Digital channels have had a huge impact on the food delivery sector. Figaro Digital caught up with Andrew Gallagher, Senior Director of Marketing at pizza delivery chain Papa John’s for some fresh take-aways on the take-away industry
Figaro Digital: Convenience is a key factor in the food delivery industry. How are Papa John’s adapting to mobile retail and instant payments?
In terms of technology, my belief is that you continually need to adapt and our aim at Papa John’s is to be at the forefront of new ordering and payment methods. We’re currently working on significant updates to our online experience across all devices which will see us adopt the latest responsive technology. Whether it’s PayPal, Paym or Pingit, we want the widest choice for our customers when it comes to how to pay.
Thinking more broadly, mobile is key to interaction at all stages of the journey. Whether it’s a deal activation through Twitter like our ‘Score Twice, Half Price’ promotion, or how you view your Papa Rewards points and claim your free pizza, everything needs to be available across all devices.
Sometimes, being at the forefront can mean taking a risk on unproven technology, but I think customers make allowances for that and acknowledge a brand’s efforts to stay at the cutting edge.
Papa John’s recently partnered with customer engagement company Rant & Rave to help collect customer feedback. What has that relationship enabled you to achieve?
Rant & Rave has allowed us to see what’s really going on out there and what customers really feel about the Papa John’s product and service. There are two key things it gives us. The first is volume: over 50,000 individual items of customer feedback in less than four months. Secondly, feeling; this is instant, freeform feedback from our customers which means we get an in-the-moment response.
The beauty of Rant & Rave is that whilst it tells us that, in the majority of instances, our franchisees are doing a fantastic job and that customers love our pizzas, genuine feedback shows us the little things we can do to make our customer experience better – whether that’s small changes to our website, a higher accuracy of stated delivery times or a change to our sides selection. It gives us the chance to continuously improve. It’s also fantastic for getting immediate reaction to new products and promotions which allows us to make better forward decisions.
One of the most exciting aspects of our relationship is the ability to co-innovate. We’ll shortly be implementing a new solution, ‘Amplify’, which will help us encourage our most satisfied customers, or ‘Ravers’, to spread their positive word-of-mouth online.