interview by stating, “I think it’s our job to show leadership and really provide our franchisees the confidence that we are going to be in a good position during this, and even after this.”

To listen to the full segment, click here.