Study finds late delivery affects half of on-demand food delivery customers, but many miss phone calls to alert them

North Little Rock, Ark. – On-demand food delivery services have a customer support problem, according to a new study released today by First Orion.

Half of the 2,000 customers polled said the top reason for needing to connect with the delivery service’s customer support team was the late delivery of their food order. However, 62 per cent had missed a call about issues with their delivery because they didn’t recognize the phone number calling.

This led to dissatisfaction for more than 80 per cent of customers.

Despite the convenience of mobile app ordering and contactless delivery, problems still occur. When they do, many (80 per cent) of survey respondents said they want to receive a phone call and almost all expect problems to be resolved in less than 10 minutes. When asked how important it is to be able to identify an unknown phone number by the business name, many said very or extremely – otherwise, they simply won’t answer.

“It’s clear from our research that food delivery has a ways to go before improving answer rates and customer satisfaction,” said Viki Zabala, chief marketing and product officer at First Orion. “Consumers are willing to answer the phone when they see a brand’s logo or name, driving greater engagement, loyalty and a positive experience overall.”

The company’s Engage platform is designed to combat this problem to ensure that drivers were no longer waiting outside for 10-15 minutes or not wondering where they were, but instead at the ring of their phone,  notified they had arrived.

While late delivery accounted for half of the top reasons people needed to connect with the food delivery service, these were the other most common problems mentioned in the study:

• Incorrect order (37 per cent)
• Food was cold / not fresh (36 per cent)
• Driver needed directions (33 per cent)
• Food never arrived (26 per cent)
• Delivery driver attitude/behavior issue (14 per cent)