Dunkin’ strengthens its customer relationship through a data-driven approach

Dunkin’ began building its empire in 1950, in the United States. 70 years later, it is the world’s leading baked goods and coffee chain, catering to more than 3 million customers on a daily basis. 

Not only do they serve 50+ varieties of donuts, but they also serve premium beverages, bagels, breakfast sandwiches, other baked goods, and the best coffee in town. 

A brand with more than 11,300 outlets worldwide across 37 countries, Dunkin’ paved the way for other donut cafes popping up around the world. 

Dunkin’s mission is to prioritize the needs of its customers. “Everything we do is about you”, is the promise they have made and are striving to fulfill. 

Challenge

However, the challenge they faced in keeping the promise of putting its customers first came into the spotlight when Dunkin’ listed itself on food aggregators. 

With the rise in popularity of these third-party aggregators, many F&B brands entered the space to reap the benefits of customer acquisition and order growth. However, this came at a heavy cost, especially for brands that prioritized the needs of their customers, like Dunkin’. 

It is common knowledge that food aggregators do not share customer data, which is disadvantageous for restaurants as it steals them of the opportunity to build strong connections with their customers. Without customer data, restaurants do not know who their customers are, where they are from, what they ordered from their restaurants, what time they usually order, and more.

Food aggregators have this data, they are just not sharing it with their clients. 

Solution

Joining Blink solved Dunkin’s problem. Ever since Dunkin’ came on board with Blink in February 2021, they have been provided with full access to their customers’ data. Blink, being a first-party enterprise online ordering system, provided Dunkin’ with not only its own branded ordering website and mobile app but also complete visibility on the data of over 26,000+ Dunkin’ customers. 

By empowering Dunkin’ to apply a data-driven approach, the brand could now leverage its customer data to create new combos and deals by looking at its customer buying patterns. Dunkin’ was able to understand the preferences of its customers and create offers on the basis of its top-selling menu items to increase sales and customer loyalty. 

Dunkin’ was also able to update its pricing strategy on the basis of the data extracted from its first-party online customers. Having information on the average order value spent by customers gave the brand insights into the perfect pricing model to capture its customer base. For instance, Dunkin’s latest average order value was around PKR 1,100, and they used this insight to price their half dozen donut box. 

Additionally, with the data provided through Blink’s direct online ordering platform, Dunkin’ was able to observe the busiest hours for their online orders. Using this data, they were able to strategize their advertising, targeting their customers when they were most likely to order. Moreover, they were also able to crack deals for their loyal customers that ordered frequently at a certain time, e.g., Dunkin’s Breakfast Bash deal. 

Another nifty tool that the Blink Portal provides for its customers is the Order Heat Map, where restaurants like Dunkin’ can view hot selling locations where customers order the most from, aiding them in their decision-making. This includes decisions regarding where to expand their next physical outlet, which branch to increase their staff, which branch to increase inventory, demand forecasting, and much more. Dunkin’ was able to use this tool to optimize its restaurant operations to achieve maximum growth.

The customer data extracted from the Blink Portal can be used in multiple ways. For instance, Dunkin’ was able to determine whether they needed to either increase the size of their in-house rider fleet or go ahead with an outsourced fleet on the basis of the delivery/pickup order ratio. 

By gaining full access and control over their online customers’ data, there is no stopping Dunkin’ from achieving its mission.

Results

Acquiring the data of 26,000+ customers is no small feat. On the basis of this data, Dunkin’ has been able to fulfill its mission of putting its customers first. Within the first year of joining Blink’s unified ordering solution, Dunkin’ was able to more than double its online orders, with the trend increasing into the second year as well. 

A testament to its aim of satisfying the needs of its customers is the fact that Dunkin’ has achieved an order rating of 4.32 on the basis of 500+ customer reviews, cementing the fact that everything it does is about its customers. 

Related Articles:

Nando’s employs Enterprise Ordering System to engage with 25,000+ loyal customers With the Blink Quick Commerce Enablement Platform, Local Restaurants Cheezious Get a Bigger Piece of the Market Burger Lab 4x’s Revenue And Customer Growth With Blink Char-Grilled Central Talks About Their Newfound Growth With Blink How SPAR leveraged its retail chain network to become an instant grocery delivery leader