Anyone interested in understanding how best to engage with customers via digital channels should be paying attention to Domino’s Pizza. In the last year, the company’s investments in digital channels have transformed its business and the entire pizza delivery industry.
The most significant enhancement, which the company released in Q3 2013, is Pizza Profiles, an example of tokenization in action. Customers store “Easy orders” and payment information to speed up the order process. Customers with profiles can complete an order in 5 clicks, or 30 seconds according to the company. The number of these profiles has been growing at about 2 million per quarter and now totals more than 9 million.
Domino’s also launched a significantly updated iPad ordering app in Q2 2014 which includes full national menu, coupon search and location-based store locator, and Dominos Tracker (track the status of your order). That app generated more than $1 million in sales within four weeks of the update. Also in Q2 2014, the company launched a Group Ordering tool, which calculates the number of pizzas needed to feed a specified number of people.
Then, just a few weeks ago, the company launched Dom, the voice ordering assistant for the Dominos mobile app. Dom can take orders for carryout or delivery, suggest additions to a meal, find coupons, and handle other tasks. While it was in beta, customers completed 200,000 orders over a period of about three months using Dom, which is also integrated with the Ford Sync system so customers with Pizza Profiles who drive vehicles with the Sync system can complete saved “Easy Orders” while on the road.
These enhancements make it easier to complete orders and engage with the Domino’s brand. The results are impressive. Forty-five percent of Domino’s U.S. sales are now completed via digital channels. Domino’s digital sales penetration is similar internationally. The company’s sales in some countries (Australia, Japan, Korea, and the United Kingdom) are more than 50% digital. And a master franchise in the U.K. reports that more than 70% of U.K. delivery orders are completed in digital channels. The expansion of digital capabilities has increased order frequency and average ticket size, significantly improved order accuracy and customer satisfaction, and made it much easier for the company to communicate with its most loyal customers.
The following quote from Patrick Doyle, the company’s CEO, delivered during the Q2 earnings conference call, describes Domino’s goal. It is one that any company with a digital strategy should consider adopting (personalizing as needed of course, as indicated by my bracketed suggestions below).
“Our goal is always to be able to take an order whenever and however a customer wants, whether they need a pizza [substitute your own product here] in the UK through their cell phone, whether they want to order from their laptop in Australia or from their Ford Sync system here in the U.S., we want to be everywhere our customers want us to be with hot delicious food [substitute your product here].”
