Pizza Hut International President on Digital Customer Engagement: “Everything We Do Starts With Mobile”

As a sign of increased digital customer engagement on a global level, Pizza Hut International President Milind Pant told Loyalty360 that mobile is at the forefront of the company’s strategy.

“We are focused on making it easier to get a better pizza and the mobile experience plays a significant role in that,” Pant explained. “Everything we do starts with mobile and making that brand experience as easy as possible is a top priority.”

Amid these highly digitized times for loyalty marketers, Pizza Hut, which serves and delivers more pizzas than any other pizza restaurant company in the world, recently announced the addition of Helen Vaid as its Chief Customer Officer, a newly-created executive position as part of the company’s leadership team.

In her role, Vaid will oversee the transformation of the Pizza Hut in-restaurant and digital customer experience. Around the world, digital ordering represents the greatest growth opportunity for Pizza Hut, and the customer journey is paramount to that experience. In addition to these responsibilities, Vaid will lead the international ecommerce, technology, and operations business for Pizza Hut.

Vaid most recently served as Vice President, Digital Store Operations & Experience at Wal-Mart. Based in San Francisco, Vaid was responsible for the growth, profitability, traffic growth and conversion of the second largest U.S. online retailer site. Prior to Wal-Mart, Vaid was General Manager at Snapfish, a global web-based photo-sharing and photo printing service company.

What factors prompted Pizza Hut to create the new Chief Customer Officer executive position and what are its goals for it from a customer engagement/customer experience perspective?

“One of the key priorities for Pizza Hut has always been putting the customer experience at the heart of everything we do,” Pant explained. “To truly provide the best customer experience possible, we must make it easier to get a better pizza by boldly approaching online and offline experience as a whole, and the creation of this role is example of how dedicated we are to the customer experience.”

Pizza Hut, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., began 58 years ago in Wichita, Kansas, when two brothers borrowed $600 from their mother to start a pizzeria.

What does customer experience mean to Pant?

“If you serve great food, and provide a great customer experience, today’s consumer will reward you with their loyalty,” Pant said. 

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