About one of every four delivery orders placed through a third-party service’s app is botched, with customers dividing the blame between the service and the source restaurant, according to new research.
The findings show that 36.9% of the dissatisfied customers will direct their ire at the service if an order is late, but just over 50% will blame the restaurant if the main dish or side is missing or not prepared to their specifications.
About a quarter (24.5%) hold the restaurant responsible if the food arrives at the wrong temperature, according to the study, which was conducted for Zion & Zion, a marketing firm based in Tempe, Ariz.
Hot food arriving cold or cold food being delivered at room temperature are the most common problems, with an incidence of 28.4%. The other most common complaints: an unacceptably late delivery (27.5%), a missing or misprepared side (21.4%) and a main dish being omitted or screwed up (20.9%.)
Overall, the study found that tempers can run high if the delivery is not up to their expectations. More than half (51%) of dissatisfied consumers say they get “very frustrated” when an order goes awry. Frustration runs higher among misserved nonmillennials than it does among millennials (61.2% vs. 46.9%.)
Orders placed through a service such as DoorDash or Uber Eats are not correct 24.4% of the time, the data shows.
The research was based on a nationwide survey of 1,084 consumers.
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