Domino's Viral Marketing OR Do We REALLY NEED THIS?

Now you can track your Pizza from the moment you call it in to the moment it hits your door.

From those cats over at Information Week's Editorial section:


Editor's Note: Web 2.0 Gone Awry: Online Pizza Tracking
Alert! Alert! Useless implementation of Web 2.0 Technology in progress. Alert!

Across the country, bleary-eyed teens and college students -- strung out from late-night Guitar Hero III marathons -- will no longer have the added worry of wondering when their Domino's pizza will be delivered. The company has debuted a new system that allows the pizza purchaser to track an order -- from the moment it's taken to preparation, baking, boxing, and delivery. This "Pizza Tracking Service" (implemented within 3,400 Domino's and in all franchises by June) is accurate up to 40 seconds.

This bit of tech wizardry gravitates into the "is this really necessary?" category. Seriously, you already know the Domino's mantra -- pizza delivered somewhere in the 30 minute time frame (little old ladies crossing the street be damned). No one can be that truly desperate/starving that they need to know the exact moment the pepperoni slices are being applied ... can they?

Chris McGlothlin, technology chief at Domino's, seems to think there's plenty of anxious customers out there. "It's an emotional roller-coaster when you order," McGlothlin says. "Customers wonder: Did they get my order? Are they taking care of me? Will it show up?"

Now, to be fair, the new Pizza Tracker also lets the user rate the experience -- the quality of the food, the delivery time, and the courtesy of the order taker and delivery person, all with the goal of improving customer service and quality. Nothing that the use of a telephone or online customer service form/e-mail address hasn't allowed before.

I'm reminded of a few years back when early Web page designers learned a whole bunch of "nifty tricks" (music, animations, etc.) and plastered their sites with them. After the initial cool factor wore off, most folks agreed that using new technology for the sake of using it does not always make a better product. IT pros preparing to implement Web 2.0 apps should really take that to heart. Before adding a new tool to the site, ask yourself, "Is this really going to improve the quality of my user's experience or are we just adding a bunch of bells and whistles because we can?"

So what do you think? Is this Pizza Tracker like a piping hot slice chased by a cold beer or akin to anchovies gilding a black olive pizza? Please come to my blog and post a comment.

Tom LaSusa
tlasusa@cmp.com
www.informationweek.com

I Thought, with the Big Game coming up 2morrow & all, this might save the day ;-p

-b