Technology

Trackur – Reputation Monitor Overview

December 11, 2009 By Marcel Crudele 3 Comments

Trackur is yet another social listening / reputation monitoring tool and this video provides a brief overview of what it’s all about. Overall, it’s not too bad, but I don’t think it is the great, low-cost solution I would still like to find.

What I like about Trackur:

It seems to do a good job of pulling tweets, which other free solutions seem to struggle with (for some odd reason).
The overall layout is easily navigable and easy to understand.
Trackur includes search of “media” sites, most notably YouTube.
It also includes search of blogs and online new articles… seems to do a decent job of that as well.
You can save searches for quick launch.
It automatically refreshes results every 30 minutes.
You can subscribe to saved search results through RSS … and email, but the RSS is super cool.
It indicates that sentiment is automatically determined, although my experience showed that all results came through as neutral. Maybe this is something they are still working on. I was corrected on this point. Sentiment is NOT automatically determined, but Trackur does allow the user to manually determine and specify this. Based on the effectiveness of other sentiment tools I’ve seen, this is probably better anyway.
The user can update the sentiment setting. This allows the user to override any automated calculation.
The basic package cost is inexpensive – about $18/month – and there is a 14 day free trial so you know what you are getting.
You can exclude specific records so they don’t show up going forward. (one of the bullet points in my next section was inaccurate on this point and has been corrected).

What I don’t like about Trackur:

The search filters are very basic. It doesn’t look like you can use more advanced search strings like “multiple words” OR “other words” What’s up with that.
Because of the limitations of the search criteria, there is a lot of garbage in the result set and no obvious way to remove irrelevant records. This shortcoming is compounded when you consider these results are sent to users subscribing to RSS and email notifications. I was corrected by the CEO… there is a red “x” the the right of the “Source” of each post that allows you to filter on a record by record basis. However, it looks like if you delete a record from a saved search, that record will be exclude from all future searches other than the saved search. From a practical standpoint about how this tool might be used, that probably isn’t a big deal, but it might be an issue in some cases.
There are some basic usability issues that are frustrating. If you play around with it, you’ll see what I mean.

What I’m on the fence about:

In order to be able to export results, the package price jumps to $88/month.

Trackur claims you can set up your first search within 60 seconds and I think that is actually pretty reasonable. If you are looking for a low cost solution, I would recommend you at least check it out and see what you think.

Filed Under: Social Listening, Technologies Tagged With: blog, Brand Monitoring, Reputation Monitor, sentiment, social listening, Steel Restaurant, Trackur, twitter

Scout Labs Overview

November 4, 2009 By Marcel Crudele Leave a Comment

Scout Labs is a social listening tool that can monitor what people are saying about you and your organization. By defining searches, you can browse related:

blogs
picture posts (on Flickr, Picasa, etc)
Tweets
video posts on sites like YouTube

It also tries to assign sentiment to these posts so you can gauge not only where people are posting, but if the posts are positive, negative or neutral. Additionally, you can share your workspace with your team (IT, PR, management, etc.) and manage team discussions.

While the initial value is monitoring social media buzz, Scout Labs’ tools make it easy to drill down to the source of the posts and engage authors directly to help build relationships.

Unfortunately, it’s not free, but packages begin at $99/month and a 30-day free trial. If the free sites like Crowd Eye and Social Mention aren’t meeting your needs, it might be worth checking out.

Filed Under: Social Listening, Technologies Tagged With: Atlanta, Blogs, Dallas, Downy Wrinkle Releaser, Flickr, Parigi Restaurant, Picasa, Scout Labs, social listening, Steel Restaurant, twitter, YouTube

Crowdeye Overview

October 16, 2009 By Marcel Crudele Leave a Comment

More and more solutions are emerging that try to mine useful information from social media outlets like Twitter. Crowdeye bills itself as a search engine for Twitter and they differentiate themselves by assigning reputations to posters as well as automatically generating a keyword cloud that can be used to filter tweets. Watch the demo video:

Overall, I think that Crowdeye has some interesting features, but still needs some work to be worthwhile. They are worth checking out just to get an idea of what is possible and I’m sure there are new features on the way.

