Sitting at home, waiting for the delivery boys to come up to the doorstep (or up to the housing society’s gate, if that’s what the epidemiologists have mandated) has fast become the favourite pass-time of the urban ‘WorkFromHomer’s.

Soon we might not believe that we exist, unless the doorbell or the intercom rings, announcing the much-awaited arrival of our deliveries.

Experience #1

Swiggy and Amazon have substituted the verb ‘ordering’. So I startled myself when I visited the website of ‘Charcoal Eats’ to order their delicious Biryani. Maybe it was the flyer with a big bold URL that had crept under my door with the daily newspapers, or maybe it was my overworked brain after 12 hours of Zoom calls, but I did commit this mistake.

Yes. It was a mistake. We were about an hour away from what’s considered ‘dinner time’. But since one of their locations was just 15 minutes away from where I live, I thought it will be a breeze even if I didn’t ‘Swiggy it’ (as their advertising says). I was wrong.

But it did start out with some feel-good factor: As I browsed their menu and started adding stuff to the cart, a very polite guy from the outlet called me and checked if I was trying to place an order. Delighted, I said yes, and told him that I didn’t need any assistance (having spent more than a decade in the UX industry, my professional ego forbids me from taking any tech help).

No confirmation!

The website asked for my phone number and email ID, but I didn't receive any confirmation on either places when I made the payment and placed my order. It just disappeared in to Ether. No confirmation page to tell me that my order is on its way. No neat animation to tell me my money had reached its destination. No nothing.

I assumed that someone was preparing my order, and someone will pick it up and bring it home. After a few minutes (not seconds) I received an SMS from their delivery partner called ‘OnDot’ that my parcel was getting picked up for delivery. Cool. So nothing to worry about.

But I did start to worry when half an hour passed and the doorbell didn’t ring! I checked the SMS again. They had shared the delivery executive’s number, so I called him. Apparently, his scooter had had a breakdown and he had given his delivery to someone else. He was standing at the garage and I couldn't hear him. ‘Given’ the delivery? So who was holding onto my biryani? What was the other executive’s number? I tried calling the polite guy from the outlet. No response.

My wife asked me why I didn’t order through Swiggy as usual. My mom asked if she should start cooking something if this was going to take long.

Suddenly I received another SMS. This time from another delivery partner called ‘WeFast’. They provided a link to a webpage that showed the location of the delivery executive heading in my direction. That sounded promising! But when I tapped on it, to my horror, I saw that he was in another part of the city and would take about an hour to reach! The outlet was 15 minutes away for goodness’s sake! Suddenly my mother’s offer to fire up the stove seemed inviting. And what about the prospects of receiving cold and soggy packets of biryani later?

But I was mistaken, and so was the WeFast map. The delivery executive was quite close to my home! Delighted, I called him. Nah! He was nowhere near. He was still on his way to the outlet to pick up my delivery! The polite guy called again. He apologised about the mix up. Apparently their previous delivery partner had missed the pickup and another guy was on his way and will arrive in 15 minutes.

It arrived!

Yes, it finally arrived, past our usual dinner time. It was hot, and delicious, but not before it got my blood pressure up, my mother cooking something else and my wife chiding me for not going the usual Swiggy route.

If I had used Swiggy I am sure it wouldn't have been this traumatic. Not only that, maybe I would have saved a few bucks. I have heard stories of Swiggy giving a discount if there’s a delay, which in their case, usually never happens. It is not that they have any superpowers, but they keep their users informed. And an informed user does not mind a little delay. At the outset, the Swiggy app would estimate the time, show the route map from the outlet to my home and keep me informed about the state of my order at all times. The food is being prepare, the executive has reached the outlet, he has picked up your parcel, he is on his way…while having his contact number displayed at all times.

What’s Swiggy’s real product if not the User Experience they impart? They have invested in understanding what goes on in the user’s mind at every stage of food ordering. I am sure that they are charging a hefty commission from the restaurants in exchange for the volume of orders they bring in. But what about food brands themselves (Charcoal Eats in this case)? Wouldn't they want to do away with this middleman? With a website that’s little more than a menu card, that seems unlikely. Maybe Charcoal is not the biggest of the examples. For years I struggled with the Dominos app and found that their Swiggy page was far better. (lately this has changed, and while still clunky, their app delivers, literally). Some of my friends prefer McDonald’s Swiggy page to their website. Starbucks US website lets you order any beverage, but in India they just have added separate pages for Swiggy and Zomato, officially giving in to the superiority of the intermediaries.

If food brands want to compete with Swiggy, they have to match their UX. It is not an easy or cheap or quick undertaking. Will the investment be justified? Maybe for brands like Dominos. May not be so for smaller brands, at least in the short term. But if they are looking to play a longer game, they must look closely at their UX strategies.

