Observations about “Convenience”

A study of on-demand startups and their greatest value add.

In the last few months, I’ve started using more and more on-demand services (both new and old). From getting takeout delivered to the office (Fluc and DoorDash) to getting groceries delivered to my home (Instacart, Google Shopping Express), to getting my home cleaned (Homejoy and Handy), I was initially amazed at the magic of tapping an app and having someone hand something to me in a matter of hours.

But it didn’t take long for the magic to disappear. It didn’t take long for me quit some of these services cold turkey. Why and when did this happen, you ask? It happens when an on-demand service loses its convenience factor.

Convenience n. anything that saves or simplifies work, adds to one’s ease or comfort, etc., as an appliance, utensil, or the like.

For an on-demand service, convenience ranks as one of if not the single most important value proposition. I can shop. I can clean. I can pick up takeout myself. Why do I want someone else to render a service to me that I am perfectly capable of performing myself? Reason? Because it’s convenient.

Convenience is, on the surface, seemingly just a factor of time-saving. In reality, convenience is much more…

1. Convenience only exists if the service rendered reaches an acceptable standard of quality.
2. Convenience is an opportunity cost evaluation that the on-demand startup needs to win every (if not most of the) time.
3. Convenience is not automatically achieved when the consumer is waiting at home for the service to be completed (just like time spent waiting for the UPS guy to deliver is not really free time).
4. Perception of convenience is fragile. If at any time someone makes a mistake, nobody will be thinking about “time saved” or “gas money saved”. They’ll instead be thinking about how they should have done it themselves.

Anecdotal Case Study:

I booked an Instacart today because my dog needed more dog food. Petco was a new store they had made available in my area. I was thrilled. I’m super picky about the food I feed my dog and was happy I didn’t have to hop in my car in the middle of the work day just to run this one errand. I placed my order for a bag of dry Merrick dog food and 4 cans of Blue Buffalo Duck Stew (my dog is a fiend for duck). Upon checkout, I was prompted (as usual) for acceptable substitutions. I was like, fuck it, she’ll eat Chicken Stew if Duck was out of stock. I paid for my order and went back to my daily duties. About an hour later, an Instacart delivery driver hands me a paper Petco bag and walks off. I was pretty impressed at how quick the process was and patted myself on the back for a life decision well made.

Then I opened the bag. While the Merrick was exactly what I had ordered…the rest of it was pretty dysmal. 3 cans..(not 4) of Duck Stew were each dented like the Hulk had been my Instacart service person. I reported a problem with my order and thought about my awkward 1 can shortage dilemma (I would probably have to go pick up dog food after all, maybe on Friday).

A few hours later, a confused Instacart customer service rep told me I was only charged for 3 cans. Great, I thought, but I would gladly have paid for a 4th….I sent a follow up note. I wanted 4 cans! I thought I had authorized a substitution. A prompt reply came back a few minutes later. The second customer service rep apologized. The 3 cans of duck were the last 3 in stock.

Thus an operational vulnerability was exposed in the on-demand startup.

The Importance of Independent Decision Making In All Echelons of a 1099 Economy Startup

There were two mistakes that occurred during this particular service.

1. The service provider did not accurately interpret app delivered customer input. Substitutions meant if not x, then y, NOT if not x || if x does not exist, then y.
2. Both the service provider and the app were not communicative of unexpected circumstances. I was asked to refer to a receipt (reflecting I had been charged for 3 cans) without me realizing that this change had been made.

The on-demand startup depends heavily on its people as well as its technology’s ability to translate people’s needs. Proper communication from the customer to the tech, from the tech to the ops, from the ops to the service provider, from the service provider back to the customer is a chain that cannot afford to have any kinks in it.

The most successful on-demand solutions will be those of near operational perfection (including that of truly exemplary customer service). Without such, convenience fails to exist and the “old way” of doing things, become the only way by default.