Getting Delivery Orders Control During Peak Times
Overview
This case study showcases the design process to help Uber Eats’ supplier side (restaurants) deal with an acute pain point - give restaurants’ managers operative control over delivery orders during peak times.
User Research
A semi-structed in-depth interview, in order to find the motivations, feelings and perspectives of restaurants staff. The interview was conducted with 5 restaurants’ owners and managers.
In addition, observations were made in restaurants to get a better context of the problems and challenges the staff is facing.
Insights
Customers ordering from third-party delivery apps are not top priority for restaurants. Dining in or take away customers have the superiority.
Repeat customers are crucial to restaurants, as 65%-80% of sales comes from them.
70% of mistakes leading to refunds occur during peak times when the kitchen is overwhelmed. Customers ordering from third-party delivery apps tend to complain more and can reach up to 40% of orders.
Restaurants’ managers feel they don’t have enough operative control over third-party delivery apps, mainly during peak times.
Solution
A new restaurant status was added in addition to the Accept (on) and Pause (off) statuses in the app - Limit.
Entering this status will allow only the 25% most loyal customers in the app to order, reducing the load in the kitchen in peak times while keep using the app.
Design
The dock area is colored to signal the restaurant’s status with minimum effect on routine tasks. An accordion docked button was created to let the manager easy access to change the status through a segmented control button, when drawer opens.
A new countdown timer was generated. The countdown timer is set using a stepper in order to change restaurants’ status to Limit or Pause The stepper was designed in accordance to Uber design system as the way to set time durations. When countdown reaches zero, the restaurant returns to Accept status.
