TEMPE, Ariz. (March 21, 2019) – When ordering food via food delivery apps like Grubhub or UberEATS, it is inevitable that issues may arise, such as late delivery or missing or incomplete items. According to a new study conducted by the market research team at Zion & Zion, a top-ranked, full-service, national marketing agency, consumers often blame both the restaurant and the delivery service, regardless of who is actually at fault. The research team at Zion & Zion terms this “co-blame.”
The full report is available here: Co-Blame: An Examination of Shared Blame in the Restaurant Delivery App Industry
The findings of the Zion & Zion research have significant customer service and brand implications for both restaurants and delivery apps:
- Overall, 61.7% of consumers simultaneously blame both the restaurant and delivery app when experiencing a problem.
- The highest co-blaming occurs when food is delivered at the wrong temperature, with 71.8% of consumers casting at least some blame on both the restaurant and delivery app.
- There are generational differences in co-blaming, with millennials co-blaming measurably more than non-millennials at low (66.9% vs 54.6%) and moderate (46.5% vs 40.7%) thresholds.
This Zion & Zion research study was based on a nationwide survey of 1,084 U.S. consumers. Authors of the study are Aric Zion, MS; Fred Petrovsky, MFA; Jennifer Spangler; and Thomas Hollmann, MBA, PhD.