Instacart and It’s Frustrated Experience
Busy days or lazy days, don’t have time or lack motivation for grocery shopping, you know Instacart has your back. But, has this control over the market and lack of competition resulted in bad experience?
I think so, yes! Well, I do love using Instacart and I know on days when I am down I can rely on Instacart for almost any and everything. But, no matter how much I love it I am not happy with the experience it provides. When we talk about experiences as a UX designer, we are mostly talking about digital experience. However, we often forget that experience is beyond digital presence and there is a blur line in terms of business.
Creating great experiences for your users beyond just digital presence and as a User Experience Designer it is our job to ensure it. From onboarding users on your app or website to provide customer support, everything is a part of user experience. Atleast, in my opinion and from what I have learnt.
But, I think UX designers at Instacart don’t relate to this. Well, story time about my love-hate relationship with Instacart.
My first bad experience with InstaCart:
I placed an order and since certain items were out of stock I had selected the replacement product. Anyhow, the shopper accepted my order, started shopping and canceled my order in the middle of nowhere without even informing me. I was trying to reach customer care, but no response.
Well, the only way left for me to know what happened was to Tweet, so I did that. InstaCarthelps responded to me saying unfortunately, they could not help me with this since the shopper canceled the order as certain items were out of stock. Whereas, I had already selected the replacement option. They asked me to place an order again. I was resistant as my coupon was gone and I was not receiving my order.
PS: Coupons are important especially when you are an international student
Anyhow, I convinced myself to place an order again and I had no other option as well. I thought the coupon might not be used since the shopper canceled the order. I again placed an order and despite using the coupon I was charged delivery fee. Unfortunately, I had to complain again and yes via tweet because I can not get any representative to talk. Finally, after some back and forth, they returned my delivery fee and I received my order.
Mind you, this was my first time using Instacart and as a user they had already lost me.
I have zero idea and I was so frustrated as I had moved to a new place living by myself.
My Second Bad Instacart Experience:
I recently used Instacart again yesterday to place an order since my health was not good at all. Everything went well, I was assigned the shopper, they shopped, and the application showed me estimated delivery time, 2:35pm. I was waiting till 4:00pm to receive my order and texted the shopper twice, no response. I was trying to reach customer care, but it didn’t show me their number anywhere in the application or the website.
The only number it showed was for senior citizens to call. I get their intention of helping senior citizens first or making sure it is easier for senior citizens to reach them. But, what if I am not a senior citizen my question was can I still use this number?
Well, as you must have guessed it — I clicked on the button “Get help” and it took me to the page which you can see below. I am struggling here to find a number to contact help center — I want to talk to some representative 🌚
By this time, I am already done with Instacart — they are trying too hard to create an amazing experience and please their customers.
I was again so frustrated I tweeted to them asking for help and Instacart replied with an amazing response. Saying I can reach out to them if I still need help. I mean why would a person tweet complaining if they don’t need help?
I decided to not text them and rather try my luck at the call center and try to find my shopper. Till now there was no update in the application as to when I am receiving my order. It only showed “Today”, but when no one knew, I couldn’t even get a hang of my shopper.
I called at the number which was for senior citizens, and luckily it had an option to connect with the representative. I complained about my issue and he said he will keep me on the brief hold and try to connect with the shopper.
After almost 5 mins, the representative said to me, “Unfortunately they were not able to connect with the shopper”. My jaw dropped and I was wondering what kind of service is this and how are they working. Even the representative could not connect with the shopper — beautifully broken system. Anyhow, the rep did his job of calming me down and assuring me that I will receive the order and it was showing in his system that it will be delivered by 4:35pm. I was okay, but not happy at all. Finally I received my order!
Now, you must be wondering why an article on this when I have already received my order? Well, it is not just about delivering the order or providing a service to users — it’s about providing an experience to users. Imagine you being a new user and have to go through all the horror for 4 hours just to get your groceries. You would think it’s better if I go and get my groceries instead of dealing with all the chaos.
Instacart would have made some minor tweaks in their service:
Example 1: For instance, the application does not track the real time location of the shoppers once they have finished shopping. Why? I don’t know. If they could add those features in the application, I or any users wouldn’t have to go through the trouble.
Example 2: Authorization holds are very common now, but while placing an order I can not even see it and it’s such important information. Telling users upfront that certain amount of authorization hold is deducted instead of after showing it to them that too in extremely small fonts which users are likely to miss
Example 3: On the website or application providing users with a direct number of call-center instead of highlighting senior citizen one. This is a bit misleading design element.
Current Design:
My Design Suggestion:
Inclusive, it does not mislead any person on the basis of their gender, race, or age. Anyone in need to help can directly call the Help Center. Just so you know, upon dialing this number, it asks you to click on a certain number if you are a senior citizen, this will help Instacart achieve its goal as well.
Have you ever used Instacart? If yes, share with me your experience about using it.
