[Thanks, Amy, for verifying the facts of the original delivery!]
The Domino's Pizza kerfuffle that blazed its way across the blogosphere and Twittersphere last week had hordes of social media folks asking why Domino's didn't respond sooner--or at least select a less clunky Twitter ID when they did. And the rapid awareness of "Boogergate" will undoubtedly be a case study for months to come.
But here in Chicago, one Domino's operator gets its. Ramon, who uses the Twitter ID @dpzramon and operates Domino's Pizza joints in Chicago at 3103 N. Clark, 2455 W. Fullerton, 2231 N. Lincoln, 4039 W. 26th, 1234 S. Canal, and 143 W. Division, jumped into the Domino's kerfuffle in Chicago by replying to local Tweets and directing Twitter inquiries to Patrick Doyle's YouTube video (once it was created). And he's not new to social media: his Twitter profile sports links to his blog as well as to his YouTube, Viddler, Facebook and Flickr accounts, all with content dating back months, not days.
But that's not all. When Amy Korin (@interactiveamy) called one of his Domino's stores and waited nearly two hours [correction: over an hour] for her pizza [addendum: that was not the pizza she'd ordered], she Twittered about it. And Ramon didn't just respond; he responded via Twitter. And he did her one better: he contacted Junior, the manager of the Lincoln Park Domino's that delayed Amy's pizza. Together, they posted a video to make a personal apology for the delay:
Domino's national, take a lesson from Ramon. Note that he apologizes for taking an hour to respond to her Tweet; that's the immediacy expected within today's social media sphere. Response is measured in hours, not days. Also note that Ramon looked at the camera and spoke from his heart without a script. He spoke directly and personally to the customer, taking the first steps to forge a relationship.
And what a step it was! At last night's Social Media Club gathering, Amy reported that that Viddler video had been embedded nearly 12,000 times. Keep in mind that refers to embeds, not views--12,000 bloggers embedded the video in their own post, just like this one. And to do her one better, Ramon provided Domino's pizza for last night's entire Social Media Club gathering--that was over 350 people!
This is where the power of social media lies: in immediate, personal response bent on building a relationship with others.
