Michael Hauke didn't build Tony Boloney's by following anyone else's playbook. He opened the doors 16 years ago with a simple idea: make everything from scratch, serve it to the neighborhood, and let the food speak for itself.
"I messed around and I figured it out," Michael recalls. "I've never paid for a dollar in advertising in 16 years. Whether it's Good Morning America or Food Network or Shark Tank - it all really is coming from this genuine place of: this is what we do, this is how we do it, and this is what we want you to have."
That approach built Tony Boloney's into one of the most recognized pizzeria brands on the East Coast. But as the business grew across multiple locations, Michael was facing a problem that no amount of media coverage could solve: the phones were out of control.
For a pizzeria brand where pickup and delivery drive the core business, the phone is everything. And for years, Michael knew his operation was leaving money on the table.
"Before Loman, the phones unfortunately just couldn't be a priority," Michael explains. "Pre-COVID, we used to have two employees on two phones with two terminals. They'd go non-stop and the calls were in a calling queue. But you'd still have five or six lines lit up at any given time between two phones - which tells you there are 10, 12, 15 calls at once, maybe more, waiting in the queue."
Customers who stayed on hold would listen to a recorded message - or the Tony Boloney's rap song - and eventually hear a prompt to order online. But as Michael puts it: some people just don't want to do that.
"It was just something we couldn't prioritize. We left it in the hands of a recorded message - 'Listen, you're waiting on the phones, it may be a long time.' For us to spend the money on a system that could tell the customer approximately how much time and stack that onto what we're already paying - it's just too much."
The math was brutal and simple. With an average ticket around $50, every unanswered call was a potential $50 loss. Multiply that across a Friday and Saturday night rush, across multiple locations, and the missed revenue adds up fast.
Michael is blunt about the options restaurant operators face when phone volume outpaces their ability to answer.
"Without Loman, what are your options really? You can outsource the calls, you could hire 16 more employees, or you can cross your fingers, close your eyes, and stick your head in the sand. Because really, that's what we do. Without Loman, you literally are just sticking your head in the sand on a Friday and Saturday night."
Hiring wasn't realistic. Finding, training, and retaining 16 additional employees who know every menu item, every modifier, every nuance of the Tony Boloney's experience - and only needing them for three or four peak hours on weekends - isn't a staffing plan. It's a fantasy.
And outsourcing to a traditional call center meant paying per-minute rates for agents who didn't know the menu and couldn't deliver the experience Michael had spent 16 years building.
When Michael brought on Loman, the shift was immediate. Customers calling Tony Boloney's now reach an AI phone agent that knows the full menu, takes complete orders for pickup and delivery, processes payments over the phone, and communicates accurate wait and delivery times - all while sounding natural and conversational.
"They hit the AI assistant and now they're in our world. And as an owner-operator, we have to feel confident that once you enter our world, you need to be carefully curated through that process."
For Michael, that curation matters. Tony Boloney's isn't a generic pizza shop. The brand has a voice, a personality, and a standard. Loman gave Michael's team the ability to maintain that standard on every single call - without pulling a single employee off the floor.
"With Loman, you as a customer can literally call up, pay for it on the phone, pickup or delivery, have it teed up in the system. Having Loman knowing what the approximate delivery time is, because it says it all like a human - it's a game changer."
Since implementing Loman across his locations, Michael estimates Tony Boloney's captures an extra 75-100 orders per store every month - orders that previously would have gone to a competitor, or simply evaporated.
"For us, Loman provides the ability to have customers enter our world a lot easier from the phone system, get curated through our Tony Boloney process, and then get to the end of the road and clock those dollars that we otherwise wouldn't see."
The impact goes beyond just capturing more calls. With Loman handling phone orders, Michael's front-of-house teams stay focused on the guests in front of them. There are fewer order errors, fewer interruptions, and no one scrambling between the register and a ringing phone during a dinner rush.
And perhaps most importantly for a multi-unit operator: the economics finally make sense.
Michael sees a shift happening in the restaurant industry - one that makes a reliable phone channel more critical, not less. Third-party delivery platforms like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and GrubHub charge restaurants roughly 33% per order. For a business already operating on thin margins, those fees can turn a sale into a loss.
"Your food cost is 30%. Your labor is 30%. Your overhead is 10 to 15%. So you're at 75% right there. And then the third-party provider takes 33%. You lost money on that sale."
For a brand like Tony Boloney's, where pickup and delivery are the core of the business, reclaiming phone orders from third-party platforms isn't just a nice-to-have - it's a margin strategy. Every order that comes through a direct phone call instead of a delivery app is an order where Michael keeps the full ticket.
It's a complete reversal from where things stood just a few years ago.
"I used to tell people, 'Just go online, it's easier, I can't handle it.' Now? Call the shop. Call."
Michael Hauke built Tony Boloney's on doing things his way - from scratch, no shortcuts, no compromises. Loman fits into that philosophy because it doesn't replace the Tony Boloney's experience. It extends it to every caller, on every line, at every hour - without asking Michael to hire a small army or sacrifice the in-person guest experience to keep up with the phones.
"Every call that comes in - potentially $50. Every single time the phone doesn't get picked up and handled appropriately. You need a really good partner in crime to help you facilitate that. And for Tony Boloney's, Loman is that partner."
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