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Dunkin' Donuts ready for mobile ordering test

The test will take place in the fourth quarter, with an anticipated app update to support ordering in the beginning of 2015.

September 22, 2014 by Alicia Kelso — Editor, QSRWeb.com

Dunkin' Donuts will join the small but growing roster of QSR brands trying out mobile ordering, allowing its guests to order and pay ahead with an objective of speeding up service and offering more convenience.

Scott Hudler, VP of Global Consumer Engagement, provided some details about the company's mobile ordering test during Dunkin' Brands' investor day last week in Dallas.

The test will take place in the fourth quarter, with an anticipated app update to support ordering in the beginning of 2015.

"With the growth of mobile and all of the great things it can do today that we couldn't do two years ago, mobile ordering is the logical next step," Hudler said. "For the consumer, there is a huge benefit to skip the line, and improve order accuracy and speed. For us, there's the throughput and anything we can do to improve throughput we're excited about."

Other mobile efforts

Dunkin's mobile app was first introduced in 2012. There have since been more than 8.6 million downloads. Hudler said the growing adoption of mobile is presenting unique opportunities for the brand, such as mobile-only and one-to-one promotions.

Last year, for example, Dunkin' Donuts launched a promotion in Philadelphia that included a free coffee if the Eagles won the preceding night. The free coffee coupon was presented in the mobile app. For the first win of the promotion, there were 93,000 redemptions in a single day. The brand has since expanded the mobile-based promotion to other markets.

"Something like this does two things for us: It drives people into our restaurants on a Monday, which is traditionally a slower day. And it forces adoption of the Dunkin' mobile app," Hudler said.

Loyalty and one-to-one marketing

He added that the brand's loyalty program – DD Perks – also provides plenty of benefits, particularly in the competitive coffee/breakfast space. The program launched in January and currently has more than 1.5 million members. Dunkin' predicts it will reach 2.5 million members by January 2015.

"We want to attract those in the digital ecosystem – those who like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, sign up for our emails," Hudler said. The objective in targeting this crowd is to increase frequency, expand dayparts, drive franchisee profitability through tender and increase ticket.

The key piece of feedback from the loyalty program thus far, Hudler said, is that not all transactions should be treated equally. After some initial growing pains, Dunkin' Donuts shifted to a spend-based program from its initial visit-based program.

The mobile programs have also allowed the company to gain better data about its most loyal guests, which in turn has allowed it to hone in on its marketing messaging from broad to specific. For example, if 80 percent of a customer's transactions typically come from the week, Dunkin' has a "huge opportunity" to drive them in on the weekends with a special offer.

"We're excited about how we're going to migrate from mass marketing to one-to-one. Digital is the future of our brand," Hudler said.

Payments

On the heels of the Apple Pay announcement, Hudler also touched briefly on Dunkin's intentions with mobile payments. He said currently there are no NFC readers in restaurants to support the platform, but called Apple's announcement exciting.

"Anyone that makes mobile payments safe, secure and brings it to the masses, that's great news," he said.

CEO Nigel Travis added that Dunkin's attitude about mobile payments is that the consumer will decide.

"Payment is a changing field. There are questions about equipment and security and a lot of moving pieces," he said. "We are doing a lot of research and will go where the consumer is."

Read more about Dunkin's menu and expansion plans as outlined during its investor day.

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