Sorry We Sucked
15 June 2026If you know me, you know I’d always pick a kebab as my go to takeaway (Edi’s Kebabs in Milton Keynes, if you’re asking). But my daughter has a Domino’s just a minute walk away from her university house and between them all they’ve given them some pretty good business this past year.
Which is interesting because in the early 2000s, Domino’s wasn’t an exciting option. It was a disappointing one.
They were really struggling with their reputation. Customer perception was terrible because people actively thought of it as bad pizza. It was a last resort option, and sales were, understandably, under pressure.
The problem? All to do with listening.
In terms of taste, customers repeatedly ranked it last. And instead of listening to this straight away, the company continued delivering people what it thought they wanted: speed.
What needed to change wasn’t anything to do with culinary genius. It was all to do with attention.
When David Brandon became CEO, he acknowledged this. He went to the people closest to the product and the customer, the staff who worked in the stores daily. What he found was a huge disconnect from the corporate level. Staff in the stores felt unheard and the morale was low, employee turnover rates were high.
The next step was crucial: questions were asked. Meaningful questions without consequences for brutal answers. Focus groups were introduced for feedback. It was not necessarily something easy to hear, but it created the clarity Domino’s had been missing.
By accepting how they were perceived by customers, and what really mattered to their customers, they were able to start rebuilding.
The change they made was bold and seemingly counterintuitive. The new CEO, Patrick Doyle’s, marketing campaign was called “Sorry We Suck”. It was blunt and risky. But it was important because it offered customers honesty. There was no attempt to hide the reality and spin a good story. They confronted it, admitting customers had a right to be disappointed and that they were actively changing.
This honesty was powerful. It rebuilt trust.
Internally, there was a similarly important effect. Employees were finally being included instead of being instructed from the top down. Feedback and progress became something they were a part of.
That combination, honesty on the inside and clarity from the outside, was the foundation from which Domino’s turned itself around.
You only have to think about what pizza brand you’d choose for your takeout to understand how successful this turnaround has been. Domino’s has become the trustworthy default.
Which just shows that transformation doesn’t always mean becoming the best. Sometimes it means becoming the choice your customers can trust again.
