COVID-19 brought unprecedented times to Netpincér, the leading food delivery company in Hungary, affiliate of the global brand, Delivery Hero. The company saw unparalleled growth in food delivery orders which put them in a very challenging situation from numerous angles: how to serve the needs of the rapidly growing customer base, while maintaining customer satisfaction and providing high service level and tailored offerings? Hence, to stay in the game, Netpincér management decided to put extra efforts into improving customer experience with tangible, short-term implementable solutions and set up a dedicated team for this mission. This is where edUcate’s innovation experts joined the ring, as a trusted co-creation mentor and thought-partner in innovation-related challenges.

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The process

Thanks to our previous cooperations with Netpincér, our team was already familiar with current dynamics & limitations of the company. We iterated out a project roadmap with a three-week research, a one-week superintensive design sprint and a follow-up week with mentoring the responsible team.

 

Our goal was to find new levers for customer satisfaction improvement and in the meanwhile, to bring the traditional (primarily demography-based) customer segmentation of the company to a whole new level to enable further customer-centric improvements.

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So we kick-started with three weeks of research: gathering and analyzing existing quantitative data from all teams including customer service contact reasons and complaint handling processes and handbooks, figures on customer orders, competitor analyses, platform ranking logics and good practices from the parent company.

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Parallel to the quantitative work, we conducted over 70 customer interviews during which we aimed to validate the pre-existing customer-related assumptions with deep insights. By week 3 of the research, we were able to identify order preferences and pain points, cluster assumed segments based on these, and once again to validate these segmentation assumptions with quantitative surveying (responses above 800+). We conducted further interviews with newly discovered customer segments.

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By continuously combining qualitative and quantitative data, we were able to spot patterns and make sure we always validate findings in depth and in larger volume as well.

 

One of our goals during the research phase was to develop personas so we could capture and better understand their needs and appeal to them with our solutions. Also, we aimed at spreading the personas across the entire organization after the project, so that every employee has an understanding of who Netpincér’s customers really are.

 

By the end of the research, we could confidently narrow our scope from the general ‘customer satisfaction improvement’ to ‘delayed deliveries’, as we did thorough research and validation of which pain-points are the most critical for various customer segments.

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The impact & outcome

During our design sprint, we discovered three critical points that would improve customer satisfaction in relation to delayed deliveries:

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(1) Being able to accurately track the delivery reduced anxiety by taking away the                        uncertainty. Customers felt fine with a few extra minutes as long as they could follow the          process along on their screens.

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(2) Proactive customer service reach-outs in case of potential or actual delays result in a          better user experience with increased trust.

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(3) Riders offering a genuine apology when delayed made the experience more human, and      customers appreciated the gesture. In extreme cases, a small gift was added to the                    apology to further ease the disappointment, and so customers could recall the positive              feeling associated with the surprise instead of the frustration they felt due to receiving their        orders late.

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Even during the design sprint, we ideated, prototyped and tested with both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in our minds. This combinatorial method proved to be significantly useful for a customer segmentation-related problem like ours.

 

The type of challenge we worked on - the experience of customers - also meant new concepts created by our team that could best be fleshed out in other teams within Netpincér.

 

With the Customer Experience team, we focused on three concepts identified as most crucial for improving late deliveries. Turned them into prototypes within one day, tested on real customers, iterated and improved upon, and finally set up to be implemented within a couple of week’s notice.

 

With the preference and behaviour-based, validated customer segments created by combining qualitative and quantitative methodologies, the company set itself up for succeeding in personalized, stunning customer experiences. In the future, the goal will be to tailor all offerings, deals and platforms to be the most appealing for each customer, and hence stay the number one player in the home delivery arena.

 

This depth of innovation is what we strive for and where we truly feel we can create impact.