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Phone is still the best way to order pizza

dan.bulwinkle.net

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Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#301

Post by flibble »

Co-founder of https://flipdish.com here (Unicorn whitelabel online ordering provider). We felt very similar to the author in 2015 — utterly frustrated needing to enter email address, be asked for a DOB!!, create a password etc before being allowed place an order. We set out to design an app that required a minimum number of taps from opening app to placing an order. By using geo-location, using a phone number for authentication instead of email (delivery drivers are going to want a phone number), having sensible defaults (like presuming you want to order for ASAP unless you say otherwise), we build an app where people can open it for the first time, register, order and pay in under 20s.

We initially automatically logged people in silently on Android by detecting their phone number, sending a verification SMS and intercepting it in the app. This was viewed as more spooky than good UX, so we had to reverse course a little and add another manual step in that case. But other little UX niceties remained, like extrapolating the customer’s name from the name of their iPhone (chances are you phone us called “[first name]’s iPhone”) to save them typing it in.

I think it would be quite difficult to manage a production system that lets people pay with cash but not log in, as it would be so easy for a single script kiddy to take all your restaurants offline by placing fake orders over and over.

You would be amazed (or maybe you wouldn’t) at how little business owners think about UX. We get so many requests to require a DOB before being allowed placing an order so they can send birthday messages to customers.

A nice summary of the state of affairs by UK comedian Michael McIntyre https://youtu.be/O5FeZti1cjs

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#302

Post by Geee »

90% of time, I don't really care about what food I want to eat, I'm just hungry. Whether it's ordering online or with a phone call, the most annoying and time consuming part is going over available restaurants and food options etc. So, I wish I had a "food"-button on my desk. When pressed, random food would be delivered to me.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#303

Post by dkdbejwi383 »

I like to order from apps because:

- it helps to find new places I wouldn’t otherwise have ordered from

- I can spend 15 minutes being indecisive if I want. I’m not sure someone in the shop would want to spend that amount of time reading the menu to me over and over

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#304

Post by corin_ »

Vixel wrote: post #97
iwanttocomment wrote: post #53

Who on earth has ever ordered just a "large pizza for pickup"? Without specifying ingredients, type of crust, anything. This is like ordering a chair by phone from a furniture store by dialing the number, saying "Armchair for pickup" and heading on over to the store. Why reserve books online from the library? Just call them and say "10 books for pickup" and then hang up.

I often order "the large" from a place by me. They feature a different pizza every day and you can just order it by size. It's kind of mystery box. I've found that I don't really care what the toppings are because the crust, sauce and cheese are so good. Pick off what you don't want.

Why not spend an extra 10 seconds finding out if there's a topping you don't like and asking them to not put it on? Surely even quicker than picking it off, and less wasteful! But maybe you like nearly everything so you only have to pick something off once in a blue moon.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#305

Post by alexvoda »

hilbert42 wrote: post #298
waste_monk wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if the bag was sealed, I don't think they could take it back once it left the delivery person's custody. That's usually how these operations work (but not sure about Uber Eats specifically). Too much risk of food tampering or other mischief.

Very likely. But he couldn't have gone more than a couple of minutes. I'm surprised I didn't hear him. What I'm still unclear about is that someone nearby ordered the food, as I didn't answer immediately why didn't he ring hone to base or to the planned recipient for an address correction?

This kind of situation is fixed by pin verification like there is for Uber rides and other services like some package delivery companies.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#306

Post by phoboslab »

flibble wrote: post #301

Co-founder of https://flipdish.com here (Unicorn whitelabel online ordering provider). We felt very similar to the author in 2015 — utterly frustrated needing to enter email address, be asked for a DOB!!, create a password etc before being allowed place an order. We set out to design an app that required a minimum number of taps from opening app to placing an order. By using geo-location, using a phone number for aut…

Co-founder of https://topchef.de here (bootstrapped whitelabel online ordering provider, focusing on the German market). We felt the same. It's truly amazing how bad the UX of many competitor apps is and how little business owners think about it.

Sometimes it's an uphill battle to even explain to business owners why being on takeaway.com is stupidly expensive - after all, at the end of the month they _receive_ money from them, instead of paying a monthly subscription fee.

Congratz to your unicorn status :)

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#307

Post by ricardobayes »

ajuc wrote: post #273
jimmyswimmy wrote: post #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 i…

In my country there's a website that works in every major city and their suburbs that aggregates basically all restaurants, pizzerias, pierogarnias etc. And you don't have to have an account, the address and payment details are filled in by the browser autocomplete. So the friction is - click on the menu, click "order", type in the wireless transfer code. Also - almost nobody orders "pick up" pizza here, so phone req…

Chat, or message apps might be the best way yet. They don't need signup but easy to get your point across precisely. I ordered pickup through an app because I don't speak the local language but I had a flat tire so I needed to coordinate the delivery through phone (again, in a language I barely speak). They couldn't understand my address so we switched to whatsapp and could send them the coordinates. Twenty minutes later the person was there with a still hot pizza. In another case I just texted the local pizza guy on whatsapp what I wanted and he replied 'where to deliver it?', and then 10 minutes later it arrived.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#308

Post by EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK »

Geee wrote: post #302

90% of time, I don't really care about what food I want to eat, I'm just hungry. Whether it's ordering online or with a phone call, the most annoying and time consuming part is going over available restaurants and food options etc. So, I wish I had a "food"-button on my desk. When pressed, random food would be delivered to me.

I get food rations delivered to my door. 6 dishes every day, totally random, I don't know what next package will contain. It's pretty funny.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#309

Post by tpoacher »

> When ordering pizza for pickup, there is no easier way to do it than using a phone. On average, it takes no more than 20 seconds

That is, until they realise that adding an artificial 10 minute delay, with elevator music interspersed with "Our operators are all busy. You are in a queue. Have you tried our app?" before a phone operator is even alerted to your call, will likely drive people back to the app where the real data is collected and profiled.

My gas company provides a number for you to call, which is 'great' for those queries that aren't covered by their FAQ section ... but this has never been answered sooner than 30 minutes, and that's excluding the initial menus to get to the point you want, which easily take about 10 minutes to get through. My average wait on the phone is about 50 minutes.

"Did you know you can do this on the app?" typically comes up every 2-3 minutes during that call.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#310

Post by sdfhbdf »

ajuc wrote: post #273
jimmyswimmy wrote: post #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 i…

In my country there's a website that works in every major city and their suburbs that aggregates basically all restaurants, pizzerias, pierogarnias etc. And you don't have to have an account, the address and payment details are filled in by the browser autocomplete. So the friction is - click on the menu, click "order", type in the wireless transfer code. Also - almost nobody orders "pick up" pizza here, so phone req…

+1 for Poland. I think we're pretty advanced and everybody heard of pyszne.pl, Uber Eats, Bolt Food, Glovo, Jush, JOKR, Lisek, Wolt etc.

The competition is fierce and the delivery apps are very affordable.

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