If you've been watching much commercial television lately it's unlikely that you've missed the advertising campaign from Domino's Pizza Enterprises Ltd. (ASX: DMP) for its new 'DOM Pizza Checker'.
In the short 30 second TV commercial, you see a bunch of customers anxiously receiving their home-delivered pizzas dramatically set to Tchaikovsky's '1812 Overture'. There's a short pause before each customer reveals their pizza, which indicates "did I get what I ordered?" The pizza boxes are opened and there is "joy" from these happy customers.
The ad goes on to introduce us to the DOM Pizza Checker, which will "quality check" your order and send you a photo before it leaves the store.
What does this new feature mean for Domino's?
At first glance, this is a positive add-on to the Domino's customer experience. When you dig a little deeper and see what this technology is capable of, it's a huge game changer that will put Domino's in pole position to leave its franchise competitors in its wake.
DOM Pizza Checker is essentially a high tech camera that uses artificial intelligence that, according to Geek.com, "can recognize, analyze, and grade pizzas based on correct toppings, pizza type, distribution, and temperature. It can take a picture of the pizza and leverage AI to compare it with a large dataset of correct pizzas and generate a quick assessment before it goes out to a customer." The plan being, you'll never have a dud pizza delivered by Domino's again.
As consumers we tend to stick to the local food delivery outlets we trust. It can be frustrating to see an order arrive that is far below expectations or shows little resemblance to what you've ordered. We'll stop using them and move on. This new technology goes a long way to alleviating those concerns and provides a customer with a much higher sense of confidence in what will arrive at the front door.
Is it a good time to invest in Domino's?
Back in August of 2016, Domino's was trading at a record high $80.10 per share but has since lost slightly more than half its value, valued at $38.39 at time of writing. This current and concerted effort to advance the quality of its products, coupled with plans to continue opening new outlets that will double its existing footprint, might indicate that it's time to look at buying Domino's shares.
In addition, the most recent full-year results showed that investors were rewarded with a dividend yield of 2.99%. I'd consider Domino's as a long-term option for portfolios looking to inject some diversification via the consumer discretionary sector.