In the example above my response to a less than ideal UX was, ‘I should have ordered the same thing through Swiggy’. Never for a moment did I think of ordering something else. So there was some brand loyalty at play here. I have had a great ‘food UX’ with Charcoal, but their ‘delivery UX’ sucked. Will I order from Charcoal again? Definitely. Will I use their website? Fat chance!

Experience #2

Now this one was a bit more heart wrenching. As the money at stake was not in hundreds, but thousands.

Sitting on the fixed home chairs to attend videocalls is a pain. What I miss most are the office swivel chairs, so I decided to buy a couple. This time, I went to an intermediary first. Amazon. After going through pages and pages of chairs, finally I found something that fitted my budget and liking. But the particular model I liked was not available. The brand was ‘Godrej Interio’. Well, I trust Godrej, and I knew that they have a good website, so I headed there.

The browsing experience was good. I found the chair I was looking for and added it to the cart. Instead of registering, I decided to be brave and buy as a guest. A voice inside told me that I shouldn’t be doing this. What if they miss my order or something? But another voice said, “Don’t worry. This looks like a respectable, properly designed website. Nothing will go wrong. You just go ahead and buy.” So I did. They asked me for my email ID and Mobile number. I complied. I paid 18,000/- through net banking.

And poof! Error message! Something had gone wrong! The page said I should try the payment again in some time! Ding! The phone notified me that my bank account had been debited with 18,000/- paid to BillDesk / Godrej Interio. I panicked and pressed the back button on the browser (exactly what websites expressly tell users not to do). Nothing. My order had disappeared!

It was 8:50 PM. I went back to the support page and called their helpdesk number. My call was important to them, but they were open only between 9 AM and 6 PM! (why don’t you also close your website at 6? Huh!). I knew my money was not going anywhere. Godrej and BillDesk are not some fly-by-night operators. But this was going to be irritating as hell! Typically when such transactions get stuck, the money is credited back in 5–7 working days. But it wasn't so much about that, but about the hassle that I have to go through contacting them and waiting!

Once I did have a similar issue with Amazon. My payment had failed because I had entered the wrong expiry month on my credit card or something. But Amazon didn’t throw me out. And I didn’t lose any money. I received an email within seconds, saying that I can try the payment again, as the order was kept on hold pending payment. (they handled user error well).

In a fit of rage I took to Twitter, and posted about my experience and tagged Godrej Interio. But it was late and I knew that it will be some time before their social listening tools can alert their digital agency, and someone can give me a stock response — “We regret that you had a bad experience…”

I told my wife about it, and I received the same eye-roll and earful - “Why didn’t you just stick with Amazon?”.

Till next morning I didn't hear from anyone. No SMSs. No emails. So I called their helpline again (made sure it was after 9 AM). Someone answered this time, and I told my tale of woe. The guy on the other side said that since the payment process didn’t finish so they do not have any record of it. No order number was generated. But he will speak with BillDesk and will either reverse the payment or proceed with the order. I told him that I wanted those chairs and not to reverse the payment. He reassured me that someone will call me in 24 hours. (24 hours?)

In just 30 mins I received an email from Godrej Interio saying that ‘my cart is saved’ and I should complete the purchase! So this was not connected in any way with the conversation I just had! Although the guy had told me to wait for 24 hours, the figure of 18,000/- didn't let me sit tight. I called again. (before 6 pm on the same day, of course).They said that they are working on getting the issue resolved and most probably the order will be fulfilled.

And it did! I am now the proud owner of those chairs, and happily typing this! But I don’t think I will buy from their website again. I will choose Amazon. If availability becomes an issue again, I shall, reluctantly go to their website, but this time I will register and use a different payment method and not use net banking (For good measure, I shall also pray!).

Net banking payments failing is commonplace. Perhaps due to the complex exchanges that need to happen in the background between the banks, the payment gateways and the sellers. But users don’t care. A failed transaction is a failed transaction. All that a seller can do is to set up an experience that communicates the right sort of message for each possible type of failure.

Fixing the experience should be the priority of any business unless they want to get Amazon’ed out. Or Swiggy’ed out, in case of food delivery (amongst other things).

As Jaron Lanier, one of the founders of virtual reality, and a privacy advocate says, “When an exchange between two individuals is rendered impossible without the presence of a mediator, that mediator can, and will manipulate them in order to serve his own interest”.

A mediator like Twitter manipulates the content creators, Delivery partners like Swiggy and Amazon stand to manipulate the sellers. Unless the sellers match up their logistics and UX capabilities. Intermediaries are learning every day. Improving every day. Matching up with them is a moving target, but a worthwhile one to achieve, if brands wish to maintain their existence, both online and offline.

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The Author is a freelance UX analyst, designer, and an educator, and would like the readers to know that he does not work with any of the above mentioned brands or their competitors. :-)

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P.S. I would also like to point out a small issue:

Users mainly access websites on mobile. The customer care number mentioned on the Godrej Interio website was not tappable. This is what I had to do to place a call – select number, copy, paste in phone app and dial… sigh!