This story is part of a series based on The Path to Third-Party Excellence, a secret shopper study from Intouch Insight conducted exclusively for Restaurant Business and its sister publications CSP Daily News and Nation's Restaurant News. Click here to see our full report.
Fees and higher menu prices do not appear to be dissuading consumers from ordering third-party delivery, even as they visit restaurants less often overall, and here is a big reason why: They really like the service.
Nine in 10 restaurant customers were satisfied with their orders from the country’s three major third-party delivery services, according to a first-of-its-kind secret shopper study from the consulting firm Intouch Insight for Restaurant Business and its sister publications.
A generally high percentage of customers were satisfied with their restaurant orders throughout the day. And, while DoorDash generally performed better than rivals Uber Eats and Grubhub, on balance consumers seemed happy with all three.
The results provide some insight into the persistent growth of third-party delivery despite concerns about the price of such services and declines in customer traffic hitting a wide range of concepts.
At the end of the day, the ease of ordering third-party delivery and the convenience of having someone bring food to your home trumps concern about prices. Ninety-six percent of customers said placing orders on third-party delivery apps was easy.
For the study, Intouch used shoppers who ordered delivery from restaurants and convenience stores using one of the big three services. They did not use a paid tiered account or priority delivery.
They made 600 shops from April to June between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. EST, and the orders were spread across the U.S. Each delivery service had 200 shops, 100 from a convenience store and 100 from a limited-service restaurant.
Third-party delivery followed growth of businesses such as rideshare services, emerging in the years before the pandemic as a rapidly-growing source of sales for restaurant operators. That growth took off during the pandemic.
Some 193 million people are expected to use these services by 2029.
The study examines both limited-service restaurants and convenience stores, given the growing competition between the two sectors. More than half of consumers consider convenience stores to be a viable option for made-to-order food compared with fast-food restaurants, according to Intouch.
But the study’s results show that delivery at convenience stores is behind restaurants, at least in the view of customers. Overall satisfaction was higher at restaurants (90%) than convenience stores (80%).
One huge reason: accuracy. The study found 90% accuracy among restaurant orders, but just 77% at convenience stores.
Third-party delivery does cost customers. Typical fees charged by the different services were about $6 per order, from $5.67 from Grubhub to $6.38 by Uber Eats. Generally speaking, one-third of those fees went for delivery, the rest for service.
Restaurants themselves marked up the menu prices. The study examined the higher prices charged for main items on third-party delivery apps. Chains generally tended to charge more: an extra $1.90 for the main item in the order, compared with $1.25 at independents. On balance, however, higher prices were commonplace.
That means an order could cost an additional $8 or so, at least. That clearly isn’t dissuading customers. Total orders at DoorDash, for instance, were up 19% in the second quarter. That’s lower than it had been more recently, but it is still higher than the traffic posted by most restaurant chains over that same period.
DoorDash, meanwhile, performed better on most metrics. It had shorter delivery times than its two rivals, for instance. It had 90% accuracy, compared with 83% for Uber Eats and 79% for Grubhub. And it had higher overall customer satisfaction, 90%, compared with 87% for Uber Eats and 79% for Grubhub.
Each of those data points include both restaurants and convenience stores.
Customers were particularly satisfied with speed of service, with 91% satisfaction on that metric, including 94% for restaurant orders. Each of the three delivery services scored more than 90% on that metric.
Indeed, orders were more likely to arrive early, with 72% of orders showing up before the promoted delivery time.
All that said, customers generally don’t shift from one service to the other. More than eight in ten customers said they either typically use one app or are loyal to one app. Only 19% said they switch between platforms.
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