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Phone is still the best way to order pizza

dan.bulwinkle.net

21–30 of 456 posts

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#21
I bought a burrito during lockdown in the UK, but it was such a miserable experience.

The menu wasn’t particularly intuitive, and took me a few minutes to pick out what I wanted — then I was greeted with a registration page. Email, password, phone, address, you name it, they wanted _everything_ — I only wanted to collect. They didn’t take mobile wallet payments either! Manual card entry!

I feel like the restaurant recognised they had a problem, but contracted out a solution to the lowest bidder that actively went out of their way to design the worst UX.

In the end I actually went ahead and built a platform that’s not user hostile.

Im going to rewrite the landing page and do another round of marketing soon. The page that I wrote in an afternoon is far too negative in hindsight. It needs a positive spin.

https://plated.direct

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#22
post #19

That is the happy path. It has a lot more possible sources of error/time consumption than the app and there are many benefits to the app. 1. The line is busy. The app is next to never busy. 2. The line has static and you are not heard correctly. Especially problematic for delivery or complicated orders. Or they may get your name wrong. My first name is common and my last isn't great over the telephone. 3. You have to…

Door dash would be nice if they didn't have the system where you have to blind bid in a "tip" auction to be able to actually get food.

I have only ever encountered this issue with Uber actually, not DoorDash. And I am talking about Pickup here anyway.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#23
Most of the comments here are focused on the question of why you would prefer an app to calling. The author's point is a great one though, and something I've wondered a lot. Why should I create an account to order a pizza? The app should reduce friction even from the very first order. Instead it adds, and adds for every order... Got to go look up coupon codes! On the phone I just ask the guy what their best deal is in a large cheese and garlic knots and he gives it to me. The app or website should make my life better but instead it's harder.

Worse, the app pretends to be an unrelated party when something goes wrong. "Sorry, you need to call the store. Look up their number, it's on the website." For me it doesn't add anything to the transaction, it only takes away.

The literal only reason I use the pizza app at all is for chains where I have no idea which store delivers to me. Rest of the time I've gone back to calling. Much faster that way.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#24
post #12

I'm sorry but I don't agree. Dominos pizza has coupons, deals, etc. Trying to get those deals over the phone is a chore. Ordering specific toppings can be a chore since it's a relay back and forth vs a button. Multiple pizzas with multiple toppings? The delay just compounds. If you live alone and order one pizza or one style of specific themed pizzas then sure, it might be faster, if that's the metric of "best" but i…

The coupons are the biggest advantage to placing orders online. If you place your order over the phone, they aren't going to offer any promos - they'll gladly charge you $16 for a medium 1 topping. Gotta get the coupon to get the 5.99 special.

[deleted]

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#25

I'm sorry but I don't agree. Dominos pizza has coupons, deals, etc. Trying to get those deals over the phone is a chore. Ordering specific toppings can be a chore since it's a relay back and forth vs a button. Multiple pizzas with multiple toppings? The delay just compounds. If you live alone and order one pizza or one style of specific themed pizzas then sure, it might be faster, if that's the metric of "best" but i…

But then you would have to eat... Dominos. I get that its not the same everywhere, but in the pizza belt, I couldn't imagine going there. Luckily my local place has a good website though.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#26

I'm sorry but I don't agree. Dominos pizza has coupons, deals, etc. Trying to get those deals over the phone is a chore. Ordering specific toppings can be a chore since it's a relay back and forth vs a button. Multiple pizzas with multiple toppings? The delay just compounds. If you live alone and order one pizza or one style of specific themed pizzas then sure, it might be faster, if that's the metric of "best" but i…

But then you would have to eat... Dominos. I get that its not the same everywhere, but in the pizza belt, I couldn't imagine going there. Luckily my local place has a good website though.

I used to hate dominoes but at some point they changed their recipe. It’s ok pizza now as far as big chain pizza goes.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#30

Most of the comments here are focused on the question of why you would prefer an app to calling. The author's point is a great one though, and something I've wondered a lot. Why should I create an account to order a pizza? The app should reduce friction even from the very first order. Instead it adds, and adds for every order... Got to go look up coupon codes! On the phone I just ask the guy what their best deal is i…

> Instead it adds, and adds for every order... Got to go look up coupon codes!

I just stay logged in and several apps I have let me just browse and click on coupons.

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