Domino's data-driven plans for domination in SEA

Pizza company Domino’s has a recipe for customer experience success and the key ingredient is data, which not only reveals what prevents customers from returning but also powers its growth.

• Domino’s uses a value map which allows it to anticipate customers’ needs or pain points.
• But being overly fixated on data can lead to heavy-handed solutions that are contrary to the organisation’s needs.
• NPS scores are used as a customer satisfaction metric to measure each touchpoint, from products and service to online orders.

Why it matters

Brands planning to embark on a data journey should take a holistic approach that makes connections across the entire value stream and tracks customer satisfaction at all touchpoints through good data storage, quality, access and analytics.

Takeaways

• A single customer view is a must-have, otherwise every part of the business will be thinking about it with respect to its KPI.
• Use advanced analytics to segment customers for better targeting before deploying solutions like hyper personalisation.
• After integrating the internal and external data sources, and structuring the data, zoom in on the business focus.

"A tech company that sells pizza.” That is the niche the fast-food giant has carved out for itself, said Linda Hassan, Domino’s Pizza Group CMO for Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia, told the eTail Asia 2023 conference in Singapore recently.

And it is not just a tech company but one that delivers great CX.

This is a company that in 2010 revolutionised real-time GPS tracking for food deliveries – the norm today – at a time “when many companies were not so high-tech".

But tech for tech’s sake is not why Domino’s does it.

“Even with high-tech solutions today like hyper-personalisation and conversion optimisation, what we want to achieve is the best customer experience," explained Hassan.

Data is therefore a key ingredient in Domino’s recipe for success.

“We put a lot of priority on data and data-driven marketing is what powers Domino’s growth.”

She shared ways for marketers to embark on the data journey:

1. Take a holistic approach

Hassan’s advice: “First things first: have the right strategy and mindset across the organisation."

But she cautioned against being overly fixated with data and falling out of alignment with a holistic strategy. This can lead to unnecessarily deploying solutions that are heavy-handed and incongruent with the needs of the organisation.

2. Make data connections

Hassan observed that most organisations do not suffer from the lack of data as much as with making data connections.

“We need to make sure our data is making connections because we want to understand the true experience of the customer – not just through the ordering process but through the whole value stream."

Data can reveal the weakest links in CX that keep customers from returning. However, the entire organisation must be on board.

“In order to create brand love, data has to flow through the ecosystem. With all the solutions we put in place, we need to foster communications across all departments.”

She shared that Domino’s employs the use of a value map, which allows the team to anticipate customers’ needs or pain points.

"We know, from the thinking of ordering pizza, to the completion of ordering pizza, that is owned by marketing. The moment the order gets into the hands of the operations team, that is the responsibility of the operations team.”

3. Own the entire customer experience…

Placing a pizza order, as Hassan reminded the audience, comes with several pitstops that inform "the whole value stream of the business”. This ranges from having an initial urge for pizza, to considering where to get pizza, to making an order, to going through the ordering process, to getting delivery updates and finally, to receiving the order.

Optimising for payment solutions, for instance, is hardly helpful if other aspects like poor delivery service are overlooked.

Adding that 80-85% of the business is online, Hassan said, “In our market in Singapore, for the pizza business, you might think a lot of people eat in-store. That’s why some stores don’t even have seats.”

But she said Domino’s is a global brand and a pioneer in delivery.

“So whatever we do is delivering pizza. Even if you pick up the pizza in-store, we are actually delivering pizza to your hands. We deliver pizza to your home, we deliver pizza to your hands and you become the delivery guy, you bring pizza back to your family and friends.”

The fact that Domino's has its own fleet of delivery riders (rather than outsourcing last-mile delivery fulfilment to third party food delivery platforms such as GrabFood and Foodpanda) allows it to keep a tight rein on upholding good customer service standards.

4. … and track customer satisfaction at all touchpoints

NPS scores, as Hassan attested, have been used by the team as a customer satisfaction metric for the past five years. The team also measures NPS at every touchpoint from products, service and online orders.

“We may not have the best of everything, but we keep on improving ourselves.”

5. Be customer-centric with a single customer view

“For anything that we do, the customer is at the centre,” said Hassan.

This calls for all departments across the organisation to have a unified view of the customer, whether it is the ecommerce team, the contact centre team, the CRM team or the finance team.

"If we want to improve the customer experience, we need to see the customer as one view. Essentially, this is one customer.”

This single customer view is a must-have for the organisation.

“If not, every part of the business will be thinking about it with respect to their KPI – they wouldn’t care about the customer but care about their KPI."

6. Set data structure in place

Even before looking into segmentation and CRM solutions, the organisation needs to get its data structure in order, starting from the foundation of having data storage solutions.

• CRM: Proven value of integrating a third-party tool. “You need advanced analytics to start with before deploying solutions like hyper-personalisation.”
• Advanced analytics: Segmenting customers for better targeting. “I have a segment I call the ‘deep dead VIP’ – people who are so important but haven’t been back in the past 12 months. Something is not right with these customers, and we realised they’ve had experiences such as very bad service. You need to know who these customers are, if they are out and you want them to come back.”
• Data access: The ability to aggregate and access data with ease. "Sometimes, the database is so heavy you can’t just pull out information. You need to make sure this data is accessible.”
• Data integration: Combining multiple sources and enriching data for a unified view
• Data quality: Ensuring data accuracy and usability of data. “In Singapore, each block has a postal code. But for a market like Cambodia, we have to add a remark like ‘behind the river’. In Malaysia, the house number goes from No 1 to No 52 to No 25 to No 3; how do you even find the location? So, you need to enrich and add one additional data point."
• Data storage solutions: How and where the data will be stored, such as being aggregated into a data bank. Hassan said, “From my personal experience, data was sitting everywhere. Back then, before GDPR and PDPA, I outsourced all my data and sent it somewhere to get aggregated, cleaned up, using a simple primary field and getting it back. This is sufficient for just three to five years of growth.”

7. Zoom in on the business focus

Whether it is about using data for BI reporting, or for omnichannel marketing automation with a single view of customers by integrating both internal and external data sources, this is all about putting data to good use.

“Now that you know how the data is structured, be very clear with what you want to achieve.”

Aside from being a customer-centric organisation, the ultimate aspiration for Domino’s is to grow not just brand equity but customer equity.

Hassan said, “Everything we do is for this destination. We want to be here for a long time.”