Filed Under: Microblogs (like twitter), Social Listening, Technologies Tagged With: Crowdeye, Dryel, Moe's, social listening, social media, Steel Restaurant, tweet, twitter

Social Mention Overview

September 23, 2009 By Marcel Crudele 1 Comment

In my previous post on Tweetdeck, I showed how your brand can be monitored based on tweets, but there are a lot of other social media outlets that might be referencing you – blogs, photo uploads, videos, etc. Monitoring this information is referred to as Social Listening or Reputation Management. Social Mention is a free tool that scans a lot of these outlets and returns a list about where you are mentioned. It then goes one step further by trying to associate sentiment to these posts – are people saying nice things, bad things, or neutral things? While the solution has some consistency issues, it does provide some insight and it’s free. Watch the video to get some more info.

The things I like about Social Mention are:

It’s free
It provides some metrics like passion and reach in an attempt to provide some analytics about your social media reputation
You can drill down into result sets
You can set up email alerts
For data fiends, you can export information into a spreadsheet for further analytics
There is also an API that allows you to develop applications around the Social Mention Engine

There are other tools out there that might be better, but they cost money. At the very least, you should check out Social Mention and see if it helps you manage your brand.

Filed Under: Social Listening, Technologies Tagged With: blog, brand management, reputation management, social listening, social media, Social Mention, twitter

Introduction to Blogging for Organizations

August 18, 2009 By Marcel Crudele Leave a Comment

This is part of my unofficial “Technology can be your friend” series of posts that helps get your feet wet with all of these buzzwords you’ve heard about – in this case, blogs.

Blog is a shorten form of the phrase “Web Log” – think about a personal journal or diary that you publish for the world to see. For organizations, the goal is to discuss topics that are relevant to what you do.

The Value of a Blog

Similar to my post on Twitter, the idea that people might be interested in what you have to say might seem narcissistic. But there are a lot of reasons to have a blog.

Like Mr. Rogers said, it’s good to share

I’d be willing to bet that you’ve gotten some good advice from people that has helped you improve the effectiveness of your organization. Maybe it was about:

Improving your accounting process
Selecting effective vendors
Hiring and training
Being great at reaching your target audience and connecting to patrons (shameless plug for Community Cultivator)

Also, you’re probably better at running your organization now than you were a year ago, based simply on experience. Now imagine that all of those lessons were written down somewhere, in a blog for instance. Sharing this knowledge helps other organizations better serve their patrons, can help connect you to people that are interested in similar topics and helps Cultivate Communities.

If your organization is a business, you might be concerned that revealing this information will give away your competitive advantage. I challenge you to find a blog written by someone else in your industry and I am willing to bet that they are generally well respected, more successful than average, and have more passionate patrons. Having the “sharing” mindset comes with its own rewards, but there are more practical reasons to blog ….

Add a face to your Organization

Let’s say you are a “foodie” looking for a great restaurant. Tons of restaurants have a website that have an address, phone number, pictures and maybe a menu, but if you found one with chef-written blog posts about the care that goes into selecting produce, partnerships with local farmers, and special recipes… that makes an impression.

What about a band website? A band bio is great. Posting music is great. Blog posts from the lead guitarist talking about her influences, new bands she is listening to, concerts she’s attended, and the new directions she is taking her music personalizes it.

Blogs put a face on your organizations and put a personal touch that is attractive to patrons. In my previous interview with Janice Provost of Parigi, she mentioned a patron that chose to visit Parigi because Janice’s blog was so passionate about food. Organizations that blog distinguish themselves from the crowd.

Reputation

A blog helps to build a reputation for you and your organization – in a similar way that news articles and interviews can. It helps to illustrate that you know what you are talking about and building this reputation can, in fact, lead to more promotions. If a reporter is looking for a source for a story and you have a well-written blog about the topic, that helps put your name at the top of the list.

Online Marketing

It’s a fact, search engines love blogs. A focused topic with content that is being updated on a regular basis can quickly shoot to the top of search results when people are looking for very specific information relevant to your organization. In reaching your target audience, every little bit helps.

Blog Topics

The idea of writing on a regular basis about your organization and its industry can be daunting. Coming up with topics gets easier with time, but a great way to get ideas is to see what others in your industry are blogging about. Go to WordPress.com or Blogger.com and search for blogs in related areas. Not only will this give you some topic ideas, but you might find some great insights that help you with your organization.

Here are some examples for various organizations to get your juices flowing.

