This news article really caught my eye.

Pizza Hut has been losing business to Domino’s in the last year. The new CEO sends the management team on a retreat to clearly define their vision and create a clear brand identity. The result: Pizza Hut has put so much energy into being "better," they have fallen behind in making it "easier."

Have you seen the recent tv ads for Domino’s? They hardly mention the product they sell. The focus of the ad is on the many ways you can place an order from Domino’s – so easy! Is it any good? Who cares – it’s easy.

Pizza Hut is losing ground to its competitor and is being forced to react and play catch up. It will be interesting to see what happens next in the Pizza Wars.

The Lesson for Us

The motto for my practice has always been “Quality Eye Care You Can Trust.” Like many of you, I have always strived to be better. Should we be worried that our competitors are finding ways to make it easy? Are we willing to sacrifice the quality of care we provide so it can be easy? If we don’t make it easier for our patients, who will?

Some areas of our practices that could be “easier”:

Contact Lens Fits– If you are still insisting that your patients return in 1 week to evaluate the fit of a daily disposable lens before you finalize the prescription – you are not being easy.
Contact Lens Dispensing – We mail almost all contacts to patients’ homes. We tried mailing to the workplace...too much trouble.
Eye Wear Turnaround Time – It is not acceptable to tell people buying eye wear from us that they need to wait two weeks. The “specialized, high tech” argument is no good.
Available Appointments – Our target is to be booked at 80%, not 100%, to always have some openings today.
Appointments – I am not ready for this, but someone is going to solve the problem of needing appointments for eye care. Why can’t I go when I am ready?
Wait Time in the Office – From the time they walk in for an exam, if your patients aren’t shopping for eye wear in 30 minutes, you have room to improve.
WiFi Available – Give it to your patients. You can do it safely without a password.
Easier / Faster “Paperwork” – that feeds into the patient record – We have to collect a lot of information that we need to give a complete eye exam. Ask it once and make it easy to answer.
Online Scheduling that’s easy – I can book a trip to San Diego in January, with hotel and rental car, easier than I can schedule an exam at most optometry offices.
Online Information – We need to be the “go to” when people have questions about their eyes. Easy to find, easy to read and easy to get help.

Greg Creed is the CEO of Yum! Brands, the parent company of Pizza Hut. He is the one who locked the Pizza Hut executives in a room until they figured it out. Creed, no relation to the famous boxing dynasty, has a leadership style that I like a lot.

When the facts show that his company is losing ground to the competition, he faces the facts and is not afraid to admit the weaknesses of his company. I don’t know what this means for Pizza Hut, but I am interested to see how they change their tone.

Creed is also responsible for Taco Bell’s “Think Outside the Bun”campaign.

-Mike