The Background

Founded in 1960 with the initial goal of opening just three venues, Domino’s Pizza now have over a thousand franchised locations in the UK, and are expanding daily. While business is undeniably booming, Domino’s franchisees expressed the need to improve the experience for customers waiting in line, and enhance the in-venue atmosphere. Not only this, but managers were looking for a way to boost employee morale and reduce staff turnover, translating to a more positive and productive workforce.

Choosing a Background Music Supplier

After identifying that a background music service would be an ideal solution to these issues, the Domino’s head offices evaluated several music suppliers and conducted extensive testing with its franchisees. The result was that Startle’s original background music service, Virtual Jukebox, was a clear leader in the trial and was therefore chosen as the preferred music provider for Domino’s UK.

Need help finding a music solution for your venue? Read more about Startle Music here.

Startle Music’s Offering

Now rebranded as Startle Music, our background music service provides Domino’s Pizza locations across the UK with a comprehensive music system, complete with full licensing.

Franchisees get access to the Startle Music library - one of the largest digital music collections in the world - along with custom audio profiles split into ‘day parts’ that reflect the customer demographic and trading patterns throughout the day/week. These music profiles are updated weekly and benefit from automated start/stop times based on the individual store’s trading hours.

Within their control panels, franchise managers are also able to preview and schedule a number of playlists created by our profiling experts, providing further choice and control. These playlists include no royalty-free or ‘soundalike’ music - as often showcased in retail and hospitality businesses - so venues can ensure they are maintaining entertainment of the highest-quality.

The Result: Improving Customer & Staff Experiences

Since launching our service with Domino’s Pizza, it’s clear that the service has been very beneficial to the locations using it and that the various commercial benefits have been demonstrated. Franchisee Mike Racz stated:

“Virtual Jukebox was installed on time and delivered an outstanding music service with great customer support. This music service improved staff moral, enhanced the customer waiting experience and increased brand perception. I rated Virtual Jukebox 10 out of 10.”

Extending to ‘Eat-in’ Venues

Great feedback like this recently resulted in Startle expanding our services to the newer, ’eat-in’ Domino’s UK locations, where customers can enjoy their pizzas in-store.

Upon the opening of its first UK dine-in restaurant in Loose, near Maidstone, franchise Manager Ian Duxbury said:

”We have partnered with Virtual Jukebox to help provide the best possible dining experience for our customers. The company has an outstanding reputation for its cutting-edge technology and targeted playlists, offering the most flexible music solution available in today’s marketplace.”

The Future

With the success of Startle’s relationship with Domino’s UK, we will continue working with the brand to further enhance their venues’ digital offerings, ever-improving customer and staff experiences.

Along with our background music service, Startle’s Jukebox and Signage solutions will be made available, enabling locations to integrate these with Startle Music to improve communication and marketing efforts from the same one piece of hardware.

We work with a variety of retail and hospitality businesses to bring better digital products and services to their venues. If you're interested in finding out how Startle could work with your brand to create a bespoke digital offering, call us on 020 3397 7676 today!

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