Franchise Update Magazine Issue IV, 2015 | Page 28

CONSUMER MARKETING

Customer
service
Speed and Hospitality

On-time delivery was not enough at RPM Pizza
BY JOHN DIJULIUS

I

n 2011, RPM Pizza (the largest U.S.
franchisee of Domino’s Pizza) made
major improvements in its speed-ofdelivery service by improving its percentage
of on-time pizza deliveries by 17 percent.
However, according to an independent
third-party mystery shopper survey, RPM
ranked last among its major competitors in hospitality—demonstrating how
a company can get
overly focused on one
component of their
business while letting other key components slip away.
So in 2012 RPM
committed to changing its culture from
being solely an operationally excellent
organization, which they called being
“Brilliant at the Basics,” to also being
known for being a world-class hospitality company. They started by creating
a “day in the life of a customer” video,
to teach their employees to view things
from the customer’s perspective.
Remember, many employees have never been
their own customer, have
never needed the services and products their
90
company provides, and
cannot comprehend what
the customer’s mindset is.
88
Therefore, they do not
relate well and find it
86
difficult to empathize, be
compassionate, and anticipate customer needs.
84
Think about the last
time you ordered pizza
82
to be delivered to your
home. Why did you do
that? It was critically
80
important for Domino’s employees to truly

26

understand the “why” piece. Were their
customers hungry? Yes, but they could
get food from thousands of places to satisfy their appetite. Why pizza, and why
Domino’s?
Bringing the vision to life
This is where the “day in the life of a
customer” video, titled Creating Smiles,
played a major role.
To illustrate RPM’s
service vision, to really make it come to
life and not just be
another stale company quote, the video
needed to show all the
benefits of what delivering great pizza in
less than 30 minutes
really provides to its customers—beyond
just filling their bellies. This video showed
people being in a rush, with their busy
lives, some away from home traveling,
others trying to get home from work and
get the family fed. In certain instances, it
showed people trying to please everyone’s

tastes, and wanting to spend more quality
time with their loved ones instead being
in the kitchen preparing food and having
to clean up afterward.
When a “day in the life of a customer”
video is done well, watching it makes it
obvious and clear what your company’s
customer service vision statement should be.
At RPM, it was vital that every team
member understood that they were not
just making and delivering pizza, but that
their purpose—what their customers truly
needed from them—was easy and simple:
Domino’s pizza delivered to their door,
exactly as they ordered it, promptly, by
someone smiling with genuine hospitality.
Thus, the customers smiled because
their lives were made easier. This ensured
that every team member clearly knew why
their service vision was “Creating smiles
by making lives easier.” This is a great
customer service vision that is measurable,
accountable, and trainable. At RPM, their
three pillars are: Operational Excellence
~ Customer Delight ~ Deliver the WOW.
By 2013, RPM Pizza’s service culture
had made a drastic turnaround. Not only
was its customer satisfaction score significantly better than the previous year,
but it also hit the highest score in RPM’s
history. n
John R. DiJulius III is the author of The Customer Service Revolution and president of
The DiJulius Group, a customer service consulting firm whose clients include Starbucks,
Chick-fil-A, The Ritz-Carlton, Nestle, PwC,
Lexus, and many more. Email him at john@
thedijuliusgroup.com.

Customer Satisfaction Scores

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