"Hello, my name is Samuelson Dossou . I am a student attending Suffolk University, a private higher education institution located in Boston Massachusetts. As part of a Business Research course project, we are conducting a market research study and would like to invite you to participate to help us learn more about your Grubhub experience. This interview will be recorded and will take approximately 45 to 60 minutes of your time to complete. All information you provide will remain strictly confidential. Does this sound like a study in which you would like to participate?
Alexandre: Yes, I woule be more than happy to participate in this market research case.
Samuelson: Thank you very much. My first question is how often do you order from Grubhub?
Alexandre: I order Grubhub once to twice a months. I don’t order that much because I prefer to cook at home or I just take away from fast food next to my house. Ordering many times a week or a months can get very expensive. As a student I have to be careful on my spendings.
Samuelson: So if I understood, we can say that you usually order when you don’t have anything to cook or when you are tired to cook?
Alexandre: Exactly, mostly when I am tired of cooking and when some of my friends come over, we just order something instead of cooking for everyone
Samuelson: Ok, can you please tell me what do you typically order?
Alexandre: I typically order pizzas, rice, Indian food. Nothing extra, I just order what I like or what people with who I am ordering wants to eat. But yes, mainly I order what I just stated.
Samuelson: I feel that we have the same tastes. My third question is How much do you typically spend on an order?
Alexandre: On an order a typically spend between 20 to 25 dollars. It depends on the number of people who are ordering with me. If I am alone as I just said, I will spend around 20 to 25 dollars and give around 2 to 5 dollars tip to the driver. Sometimes the total price may be cheaper but it always varies on the demand, the fees etc.
Samuelson: That’s true. Everything depends on the fees, sometimes the price increases a lot just because of the different fees applied. But when we don’t have the choice, we have to pay for it. Now, tell me please, what is your average wait time?
Alexandre: My average wait time varies, it goes from 20 to 45 minutes. It’s like on other platforms, it depends on the demand, the number of drivers available and of course it depends on the weather. When it’s snowing in Boston it can take up to an hour which is a lot for an order.
Samuelson: And do you felt that it was too long or shorter than you expected?
Alexandre: I cannot say that it was shorter or longer than expected because it always depends on the order but I think that above 25 minutes it’s too much. And I forgot to say that the waiting time also depends on the distance, if the restaurant is far, the waiting time will be longer which is understandable.
Samuelson: Ok, the fifth question is describe your typical experience with the app or the website while ordering food on Grubhub.
Alexandre: I’ll say that the driver and food always comes on time, I never had any problem with them. I can say that I have a generally positive experience with this platform. I feel that for me it’s important to have a positive experience with the platform, if I don’t, I don’t use it. I pay for the service so I want it to be done perfectly, if possible.
Samuelson: I totally agree with you when you say that you pay for a service so you expect it to be done well. Can you please talk a little bit about your experience with drivers?
Alexandre: Yes, of course. As said previously, I never had problems with the drivers. I don’t even see them, I ask them to drop the food either at my concierge either in front of my door so there is no contact or conversation with them. Especially right now during this pandemic, I am not looking forward to see them and I think that for them it is easier to drop the food downstairs so everyone is happy.
Samuelson: Talking about pandemic, I have another question linked to this that I will ask you later. For now, can you please tell me if you prefer another delivery app over Grubhub?
Alexandre: Yes, I usually use Uber eats because that’s what I was using at first. I only started using Grubhub because there is a restaurant I liked that wasn’t on Uber eats. Since that time I have Grubhub but I mostly use ubereats. I also prefer using Uber Eats because when I travel a
oad, in Europe for example, I can order food with the same app so it’s easier for me. I don’t have to download another platform etc.
Samuelson: I agree with you, having everything in one app is better than having to use several ones. When you order food, what is most important to you ? wait time, food offered, price, fees, discounts?
Alexandre: I think that for everyone, when I order food, I only expect my food to be on time and good. Prices are also important but they are not usually too high so I am just hoping to get my food on time and on good condition.
