Data: The Secret Sauce of Business — A Recipe for Delightful Success!
My aim is to share insights across diverse industries, emphasizing how digital experiences can elevate both brands and businesses through seamless customer interactions. Throughout this blog series, I’ve delved into several sectors that have effectively adopted a data-driven approach, incorporating technical aspects into our discussions. In this particular blog, I’m excited to explore my favorite industry as a foodie — the food industry.
With a deliberate touch of foodie flair, this blog is peppered with a bunch of amusing food industry examples, showcasing how the modern world has embraced the digital ecosystem, serving us all an exceptional buffet of digital experiences through various brands. As a dedicated food enthusiast, I relish sharing my research on the ever-evolving digital landscape within the culinary realm.
In the ever-evolving world of digital presence, crafting digital experience strategies is a must. These strategies don’t just hinge on business decisions; they also get a hefty dose of influence from customer behavior across various channels — be it websites, mobile apps, web applications, outlet screens, and more! All these channels spew forth a treasure trove of data that external factors gobble up to make the right calls. Data, in all its quirky forms — customer data, instrumental data, or business analysis data — is the lifeblood of any business decision, sourced from a wild array of devices and mediums.
While entrepreneurs and managers of the organisation often rely on their industry experience and decision-making instincts, this may not always be sufficient for today’s digital-enabled businesses. Data-driven insights can provide an extra edge for the organisation to succeed in the long run, ensuring steady growth and adapting to the dynamic digital landscape.
Ingredient side of use
In the heart of the city lies a vegetable shop, strategically positioned in a prime location. Despite its advantageous spot, the shop struggled to generate the desired revenue to thrive in the competitive market. Determined to make a difference, they ventured into implementing wireless network and Bluetooth device scanners. This move allowed them to gauge the foot traffic and customer count in the vicinity accurately.
Armed with this valuable data, they devised a strategy to boost their business. Everyday eye-catching advertisements adorned their store, offering enticing deals like ‘Buy 1KG of onions, get 1/2 KG of tomatoes free.’ The timing and content of these promotions were carefully tailored based on market demand and vegetable prices, effectively attracting more customers to their shop.
Their efforts bore fruit as the footfall increased, backed by insightful offline data. The shop then took a step further by launching a user-friendly mobile app, providing customers with a seamless shopping experience. The app allowed users to browse through an extensive range of vegetables, add items to their basket, and complete the checkout process with ease.
By assimilating both online and offline data, they created a comprehensive 360-degree view of their customers, enabling them to understand preferences and make data-driven decisions to further enhance their offerings. This integration of data marked a turning point in their business journey, fostering growth and solidifying their position as a go-to vegetable destination in the city.
Get ready for a tech-tastic ride as we take a quick peek into the magical world of the unified profile! See how customers enjoy a seamless experience across channels, no matter how quirky they behave. And that’s not all — brace yourself for a list of awesome perks that businesses can reap by harnessing the power of the unified customer profile!
The preceding story offers a glimpse into how data-driven decision-making can be advantageous for businesses. Data acts as the driving force behind the implementation of digital experiences and the utilization of artificial intelligence and machine learning, equipping organizations with potent tools to convert raw data into invaluable insights that elevate their decision-making processes. Below, we highlight some aspects that are contributing even greater value to businesses in the realm of AI/ML.
- Chabot and Food Ordering
- Food Quality Inspection with Computer Vision
- Recipe Generation and Recommendation
- Personalised menu’s in restaurants
- Nutrition Analysis in food apps
- Food fraud detections
- Waste reduction in food production
Available evidence indicates that Zomato has made analytics data on market demand generation and their delectable strategies for driving orders publicly accessible. Click below to explore the latest food trends on Zomato!!!
AI’s influence has expanded beyond the consumer side to the manufacturing aspect of food production, with the emergence of AI-based food preparation in the restaurant industry. Restaurants are harnessing AI capabilities to elevate both customer experiences and operational efficiency. I’d like to highlight a couple of intriguing AI-based tools utilised in the food industry.
Food Sorting Tool
In the past, sorting food was quite the production, with hundreds of people standing in line, separating the good stuff from the not-so-good by hand. It was about as exciting as watching paint dry, and let’s be honest, even the most skilled workers occasionally missed a less-than-perfect snack.
But guess what? We now have AI and ML stepping into the food sorting arena, and these tech geniuses don’t make the same mistakes we do. Take potatoes, for instance. AI can measure and weigh them, ensuring that only the finest ones end up in your chip bag, while the others go off to become fries. And it doesn’t stop at potatoes; AI can even sort veggies by color to reduce food waste. Just set your quality standards, and AI will make sure every snack passes the test.
The best part? AI does most of the work, which means companies save a lot of money on manual labor. These AI-powered food gadgets have super cool features like X-ray vision, lasers, cameras, and a bunch of robots that work together to give food the ultimate quality check and follow your sorting instructions to the letter.
Cleaning Process
Ensuring the cleanliness of all food processing equipment is a top priority for food producers. It’s imperative that every machine and piece of equipment is thoroughly decontaminated and cleaned to the highest standard before it comes into contact with food. One way to achieve this level of cleanliness is by minimising human involvement and entrusting all processing tasks to AI-controlled robots and machines.
