The Worst Customer Service Model Ever: Uber Eats

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hat didn't get delivered until over 2 hours after my initial ordering. The restaurant had accepted by order, and during this time, 2 or 3 Uber Eats drivers had been assigned to pick up my order. As you can imagine, each time I was assigned a driver, my spirits were lifted with the prospect of devouring my glutenous meal shortly, only to have my hopes and fast food dreams crushed when the driver cancelled the pickup of my order, quite a roller coaster ride.Once my order was finally assigned to a delivery person on a bicycle, I thought a 2 wheeled angel had been sent to fulfil my fast food prayers. Unfortunately, They peddled their way to the wrong building marking my order as delivered despite notifying them several times they had the wrong building. The only communication they sent to me via text was “Oi”, with no further reply. Thinking all hope was lost that my meal had been delivered to an unexpecting recipient, I quickly made my way to the front apartment building next door, hoping to catch the delivery person they peddled off into the sunset. My delivery person emerged with my order still in hand. Thankfully the person’s door he knocked on in the other building must have graciously declined to accept my order; there is still hope for humanity. Now, sure that doesn’t sound too bad; however, let's not forget to apply the hangry multiplier, which makes everything seem 2 or 3 times more annoying at the time.Was all of this really annoying? Yes. In the grand scheme of things, does it really matter? No.What really irked me was during the time between placing my order and the order being delivered, Uber Eats customers have absolutely no ability to communicate with the company about their order. After an hour and a half with no progress, I thought to myself, let's see if I might be able to cancel the order and throw some things from the pantry together, no worries.The problem was there was no way for me to engage with Uber Eats and ask to cancel or even get any help with the order. The help and FAQ’s section on their website and in the app literally takes you around in circles; it doesn't progress you through to any customer service agents at any point, not even to

Options

chat. In my frustration, I send a DM to the Uber Eats UK Twitter account asking if there was a way to speak or chat with someone about my order. I received a reply within about 5 minute, which is great; however, they just replied with the same FAQ link I had already been going around in circles with, then proceeded to ignore me with no further replies. This seems to be a common trend across customer service, and I find it frustrating.I understand that companies want to reduce the number of support interactions they have with their customers to save on costs. This is typically achieved by steering customers to FAQ’s, providing live order statuses and creating friction in the process of getting through to a service agent. That all makes sense. If a problem can be solved by informing or educating your customer without burning customer service time, then, by all means, go for it.However, in my view, what’s missing is that next step, after a customer has navigated all of the customer service hurdles, they should be able to engage with a company representative who can help them solve their problem. Sure, plenty of companies have a support email address that takes 48 hours or more to reply, but this isn’t a great customer experience, particularly for those companies that are big enough to provide higher service levels. Without having the ability to engage with a customer service staff member, it just makes me think the company doesn't care about you as a customer.Companies providing goods and services to customers need to think harder about creating efficiency and cost reductions without impacting service levels or leaving customers in a frustrating circular loop without any resolution. Do I have the answer? No, there are far smarter people than me who will hopefully create amazing customer experiences for us.On a final positive note, as I mentioned earlier, it is pretty amazing how accessible food, entertainment, shopping, etc., is with the ever-improving technology of our time. As technology continues improving with the proliferation of AI and machine learning, I just hope we don’t forget about the human element.Until next time.</article></body>

Delivering Pain, Mysery and Hunger

Undoubtedly most of you will have experienced horrible customer service at some point in your lives; it’s unavoidable. I wanted to share my recent experience with Uber Eats. Writing this story is, of course, an avenue to vent my annoyance at Uber Eats. However, the more I thought about writing this, rather than just moan about Uber Eats, it was an opportunity to call out a growing trend in how customers are being served, particularly in the tech space. Perhaps someone from a customer service strategy team will stumble across these types of articles and think, “maybe we have missed the mark a bit”.

