Study: When Third-Party Delivery Goes Wrong, Consumers Blame Restaurant & Service

According to a new study conducted by the market research team at Zion & Zion, consumers often blame both the restaurant and the delivery service, regardless of who is actually at fault.

The findings of the Zion & Zion research have significant customer service and brand implications for both restaurants and delivery apps:

• Overall, 61.7% of consumers simultaneously blame both the restaurant and delivery app when experiencing a problem.
• The highest co-blaming occurs when food is delivered at the wrong temperature, with 71.8% of consumers casting at least some blame on both the restaurant and delivery app.
• There are generational differences in co-blaming, with millennials co-blaming measurably more than non-millennials at low (66.9% vs 54.6%) and moderate (46.5% vs 40.7%) thresholds.

This Zion & Zion research study was based on a nationwide survey of 1,084 U.S. consumers.

The full report is available here: Co-Blame: An Examination of Shared Blame in the Restaurant Delivery App Industry.