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Zomato
Enabling delivery partners to tackle delivery issues!
Team
2 designers
Project type
Conceptual
Duration
1 month
Tools
Figjam, Google docs
Objective
To deepen our understanding of delivery partner (DP) application and to learn about how partners are perceiving an existing delivery flow to establish a clear strategy for implementing a new feature or change to an existing feature and removing a feature
Project outcome
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We identified multiple gaps & opportunities during the delivery journey.
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We conceptualized one solution which was a whole new user flow & that opened up a peer-driven space for further exploration.
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We tried to get holistic research done with an extra focus on emotions to build the rationale for the proposed solution.
Scope
Geographic areas
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Mumbai, India
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Bangalore, India
Methodology
For Information gathering:
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User Interview: Prepared questions targeted to both primary and secondary stakeholders, and asked users in a face-to-face setting.
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Guided tour: Asked users to give a tour of their space relevant to the delivery flow.
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Shadowing: Spent sometime following the target audience and carefully observing how they interact with other stakeholders, with the environment, and with existing products, processes, or technology.
For analysis of information:
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Task analysis by journey map: Illustrated the steps, the delivery partner takes in order to achieve a successful delivery
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Behavioral mapping diagram using emotional appraisal framework and service blueprint: To understand DP behavior at each stage of the delivery and how they are affected by a given space or the movements and activities of people within that space. Focusing on the breakdowns, coping mechanisms, and frequently repeated behaviors— all of which can signify an opportunity for a new feature or modification of the existing process
Participant criteria
We started with mapping stakeholders to visualize all the stakeholders that influence the delivery journey & decide the stakeholders we want to focus on.
To understand the delivery landscape from the point the order is accepted by the delivery partner till it is delivered and how other stakeholder impacts the delivery and experience of the delivery partner within Zomato, we filtered the below stakeholders as primary and secondary
Delivery Partner
Primary Stakeholder
Restaturant Partner
Secondary Stakeholder
End Customer
Secondary Stakeholder
We interviewed 10+ Zomato riders, 4+ restaurants, & 4+ customers to:
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Get a clear picture of the experience end to end
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Get insights to create the service blueprint
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Know how other stakeholders influenced the pain points of DPs
User Research
To deepen our understanding of delivery partner(DP) application and to learn about how partners are perceiving an existing delivery flow to establish a clear strategy for implementing a new feature or change to an existing feature and removing a feature
Contextual inquiry areas
Below are the areas we decided on the scope for inquiries & interviews for delivery partner.
Situational
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Before & after Pandemic
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Emergency situations
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Delivery challenges
Emotional
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Motivations
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Enablers
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Barriers
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Frustrations
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What makes them leave?
Professional
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Career aspirations
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Finances
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Health & insuarance
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Day in the life
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App usage
The above areas were defined using the Emotional Appraisal Framework:
When a problem/emergency occurs during delivery…
Relevance
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Outliers, cannot predict emergencies
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Can prepare for weather challenges
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Familiarity increases with experience
Implication
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Impact on earning & rating
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Motive - get help/resolve the issue as soon as possible
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Loss/damage of health and/or vehicle
Coping
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Less control
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The power lies more with admin & TL
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Adaptability is influenced by the impact of distress/issue faced
Norm Significance
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Can associate earning worth with self-worth
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Pressure to earn in case of dependents
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Pressure due to absolute penalty conditions
Observatory shadowing
We conducted the shadowing exercise for a few days observing delivery partners:
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To understand the interactions of a delivery person with restaurants
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Their behavior during pickup
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Interactions with other delivery partners during the wait time
Some of the key findings are:
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Small Restaurants- DPs did not spend much time near these & often quickly moved in & out for order pickup
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Mid-size & big Restaurants- DPs often gathered & took breaks at verandas in front of such establishments.
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DPs enabled by photo confirmation of order pickup & restaurant rating option to tackle
issues with restaurants.
