Ep165 How AI is transforming hospitality franchising ft. Joe Rossi, Town and Country Pizza and Pasta

Joe Rossi is the managing director of Town and Country Pizza and Pasta, a 36 year old Victorian founded franchise brand with 14 high volume locations across Victoria and Western Australia.   A finalist at the FCA Awards for franchise innovation, Joe leads a business that blends traditional hospitality values with a genuinely tech forward approach to operations, training and customer experience.   In this episode of the Franchise Everything Podcast, recorded at the FCA Franchise Forum on the Gold Coast, Joe breaks down how Town and Country Pizza and Pasta is using AI not to replace hospitality but to strengthen it.   TIMESTAMPS   0:00 Welcome and guest introduction Joe Rossi managing director of Town and Country Pizza and Pasta 0:43 Town and Country Pizza and Pasta: a 36 year old brand with 14 locations across Victoria and Western Australia 1:23 The national growth strategy and what it means to be a traditional brand with a tech forward mindset 2:04 How technology evolved in the business before and through COVID and why the fundamentals of hospitality must not be lost 3:37 Why Town and Country focuses on high volume per location over simply chasing store count 4:24 How AI is being used for site selection training franchisees ordering forecasting and customer data analysis 5:38 How AI is reducing friction in the ordering process and improving the customer experience 6:09 How AI is being used in back of house to break down kitchen timeframes and improve efficiency 6:38 The AI powered hardware training product that delivers staff training with minimal human intervention 8:00 Why Town and Country has not changed its position on third party food delivery aggregators 9:16 Why growing deliberately and focusing on consistency is more important than rapid expansion 10:07 Why AI is being used to feed timeless hospitality values rather than replace them 10:46 Why human interaction will become more valuable not less in an AI driven world 11:18 Wrap up   Franchise Recruitment Marketing - Appear on our Podcasts HERE    Listen or Watch on; Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/3vbwvpef Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/bdhbfsu6 Amazon Music: https://tinyurl.com/yksjr4mh YouTube: https://youtu.be/sxnjRx3qX1Q