Domino’s new Facebook app lets customers rate stores in real time

Domino’s Pizza is allowing customers to rate stores in real time via a new app, with the information to be shared on Facebook in a bid to improve the stores’ service and operations.

The Store Performance Live Ratings app, which can be accessed from Domino’s Facebook page, allows customers to rate their end-to-end experience with the brand.

The ratings are displayed in real time on the Facebook page, allowing customers to see how their local store performs. They can also view recently rated stores and view the top five rated stores in the country.

The top five stores are visible on the main page, and customers can easily sort by their own local store.

The technology behind the app is an automated process that compiles and aggregates all customer ratings – based on live ratings calculated every 20 minutes – and is pulled by the Facebook app through web services.

The technology combines average delivery times data, directly from stores, and current ratings based on the live rating system.

“I think it was an ambitious project,” Domino’s online marketing director Michael Gillespie told StartupSmart.

“We looked at this a while ago and said, ‘This is going to be a huge project’ and it scared IT a bit. The data coming through is quite significant.

“But when we chatted about it, we thought, ‘We can’t be scared off by how big it is’… The size of the project was the most daunting [aspect].

“We have an internal IT team that did a considerable amount of backend work, and worked with a developer, Speedwell, to do the frontend.”

“It was probably a decent six months to get the customer frontend out.”

According to Domino’s chief executive Don Meij, the app is designed to improve product development and, ultimately, the overall customer service experience.

Meij said in a statement the company has taken “big steps forward” in improving the service and operations of its stores in the past few years.

“This is the next step for our stores to perform even better. For the first time ever, customers will be able to provide real time feedback by rating their experience with our business,” he said.

“[Customers will give a score out of five] in the areas of ordering process, presentation and service pickup, product quality, and presentation and service delivery.

“The application will also allow our customers the opportunity to rate our stores’ delivery time, resulting in average delivery times being recorded for each location.”

It’s understood none of the customers’ feedback will be omitted, with Meij insisting the company is “hiding nothing”.

“In fact we are sharing it all on the most public forum possible,” he said.

“This is not just for our customers – it will also be used for our stores to see where they can improve in the eyes of their customers.”

Stores that receive a rating of less than three will receive additional training to improve their standards.

“We will be working closely with stores to improve their product, service and quality by acting on the feedback from customers immediately,” Meij said.

Stores that continue to rank lowest will be retrained by franchise consultants and receive support to improve their ratings.