Zomato recently launched its new feature "Food Rescue," to address the high number of canceled orders on its platform. The feature would allow users to buy cancelled food orders at a discounted price. A Bengaluru man’s suggestions to improve the feature impressed Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal so much that he asked the man to apply for a job.
The interesting conversation took place on X (formerly Twitter), where Deepinder Goyal shared a detailed thread on the order cancellation feature, which he said was introduced to tackle food waste.
Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal’s Post
In his X post, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal said that “more than 4 lakh perfectly good orders get cancelled on Zomato” despite the company’s no-refund policy.
We don't encourage order cancellation at Zomato, because it leads to a tremendous amount of food wastage.
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) November 10, 2024
Inspite of stringent policies, and and a no-refund policy for cancellations, more than 4 lakh perfectly good orders get canceled on Zomato, for various reasons by customers.… pic.twitter.com/fGFQQNgzGJ
Under the new “Food Rescue” feature, cancelled orders will be made available for purchase to nearby customers. “Cancelled orders will now pop up for nearby customers, who can grab them at an unbeatable price, in their original untampered packaging, and receive them in just minutes,” Goyal explained.
He said that Zomato will not keep any proceeds “except the required government taxes” from the sale of these orders.
“Restaurant partners will continue to receive compensation for the original cancelled order, plus a portion of the amount paid by the new customer if the order is claimed,” he said.
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Bengaluru Man's Suggestions
Zomato’s new feature raised plenty of questions among the users. An X user named Bhanu offered suggestions to Zomato on how to prevent misuse of the feature.
Bhanu, a resident of Bengaluru, said the Food Rescue option should not be available for cash-on-delivery orders. Moreover, Zomato customers should not be allowed to cancel their orders if the delivery partner reaches within 500 metres of their location.
The Bengaluru man also raised concerns about potential misuse - “Chances of 2 idiots sharing meals ordering and cancelling at the same time getting a discount place,” he wrote on X.
Finally, he suggested that Zomato customers should be allowed to cancel a maximum of two orders per day.
validations
— Bhanu (@BhanuTasp) November 10, 2024
1.should not be applicable to COD
2.Cancellation should not be allowed if the delivery reaches 500 m to the delivery point
3.Chances of 2 idiots sharing meals ordering and cancelling at the same time getting a discount place
4.< two cancellations are allowed/ month.
Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal responded to him saying these safeguards and more are already in place. Nevertheless, he was impressed enough to ask the X user to share more details about himself.
“All this and more already in place. Good thinking, btw. Who are you and what do you do? Would love to know you more, and see if we can work together?” Goyal asked.
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The X user responded by identifying himself as a Bengaluru resident who works as a product manager in a startup. “I regularly keep giving suggestions to improve services via Twitter by tagging your company,” he said, explaining that he uses Blinkit frequently.
Deepinder Goyal has earlier revealed that he devotes a lot of time and effort into hiring the best people to build Zomato, even overlooking entry-level recruitment personally.