We recently connected with Jennine Malone and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jennine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?

I believe that speaking to a real human being is becoming more extinct in any industry. I believe that great customer service can only be achieved by speaking to a real human. Most industries have buckled to relying on live chats, bots, emails or FAQs which helps with their cost cutting and downsizing. In the catering/hospitality business, speaking to a real human is so important to make a connection with the customer and ultimately it helps in developing a trusting rapport. Customers just want to be recognized as important, have efficient service and feel respected by the business or company. This is a lost art. It is rare if you get to speak to a human, in most any industry.
To me this is common sense! Who has the extra time in their life to spend waiting on the phone to get help with a question or make a reservation or just to gather information about a service. Often, it ends up being a frustrating phone call and often you are not even able to get the answers needed. We have all had these experiences.
In my catering business, I make it a point to answer every phone call, email or text personally. I do not let 24 hours go by without responding. It is time consuming but my customers always say that our customer service is excellent. We get many referrals because of this and I will continue this until I retire.

Jennine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Pizza has been and has become a part of my life in more ways than one over the years. I started Fired-Up Catering in 2010 and it has been thriving ever since. My heritage is 100% Italian and I come from a line of very good bakers and cooks. when growing up, walking into my house every Friday after school was a delight, as the aroma of homemade pizza permeated through the house. My mother’s pizza was known throughout the neighborhood and friends would look forward to receiving some as a special treat. Also, at 15, I had the opportunity to visit relatives in southern Italy. One of the best meals I had eaten while there was their wood fired pizza. Not just any pizza, but pizza baked outside, on a stone over in the backyard and served as we sat around a large table and enjoyed pizza family style, fresh and hot out of the oven. It was my first experience with stone oven and one that has left an impression with me for a very long time.
These memories and an unexpected side job as an event planner/business manager for a wood fired pizza business a few years back, inspired me to open my own wood fired pizza business. Fired-Up Catering, LLC. I have always loved to bake and after spending many hours researching the wood fired pizza concept, I was convinced that baking pizza and catering was something I should surely try.
I trailer my wood fired, mobile stone oven, a kitchen on wheels, to all types of events. My oven is a unique prototype built with my specifications in mind and one of the first of its kind to be built in the US.
Fired-Up Catering specializes in pizza and calzones but caters many other foods. The parities we cater provide fun, a casual atmosphere and unique entertainment. Party goers enjoy watching the bakers prepare and bake the pizzas and most of all, enjoy eating the hot fresh pizza right out of the oven. The greatest enjoyment is all the varieties, like Chicken BBQ, Spinach Artichoke and Sweet Red Pepper, Traditional Pepperoni & Cheese or whatever combination your heart desires. Pizza is a food that has endless possibilities. It can be a culinary experience or just a simple meal It has entwined my cultural heritage with my present life and the greatest thing about my business is I have been able to involve my family in the love of making pizza too. My son, who also has the love for making pizza, has now taken over this legacy and carrying on this business, which is now in the 16th year.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

There are two factors that I feel were very instrumental in helping me to grow my catering business.
The first and probably most important was building a very good website. I hired a very good friend who knew
a lot about building websites and she helped me construct a thorough site which from the onset was on the first page of google. Through the years, I have tweaked and updated to make it more accessible to IPhone use etc…..
I put effort into asking my customer for reviews and keep my photos updated.

The second factor and just as important as the first is providing great customer service. I always follow up on any phone calls, texts, emails in the first 24 hours. I call and personally talk to my customers who love that they can actually talk to a human being. Social media is great too but I find that customers really love the responsiveness that I provide and it makes for a good rapport and trusting relationship.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

After my kids graduated from High School and a few off to college, I realized I was at the point in my life that I could return to a Full time job. I had more time on my hands and had to make a choice whether to return to work as a Nurse (which was my degree and I had only been doing some part time work off and on while my kids where in grade school) or take a different route and try something new.
At the age of 50, an event planning job for a Mobile Wood Fire Pizza business opportunity came along and I realized that I liked the creativity, social and food aspect. I started to research the Food Truck/Wood Fire Pizza business and had to read up on how to start a business since my degree was all medical, I had to learn a lot and eventually found my path to becoming an entrepreneur. It was hard work and I had to take some risks with financing the start up but it all worked out and I still love what I am doing. I now own the building that houses our catering business and rent the front spaces to help start ups, mostly women grow their business. They start out with short leases. Some have had success and some have failed but it is nice to help them along their journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.firedup-catering.com
• Instagram: firedup_catering

Image Credits

Jennine Malone (owner)