Let's Embrace PULSE

Dear Franchisee’s and Managers;

I have been working for Domino’s Pizza for over 13 years, and just like many of you, I started working for the company when we had to take orders by hand, and stay in the stores many hours after close to be able to ensure the accurate completions of daily paperwork, and as you know Sunday night was worst. We used to burn labor paying people to be in stores till 5 am, to ensure accurate completion of the calculations of food and labor. When Breakaway (the “new” system) came about there was resistance from many franchisees and mostly everyone complained about how hard it was going to be to integrate this to our stores, and to train all of our staff to be able to use this system. However, we were able to surpass that, and move in the right direction, and with a little bit of time, and dedication we were able to get all our staff in the same page. I stand here before you today as your CTO to tell you about a new and even more innovative POS (point of sales) system, that the whole company will need to embrace in the near future, with hopefully very little resistance after you hear all the benefits that it has to offer.

As many of you know, Quick-service restaurants are ingrained in people’s routines, whether they’re picking up a sub for lunch, or grabbing a pizza for a night at home. We, here at Domino’s Pizza have continually tried to improve on our customer service, this time we are doing it by integrating Information systems to our daily operations. We are rolling out a revolutionary point of sales system called “PULSE.” Pulse will provide business continuity which in today's interconnected world, virtually every aspect of a company's operation is vulnerable to disruption; even two hours of downtime could be fatal in our business, as you know. Pulse will provide services such as online ordering and the revolutionary pizza tracker. This will allow our customers to follow the progress of their order online from the time they click the "Place Order" button or hang up the telephone until the Domino's delivery expert leaves the store. Pulse will also bring security to Domino’s, PULSE has no way to store personal customer information on the workstation itself, so there is no risk that someone could steal the customers information, and if someone breaks into a store and steals the system the customers information will not be there.

Some corporate stores are already using the Pulse system, and they are currently enjoying improved customer service, reduced mistakes, shorter training times, and lower costs. Pulse is revolutionizing our operations. Pulse can help everyone involved in the Value Chain, from suppliers to the final customer, if we take time to learn the system and avoid resistance. PULSE is helping managers control their costs, such as labor, food, and mileage. They have daily and even hourly view of how costs are shaking up, and managers are now able to project costs to improve ideal vs. actual costs, which in turn has increased their profitability. Pulse can also enable managers to look into the stores operations when they are not there. They are able to look at how long it’s taking to answer phones, or take orders, how long it’s taking to make an orders, and if they have too many people on the clock, all real time, enabling them to strive for excellent customer service at all times. "

Could the improvement on customer service be due Pulse? After all "Domino's Pizza is number one in customer satisfaction in 2009 survey of US largest limited service restaurants"(Domino's.com)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMx22Dsdh9E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LczEpidAeWU

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press_kits/2009/virtualization09/Dominos.pdf

http://www.qsrmagazine.com/articles/news/story.phtml?id=6328

http://www.pizzamarketplace.com/article.php?id=2277

Quick Service Restaurants

Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) are a specific type of restaurant characterized both by its fast food cuisine and by minimal table service. The QSR industry is not known as an early adopter of technology. This is not to say, however, that technology doesn’t play a crucial role in the success of the business. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. IT has and continues to change the QSR industry. Many QSR operators have already taken or are planning to take remote ordering technology to the next level by having it interface directly with their POS systems, an example of these are Domino’s Pizza, McDonalds, Subway, and Pizza Hut just to name a few. Using software for online orders QSR’s have “seamlessly integrated” alternative ordering options into their stores’ POS systems, such as online ordering, text ordering, and also self-service kiosks. With the innovation of a POS interface, orders are processed immediately for optimal speed and efficiency. And, since no one has to key in the items, accuracy is significantly increased. Alternative ordering not only frees up the counter staff to help the dining room customers, it also helps the staff make the food faster, and therefore increase the efficiency of the store. Looking at some local stores figures, we can see how the service times have improved and talking to store managers, they agree that the success is because of the great system. He also said that anyone can now take an order, he referred to this system as “It’s idiot proof, anyone can now take an order,” a manager at a local store said, “so training time is now reduced.” He said that he started working for a QSR when there was no computers, “since then things just seem to get easier, and having a POS has defiantly helped the store operations run smoother,” it has helped him lower his load times by 2 minutes, out the door times by 3.8 minutes, and to the door time by 4.3 minutes which a an improvement that he attributes to an efficient POS system. A POS also increases check size, not only does it allow the customer to take a look at the extensive menus that many of these companies have, but it also helps the CSR guide the customer though the buying experience. IT allows for online and text ordering which requires customers to give their credit card numbers, but not all customers are quick to take to this technology. Operators and providers agree that probably the biggest hurdle to overcome with launching a new POS is persuading customers to enter their credit card numbers for streamlined prepayment, however many people are starting to see the many advantages that adapting to IT has brought to them.

http://www.qsrmagazine.com/