Samuelson: Fair enough. Another question that I am going to ask you is what Is the biggest inconvenience with Grubhub?
Alexandre: I don't really find inconvenience but what I can say is that Uber eats has more restaurants so more choice and quicker than Grubhub.
Samuelson: So I can say that you prefer Uber Eats over Grubhub ?
Alexandre: I am not going to say that I prefer but I will prioritise Uber Eats over Grubhub.
Samuelson: The next question is if Grubhub were to offer other delivery services, would you take advantage of them? What other products would you like to see delivered?
Alexandre: Yes, 100% because I am kind of lazy to do my grocery shopping myself and I usually order a lot of packs of water, juice so if they can deliver that to be, i'll be happy. More people will come to them if they offer this kind of service especially if they do it for less expensive than the competition.
Samuelson: Right now Grubhub is delivering food as you know and alcohol in some locations. Maybe one day they will come up with grocery delivery.
Alexandre: I can only hope that they do with cheaper prices than other platforms like Instacart.
Samuelson: Now, can you please tell me when did you start using food delivery apps?
Alexandre: So, for the story, I'm not from the US, I am from Congo, a country in Africa. In most of the countries in Africa we don't have delivery services. When I was going to France or other Europeans countries my
others used to order food on Uber Eats but I personally started to use it alone when I came to US, three years ago.
Samuelson: Since you told me that your family used Uber Eats I imagine that you started with this platform and not from Grubhub?
Alexandre: Yes, I started with Uber Eats than I started to use Grubhub when I was looking for a specific restaurant that wasn’t on Uber Eats. I also feel like Uber Eats is more international that’s why I started with it.
Samuelson: It is true that you couldn’t start with Grubhub since they don’t have it in Europe. Even though you are not using it that much, can you please tell me how often do you see GrubHub advertisements ?
Alexandre: Nowadays, we see a lot of advertisements on social media. I see them every day, on applications like Instagram and Snapchat. Every time I look at stories I get ads in the middle. And they are from GrubHub like five out of 10 times.
Samuelson: I can relate. How many fees are usually added to your order?
Alexandre: It depends, I'll say between three and six dollars. It depends on the food and depends of the distance as I said previously because if the restaurant is far from my apartment, they will make me pay more.
Samuelson: What are some promotions or discounts you would like to see?
Alexandre: As a student some promotions or discounts that I would like to see are promotions like no delivery fees or no fees for student. It will attract us student to use more and more their platform.
Samuelson: Explain me your experience with no-contact delivery. This question comes back to what you said about the pandemic.
Alexandre: No-contact delivery make me feel safer, because we never know if the driver as coronavirus so I don’t want to have contacts with them. They are going around houses and restaurants during all the day so they are more at risk than someone who stays at home. So I personally feel safer like that, and I hope it stays like that forever because actually we don’t even have to meet the drivers, they can just drop our food in front of our doors or at concierge for those who have one.
Samuelson: As a customer if you could make one suggestion to make GrubHub better what would it be? And why?
Alexandre: For a suggestion, I keep what I said about grocery delivery. If they can start delivering groceries, they will enter in another market which means that they will gain new customers and make more money.
Samuelson: I asked you what is the biggest inconvenience of Grubhub but can you please tell what is the biggest advantage of using Grubhub?
Alexandre: One of the biggest advantage. I don't really know because I usually use Uber Eats as I said. I don’t see a big advantage on it since they are not as big as Uber company which as Uber and Uber Eats.
Samuelson: Since you don’t find any big advantage, do you consider Grubhub to be a reliable/trusted food delivery service? Why or why not?
Alexandre: Yes, of course. I find them very reliable, because I trust them, I can put my credit card on it knowing that they are not going to steal my money. Everything is safe, everything is checked.
Samuelson: Thank you Alexandre. I have on last question for you would you recommend GrubHub to friend? If so why? And If not please explain.
Alexandre: I would definitely recommend Grubhub to a friend because as I said it’s safe and they will find a lot of restaurants on it. It’s not because I don’t use it that much that I will not recommend it to people.
Samuelson: Ok , thank you for your answers,