It’s not quite the same as Domino’s “10 Minutes or It’s Free” pledge from the late 20th century, but Pizza Hut has rolled out a DELCO innovation of its own—Visible Promise Time. 

A new feature on the No. 2 chain’s website, Visible Promise Time allows customers to see an estimated timeline of when their food will be ready prior to placing an order. Pizza Hut says it’s the only pizza company offering this service, which works for both delivery and carryout and makes it easier for customers to plan lunch or dinner.

The feature is designed to give today’s on-the-go pizza lovers what they want when they want it. “We want to be on our customers’ timetable, not our own,” said Baron Concors, the brand’s chief digital officer. “That’s why we feel it’s important to be transparent with our customers upfront, and, in the end, it’s about making it easy for our customers to enjoy our high-quality food in the best way possible.”

Pizza Hut has been testing the Visible Promise Time, based on an algorithm developed in-house, for several months in participating restaurants across the country. The algorithm calculates the estimated wait time based on that store’s number of incoming orders, the number of available delivery drivers and the average drive time for the trade area for that day.

Concors said customer response “has been extremely positive. Not only that, but it helps our restaurants and team members provide better service. Much like you know the wait time when you go to a dine-in restaurant, we want to bring that openness to our digital experience.”

Here’s how it works: When customers click “Start Your Order,” they’re prompted to choose either delivery or carryout and to enter their address. For a carryout order, they will immediately see the promise time for the Pizza Hut store closest to them and for other stores nearby.

For delivery, they see the promised delivery time as a 10-minute window for their delivery location as well as the carryout time for that restaurant. Customers can then click on “Order Now” to continue the ordering process; then they are given a more specific delivery time within their 10-minute window on their confirmation page and email.

The Visible Promise Time also means customers can decide on the spot if they’d rather choose carryout or delivery, depending on which order will be processed faster.

Nearly 50% of Pizza Hut’s orders come through digital channels, including more than 60% via mobile devices.

In 1994, a Pizza Hut pizza was the first product ever purchased via the internet. Pizza Hut also was the first pizza restaurant company to introduce a mobile app through a partnership with Apple in 2009. Admittedly, Domino’s later overtook its chief rival in terms of innovation, with tools like the Domino’s Tracker and Pizza Builder as well as its Anyware technology that gives customers a wider variety of ways to order, such as text-to-order, voice ordering through Amazon’s Alexa, Pinpoint Delivery, and, in 2023, the ability to place digital orders from their cars via Domino’s iOS app on Apple CarPlay. 

Featured, Pizza News