Restaurants
- Choosing menu items
- Using locally grown produce
- Recipes
DJ’s
- The latest tools you are working with
- The latest music you are listening to
- Your philosophy about what you deliver to your audience
PTA
- Issues that are affecting your school
- Recap of previous meetings
- Discussion of various committees and volunteers you need
Professional Group
- Discussion of Industry news
- Recap of meetings
- Highlighting individuals or other organizations in your industry

Getting Started

You can go to a blog site like WordPress.com or Blogger.com and set up an account in about 3 minutes. With a few posts under your belt, you might want to start doing all kinds of things like creating a email campaign, adding RSS feeds, and implementing Google Analytics to track your traffic … but those are topics for a different post.

Also keep in mind that your first posts don’t have to be perfect. Just give it a shot and see where it goes.

Good Luck!

Filed Under: Blogs Tagged With: blogging, online marketing, online reputation

Twitter – super basic intro for organizations

June 22, 2009 By Marcel Crudele 4 Comments

Twitter

It’s likely that you have heard people talking about Twitter and Tweets. Senators are using it, CNN is reporting world news based on it, and CEO’s of large companies are using it to keep tabs on what people are saying about their brand. This blog tackles the question, “What the hell is twitter and how can I use it for my organization?”

What is Twitter?

Imagine that you are a famous actor or musician. There are a ton of people that are very interested in everything about you – just look at the magazines in a grocery store check out if you don’t believe me. Now imagine that there was a way they could keep up to date with everything you are doing as soon as you do it:

I just signed a deal for a new blockbuster movie to be released next summer!
I just broke up with my girlfriend/boyfriend
Cops just pulled me over and it looks like I’m going to get a DUI

Twitter is a tool that allows you to announce to the world what you are doing, thinking or experiencing right now. People that “Follow” you receive these short messages (140 characters or less) as soon as you post them. You can post these announcements by going to your account at twitter.com, by sending a text message to twitter or by using a ton of other applications that we’ll talk about in a future post.

What you are reading is from my blog, where I can write a ton of words to express brilliant ideas. The short messages on twitter (referred to as tweets) are known as microblogs. In the same way that people write blogs because they think they have something to say that will be of interest to someone, Twitter allows people to post small messages because they think others will be interested.

If you use a social network like MySpace or Facebook, your status (the text box where you answer the question “What are you doing?” or “What’s on your mind?”) is another example of a microblog.

That sounds duuuuuumb!

Well maybe. Actually, I would have said it’s narcissistic, but people are using it… including your patrons. Here are some more realistic examples.

There are a lot of people and organizations in the entrepreneur community in Atlanta and, by Following them, I keep up on new company buzz, upcoming events, who is talking to who, etc… it allows me to take the pulse of Atlanta’s entrepreneur activity in real time.
Of course, I also Follow my friends and receive a stream of information about what they are up to. I have found out about break ups, births, and local events just by checking the most recent tweets.
My Councilman – Kwanza Hall - uses Twitter to keep Followers informed about what the city of Atlanta is up to that might affect me.
A local school – Imagine Wesley - uses Twitter to post announcements. Parents that Follow this feed with text message notification would be immediately informed in case of any emergency… or if there was an upcoming event.

The value to organizations

So people use Twitter to broadcast information into the ether and hope that people will be interested in what they say. On the flip side, people are Following others in order to keep informed about what’s going on with the people and organizations they associate with. It is probable that some of your patrons are using Twitter which gives you an opportunity to establish an ongoing dialog with them. How much would you pay for traditional advertising that recipients “opt-in” to that can go from thought to distribution in less than 10 seconds? Twitter is free.

How do I get started?

Get and Account – I can blog all day about the theory of using Twitter, but the best way to start seeing the value is through using it. Go to Twitter.com and create a personal account already.
Follow people – Having a Twitter account without Following people is like having the world’s only FAX machine… pointless. Etiquette for following is: there is none. People are putting their information into the world, so you can choose to follow famous people or even random strangers. You can use the “Find People” link to get started and the “Find on Other Network” option is great if you have a gmail, yahoo, or AOL address book. Otherwise, you can look for specific people using “Find on Twitter”, such as:

- Me – search for Marcel Crudele. Profile page: http://twitter.com/mcrudele
- Don Lemon from CNN – Search for Don Lemon. Profile page: http://twitter.com/donlemoncnn
- Newt Gingrich – Search for Newt Gingrich and you will get a few results. Profile page: http://twitter.com/newtgingrich
- Harry Reid - I found a link to his twitter profile on the first page of his website… http://twitter.com/SenatorReid
- Ashton Kutcher - Search for Ashton Kutcher. Profile page: http://twitter.com/aplusk (2 million + followers, but he only follows 170 people? pbbfffffff)
- Larry King – I found a link to his Twitter account on his CNN homepage. Profile Page: https://twitter.com/kingsthings

Text Notifications

One final thing I would recommend to give you an idea for how Twitter can be used for promotions is to setup text notifications for at least one of the people you are following.

