Note to Domino’s: It’s all one company
In the course of my consulting work, I have found about half of every company I work with is going through a “one company” initiative. The focus of these campaigns is to get every employee to recognize and behave like they all work for the same company, regardless of their business unit. This is a particularly important effort in companies that have grown by acquisition. It’s not unusual for employees of an acquired company, two or three years post-acquisition, to answer the question, “Who do you work for?” by naming the company that was bought.
Anybody who has ever called a company with a problem and been told, “That’s another department,” understands the value of having everybody recognize that they work for one company. Any purchasing rep who has to deal with five different salespeople from the same company—none of whom know what the others have been doing—yearns to work with a company that behaves in a unified manner.
The idea of “one company” was driven home for me a couple weeks ago when I called my local Domino’s to order a pizza. I got the number from the Domino’s website, typing my Zip Code into a “Store Locator” form. The phone rang, then was answered by a recording, which asked me to hold while restaurant personnel helped other customers. The recording informed me of a variety of promotions once, twice, three times. Four times. Minutes ticked by. Okay, I thought; they’re really busy. I’ll drive to the store and wait.
I got to the store about 6 p.m. on December 26 to find it was closed. According to the “hours” sign in the window, the store should have been open until midnight. There were no other signs in the window explaining the closure.
I stewed about this for days. There were three mistakes made here. First, the store should have been open. Second, the phone recording should have informed me the store was closed. Third, there should have been an explanation in the window. Three strikes.
Finally, I returned to the Domino’s site and used the comment form to complain. Here’s the reply I got:
Dear Mr. Holtz,
Thank you for taking the time to contact the Domino’s Pizza Customer Care Team. As one of our valued customers, your comments are extremely important to us.
I want to apologize for the situation you encountered at the Concord location. Domino’s Pizza takes great pride in providing the quality products and service you have come to expect and trust.
Because your Domino’s Pizza store is independently owned and operated, I have forwarded your comments to the franchise owner or local representative. Please be assured your comments will be taken seriously and considered to help us improve our operations.
Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us. Your business is very important to us.
Sincerely,
Lawrence
Domino’s Pizza Customer Care T.E.A.M.
The emphasis is mine. Lawrence (with no last name, like Mako) is telling me, “Nothing we can do, dude. It’s a franchise store. Sorry.”
The fact that my local Domino’s outlet is a francise store means exactly nothing to me. As the customer, I called a Domino’s store that I located on the Domino’s website. The infuriating repeating recording identified the store as Domino’s. When I drove to the store, I saw the Domino’s logo on the sign. I don’t care that it’s independently owned and operated. It’s a Domino’s store. It’s all one company.
So far, I have heard nothing from the local store, so Lawrence’s insistence that I “be assured” that my comments will be taken seriously have become a source of derision. As a result, I’m not likely to call that store again, out of fear that I’ll die of old age listening to the recording cycle through over and over again. (Wow, I sure feel like a valued customer!) There’s a Pizza Hut just down the street, after all.
Customers don’t perceive internal matters like business units, affiliates, subsidiaries, or independent ownership. It’s all one company whether it’s Domino’s, IBM (with its many operating units), FedEx (with its various delivery organizations), or The Walt Disney Company (with its theme parks, film production companies, TV stations, and merchandising operations). Domino’s just needs to start acting like one company.
01/08/07 | 14 Comments | Note to Domino’s: It’s all one company