PROBLEM STATEMENT
Hunger pangs and cravings come with no time stamp; what do you do when you are commuting by car on a hectic schedule and your stomach is growling? What if there is simply no available parking space near the McDonald’s franchise? What if you are across the street, on a very busy road, and just do not have the time to drive to the McDonald’s?
SOLUTION OVERVIEW
“On The Go” is a new feature that was under pilot-testing by McDonald's Delivery. This feature would allow customers to order food in advance and have it delivered to their car en-route their commute. This would also simplify store pick-ups for customers as the hassle of parking and waiting in a queue to order would be eradicated.
WORK SUMMARY
1. Analysed and beta-tested McDonald's pilot feature: On The Go (food delivery en-route).
2. Visited McDonald's franchises to conduct market research through interaction and observation of consumers.
3. Compared statistical success data from pilot runs and user-flow for similar services (Uber Eats, Burger King Traffic Jam Whopper). Also analysed complaints registered in the last month.
4. Mapped API calls to pilot feature to capture usage trends and identify key stores to run second run of testing.
5. Proposed technological, product, and marketing modifications to existing pilot model to boost success rate.
PRODUCT ANALYSIS
Assumptions about the Target Audience
1. The typical costumer travels predominantly in a car, with no differentiation between privately owned vehicles and taxi-cab services (Uber, Ola)
2. The typical costumer orders McDonald’s via the McDelivery mobile application / website instead of ordering from food-delivery services (Swiggy, Zomato)
3. The typical costumer drives a route which is not dominated by highways and freeways as these roadways are unavailable to provide for accessible pickup-points
4. The typical costumer prefers food delivery over dining in when eating McDonald’s
Competitive Comparison
| McDonald’s On The Go | Uber Eats (McDonald’s) | Burger King Traffic Jam Whopper | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restrictions on vehicle movement | vehicle is en-route, food is picked up at a pre-designated place | vehicle is parked for a long period of time | vehicle needs to be in a heavy traffic area for ~30 minutes |
| Cities delivered to | (now) major cities in west and south India | global (6000 cities, 45 countries+) | only available in Mexico City |
| Delivery radius from the franchise | 10 metre radius from the franchise / pre-designated pickup location | five mile radius, but customizable by the customer | 1.86 miles (3 kilometre) radius from the franchise |
| Menu items available for delivery | entire menu is available | entire menu is available | only the Traffic Jam Whopper is available |
Customer Value Proposition
1. On The Go provides the greatest degrees of convenience for customers as they would no longer have to step outside the comfort of their car to pick up McDonald’s meals. The value proposition increases multifold when considering situations where customers may not find available parking space near the franchise, may be driving on the opposite side of the road, or even driving their way through high traffic.
2. On The Go’s seamless integration with the McDelivery mobile application and wesbite poses a non-existant learning curve for existing customers.
3. On The Go converts all McDonald’s franchises into (virtual) drive-thrus.
BETA TESTING
On The Go was beta tested in July 2019 across McDonald’s franchises in South Bombay.
DATA ANALYSIS
The five stores that this program is being piloted at are all centered in South Mumbai. However, a study made into the area from which consumers are trying to access this feature displayed different results.
For the purpose of the study, an approximate 19,000 API calls were analysed. The consumer’s route’s start and end points were selected and reverse-geocoded using latitudes & longitudes. The data set was then filtered to remove all duplicate calls and limit the calls to those made in Mumbai.
These lat-long coordinates were then mapped onto a google-maps layout, and an additional layer comprising a map of all the McDonald’s stores in Mumbai was strewn over this.
Using this data, five McDonald’s franchises where the pilot-testing might yield better results, with an increased number of GC-calls, were identified.
EXTENSION
On The Go — potential features to increase customer value proposition
Audio Control
Audio control is in accordance with strong safety standards for individuals ordering from McDonald’s On The Go while driving
Delivery En-Route
Establish delivery locations on roadways within a 1-2 mile radius from the franchise to reduce detours taken by customers
On The Go — UI / UX and technology recommendations to improve customer experience
Explain App Persmissions
When the application is launched, permission is requested to “display over other apps”. If a user doesn’t understand what this means, he/ she may not be able to actually navigate into the McDelivery app
Convert to PWA
Create the McDelivery website as a progressive web application (PWA) since customers may prefer using multi-purpose services such as Uber Eats over installing another application
Multi-Step Onboarding
A customer needs to zoom in to select a pickup location (location markers overlap: there are two markers per store). This should be broken into two steps, select a store, and then identify a pickup location near the selected store
McDonald’s — potential features to increase customer value proposition
Loyalty Programme
These should ideally extend beyond monetary benefits, as those can be accrued from third-party services such as Zomato as well, and instead appeal to the customer’s emotions
Subscription Plans
Subscriptions to a McDonald’s meal on a weekly / monthly / annual schedule would increase customer retention while exploring a yet-to-be-explored avenue in fast-food
Real-Time Menu Updates
Allow stores to update the menus based on ingredient availabilities to ensure that orders are not placed for items that are temporarily unavailable
Chatbot
AI Chatbots are gaining in popularity around the world. Developing a chatbot to assist with e-orders, answering questions and providing FnB recommendations, would enhance the customer experience
Emoji-based Orders
Pioneered by Domino’s, customers would first create their “burger profile”, which is their favorite McDonald’s meal, on their McDelivery account. Once the McDelivery and social media accounts are linked, the customer can order food using just emojis
Real-Time Tracking
According to the MDS-Complaints for June 2019, a majority of customer were upset with delays in delivery time. Real-time tracking would improve accuracies of delivery ETA while involving the customer in the process
FIRST ROBOTICS COMPETITION
tech, side projects
SOFTWARE ANALYST INTERN : BOOKMYSHOW
tech, work
