CASE DESCRIPTION:-

Geepinder Doyal was an everyday office worker who recognized the struggles of career professionals who didn’t have the time to cook for themselves and were too exhausted to eat out or collect food themselves. Thus, he launched a food delivery company called Gomato which collected food on customers’ behalf and delivered it to them.

The company was the first such company in the market, quickly expanding to multiple cities throughout the country. Although there were several competitors, the company’s first-mover advantage gave its brand the boost it needed and made it the biggest food delivery app in the country.

Today, Gomato has a market share of almost 70% in the food delivery space as it is present in almost every city with thousands of restaurants and eateries listed on it.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:-

Although the company had several thousand restaurants listed on it, the company expanded too quickly as it failed to account for customer interaction along the way. 

In recent days, although time spent on the company’s mobile app increased significantly, the number of conversions declined sharply. The company assessed its financial metrics and realized that the cost of the dishes and the delivery charges were not a matter of concern.

After conducting a deeper analysis of customer interaction on the app, Geepinder realized that the quantity was a matter of concern. A normal customer’s journey begins with logging in and scrolling through dishes, searching multiple restaurants, scrolling through a few hundred dishes, and then ordering or logging off entirely.

Thus, the company’s variety of hundreds of thousands of dishes ended up backfiring. The hungry user, who was exhausted from a long day of work, was overwhelmed by the sheer number of restaurants and options provided which was a mentally draining experience, resulting in customer dissatisfaction, despite the company performing well.

Geepinder realized that the company was moving without keeping the customer’s needs in mind and needed to tackle this issue as fast as possible to ensure that the company didn’t lose its customers to the competition. You have been hired as a Product Manager at Gomato to tackle the issue.

How will you tackle this? 

Ready? Go!

PLAN:-

The company’s wide variety has turned out to be a double-edged sword that displayed its massive scale but ended up confusing its customers. Although the number of options is very large, the company cannot scale down its operations since it would be a detrimental and unrealistic solution.

However, you noticed that the company’s app interface did not provide any recommendations or keep track of past orders. Moreover, there was no connection to other social media platforms which would enable people to share their feedback.

Furthermore, the app did not provide any pop-ups or highlight/showcase any dishes that coincided with any major occasions or were simply famous due to high customer orders. Thus, you came up with 3 major changes that could overhaul the app’s interface and personal appeal.

  • Customer Data
  • Social Connect
  • Pop-Ups

IMPLEMENTATION:-

Customer Data: The company was not properly utilizing or displaying the customer’s data. By allowing customers to access their order history, customers will be able to re-order a dish they liked or choose/not choose a restaurant that they previously ordered from. By simply adding an “Order History” section near the customers’ account details, the company can make it easier for customers to make a decision.

Next, the company can use the data itself. Gomato can conduct large-scale data analysis to identify common behavioral trends to optimize its offerings. Moreover, an individual customer upgrade would be the application of a “Personal Recommendation”. Whenever the customer opens the app, the app can provide a customer with a recommendation based on the customers’ past orders and suggest top-rated restaurants near the customer’s location to help the customer make a speedy decision while delivering the food faster.

Social Connect: Popular studies have shown that the feedback of someone known or someone trustworthy is an important factor when making a decision. However, Gomato did not have any such feature that would help customers either connect with their friends and families or show off their orders to such people. 

The company can tie up with popular social media platforms, allowing customers to link their Gomato accounts with said social media accounts. This feature would include the sub-features:-

  • Customers would be shown the restaurants and dishes that their acquaintances have ordered in the past.
  • Customers will be displayed the ratings and reviews of their acquaintances on top.
  • A ‘Recommend’ button would be made available when rating/posting a review so that customers can recommend the dishes to their acquaintances.
  • A short conversation tab will be available to customers to converse with their acquaintances to get an idea of the dishes they are about to order, thereby increasing time spent on the app and orders placed.

Pop-Ups: Pop-ups are an important feature to grab users’ attention while they surf through the app. Considering Gomato’s lion’s share in the food delivery market, the company was missing out by not implementing such a feature. On special occasions like Diwali, Holi, Eid, or Guru Nanak Jayanti, the company can display pop-ups for food items that are popular for these festivities, thus helping customers make the most out of these celebrations. 

On normal days, the company can make a ‘Dish of the Day’ recommendation based on last week’s most-ordered dish or a similar metric as it would give the customers a recommendation that they may or may not relate to, but help them expand their horizons and try something new. 

The company can also use other unrelated events such as the launch of a new movie or a national achievement to highlight food items related to such events. One thing Gomato must ensure is that the pop-ups do not cover too much content or force someone to order, but simply grab their attention and give them a choice to try something new.

CONCLUSION:-

Thus, as seen above, even though a company works in the right direction, it may end up working against the customer if they do not move forward with a customer-centric focus. Gomato will now be able to effectively expand since onboarding more restaurants will not confuse its customers.

Could you solve it?

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[Disclaimer: This case study is entirely hypothetical and unrelated to real-world situations. It's designed for educational purposes to illustrate theoretical concepts and potential scenarios within a given context. Any similarities to actual events or individuals are purely coincidental.]