Did you know if you reduce wait times, you can improve customer experience?

The Uber Eats platform works best when delivery people and restaurants work together, so we’re enhancing the platform for merchants, delivery people and customers by making some improvements. 

Right now, delivery-partners all over the country are clocking up longer wait times on orders. Together, we can shorten these wait times, deliver more orders and provide better customer experiences to help your overall success.

Every minute spent waiting to collect an order is frustrating for delivery people and not ideal for customers. The longer the delivery person waits, the longer the customers will wait – nobody wants that! Happy customers can lead to good ratings, and we want to help you achieve this. 

If delivery people spend too long waiting to collect an order, they may reject or cancel the order and this may increase the number of orders going unfulfilled. A long queue of delivery people may also disrupt in-store operations.

We are doing everything we can to improve the platform and make sure that delivery people are available to pick up your orders when they are ready. While we’re making adjustments at our end, here are some tips to help things on your side:

1. Preparing orders on time

Ensuring orders are prepared for the expected arrival of the delivery person is important to maintaining positive customer experiences.

If you wait until the delivery person arrives to prepare the order, this will lead to longer wait times for customers.

Preparing orders on time may also involve establishing an order management system for in-store and Uber Eats orders, to make sure the needs of all of your customers are being met.

2. Use the Time Management Tools available to you in the restaurant dashboard

We have three different time management tools that help you manage your orders and provide a more accurate estimate of preparation time. These tools help Uber Eats send delivery people at the right time. 

If you are really busy or a large order comes in, you may request the arrival of a delivery person be delayed using these tools:

Sometimes you might be working faster than usual. That’s when the ‘Ready for pickup’ tool comes in handy. If you’re speeding through your preparation, use it more often – but only use this tool when the order is actually ready, otherwise customers could wait longer than expected.

3. Increase set preparation time

The set, or default, food preparation time that you configure in Uber Eats Manager is the starting point for our delivery person dispatch prediction.

If your actual preparation times, on average, are higher than this baseline, we may send delivery people too early.

By ensuring your set preparation time is reflective of your actual preparation times, you can help cut down delivery person wait times and make predictions more accurate for your customers. 

4. Review in-store operations to enable an efficient handover process

In-store operations have a big impact on an efficient handover process. Many restaurants and delivery people have found the following helpful: