Domino’s Pizza Loses a Soldier – Ramon De Leon is Moving On

Ramon visiting us at Gals' Guide Summit, delivering pizzas.

Some news I heard ‘may’ happen, did.  Well-known and well-loved social media pizza mogul, Ramon De Leon, is no longer going to be with Domino’s Pizza. The franchise Ramon worked for (which included six stores) was sold. He’s moving on. 

You may wonder why I’m writing about a man in the pizza business. That’s because Ramon De Leon soon became a marketing powerhouse for Domino’s Pizza. So much so, they made him change his original Twitter handle, from DPZ_Ramon (DPZ stood for Domino’s Pizza) to his real name. So much so that Ramon is traveling the world talking about social media and how he used various tools, tactics and good old fashioned sweat equity to build awareness for his business.

Ramon mastered the art of ‘giving away’ pizza to local marketing organizations and cash strapped college students. ‘Giving away’ wasn’t what Ramon really did, however.  He built community. He took care of customers. He used social media to go over and beyond the call of pizza duty to get people served, fed and delivered to (including during massive snowstorms). He used social media to call out his own stores’ mistakes and apologized to customers.

Ramon is also a friend of mine.

• He supplied pizza to the ahead of its time event, Sleepover 2.0, hosted by series of tech women in Chicago (including yours truly).
• He supplied pizza to my Gals’ Guide Summit
• He delivered pizza to a Social Media Club Chicago event, making me my own mini personal pizza before I had my daughter.
• He sent pizza to my home when I came home from the hospital – too tired to cook anything post having a newborn.
• He took my order over email and delivered pizza on my behalf to Obama headquarters, feeding a staff of sleep deprived campaign workers. 
•  He celebrated dates and holidays and launched ‘flash pizza sales’ on Twitter.
• He invited people to big guest pizza makers.
• He put our names on pizza boxes as a thank you.
• He got MC Hammer to say hello to me (I love MC Hammer).
• To many in Chicago, Domino’s Pizza was synonymous with Ramon De Leon. When we had to order pizza, 9 times out of 10, I ordered it from one of the Domino’s Pizza stores Ramon represented.

I don’t have a seat at Domino’s Pizza’s marketing table, but the equity Ramon built for their stores will never be replicated. Ramon De Leon benefitted from Domino's Pizza and Domino's Pizza benefitted from Ramon De Leon. The funny thing is, each store that experienced the #RamonWOW touch may not have the same loyalty and business again. Only time will tell.

One thing’s for sure: I won’t have a problem ordering from another pizza place ever again.  As far as Ramon?  He won't be relaxing any time soon. He has too much to say and too much too contribute when it comes to shedding his customer service poetry on the rest of the world.

The #RamonWOW hashtag was the symbol of getting stellar service from Ramon and his teams