Just a few weeks ago I blogged about how much I love Domino’s new Pizza Tracker. The Domino’s Tracker serves up a customer experience that’s a cut, or should I say slice above the rest. It makes ordering pizza interactive, fun and efficient- all with a personal touch. Well it seems a few others like it too, their new online ordering has sent profits soaring!
The Detroit Free Press reported yesterday that the Domino’s Tracker has been a big win for the company boosting their online ordering profits by 23%, making Domino’s the 4th largest e-tailer just behind Amazon, Staples and Office Depot. That is incredible, a pizza franchise the #4 online retailer? They posted profits of 47.1 million in the first half of the year, up 23% from a year ago. Now a quarter of all Domino’s orders nationwide come from online.
Yes they changed the pizza recipe too, but I would also say it’s the customer experience that has set them apart, far apart from their competition. They took an everyday experience and even an everyday food and differentiated themselves with the customer experience. It’s not all about the product; their secret ingredient is in the experience.
How can you improve on your customer experience? Where’s your opportunity for growth? And next time you’re ordering pizza put down the phone and log on to www.dominos.com and give it a try.
Posted by Kristen Garvey. Kristen is CMB's Director of Communications, a mother of two, and loves a veggie pizza and a cold Sam Adams Light.
Pizza is one of my most favorite foods and a staple in my household. I have my favorite places from local spots to the chains, but Domino’s was never on my list for a number of reasons. Mostly, I just never liked their pizza, but I thought I should reconsider after reading Josh Mendelsohn’s blog post a while back about their new ads…
“Coming off of last year's social media disaster, that painted them as unknowing and unhealthy, Domino's ads are sending a message that says, "We hear what people have been saying and we've dealt with it. Now give us a try, you might like us more than you think." I know that they have at least re-entered my consideration set, the first step to becoming a customer and potentially (with some free bread sticks, perhaps) an advocate.”
While it took five months, a couple of weeks ago I had a house full of hungry kids and I took the leap and gave the “new” Domino's a try. I was not disappointed, however it wasn’t the pizza that will keep me coming back, it was the customer experience.
To start the process, I went online and was easily able to navigate through the various sauces and crusts as well as special offers to add to my order. With just a few clicks, dinner was ordered. But what came next not only surprised me, it won me over and put Domino's at the top of my pizza list.
It’s called the Domino's Tracker and it updates your pizza status as your order moves through the production line. I knew exactly where my pizza was at all times from my order being received to what time “Megan” put my pizza in the oven, it even told me that “Corey” left to deliver my pizza at 5:27. It was very cool and I have to admit I kept checking to see where my pizza was and being able to answer the timing questions of hungry children made it even better and highly differentiated from the standard “it’ll be there in 30-45 minutes” I get from the local pizza shop. Not only did we know when the pizza was coming, we were engaged the entire time (cross-messaging/up-selling time, anyone?)
Certainly, the pizza was pretty good but it was the entire customer experience that won us over. Kudos to Domino’s for taking advantage of new technology; easy online ordering and the very cool Domino’s Tracker took a run of the mill and often frustrating process and made it an informative, engaging and personalized experience that will keep us coming back.
Posted by Kristen Garvey. Kristen is CMB's Director of Communications, a mother of two,and loves a veggie pizza and a cold Sam Adams Light.
I love Domino's new ads as both a consumer and someone who works in the market research industry. And before research purists jump down my throat, I know that Domino's new Focus group centric ads seem to show a single focus group, that the information used is merely directional and we'd like to assume that this research is probably part of a bigger study or perhaps even faked for the purposes of the advertising. And I know it raises obvious questions about respondent confidentiality. I also don't know what other techniques were used, nor do I really care that much. What I do care about is the impact of the ads on the "brand" of the industry.
In recent years the industry has come under fire and mocked continuously on televisions (see the office's brilliant customer satisfaction scores episode), so I am excited to see a positive portrayal of what we do and how company's use information to better serve their customers.
In addition to the fact that Domino's has done an excellent job being self-deprecating and recognizing consumer perceptions about their quality, I believe the ads break down three basic negative conceptions of the research industry.
- Corporate beliefs that market research isn't actionable
- Consumer beliefs that they aren't being listened to (and this people don't want to participate)
- Traditional techniques don't work as well as listening to social media and using interactive questions
The video below shows how they have adopted the findings at the highest levels.
What it means for Domino's
Coming off of last year's social media disaster, that painted them as unknowing and unhealthy, Domino's ads are sending a message that says "We hear what people have been saying and we've dealt with it. Now give us a try, you might like us more than you think." I know that they have at least re-entered my consideration set, the first step to becoming a customer and potentially (with some free bread sticks, perhaps) an advocate. As was often muttered in Bill Murray's great 1991 movie "What About Bob?" Domino's is taking baby steps.
Posted by Josh Mendelsohn. Josh is our VP of Marketing and loves live music, pugs, tv, great food, market research, New Orleans, marketing, Boston and sports. You can follow him on Twitter @mendelj2 and at The Better Research Blog