I don’t know how good the user experience is when ordering food elsewhere, but here in Chile it sucks.
Let me explain:
- They don’t know what you want. I am no gourmet. I tend to order only a handful of dishes from the couple of restaurants I like. Every time I call, however, I have to repeat the same order. Time and again I have to go through every dish I like and the customizations I want (easy with the sauce, extra spicy, extra chopsticks, etc.) I’d love if the restaurant remembered what I use to order. If that were the case, I’d only have to specify the differences from my usual order. I’d also love that -based on what I use to order- the restaurant made suggestions.
- They don’t know who you are. I would love to be greeted with “hello, Pablo” instead of a cold “Chinese Restaurant, how may I serve you?” It would be even better if I were greeted with a “hello, Pablo, do you want to order the usual?”. I expect the restaurant to know who I am. Instead, every time I call I have to identify myself as if I were a complete and total stranger. Worse, they even ask for your cellphone number sometimes. Get a freakin’ caller ID thing already!
- They don’t know where you live. As with most of their customers, I don’t move often. At least not between every call to order food. It would be so good if they remembered my address… Instead, every time I call I have to spell out the address and give them directions.
- They are late. Sometimes they arrive on time, but more often than not they miss the time window by a lot. The time window they give you. If you call on rush hour, “within 30 minutes” often means “sometime between the next couple of hours”. I don’t expect them to do the impossible, but a little more honesty on their part would be a game changer, because everybody lies.
I think there is room for improvement. A lot of room.