Understandably, there is an ever-increasing drive to save company staff costs, do more with less through digitised solutions and build self-service capabilities (which I really like). In the pursuit of endless profit growth, digitisation is a strategy that makes sense and is widely implemented across various industries. It makes me think, is it really worth implementing these strategies so aggressively they end up leaving a very sour taste in your customer's mouths, no matter how good their meal is?

Firstly, having a bad customer service experience with Uber Eats is absolutely the epitome of a first-world problem. There are undoubtedly far more important grievances in the world that people have to complain about. Not to mention there are absolutely more important problems for the world to solve. Secondly, when the food delivery apps work as planned, it's magical; what a time to be alive where you can touch a few buttons on a screen then voila, food delivered right to your door.

So, where did I think Uber Eats is failing their customers?

I placed an order with a fast food restaurant via Uber Eats that didn't get delivered until over 2 hours after my initial ordering. The restaurant had accepted by order, and during this time, 2 or 3 Uber Eats drivers had been assigned to pick up my order. As you can imagine, each time I was assigned a driver, my spirits were lifted with the prospect of devouring my glutenous meal shortly, only to have my hopes and fast food dreams crushed when the driver cancelled the pickup of my order, quite a roller coaster ride.

Once my order was finally assigned to a delivery person on a bicycle, I thought a 2 wheeled angel had been sent to fulfil my fast food prayers. Unfortunately, They peddled their way to the wrong building marking my order as delivered despite notifying them several times they had the wrong building. The only communication they sent to me via text was “Oi”, with no further reply. Thinking all hope was lost that my meal had been delivered to an unexpecting recipient, I quickly made my way to the front apartment building next door, hoping to catch the delivery person they peddled off into the sunset. My delivery person emerged with my order still in hand. Thankfully the person’s door he knocked on in the other building must have graciously declined to accept my order; there is still hope for humanity. Now, sure that doesn’t sound too bad; however, let's not forget to apply the hangry multiplier, which makes everything seem 2 or 3 times more annoying at the time.

Was all of this really annoying? Yes. In the grand scheme of things, does it really matter? No.

What really irked me was during the time between placing my order and the order being delivered, Uber Eats customers have absolutely no ability to communicate with the company about their order. After an hour and a half with no progress, I thought to myself, let's see if I might be able to cancel the order and throw some things from the pantry together, no worries.

The problem was there was no way for me to engage with Uber Eats and ask to cancel or even get any help with the order. The help and FAQ’s section on their website and in the app literally takes you around in circles; it doesn't progress you through to any customer service agents at any point, not even to chat. In my frustration, I send a DM to the Uber Eats UK Twitter account asking if there was a way to speak or chat with someone about my order. I received a reply within about 5 minute, which is great; however, they just replied with the same FAQ link I had already been going around in circles with, then proceeded to ignore me with no further replies. This seems to be a common trend across customer service, and I find it frustrating.

I understand that companies want to reduce the number of support interactions they have with their customers to save on costs. This is typically achieved by steering customers to FAQ’s, providing live order statuses and creating friction in the process of getting through to a service agent. That all makes sense. If a problem can be solved by informing or educating your customer without burning customer service time, then, by all means, go for it.

However, in my view, what’s missing is that next step, after a customer has navigated all of the customer service hurdles, they should be able to engage with a company representative who can help them solve their problem. Sure, plenty of companies have a support email address that takes 48 hours or more to reply, but this isn’t a great customer experience, particularly for those companies that are big enough to provide higher service levels. Without having the ability to engage with a customer service staff member, it just makes me think the company doesn't care about you as a customer.

Companies providing goods and services to customers need to think harder about creating efficiency and cost reductions without impacting service levels or leaving customers in a frustrating circular loop without any resolution. Do I have the answer? No, there are far smarter people than me who will hopefully create amazing customer experiences for us.

On a final positive note, as I mentioned earlier, it is pretty amazing how accessible food, entertainment, shopping, etc., is with the ever-improving technology of our time. As technology continues improving with the proliferation of AI and machine learning, I just hope we don’t forget about the human element.

Until next time.