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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

#391

Post by PaulHoule »

jbmny wrote: post #253
PaulHoule wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of times with food apps I don't immediately see how to set the pickup time or don't have a lot of faith that it really is going to be ready when I want it. When I talk to somebody on the phone I feel a lot more sure. I worked at a place near Union Square, NYC and was in the habit of ordering food for pickup from sweetgreen because I knew it all worked. I have thought about ordering from restaurants in Collegeto…

Without talking to somebody on the phone, often I don't have a lot of faith that the order will even be received. Sometimes the place closes but the app happily continues to take orders. Other times the order simply gets lost in the ether. After a while, you learn which places are not worth the risk of ordering from online.

I remember a long time ago when food apps were really new putting in an online order at a sub shop which is a well oiled machine. (The kind of place they'd write a business school case study about.)

A restaurant with absolutely excellent process for handling walk-in traffic can fail entirely faced with an occasional online order. In their case they made the sub half an hour before I requested it be ready and stuffed it in some corner where they couldn't find it.

In the last two years I've seen the small facilities run by Cornell Dining go from handling almost all in-person order to handling a large fraction (between 1/3 and 2/3) of online orders. In-person orders are handled by Kanban-style process where the people making the food take orders at they clear work-in-progress. I'm not really sure how they handle online orders that aren't gated by this. I suspect there are many indirect effects, for instance, I think because the traffic patterns are more complicated it would be easier to walk out without paying for your food. (On the other hand, I'm a member of a cohort of middle-aged people who complicate traffic flows by going into line to pay for food before it is ready because that's efficient.)

Anyhow, once I know a place is good for handling online orders I'm inclined to do so. But if I'm not sure I'm much more inclined to go in and do things the old fashioned way.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#392

Post by ozim »

jjav wrote: post #270
insaneirish wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who on earth has ever ordered just a "large pizza for pickup"? Without specifying ingredients, type of crust, anything. LOL. All the time. Me: "One large pie." Them: "Anything else?" Me: "Nope." Them: "15 minutes." In NY/NJ, pizza is a language unto itself.

Yes. The best thing about ordering by phone is after a while they just recognize your voice and go "The usual?" and that's it. Much more personal.

So we have an app in Europe that is operating in countries I frequent and live/lived.

I don't have pizza place that would recognize me by voice because I might order from any place like 1x a year or 2x a year.

I love that I can go to most of medium cities and I don't have to drive around searching for food places because I can find them via app, whether I stay with friends or in a hotel and just order food for evening.

Then calling on the phone in English is not really a good option, calling using broken local language might be even worse than trying English :)

Then payment before order with my app account and card is also super easy and convenient.

That said, I think it is not super common use case but that delivery app makes my life a lot easier.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#393

Post by Tempest1981 »

tyoma wrote: post #5

This is only true for very simple orders. And may heaven help you if you and the person on the other end are both non-native English speakers. As soon as you want anything remotely custom, using an app or website is a lifesaver. And the good apps remember your order for one/two tap re-ordering. Chipotle’s app is one that does this extremely well.

Chipotle’s app always says your food will be ready in Their server needs a feedback channel from the stores. Or it should count the number of incoming items ordered per minute, and auto-adjust the "ready" time. Don't always show 5 minutes.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#394

Post by intellix »

Much prefer to open the app I use for all food orders and click 2 buttons to have it delivered. Using phone is a chore for many reasons: - Could be engaged and I have no idea when to try again - Having to explain anything over the phone sucks and prone for error - It's inefficient to hire a guy to answer phones all night

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#395

Post by aembleton »

tjoff wrote: post #354
ioman wrote: post #340

My local pizza place in Seattle has moved the technology the other way. Here’s the dialog when I call. “Pagliacci Pizza, how can I help you?” “I’d like to order a pizza” “Sure thing. Is this John Smith?” “Yes” “Do you still live at 1234 Main Street” “Yes” “Would you like to order the same thing you did last time?” “Yes” “Ok, it’ll be there in 20 minutes” Even better, while you talk to the store you called, the order…

Sounds good, but "the order goes into some sort of pizza load balancer and gives the order to the least busy store with a good drive time to your house" seems to be optimizing only for fast delivery. Which might, or might definitely not be the highest priority to me.

If its a chain - where the quality is roughly uniform, what other metric would you prioritise by?