However, automation alone doesn’t guarantee a clean and safe final product. This is where AI-based sensor technology comes into play, enhancing food safety while simultaneously reducing energy and water consumption during the cleaning process.
Through the use of optical fluorescence imaging, ultrasonic sensors, and other advanced technologies, a self-optimizing cleaning system can effectively eliminate even the tiniest food particles from the equipment. AI oversees the entire system, continuously monitoring for any presence of microbes, germs, or food particles that might jeopardise the quality of the food.
I’d like to select a restaurant that has been serving pizza for several decades. Additionally, I’d like to highlight their early challenges, their journey of growth, and how they evolved into a global leader in the pizza restaurant and home delivery.
Data: Domino’s Secret Sauce for Success
Domino’s consistent digital innovation success can be attributed to early investments in robust ecommerce and m-commerce platforms. These platforms, established in the late 1990s, allowed customers to easily order pizzas online and through various devices, including smartphones, tablets, and even gaming consoles like Xbox.
Their initial journey was far from easy, marked by numerous challenges as they struggled to establish themselves in the market. Domino’s Pizza faced a barrage of negative reviews and criticisms, particularly concerning the quality and taste of their pizzas. Some of these criticisms are outlined below,
- Cardboard-Like Crust: Many customers complained that the pizza crust tasted like cardboard and lacked the desired texture and flavor.
- Sauce Quality: The quality of the pizza sauce was a common point of criticism, with some customers finding it too sweet or lacking in flavor.
- Lack of Freshness: Some customers felt that Domino’s pizzas lacked freshness and that the ingredients appeared to be subpar.
- Delivery Times: Domino’s faced criticism for long delivery times, with some customers experiencing delays in receiving their orders.
In 2008, Domino’s Pizza faced a crisis, but under CMO Russell Weiner’s leadership, they admitted their pizza needed improvement and revamped both the menu and digital ordering. Their innovative approach made online ordering a core business element, and Domino’s IT became their largest department, emphasizing their tech-driven focus. Transparency was key, achieved through digital tools, and data showed consumers preferred digital ordering for its convenience and data-driven improvements. Domino’s transformed into a technology-centric company, resulting in significant sales growth and a new industry standard for digital innovation. Below are some of the technology specific initiatives,
Digital Ordering Platforms: Domino’s became a technology-driven company by developing user-friendly mobile apps and a user-centric website. These platforms made it easy for customers to place orders online.
Real-time GPS Tracking: Domino’s introduced real-time GPS tracking of pizza deliveries, allowing customers to track their orders and the location of the delivery driver. This increased transparency and reduced uncertainty.
Domino’s AnyWare: The “Domino’s AnyWare” initiative allowed customers to place orders through various platforms, including smart speakers, smartwatches, and social media. This innovation made ordering more convenient and accessible.
Data Analytics: Domino’s leveraged data analytics to gain insights into customer preferences and behaviors. This data-driven approach helped tailor marketing efforts and menu offerings to meet customer demands.
Social Media Engagement: Domino’s actively engaged with customers on social media platforms. They used social media as a direct communication channel to respond to inquiries, address concerns, and build a strong online presence.
Innovative Marketing Campaigns: Domino’s launched innovative marketing campaigns that highlighted their improved pizza quality, menu variety, and technological advancements. These campaigns effectively conveyed their commitment to change.
Quality Assurance Technologies: Technology was employed to ensure the quality and consistency of pizza preparation. For instance, they experimented with AI-powered pizza scanners to assess the quality of pizzas before delivery.
In 2021, Domino’s secured the fifth spot among the world’s top quick-service restaurants by revenue, boasting a brand value exceeding 12.4 billion U.S. dollars. Furthermore, in 2022, the company surpassed the average American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) score of 78, affirming its financial and customer satisfaction achievements.
Few domino's achievement in past decades
- Elevating Customer Satisfaction: Dominos’ online orders now dominate the US market, comprising more than 70% of total sales, while also achieving an impressive reduction in average delivery times to less than 30 minutes (Forbes, 2021).
- Optimized Marketing Effectiveness: The implementation of tailored marketing campaigns significantly heightened customer engagement and propelled a 3.9% growth in same-store sales in 2020 (Domino’s, 2020).
- Securing Market Leadership: In 2018, Domino’s surpassed Pizza Hut to become the world’s largest pizza delivery company, commanding a substantial market share of 18.6% (Statista, 2021).
The ‘Technical Components of Domino’s’ are like the secret ingredients in a pizza — they may not make it taste better, but they definitely make it arrive faster!
You may have some questions in mind,
1. What digital technology platforms does Domino’s employ to grow its business?
2. How did they strategically utilize technology to empower their data-driven operations?
3. What key data handling techniques have they implemented to optimize their data-driven business processes?
4. What is their current return on investment (ROI) in technology?
5. What does Domino’s envision for the future of technology enhancements?
Stay tuned for my upcoming blog, where I will delve deeper into the technological aspects of Domino’s and its competitors. I will also continue to explore the technology transformations and digital experience enhancements of other industry-specific companies, highlighting how they have embraced data-driven business approaches.
