For those of us that order pizza on a regular basis, you’re probably familiar with the story of Dominos’ epic turnaround a few years ago.  For those of you that might not be familiar with it, here’s a quick 4-minute video that I encourage you to watch.

It seems as though this company went from delivering cardboard covered with tomato sauce, stuck to the delivery box to delivering delicious pizza with good cheese and tasty add-ons.  On time.  Easily ordered.  How did this happen?  Turns out it was an exotic, radical strategy; something completely opposite to the modern, stealthy strategies that are formed by C-suite geniuses with MBA’s and PHD’s.

This risky gamble somehow has paid off and nobody seems to understand why.  Domino’s has opened 1,800 new stores in 10 countries since this dramatic flip of the switch.

How did they do this?

You will not understand this at first blush because it just doesn’t make sense.

• Great personal attention and behavior by phone attendants
• Using technology in the best way to aid the customer in ordering
• Admitting the error of their ways and reacting to it

They attacked and beat the three pieces of America’s Customer Service Disaster . . .  No thin-skinned behavior, no misuse of technology and no advertising ‘disconnect.’

Radical. Risky. Exotic.

Instead of arguing with customers, they listened to them.  Rather than forming technology based on internal issues, they formed it with customer issues. They listened to the story of their miss-steps and reacted to it.

Here is what Erin Leedy of FRESHMR recently wrote:

“Listening to—and acting on—Social Media Feedback.  A huge part of Domino’s turnaround strategy was to listen to customer feedback and respond by making the needed changes to the taste and quality of the food.”

Exotic. Radical. Risky.

How could they do this without having attendants become insulted with customer complaints?

How could they do this without offering technology that made ordering a pizza possible only for Louisville Geek employees?

How could they do this without producing self-praising, self-laudatory TV ads that were the exact opposite of how they really perform like all the other do?

Isn’t that the way you are supposed to do things?  Like all the other large companies?

Listening to the Customer.

RADICAL.