Domino's won't stop until its customers are able to simply think about Domino's pizza and suddenly find themselves magically munching on it.
The pizza chain isn't quite there yet. But today it's taking another step toward making its customer interactions friction-free by introducing a "Zero Click" ordering app.
It works like this: You download the app and link it to a Domino's pizza profile, where you have a standard "Easy Order" saved. When you open the app, it automatically orders your pizza, with no clicks required. You have a 10-second countdown window, in case you mistakenly opened the app, to avert the order.
The app, from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, follows other Domino's innovations like voice, smart watch, car, TV and tweet and text ordering with an emoji.
Domino's is quite proud of its digital ordering innovations. In its fourth-quarter earnings report last year, the company said it generated more than 50 percent of U.S. sales from digital channels by the end of 2015, thanks to tech innovations. (The company hasn't revealed exactly what percentage of sales come from each specific innovation, and how many people are still ordering the old-fashioned way.)
On the other hand, some of these ease-of-ordering innovations—whatever their actual business results, which appear strong—are a bit gimmicky. Saving you a single click once a week (or however often you order pizza) isn't going to buy you a whole lot of extra time in life. (And when your kid opens the app by accident while playing Angry Birds, you're going to lose quite a bit of time explaining things to the delivery person.)
Even the quote in the "Zero Click" press release is on the goofy side—suggesting Domino's is having fun, with a wink, as much as it's actually trying to improve your life.
"We think about how to make digital ordering better all day and all night," Dennis Maloney, chief digital officer at Domino's, says in the release. "Zero-click ordering is a dream come true for us. I'm not saying the idea came to me in a dream (and I'm not saying it didn't), but I challenge someone to dream up an easier way to order."
Still, if Domino's is not just selling convenience, by also playing an elaborate PR game around the idea of convenience, it does have the overall effect of making the brand look fun, socially engaged and forward-thinking.