InsightIQ Blog

It's All in the Delivery

Jan 7 2010

It's Friday night. If your household is like mine, this occurrence is synonymous with pizza and a movie, typically enjoyed in the comfort of our own home. Combining our infatuation with this magical combination of dough, tomato sauce, cheese and you-name-it in conjunction with the visual stimulation of a good flick somehow makes everything right.

Not too long ago, our pursuit of this objective involved a well-defined, perfectly timed-out process: order the pizza by phone, drive to the video rental store, select a movie, pickup the pizza, and return home with the spoils. But we live in a time of great change, when we constantly have to adapt, altering our routines to maintain, or even improve, the overall experience and perceived benefit.

Recently, Pizza Hut provided me with such an opportunity by sending me a direct mail piece offering a great deal if I would place my order through their website. I hesitated at first, not wanting to mess with my established routine. Wait a minute... Like so many Americans, we had already modified this sacred custom, replacing the weekly trip to Blockbuster with the online movie rental service provided by Netflix. We created our rental queue, and Netflix manages the list, making sure that our entertainment selection is in home each Friday evening for our viewing pleasure. Netflix eliminated those maddening circuits around the store - staring at walls of empty video containers trying to choose just the right one while constantly aware of the shrinking window of opportunity to pick up the pizza in time for maximum enjoyment. Maybe ordering pizza online would be just the right thing.

I opened the browser, searched for "pizza," and found the link to Pizza Hut (1^st in the list, no less). I clicked on the "Order Now" button, entered my address and zip, selected the nearest location, and made my selections. Up to this point, it was a pleasant experience, but things were about to change. As a first time user, I entered the requested information on the checkout screen, making sure to complete all of the required fields, and clicked "Continue." Something went awry. One of the required fields was incomplete. No problem; I fixed it and clicked "Continue" again only to achieve the same result. I tried again. Inexplicably, everything disappeared including the actual order. Resolute in wanting to get my pizza, I started over. The ensuing experience remained consistent, not desirable, but consistent. Frustrated and hungry, I resorted to the old tried-and-true method, calling the store. I explained my encounter and continued desire to place the order if they would honor the same price. Kudos to the employee for honoring the online only deal. In the end, the evening concluded with our appetite for pizza and film appeased.

Overall, the online delivery of the pizza was less than to be expected. Whatever a business is "delivering," customer interactions are all about managing expectations and everyone counts, especially the first. Companies like Netflix and Amazon have set the bar quite high. Like it or not, our personal experiences quickly shape our opinions and ultimately our buying decisions. I'm convinced our Friday evening ritual, along with other areas of life, can be enhanced. So, stay tuned; there are more experiences (pizza orders included) waiting to be told - all in the pursuit of finding the right delivery.

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