While logged in, go to Settigns -> Devices
Follow the instructions to set up your cell phone
Go back to your profile and click on one of the people that you are following that probably updates on a somewhat regular basis, but not super frequently.
Under their picture, there is an option to turn Device Updates on… set that.

The next time they tweet, you will get a text message with the details.

Conclusion

That should be enough to get your feet wet, but stay tuned; I will be providing more information about how to turn your efforts into results! Below are some other resources you might want to check out:

Twitter: A beginner’s guide

Internet Life: What is Twitter

Twitter for museums

Twitter for RV’s

Filed Under: Microblogs (like twitter), Technology Tagged With: Ashton Kutcher, Don Lemon, Harry Reid, Imagine Wesley, Kwanza Hall, Larry King, Newt Gingrich, tweet, twitter

Jake’s Ice Cream – Jake Rothschild’s Atlanta Ice Cream Dream

June 8, 2009 By Marcel Crudele 2 Comments

On June 3, 2009, I had the opportunity to sit down with Jake Rothschild – a serial entrepreneur in Atlanta that started Jake’s Ice Cream 10 years ago. Since that time, he has grown the company to 3 locations and established distribution deals with local businesses as well as national chains. Here are some of the highlights and advice he offers other organizations – sorted into the CC: ScoreCard.

Click here to listen to the whole interview

Jake's Ice Cream

PROMOTIONS

Where should time and money be spent regarding promotions?

Traditional Advertising – Jake is not a fan of advertising with media like printed publications, TV, and radio. Historically, this hasn’t produced great results for him and there are no real metrics that can be measured to determine the effectiveness of these efforts… no traditional advertising for this ice cream business.
Online Advertising – this experience consists of working with Citysearch and, to some degree, Yelp. While Jake’s has paid for promotions with Citysearch and doesn’t think that it has been a waste of money, he has no plans to continue the effort because there’s no indicator that it’s been effective enough to justify the cost. Most of the value has stemmed from the user generated content on these sites (user reviews), which is free.
Jake’s Website – the website provides a place that serves as the authoritative source of information about the business and has proven to be a good way to publicly present what the company is all about. It’s the easily accessible marketing face of Jake’s and is frequently one of the first places a potential patron learns about the business.
PR – Jake’s Ice Cream has been featured on msn.com, NPR, Zagat, Wall Street Journal, and Frommer’s. It’s these less bias sources that have added fuel to the business’ growth – “it means so much more to (people) than a full page ad.”
Cause Marketing – he recommends being a co-sponsor of organized events. Working with organizations like Special Olympics – Georgia has helped to reach new patrons and drive sells.
Social Networking – tools like Twitter and Facebook have given Jake a way to stay connected with existing patrons and he thinks these are great for fostering the customer relationship – the most important thing about his business.

LEVERAGE

Jake believes that word of mouth is the number one way that people find out about Jake’s. Social network tools like twitter, the Jake’s Ice Cream group on Facebook, and user reviews on sites like Citysearch and Yelp help to accomplish this as does providing a great customer experience that leads to traditional word of mouth… ya know, where people actually talk to each other.

AUDIENCE

Jake describes his first-tier audience as “label readers” – the people that are concerned about what they are putting in their bodies – they are the people that shop at Sevananda, Return to Eden, or Whole Foods. His second tier audience is people that simply want a great quality product. His focus on high quality ingredients and a great product is the right message for this audience and he reaches them through Promotions and Leverage.

CONNECT

Jake’s uses the various means mentioned in Promotion and Leverage to Connect to their audience, however, the ongoing dialog is done through social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter and the in store interaction. Due, in part, with the time required to update their website, they are also excited about implementing email marketing by using Constant Contact to keep all of the subscribed patrons up to date on the daily flavors available at each store.

ENTICE

How does Jake entice his audience?

High quality product. Enough said.
Superior customer service. Jake wants to know everything about his customers to personalize the experience – “we want to know their dog’s name, we want to know their kids’ birthdays.” It is also a goal to respond to any customer complaint within 30 minutes… by a personal call from Jake.
High quality in-store experience. This includes providing a comfortable environment that can serve as a second home to patrons.

Jake also offers incentives to customers, with one of their most successful campaigns being the distribution of “Moolah.” These $1 and $5 gift certificates can be purchased in each store or can be distributed by Jake’s for promotions. This “virtual cash” can be redeemed for any purchase (versus a 2-for-1 or 10% off coupon) and is credited for the programs success.

SIMPLIFY

The main way that Jake simplifies is through technology:

NuRol POS – Jake’s POS system is “monkey stupid easy” and has the ability to report on the sell rate of all flavors at any point in time, which helps determine the flavors that are successful.
Quickbooks is used as the accounting system and is “extremely user friendly.” They did try out Peachtree Accounting, but it was more difficult to use.

SUCCESS

There are a few areas to evaluate when it comes to measuring success.

PR, Advertising, and Social Networking

Measuring the success of all of these efforts continues to be a struggle, as it is with all organizations. There is the feeling that traditional media hasn’t delivered the results desired and even the metrics provided by local search solutions like Citysearch that shows the number of profile views has not been able to measure ROI. There is a feeling that the efforts of Facebook and twitter are effective at keeping in touch with existing patrons.

Incentive Programs

The Moolah program does provide some feedback. There are relations that can be drawn between the number of virtual dollars distributed compared to the number of those redeemed.

Technology

As mentioned under Simplify, NuRol provides easily generated snapshots of what flavors are selling, which helps determine the quantities that should be produced and identify slow moving products.

SHOUT OUT’S

I asked Jake about any vendor relationships that he considers exceptional. He highly recommends:

U.S. Food Service – Their customer service is excellent and they show their love of working with small business in myriad of ways.
360 Media – Our PR Firm loves on us like we are family.
Carlton Fields – a great law firm that protects us, suggests to us, and nurtures us so that we are a healthy company

FINAL WORDS OF ADVICE

Do what you love. If you are going to lead your own organization, make sure it is something you are passionate about and adjust the direction as needed to insure this.
Never quit on your dream. Running your own operation is hard, but be persistent.
Learn how to ask for help. You don’t have to know all of the answers.

BACKGROUND

Jake wants to be Willy Wonka when he grows up, but he doesn’t plan on that happening anytime soon. When he was 10 years old, he used to make children’s books as gifts for his grandmother. When he was in college at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he introduced the first instant, all natural hot chocolate on the market – something that caught the attention of Money magazine. His first physical business – a coffee shop in the Morningside neighborhod called MOCHA (Museum of Contemporary Humorous Art) – transformed into the first Jake’s Ice Cream over 10 years ago, with the original location in Old Fourth Ward, Atlanta.

Jake’s playful nature is much more serious when it comes to his products. He is dedicated to providing the community with high quality, uncompromised products – with a focus on all-natural ingredients and hormone free dairy. This diligence has led to a number of local restaurants including his creations on their menus and has recently resulted in an agreement with Planet Smoothie for a non-fat, agave sweetened yogurt called YMG, or Yo My Goodness. The focus on the product is rivaled only by his commitment to the experience of his patrons.

CONNECT WITH JAKE

Website: http://www.jakesicecream.com
Facebook Group: Jake’s Ice Cream
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jake-rothschild/5/b61/741

UPCOMING EVENTS

Non-fat Frozen Yogurt

June 5-7, 2009 – See Jake at the Virginia Highlands Summerfest.

June 8, 2009 – Jake’s new product line YMG (Yo My Goodness) – non-fat yogurt sweetened with agave – will be sold at Planet Smoothie at The Peach in Peachtree Shopping Center – 2900 Peachtree Rd, Suite 113 Atlanta, GA, 30305.