Focus group discussion
Following up on our observation of DPs grouping in front of restaurants, we found an opportunity for quick focus group discussions
KEY INSIGHTS
Key Insight : DPs bond together while working together
Q: How is your relationship with your peer DPs?
“I have my lunch with some because we work in the same area. I make friends while waiting for the order. We share jokes, and have our WhatsApp group too.”
Research synthesis
Service blueprint and delivery partner journey map
Created incorporating the stages of:
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Order assigned to DP
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Delivery:
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Pickup from the restaurant
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Driving for delivery
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Reaching customer’s doorstep
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Handover to customer
Service blueprint (Click on the image to zoom in)
Delivery partner journey map (Click on the image to zoom in)
Major problems identified in the delivery phase
Based on our research we had gathered a lot of flaws in the delivery phase for the delivery partner and some of the major ones are below
Unaddressed Delivery Issues
Not able to reach team leader while they need support apart from the chat support available, especially during the time when they are not sure about the next step due to external factors affecting delivery time like traffic police, or broken road or when restaurant partner refused to give order due item being out of stock, etc
Lack of transparency between primary & secondary users
Situations where the restaurant partner spilled the food while packing, while the chef took more extended time than assigned, and also at times when items are out of stock. Also, situations where customers entered the wrong address, or chose a place near their home.
No solution for emergency during delivery
Many delivery partners didn’t have good efficient battery mobiles
In case of a personal or medical emergency during the delivery phase there was no option for DP to inform the Zomato team within the application as most of the time TL was unreachable.
In case of vehicle breakdown, delivery partner didn’t have the option to inform within the app the customer of the delivery delay
Delivery partners are the face of Zomato as a brand and they were put in front of all the ill behavior of customers and restaurant
Solution & Validation
We brainstormed a few ideas and further used 'Jobs to be done' to refine our solution
During SOS - There should be some support option that lets the delivery partner inform the team leader about the situation
Replace team leader with automatic order distribution or
change the point of contact from team leader to a grievance officer
Delivery partner can have an option within application to contact nearby partners for help in delivery during emergency
Make delivery partner aware of what to do in case of order delivery during unforeseen circumstances
Whenever a delivery partner needs help in an unforeseen situation
When I have a delivery issue, I want to be able to reach out to my peer delivery partners for help.
The option to contact nearby partners should allow me to select a delivery partner & have them notified so I can get help.
Upon accepting my help request, peer delivery partners should be able to locate me quickly.
To record the handover, I want an option to confirm the handover when the other partner meets me.
When I confirm handover, I want the order payment to be split fairly so I get paid for the work I did.
Prototyping
One of the preceding pain points had been the help options being hidden within a menu. Thus, our solution draft started with this option being available on the during-delivery screen. The screens below were designed to address any inadvertent causes during the delivery phase
By clicking the red icon in the above screen, the delivery partner can select different options based on the situation.
Validation
Delivery partners loved the idea of offically getting help from peer delivery partners & suggested too and end customers felt being notified about handovers would help them be more empathetic of delivery issues.
“This would be great especially in bad weather or during personal emergency. ”
Delivery Partner
“Instead of waiting for someone to accept help, why can’t we just call our fellow riders?”
Delivery Partner
“I feel its a win-win situation. The DPs in need wont have to risk not earning & even customers get the delivery of their food managed.”
Customer
Future steps
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Fix business blindspot: We were unable to speak with or interview anyone from the Zomato business side of the company during our interview process
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Explore the solution further: Having DPs deal with work together seemed like a whole new possibility opened:
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Conducting inter-area challenges
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Extra incentives for helping peers
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Celebrating area-specific nuances & events
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Allowing DPs to photo-record special moments
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Optimize Journey: Based on DP feedback, we realized there was room for improving user flow and effort to get help.
My Learnings
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Dealing with field research challenges.
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Leveraging emotional appraisal & service blueprints for holistic user & context understanding.
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Breaking the ice with users in time crunches.
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Thinking in terms of the trade-off between desirability, viability & feasibility
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Looking at emotions as the base for behavior