I’m one of those people who like to order ahead on an app and pick stuff up and bring it home. I’ve got two very frustrating stories of trying to do this recently and one great experience. In this blog I will outline what I was doing and the things in those experiences that were frustrating so you can avoid setting up a system that does the same things.
Story 1:
I wanted to order some breakfast and bring it home because I had a call starting shortly and I knew I was 5 minutes from the restaurant, so I thought I would order real quick then drive over to the restaurant and pick up my eggs and then run back home. I knew I would be cutting it close, but I also knew that if this all worked as intended that I could pull it off.
1st I went to a growing micro-chains website and went through the whole process of trying to order on their website. I got to the payment page, and you can’t order on their website unless you create an account.
Mistake # 1: Allow guest checkout. Not everyone wants to join your loyalty club or create an account. Plus you can still get their email so you can send them a receipt, so them not creating an account doesn’t hurt you from future marketing.
So then I created an account and all that entails. I had to enter my info, address, password, etc. There was an issue with their website, and it said gift card vs. credit card and I didn’t have a gift card, so I wasn’t able to order through the website.
Mistake # 2: Make sure your mobile ordering works as intended and don’t just test it with an account. Your test cases should include setting up a new account and then ordering and other use cases that a new customer might encounter.
Mistake # 3: Don’t make people fill out all their information when they are ordering from a mobile device. It is hard to type on mobile devices so just capture the bare minimum of data needed to complete the order and then use a follow-up campaign and incentive to get them to give you the rest of their information. A coupon for when you complete your registration is a perfect example of that.
I must admit that the idea for this blog was born on this day so instead of just bailing and going through the McDonald’s drive-through, which is right across the street, I decided to persevere and try using their app.
I downloaded their app, and it required me to register to order. I assumed that the account I created on their website would work on their app. WRONG.
Their website and app don’t sync, and they don’t make that clear. So I spent a couple of minutes trying to log into their app with my website credentials that I had just created before I realized this isn’t going to work and registered on the app where I re-entered all of my info into the account.
Mistake # 4: Have your stuff sync!!!!!!! Common really? I just went through and filled out all this info on your website, and it doesn’t work with your app.
The chain is probably using two different platforms for their website ordering and their app. They may even have a nightly sync set-up or something else. Sharing this kind of data isn’t hard and should be done on a real-time basis. Also, don’t have two different ways to order online, just have one, or use an integrated platform. Problem solved.
Finally, I got my eggs ordered, and I picked them up and ate them, and they were delicious. As I said earlier, I stuck this out because I wanted to see what the deal was but I wonder how many people would have bailed and done something else. I have also eaten at this restaurant several times since then and haven’t used their app since.
Story 2:
I was with my family, and we were up in the Colorado mountains and going to rent a pontoon boat for a 2-hour cruise around a lake. There was a national sub-franchise restaurant down the road, and I decided that we would order online and then pick up the subs and eat them before our boat ride.
I went on to their mobile ordering site and started to get everyone’s suborder, customizing each sandwich and getting drinks and chips, etc..
The website worked great until checkout. Then they wanted me to log in and create an account. So I did.
For some reason, once you create your account the system logs you out and you have to log back in. Well, it wouldn’t take my stupid password.
As a quick side note. Setting passwords on your mobile devices is way harder to do than on a computer because your phone auto corrects and most computers don’t. People think they typed one thing and the phone changes it to another and you have no clue what your password is because it is hidden for security reasons. I see this all the time with our app and new clients.
Mistake # 1: Provide a Show Password option, Amazon does this on their Audible app. It is really easy to do and helps you battle autocorrect.
Mistake # 2: Don’t have the website log you out and make you log back in after you create an account. The proper workflow would be to return you to your shopping cart to complete your order.
Returning you to your shopping cart is completely doable, and it shows that the developers of this online ordering platform have lost touch with what the customer is trying to do. They are trying to order sandwiches not trying to register an account. Who has time to go around and register themselves on different websites? Prisoners do, and that is it.
If you are purchasing this software for your restaurants, keep that in mind, your potential customers are trying to order, and anything that slows that down or gets in the way of that is very bad for your business.
I had to create two accounts before I could get the password to work. This also took me trying to reset the original password several times and not being able to log into the site to complete my order and pay for my food.
One positive thing about this experience. Is that I had multiple browser tabs open and when I finally got logged in my shopping cart was still there, and I didn’t lose everyone’s order. That would have been the straw that broke the camels back.
I finally placed my order; this took 20 minutes.
Then I drive to the restaurant, and when I get to the restaurant the tickets have been printed, and they are sitting next to the register. They aren’t on the line getting made. The time it took me to drive to the restaurants was probably 5 minutes.
I almost lost my shit, but I have a very strict don’t mess with the people who are making your food policy unless you aren’t planning on eating the food.
So when I walk-in and I have to tell the cashier that those are my orders and then she puts them on the line to get made I was pretty livid because I was on a clock and nothing about pre-ordering was helping me beat that clock.
Mistake # 2: The system told me when to expect my order, when mobile orders come in that are ASAP then you make them now. They have already been paid for so what the hell are you waiting for?
I got my order finally and got back and was late to my boat rental but the food was good, and everyone was happy.
Now for a good story. In full disclosure, Mici Italian, a micro-chain in Denver Colorado is a client of ours, but they also have a restaurant 5 minutes from my house. They have a great online ordering experience.
The app and their website are synced to each other. They remember your previous orders and from the app or the website you can one-click re-order a previous order. Their system just works.
They use hungerrush.com as their platform, and I have told them that their online experience is amazing. I have also recommended them to several of my neighbors, partly because their online experience is so good.
To sum these stories up. Your mobile ordering experience is an extension of your brand and your level of service. If ordering on your mobile website or app is frustrating that is equivalent to having a bad customer service experience.
It can even be worse than having a bad service experience in a restaurant because you may not even know about the issue and have no way of saving the experience. I believe that most people would not have completed these purchases.
I have said this in other blogs, but everyone in the industry is selling mobile ordering and delivery as these magic bullets that can rescue falling same-store sales numbers. At a 30,000 foot level, they make sense.
What no one wants to talk about is the new levels of complexity that get added to your business. It’s not just another order coming in; it requires IT, and technology skills, additional management training, and a whole new set of potential fail points both from a technology and customer service perspective.
What I would say is don’t rush into these platforms and services but to do a lot of competitive research and see what you like and what you don’t like and bring people into your organization that knows how to execute this stuff at a high level.
New sales channels can help grow your business but if the complexity of executing those sales channels creates bad customer interactions those sales get negated quickly.