JAKE’S ICE CREAM LOCATIONS

Jake’s Ice Cream – Irwin Street Market 660 Irwin Street Atlanta 30312 (678) 705-7277	Jake’s Ice Cream Cafe 2745 Lavista Road Decatur, GA 30033 (404) 343-3525
Jake’s Just Desserts 2144 North Decatur Road Decatur, GA 30033 (404) 963-7151

PURVEYORS OF FINE JAKE’S PRODUCTS

Anis 2974 Grandview Ave NE Atlanta, GA 30305 www.anisbistro.com (404) 233-9889	Valenza 1441 Dresden Dr NE Atlanta, GA 30319 www.valenzarestaurant.com (404) 969-3233
Dave’s Cosmic Subs 1540 N Decatur Rd NE Atlanta, GA 30307 www.davescosmicsubsatl.com (404) 373-6250	Inman Perk at Inman Park 240 N. Highland Ave., Suite H Atlanta, GA 30307 www.inmanperkcoffee.com (678) 705-4545
Haven 1441 Dresden Dr NE Atlanta, GA 30319 www.havenrestaurant.com (404) 969-0700	Inman Perk at Flowery Branch 5866 Spout Springs Rd., Suite D Flowery Branch, GA 30542 www.inmanperkcoffee.com (770) 965-6065
Our Place Bakery 3387 Main St Atlanta, GA 30337 www.ourplacebakery.com (404) 767-3181	Inman Perk at Gainesville 102 Washington St. NW. Gainesville, GA 30501 www.inmanperkcoffee.com (678) 943-8080
Planet Smoothie at Ansley Mall 1544 Piedmont Ave., Suite 301 Atlanta, GA 30324 www.planetsmoothie.com (404) 541-9124

You can also see this interview on UrbanSpoon.

Filed Under: Festivals and Events, Interviews, Microblogs (like twitter), Restaurants / Food Service Tagged With: 360 Media, Atlanta, Carlton Fields, Cause Marketing, Constant Contact, Ice Cream, Jake Rothschild, Jake's Ice Cream, Moolah, NuRol POS, Peachtree Accounting, Planet Smoothie, Quickbooks, Restaurant, Sevananda, social networking, U.S. Food Service, YMG, Yo My Goodness

Domino’s Pizza Tracker

May 18, 2009 By Marcel Crudele Leave a Comment

Domino’s Pizza let’s you not only order online, but track where your order is in the process using their Pizza Tracker. From order placement, prep, bake, box to delivery – patrons can watch as their creation comes to life and is delivered to their door.

Let’s face it, online ordering rocks! You get to leisurely peruse the organization’s offering and construct your order then, in the case of food, verify with everyone that you got everything. From the organization’s standpoint, it helps to insure that you don’t forget anything and maximizes their sales dollars. Plus, there it is less likely that your order will get messed up – all of these things score high on the CC: Scorecard for Enticement. Also, by getting your patron to enter the order, you reduce overhead which scores well on Simplifying. Finally, there are easy to track metrics on who is using the solution, how long it takes them to place the order, what pages they linger on, etc., which racks up points for measuring Success.

The pizza tracker adds even more value. It extends the Connection to patrons and improves their experience, giving them a reason to stay on Domino’s website for approximately 30 minutes (or maybe less) while improving their overall experience and – as weird as this is to say about a national chain – helps to form a more intimate bond with the organization.

In my case, I had not ordered from Domino’s in about 5 years, but the commercials advertising their new sandwiches and finally their pasta bowls was too much. I had to give them another shot. After configuring my order, the Pizza Tracker popped up and I was informed that Christopher was personally overseeing my dining enjoyment. The tracker updates automatically without refreshing the screen and I watched Christoper’s progress for about 15 minutes until I was informed that Michael was bringing my meal to me. When the knock came at my door, I opened it and immediately asked, “What’s your name?” The surprised delivery person replied, “Uhhhh, Michael.” Wow.

“Michael, who prepared my order?”

“Ummmm, I think it was Christopher.”

Cool. A confirmation that Domino’s deserve some more Enticement and Connection points. Hell, throw in some Leverage points too because I told about half a dozen people about it.

Now there is some discussion about whether the tracker is legit (link 1 and 2). For all I know, Domino’s determined the average time each step takes and the tracker automatically updates at set increments. It does get employee names right, so there is some kind of interaction. If it isn’t valid, they are at least persistent with the sham, even offering an iPhone app.

What I am interested in is how it really works. Ideally, when an order comes in, it would generate a tracking number and as the employee goes from stage to stage, they would toggle the status – old school would be a bar code tracker that gets scanned as the food moves along, new school would be a touch screen task list that employees use for each stage. This information would be phenomenal for Success and allow for Domino’s to track employee performance and process speed.

Any Domino’s employees on the prep line want to shed some light on this?

Filed Under: Restaurants / Food Service, Technology Tagged With: Domino's Pizza Tracker, DPT, online ordering, pizza