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Execution Matters to Dominos At SuperBowl Time

February 3, 2013 By 2 Comments

The sports event of the year in America was held tonight, SuperBowl XLVII (47).

Rather than having a big “shindig” as we have done in previous years we decided we were  going to take it easy and just order in some food for “the big game.”  In prior years I’ve had up to 35 people over for SuperBowl poker parties, where we would start up at 1 p.m. and play cards before, during and after the Superbowl.  With tons of food, a margarita machine and a keg of beer the events have gone over quite well in the past.

After thinking about what we wanted to eat we I decided to order some wings from our local Frisco Wingstop at 4:30 on Sunday.  Unfortunately, their website wasn’t operating correctly so we had to call our order in after 10 minutes of frustration with their website.  After getting ahold of someone we were told they couldn’t have our order ready before 6:45 p.m!  That is a over a 2 hour wait!  Simply unacceptable and I passed on that option.

I decided to see how well Dominos could execute since this was the biggest event of the year for eating out.

I logged onto Dominos website and ordered away with no problems.  I ordered “carryout” since I didn’t want to deal with any further delays.  Imagine to my surprise when I was told the order would be ready in 9 to 14 minutes.  When I arrived I found 7 delivery cars in the parking lot and over 20 people working inside the small store. I picked up my order within a minute of walking in and I was on my way.

Good businesses are based on sales funnels

  • Get sales leads (via word of mouth, txt message marketing, email marketing, direct marketing, etc).
  • Convert leads to orders (systems in place to take orders is working smoothly)
  • Execute orders (fulfillment with a smile.  The key is to have systems that will scale.  You should never have sales leads go wasted due to poor back-end execution).

The Bottom Line: Dominos executed flawlessly on SuperBowl XLVII at my location whereas Wingstop FAILED miserably.

Dominos generated sales leads (txt message marketing and email marketing are proving effective), their systems took orders flawlessly and they staffed up to handle the volume.  The execution on one of the busiest days of the year was “flawless” and was like a normal business day. Wingstop wasn’t trying to get my business (I was simply craving wings), their website wasn’t functional and their execution was non-existent (2 hour delay).

Key Point: I decided to share this experience because each and everyday we are presented with opportunities to observe and learn from the success and failure of the businesses around us. What are they doing right and what are they doing wrong?  Can we learn from their experiences and put it to work in our own businesses? 

To Your Success in 2013 and beyond,

Dan Ross

 

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About Dan Ross

A Fortune 100 financial executive, Dan received an MBA from Rice University and a B.S. in Accounting from UT Dallas. He is a "numbers guy", a big believer in continuous learning, a recovering CNBC junkie, a loving husband, a technology buff, a Starbucks Mocha addict and Twitter-holic who loves snow skiing. Follow @BetterBizIdeas

  • http://twitter.com/wingstop Wingstop Restaurants

    Dan,
    Today is our busiest day of the year, and it is all about chicken wings when it comes to the Big Game. With fairness in mind we filled pre-orders first. We posted several messages over the last few weeks via social media, email, and the website to encourage guests to pre-order their online orders. At the top of our website we have a very large banner that says “In-Store Orders” (only for today), for those who may not have seen previous messages. 

    We apologize for a wait on the busiest day of the year for customers who may not have pre-ordered. Our guest that did pre-order are happy that we took care of them first as promised. Hopefully, you give us a second chance as today is not the norm. Enjoy the rest of the game.

    Wingstop Restaurants, Inc.

    • http://BetterBizIdeas.com/blog Dan Ross

      Greatly appreciate the response Wingstop and thanks for the explanation.  The promptness illustrates you are listening to “social media” channels nicely :)

      I would still be worried about the execution of the business. I would wholeheartedly agree that today is a “peak” day for orders but Dominos flat out WHOOPED your business here in Frisco and they had the exact same constraints that your business had.

      This is one of the few days of the year when orders literally fall from the sky. Take out “football food” restaurants don’t have to pay for marketing leads today due to the endless demand where the product/concept is being executed well.  It is just a shame to see all that business opportunity get missed.

      Dan Ross