Nicky Claeys

How are Domino's doing these days?
‘We're growing quite fast in terms of stores; we're just coming up to our 1250th store. Despite the pandemic, which was quite disruptive, we've always leaned into delivery. Our backbone is: delivering good quality, hot pizzas, reliably and very quickly. The last couple of years that has just accelerated because all of society has moved more towards home-delivery. And this will continue. So, we're in the right business and we've organized ourselves well to take advantage of that and to provide that service. The growth also means that we're able to employ a lot of people. In our stores, on average, we have 20 to 50 employees. Having added some 100 stores last year in Europe, we've employed upwards of 3000 new people. It feels really nice to offer people opportunities and to see the business grow.’

How much have you grown during the pandemic?
‘We have the pick-up business and we have the delivery business. Depending on the market, that's either a 50/50 or a 40/60 ratio. As for the pick-up business, that just dropped to zero in most markets. But delivery spiked. Overall, it balanced each other out from a sales perspective. It was, of course, a huge shift; suddenly we had to deliver all the orders, instead of half. That's not something that you immediately have ready, you have to scale up. It was quite a challenge, but as a business we've risen to that. NPS is at an all-time high.’

You once said: ‘When marketing is done well, it's the engine of the company.’ Isn't the engine the people making the pizzas? Or the ovens even? 
‘The engine is in driving growth and looking for opportunities. That comes through improved product, pricing strategy, service, campaigns, etc. And marketing is driving that. And then you have to execute really well; that's operations. So, marketing and operations are the two drivers. The fun of working in marketing in our company, is that you're handling all those levers. In other companies it's more divided in silos. I think it really works well when you can oversee everything and steer that engine very fast.’

Your goal as a CCO is to offer customers a frictionless shopping experience. How hard is it to control every step of that journey?
‘People want an alternative to an everyday hot meal. And they want that in a convenient, controlled and reliable way. That's why we have a truly integrated journey, where we have our own drivers, kitchens, fresh dough, etc. We spend a lot of time digitally enabling the stores so that the pizza is delivered within 20 minutes. And then you finesse it even more. When you do that, you can deliver that frictionless experience.’

What have you come up with to make it even more frictionless? 
‘Customers want convenience but they also want control. Therefore, we developed the GPS Pizza Tracker, which shows you exactly where your pizza is; from the oven to your front door. It doesn't change the product, but the feeling of control and the transparency increases so much. When talking about the customer journey, we also mean our internal customers; our franchise partners. We've developed apps for inventory and rostering, using machine learning to predict the orders and volumes. It’s all about digital enablement and this goes beyond just digitizing the existing purchase journey. It's looking at how we can use today's technology to really enable our business better and optimize.’

You control the complete journey. Do you really need external delivery platforms like UberEats and Deliveroo?
‘You have different customer journeys and we don't believe in forcing consumers to go for one or the other. You need to have different journeys for different people. That's is where our CRM comes in. New customers have different needs than existing ones. If you're a vegan, then I shouldn't be showing you the meat options. Most customers come to us directly, but some prefer not knowing what they're going to have, so they’ll look at an aggregator first.’

Millions of people use the Domino's app, giving you a lot of useful customer data. How threatening is the third-party cookie ban?
‘We’re not dependent on those cookies. The biggest part of our customers and traffic comes to us directly. We've invested in that and in building up the customer database. We incentivize people to register, there's a loyalty program. But of course, we do work with external parties. There, the main thing is to be prepared so you can manage change. Fortunately, we have a good relationship with the likes of Google and Facebook. We have our own online paid media team. Our centre of excellence has moved away from third-party cookies to conversion API, service tracking, etc.’

Is the marketing director of the future strictly a data analyst?
‘No, you need that balance between the left side and the right side of the brain. You have to understand customer psychology and how to make good content. It's not just about the numbers. You have to also interact with your consumers. Therefore, you need empathy and creativity. The traditional advertiser that makes great ads but doesn't understand numbers, will struggle to become a really good marketeer.’