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#396

Post by floatingatoll »

Tempest1981 wrote: post #393
tyoma wrote: post #5

This is only true for very simple orders. And may heaven help you if you and the person on the other end are both non-native English speakers. As soon as you want anything remotely custom, using an app or website is a lifesaver. And the good apps remember your order for one/two tap re-ordering. Chipotle’s app is one that does this extremely well.

Chipotle’s app always says your food will be ready in Their server needs a feedback channel from the stores. Or it should count the number of incoming items ordered per minute, and auto-adjust the "ready" time. Don't always show 5 minutes.

Telling the customer to leave immediately for the store is the only viable solution for a time window that could be 7 to 55 minutes wide, if your priority is maximizing pipeline efficiency and throughout at the expense of occasionally making customers wait for up to 45 minutes in-store. Providing a If the pizza’s ready in 7 minutes, you’ll be there in 10 and receive a hot pizza.

If the pizza’s ready in 55 minutes, you’ll be there in 10 and receive a hot pizza eventually.

You could theoretically try to offer more accurate arrival times, but then you’ll have to play queuing theory “fairness” games with the pizza queue versus in-person and phone orders to try and ensure that the pizza isn’t made too soon, as well as have to deal with people thay show up late and lie about the estimate shown in-app so they can get a new freshly-made hot pizza (which generates food waste). Doing this requires competent pizza personnel with a good understanding of how to manage expectations fairness, and if there one thing I would not expect from a Chipotle-sized business, it’s that — they’ll have maximized efficiency by removing human consideration from the equation altogether.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#397

Post by whichdan »

AdamH12113 wrote: post #118
rafaele wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is in the pizza "Big Three" anyway? Domino's, Pizza Hut, Little Caesars?

Today I learned that Little Caesar's is a bigger pizza chain than Papa John's[1]. As of 2018, the top five are: 1. Domino's, with 14,856 "units" and $12.2 billion in gross sales. 2. Pizza Hut, with 16,784 units and $12.0 billion in gross sales. 3. Little Caesar's, with 5,500 units and $4.0 billion. 4. Papa John's, with 5,199 units and $3.7 billion. 5. California Pizza Kitchen, with 267 units and $840 million. Everyth…

Huh, I wouldn't have expected any of these numbers, given that Boston has a zillion Domino's and, at best, one each of the others.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#398

Post by marssaxman »

michaelcampbell wrote: post #341
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…

This is 100% backward from my experience. Having an account is a 1-time cost, and not only a small one, but one I do for hundreds of other things every day. Logging in is a keystroke that has my password manager auto type my username and password; again something I repeat daily. With the situation in the US at least, trying to get anyone on the phone is an exercise in frustration. The app (for me, so far) has always…

I have "account fatigue"; I am so tired of having to create accounts and log in to things - yes, it's something I repeat daily, and that's the problem. Just let me buy the damn pizza, or whatever it is! I always use the "guest" option when available.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#399

Post by SECProto »

madaxe_again wrote: post #281
SECProto wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My typical phone order for pizza lasts about 20-30 seconds, and goes as follows: > "Hey could I get a large house special for pickup?" > "Yeah it'll be ready in 15-20" Then I go to the shop, tap the card while they grab the box with my phone number on it, and I leave. If it's a Friday, the time estimate is usually longer. Sometimes I'll order two.

Man. I phone, I order, I arrive 30 minutes later, and only then do they start making the pizza, so I sit and stare for 40 minutes, and then I pay my $40 and swear I’ll never do it again, until two weeks later.

That's unfortunate. I did have an experience recently where I ordered on a Friday and they gave me a "45-50" time estimate. I got there at 45 and they told me it'd be another 5 or 10. Saw a steady stream of app delivery people in and out the other door as I waited.

Usually I order on a Tuesday when they aren't busy and that's why I get the short and accurate time estimate - they likely start putting it together almost immediately.

Re: Phone is still the best way to order pizza

#400

Post by lyjackal »

oneplane wrote: post #362

Imagine someone trying to attack you by simply ordering many paid-on-delivery services to your house... man, wouldn't it be great that to order something like that you had to do a bit more validation or proving you say who you are? Oh wait, that's exactly what is happening. (as a side-effect) I also don't understand the “Large Pizza for Pickup” bit, do you just get a random pizza? What size is 'large'? 25cm? 35cm? 40…

Exactly. It’s not really hypothetical. I first heard about the pizza delivery attack it on dark net diaries podcast: https://darknetdiaries.com/transcript/97/

It was used to make someone give up his Twitter/Instagram account handle. They sent him tons of pizzas from different restaurants, and started also attacking other family members

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