It's raining outside on a cold New England morning, and Cheryl, who works from home, does not want to contend with the gloom and doom of the new day. She opened the DoorDash App on her phone and ordered coffee the way she likes it, and a hot bacon and egg sandwich on a bagel from a trendy coffee shop four miles down the road. It's pouring outside, and she has no Zoom meetings scheduled until after lunch. She's still in her comfortable P.J.s.
Twenty minutes later, Cheryl received a text with a photo of her order, which had been placed on her front doorstep. "That was quick, she says."
She hurries to the front door because it's Monday and she's ready for that first glorious coffee.
She looks out the windowed outer door and sees her order. She starts to open the door and stops suddenly.
She realized just in time that if she opened the door any more, her order would get knocked over by the door.
Cheryl had to put on a coat, go out the sliding door on the back deck, and walk around to the front of the house to get her order.
She swore the whole way to the front door, where she collected her breakfast.
Her sole reason for today's order was to avoid the rain that soaked her. She would have stayed dryer by driving to the coffee shop.
This kind of minor entrapment ends up as a story on social media outlets.
Doors open out, or they open inward. Cheryl's outer door opened outward, and the delivery driver placed the bag of food near the side of the door that would make contact with the door.
A good driver will look at the door before dropping off the order. A better driver, given the weather, might have ignored the "Leave The Order At The Door" request and rung the bell, advising the customer that "I wanted to make sure your order got to you without sitting in the rain." - Most customer preferences are carry overs from a previous order.
As a driver, do you consider each doorway and place the customer's order in an area where the door's movement won't affect it?
This should be a consideration with each delivery.
The customers notice your efforts and forward thinking. Don't be a delivery driver who dumps and runs to get to another order.
Think about the potential reasons that a customer ordered your service.
In this case, the customer was paying you to deal with the weather so she wouldn't have to.
Author Lou Maxner writes about making more money by delivering food while focusing on customers' needs. You can buy his book on Amazon.
