Food Delivery Diary Of A Restaurant Consultant
by Andrew Parr
At Best Served we are committed to delivering content that you can watch, listen, and read. This piece is tied directly to Best Served Custom, Ease of Ordering Volume 1. In this series, we explore the customers’ perspective by having conversations directly with them. This written story is reflections of my own experiences.
For the last two weekends in the evening, my wife and I snuggled up on our mid-century blue couch, under a warm, fuzzy blanket in our comfortable Denver home. I was tasked with selecting our restaurant delivery options as Jody scrolled the streaming services to determine what we would watch each night. You see, not only do we live in a COVID world, but we also live in an on-demand world. COVID didn’t create it, but it certainly accelerated the process of getting here and where we go beyond. We want what we want, when and where we want it. We do all of this with the ease and convenience that our OtterBox protected, 3” X 6” hand-held devices offer. The keys to the kingdom – anything we want, right within reach.
We had two distinctly different experiences each weekend, and neither was satisfying. While technology powers our on-demand lifestyles, it also gets in the way. In order to get their food to the people, restaurants need to deal with things like order aggregators, website overlays and widgets, apps that are “skinned” for them but not custom designed for them, UI, UX, point of sale systems, digital menus, third party delivery services and other last mile solutions, and integrations. That’s all technobabble for saying that at the heart of it all, after all these years and despite all of our technological and automated advances, still lies the ability to communicate effectively. It used to be so much easier to communicate when you could actually walk into a restaurant, sit down, and have real human interactions with other people.
Each of the last two weekends we ordered from local, independent, neighborhood restaurants. One experience took us from the restaurant’s website to ChowNow and was delivered through DoorDash Drive. The second one allowed us to order from the restaurant’s website, yet also encouraged us to download their app and order from there (which we did with the enticement of 15% off our first order). The order was also delivered through DoorDash Drive. Notice how I talk about the app like it is actually a location? The app is not an “it,” the app is a “there.” This is how our thinking has evolved. We desire the sense of belonging that restaurants provide for us to such a degree that we imagine their virtual extensions as “being there.”
Now, for the nitty-gritty. With the first restaurant, their online ordering portal was displayed through a redirect from their website to ChowNow. The menu seemed easy enough to navigate, with a robust selection of choices to make. Part of what we decided on was two orders of wings. We selected all flaps (it was an option with no upcharge, not a special request), and we chose Old Bay seasoning dry rub on one and we chose Buffalo dry rub on the other. One of the “forced modifiers” was bleu cheese or ranch. We opted for bleu cheese, but this forced modifier also upcharged us $1 for each order. We did not order “extra” bleu cheese; it was just our choice to go with the order. And, friends, here is what we received: Two orders of wings, both all drums and one with the Old Bay dry rub we selected and the other with Buffalo sauce, not dry rub.
Shortly after our order arrived, we received an automated text from DDD asking us to rate our experience from 1 being “poor” to 5 being “great.” I replied with a 1 and received a text back with a link to share more feedback. I did so, and never received a response back. I called the restaurant, and the phone was picked up by a desperately frantic person on the other end. I was able to hear the music in the restaurant through the phone as though I was standing under a speaker. After explaining my plight, the woman on the phone asked if I ordered through Grubhub. I told her I ordered through their website. She said, ok, well just come in some time and we’ll do something for you. Not being particularly inspired, I reached out to ChowNow. ChowNow took the concern very seriously and told me that they would have to contact the restaurant first to determine a course of action. I let the representative know that I didn’t want a refund or a free meal (I mean, we did eat all of the food, after all, and it was delicious). All I wanted was for ChowNow to have a rep connect with the restaurant to fix the menu on the ordering platform so I could be certain that next time I ordered I would get what I actually wanted. About 24 hours later I received an email from ChowNow letting me know the menu had been fixed (YAY!) and that I would also be receiving $20 ChowNow dollars credited to my account, which I had expressly asked not to happen. I tried to discern if the restaurant needed to pay dollar for dollar value for the credit, or if they were able to “purchase” the ChowNow dollars at a discount. ChowNow never responded to my inquiry.
