It’s easy to vindicate oneself. But one of the best ways to find out if you have really changed is to hear it from someone.
Back in 2008, Domino’s was going through some sort of an upheaval.
What they heard wasn’t easy to hear. From customers calling their pizza cardboard and the worst excuse for having a pizza, none of it could be termed as music to their ears.
After that, the company undertook what would become one of biggest company turnarounds in recent memory.
To do that, they didn’t just launch a clever campaign telling people that their pizzas tasted great. That’s what most companies do, tide over the problem by merely scratching over the surface.
Domino’s Pizza literally went back to the drawing board, in their case, the table. Over a span of 18 months, they overhauled their pizza. Read that again. 18 months is a year-and-a-half spent on going back to the basics, all to make their pizzas taste better again.
It goes without saying that the ultimate litmus test in the food and beverages industry are the customers. Instead of merely doing a new ad campaign that said that their pizzas were new and improved, they did a PR campaign where they actually went back to people who had disparaged their pizza and made them try their all new pizza, one that was improved based on the harsh criticism they received.
If you see the videos, you can see for yourself the disparaging comments that set everything off and more importantly and encouragingly, the surprised reaction on customers faces when the new pizza is delivered to them.
The experiment still resonates on many levels because Domino’s played the long game when they set out to re-invent themselves.
a) Domino’s is and has always been known for its quick delivery and for many years, had advertised that aspect as its USP. Somewhere along the way, they forgot to make tasty pizzas. What’s the point in getting a crappy pizza in 30 minutes?
b) They remade the pizza from scratch. From the dough to the sauce to every ingredient, nothing was spared. This is probably the most critical step. Once organisations, leaders or people realise that actual change would involve a ton of hard work, they balk and resort to old ways. Very few buck this trend, which is why turnarounds always catch our fancy.
c) Digesting harsh criticism is incredibly hard for anyone. In this case, Domino’s was pushed to a corner. After suffering negative sales for a couple of years, defending stats quo was pointless. the only was up.
d) It’s easy to vindicate oneself. But one of the best ways to find out if you have really changed is to hear it from someone. Domino’s did the hard work of going back to customers who had dissed them and took their feedback on the new pizza.
The benefits of this overhaul are still being reaped. The company has been on an upswing and in 2018, it became the company to sell the largest number of pizzas in the world. Quite a turnaround one must say.
Whether you like Domino’s or not is immaterial, but their turnaround contains in it the seeds of effective change — taking harsh feedback, working on it and then going back to show people that you have really changed.
Most people and organisations don’t do this. They either make cosmetic changes or blame people and circumstances for their predicament.
The best way to change people’s minds or their opinions of you is not by ignoring them, discounting them or disparaging them.
It’s by doing the hard work that real change requires.
