Domino's Pizza Tracker Turns 5

The Super Bowl is right around the corner and that means pizza chains will be scrambling to carve out the largest slice of consumer pie on the biggest ordering day of the year. Five years ago, most pizzas were still ordered in the traditional fashion: by phone. Online ordering was still largely uncharted territory, but just one week before Super Bowl XLII, Domino’s was planning to launch the Pizza Tracker, a twist on the online ordering process which would let customers track the progress of their pizza from order to delivery. “I’ll admit, personally, I was a little skeptical about it since we were the ‘30 minute guys’ and we thought our customers would only care about making the phone call and placing the order,” said Domino’s Spokesman Chris Brandon.  “The next time they’d even want to think of the pizza was when they’d see the driver at the door.” However, according to Brandon, the Pizza Tracker quickly became a fan favorite and is a tech innovation that the company remains proud of as it turns 5 years old in January. Today, the Pizza Tracker has evolved to include different themes including sports, heavy metal, romance, and the voiceover feature, as well as several other creative elements. “We have been able to take the ordering process and make it an experience,” said Brandon.  “We’ll continue to look at ways to utilize it.” Since Domino’s launched online ordering 5 years ago, the company is now taking about 40% of orders online. In that time, the company has also pushed into the mobile realm for ordering via smartphones. Domino’s Chief Information Officer Kevin Vasconi said the company currently covers 95% of the smartphone market and plans to expand to other ordering channels and second screen experiences. “We don’t innovate just to innovate, and we don’t use technology just because we can,” said Vasconi.  “We use innovation to enhance our relationship with our customers and to make their lives easier. We don’t use a lot of gimmicks; we try to understand what our customers want and what they value and then we innovate from there.” As for the future of the Pizza Tracker, Vasconi says they are continually working to improve it and enhance the experience. “Our customers love Domino’s Tracker and they should expect to see some pretty cool enhancements next year," he said. However, when it comes to specific enhancements, Vasconi said customers will just have to keep tracking. “We’d rather, as always, surprise and delight our customers once those enhancements arrive.”