Papa Johns is built on a promise: Better Ingredients. Better Pizza. Delivering on that promise means ensuring every store—from bustling city centres to neighbourhood favourites —operates seamlessly.

Franchisees are the heart of the business, driving local success and building strong customer relationships. But technology frustrations and operational disruptions were holding them back, creating disengagement and limiting their potential. To keep pizzas hot, customers happy and loyalty growing, Papa Johns knew it had to rebuild franchisee confidence in its technology infrastructure. With over 400 sites across the UK, Papa Johns needed to ensure every store had the technology to keep up with customer expectations and run seamlessly. But more than that, it needed to rebuild trust with franchisees—giving them the confidence that a reliable, well-supported technology platform wasn’t just a necessity, but a key ingredient for success. By creating a more responsive and proactive support model, Papa Johns set out to show its franchisees that better tech meant better business.

“We took it upon ourselves to restate our requirements, which was a great opportunity for us to rethink what we actually needed as a business going forward.” said Jon Blagg, Director of Market Activation and International at Papa Johns.

Beyond operational excellence, Papa Johns set its sights on an even bigger challenge: building deeper, lasting customer loyalty. In a competitive, fast-moving market, retaining customers isn’t just a goal — it’s essential for long-term success.  “We know factually that our best customers are our most loyal customers. We’re trying to grow loyalty within Papa Johns. We know we’re going to do that by having great pizzas delivered on time and delivered hot — and in the background,making sure that our tech is innovative and reliable. I don’t think you can have one without the other.” said Chris Phylactou, Managing Director at Papa Johns.

Following a comprehensive RFP process, Papa Johns selected Retail Assist and Barron McCann as their technology partners to completely overhaul their IT support structure. Retail Assist now provides a proactive IT helpdesk service with first and second-line support, running from 09:00 to 00:00, seven days a week. This includes proactive monitoring, rapid issue resolution and an intuitive customer portal for complete transparency. Meanwhile, Barron McCann delivers rapid,responsive field maintenance within a 4-hour SLA for critical issues, ensuring stores stay operational and disruption minimised.

“Bringing Retail Assist and Barron McCann onboard has completely revolutionised the way we support our restaurants and our franchisees.” said Rob Beattie, Vice President of International Technology and Digital at Papa Johns.

Retail Assist and Barron McCann took the time to understand the root challenges, engaging directly with franchisees to demonstrate how the new service model would transform their experience.

“They came to talk to us and franchisees as well. They’re a tough audience. So the fact that they were able to address head-on how it would be different in future, that really helped.” Beattie added.

Crucially, the data insights provided by Retail Assist and Barron McCann offered newfound visibility into store performance, enabling continuous service improvement.

“One of the things we really liked about Retail Assist and Barron McCann was their use of data and how we could use data to understand how our stores were consuming the services. That really encouraged us that we could make real strides forward in continuous service improvement.” Blagg explained. “If our restaurants aren’t trading, nothing else matters. Technology support is one of those things that if it’s working and it’s working well, I’m free and my team are free to focus on the things that really drive top line growth — things like loyalty, driving conversion through our digital channels, optimising the customer experience, building good quality gamified experiences that create better brand engagement.” Beattie emphasised.

The transformation has been nothing short of market leading. In the first year of service Retail Assist achieved an average call response time of just 20 seconds across more than 14,000 contacts, while Barron McCann maintained a 92% SLA – delivering exceptional speed and reliability. The proactive support model has drastically reduced escalations and downtime, earning high praise from both corporate leadership and franchisees.

“Working with Retail Assist has been outstanding. We’re a year in, the team is great, the leadership are very helpful. We’re experiencing less escalations, less noise and happier stores.” said Nabeel Nazir, Service Delivery Manager at Papa Johns.

The renewed confidence in technology support is driving broader business goals too. With reliable IT systems in place, Papa Johns is now better positioned to focus on initiatives that build loyalty and enhance the customer experience.

Perhaps most telling is how the partnership has reshaped franchisee sentiment. Once sceptical, franchisees now recognise the value of the support ecosystem.“The feedback from the franchisees is ‘wow – this is such a fantastic service, there’s a frustration that we’ve gone down, but the fact that an engineer is walking through the door so quickly afterwards is amazing’” said Wayne MacDonald, Director of Technology and Digital. For Papa Johns, this transformation isn’t just a success story — it’s a blueprint for the brand’s future globally. “It underpins everything that we do. It’s a blueprint for how Papa Johns should be working in all major markets.” Beattie concluded. Retail Assist and Barron McCann have proven to be more than technology vendors — they are trusted partners driving business resilience, operational excellence, and enhanced customer loyalty for Papa Johns. This is technology transformation done right.