Why Are These Companies So Successful?

Around 7pm last night I was persuaded by my children to use UberEats to order them a KFC. As the whole thing is set up for CONVENIENCE that shouldn’t have been a big problem…

I opened up the UberEats website (I see no point installing the app as I clearly can’t order food and pay without an internet connection!), where my previous attempt to order McDonalds had failed a few months ago, and I needed a password reminder. This required that I first send UberEats a SMS authorising them to send a PIN to my phone. That done I entered the PIN into their website and got an email to reset my password. I failed on the first attempt as their system couldn’t handle the special characters I chose, but second time lucky with a less secure password.?

Finally I was able to enter my email address and password yet again (you’d think they would have known that information, having just used both within the previous 60 seconds) and log in. I wasn’t “craving” anything (in answer to the silly question in the UberEats search field) but I did find our local KFC. Hooray! My children excitedly looked over my shoulder and chose what they wanted: A double-burger & fries combo; plus popcorn chicken.

I went through the exercise of re-entering my home address (UberEats had somehow lost my house name since last time, and there are no house numbers where I live), specific delivery instructions (so they can find us as I live in a semi-rural location), and choosing a delivery time. The only thing left was CHECKOUT (which is where it all fell apart a few months ago).

As soon as I pressed the Checkout button I got a message telling me that they were busy, there were no drivers available, and that if I wanted my order I would have to go to KFC and collect it myself. That's some delivery service!!!

I was then invited by UberEats to order online before driving over to collect, but as UberEats had cleared my shopping cart I decided not to bother re-entering it all and to simply order when we got to KFC instead. I figured it would be easier as I could then use the drive-through rather than having to park up and go in with children to collect.?

The drive-through queue at KFC moved very slowly, but at least it gave me the opportunity to admire their signage (see photo above) which informed me that the maximum permitted height was 2.7m or 8’8”. I don’t know who worked that out, but 2.7m is 8’10” while 8’8” is a lesser 2.64m; it’s really not complex maths. Fortunately my car was well below both heights, so it didn’t matter anyway.

When we finally got to the order point (after about 10 minutes of queuing in a giant semi-circle) and I was asked what I wanted, I repeated the order that I had given to the UberEats website some 30 minutes prior. The response was “Hey, that’s delivery only man, you can’t have that.” My daughter remarked that this seemed an odd way to address a customer, and my children reselected from an entirely different (but still chicken-based) menu.

My children were not happy as neither then got what they wanted, and as one is autistic this caused her some anxiety.

Quite why a food product that KFC is able to produce for pick-up at one window if ordered online should be unavailable at another window when ordered following a lengthy queue I have no idea, because I cannot imagine that either product is freshly prepared. The response of “Hey, that’s delivery only man, you can’t have that” makes no sense to me at all.

When we reached the pickup point I was handed a brown paper bag. As my children had wanted to eat their KFC whilst watching the sunset in our local park (a decision they made whilst queueing to collect it) I asked if ketchup was included. Evidently it wasn’t because the lady at the serving window then handed me a number of sachets. Figuring this would likely make a mess I asked if napkins were included. Seemingly they weren’t either as she reached out and gave me a handful of them. She then jumped down from her stool and walked off before I could ask for anything else.?

Why weren’t we at least asked if we wanted ketchup and napkins when handed a closed brown bag to take away?

As the sun had set by the time we got back to the park we ended up going home to sit in our garden and eat our “meal” there anyway; so other than to endure the thoroughly disappointing collection experience, be forced to reselect food that wasn’t our first choice, burn off a bit of fossil fuel to damage the environment a little, and waste some time that we can never recover, there was really no reason for us to go out at all.

All said and done it was a thoroughly disappointing experience as I could easily have prepared something at home that tasted better, and was definitely healthier, in far less time that we all wasted on the above shenanigans, and for less cost.

Even my children agree that we won’t be wasting our time on either UberEats or KFC again! And that’s really saying something!

Which leaves me curious, and with a question for the marketing experts: Given that our only two experiences of UberEats have both been bad; I don’t like junk food at the best of times; and even my children don’t wish to repeat our most recent experience…

Why are these companies so hugely successful to the point of barely being able to cope with demand, despite delivering such an appalling customer experience?