And here is the play-by-play on the next online delivery experience. As I mentioned I went directly through the restaurant’s app. Though we were offered a 15% first time discount, it was in no way clear how to have the discount applied, and it was certainly not automatic, as there was no discount noted on the receipt. Bummer. The good news is we got exactly what we ordered. Bad news is it was cold by the time we got it. Here is the tale of woe that led up to our cold food. With this app, we were able to select our delivery time. We picked 7:20 (I know, that’s random, but it was one of the two choices and fit our window best). At 7:05 I received a text from DDD letting me know that my driver was approaching. So, I got off the comfy couch and put on my mask in anticipation of the driver’s arrival. First issue – this was 15 minutes earlier than we had requested for delivery (I know, kind of insane to be upset about food arriving early, right?). Second issue, after 5 and 10 minutes went by, the driver still had not arrived. I checked the link from DDD, and it actually showed the driver was still at the restaurant. I then texted DDD back, and of course since everything is all automated, I received a reply back asking me to click on the dreaded customer service link. After giving them my email address and phone number (having already entered both upon entering the customer service site), they told me they had no record of my order. I asked if they had no record how they could be texting me repeatedly. The reply was, “we have no record of your order, call the restaurant.” REALLY? By this time, it was 7:27, and our order arrived. The driver was pleasant enough. She apologized for being late and volunteered that it was because our order was inadvertently combined with another.
My biggest take away after my last two delivery experiences is the DoorDash Drive is a terrible partner to their restaurants. Their responsiveness is somewhere between rude and nonexistent. One problem here is that the customer sees what should be a seamless experience as it actually is: a completely broken supply chain. Restaurants are doing everything in their power to get their food to customers. Third parties are still taking advantage of restaurants with no repercussions. I don’t blame either restaurant for what happened; however, they certainly need to know what their user experience is. I love and am loyal to both of these neighborhood restaurants, and these events will not stop me from ordering from them again (though I will likely opt for pick-up rather than delivery). BUT, if these were first time experiences, how likely would I be to put myself through this again? Not very. Up until March of last year restaurants were able to understand their user experience by walking through the dining room, interacting with guests, and participating in the flow. Now the customer experience is through a screen and their table is miles away from the restaurant. It is paramount that restaurants run stress tests of their own to understand how their systems work – or don’t. It is also time that 3rd party partners own their issues and stop charging restaurants back for the 3rd party failures.
A final note: One of the owners of the second restaurant replied to my notes on the experience which I submitted through their website. He did so within a few short hours of my submission, demonstrating genuine concern through his prompt response. He replied to me with an exceptionally detailed and thoughtful response. He also took responsibility for everything as the business owner and exuded a great deal of appreciation for the time I took to share my experience with him. I immediately felt re-connected to that restaurant because of the effort he took to respond personally. This is one way hospitality beyond the four walls does exist in our virtual world.
To view the video podcast, link to YouTube here, where you can find the playlist for the entire series.
Relationships extend far beyond the four walls of a restaurant and include employees and customers. Best Served is excited to partner with 7shifts, underwriter of Best Served Custom, whose commitment to employee engagement provides a real time feedback loop, building a strong culture and customer experience.
Andrew Parr is Best Served Creative’s “Herald of How,” AKA Chief How Officer. Understanding why we do what we do and who we serve, Andrew digs into the nuts and bolts of how we get it done. He craves one-on-one interactions and thrives with the written word. The ability to contribute to our Read channel by penning articles covering a variety of subject matter and running down rabbit holes for research quenches his desire to learn.
Andrew has over 25 years of restaurant and hospitality industry experience and his education includes a BA in Psychology and History from the University of Wisconsin along with a JD from Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Andrew was born and raised in Milwaukee, WI, and currently resides in Denver with his wife Jody and their dog Cooper.
