What are the Doordash Customer Expectations for a 5 Star Rating

The rating that a customer gives a Doordash driver is very important. Dashers that give their full effort to meet customer expectations will enjoy a satisfying ratings that they can be proud of. Most dashers fall in to this category, but there are some dashers who have a very difficult time maintaining an acceptable rating. Sometimes, if a dasher's ratings fall to low, the opportunity to continue dashing may be terminated.

Learn how to keep a perfect 5.0 rating on Doordash

It would be nice if it were easy to maintain a 5.00 rating on Doordash. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula for this to happen, and no matter how good of a dasher you are, you will never always continually maintain a perfect 5.00 customer satisfaction rating. Don't get me wrong, I have maintained a 5.0 rating for months at a time, but then there is always that one customer that will mess it up and drop me to 4.96 or so. No worries though as that drops off soon and I'm back up to 5.0 again. As a Doordash driver, you will want to keep your customer satisfaction rating as high as possible.

Most drivers try to keep their ratings above 4.50. In most markets, Doordash has actually given themselves a reason to disable the app from a driver's phone that has a lower rating than 4.50. Besides that, maintaining a 4.50 or higher rating gives drivers some benefits that others do not have such as scheduling a day earlier than other dashers. This early access dasher benefit will help a driver make sure that they get the schedule that they want as most other drivers do not qualify for this privilege. There are other things that a Doordash driver must maintain to qualify, but if you do not have a 4.50 rating, you can surely forget about it.

 

What are the Doordash customer expectations from a Doordash driver

Have you ever wondered why you have such a low rating even though you feel that you are doing everything right? Trust me when I tell you that it happens to all of us. During my first 500 deliveries, I was able to maintain a rating that would frequently change but was always in between 4.60 and 4.90. Then things changed. Suddenly my rating started dropping to 4.40, then 4.30, then 4.20. Before I knew it I was flirting with the 3s. Fortunately, I never hit the 3s, but my rating did go down to 4.01. I wasn't doing anything different. Maybe I was just not as enthusiastic about dashing anymore. Maybe I seemed a bit grumpy when I walked up to hand the food to the customers. I don't know what happened, and to this day I still do not truly understand it. I am happy to say that my Doordash customer rating eventually went back up and lingered around the 4.50 mark for years. Currently, I usually carry a perfect 50.0 rating 90% of the time. So I ask again, what are the expectations from the customer?

 

On time delivery

Getting the customer's food to them on time definitely tops this list. When a customer gets their order late, you can be pretty sure that they are going to leave a bad rating for the driver, and the more late you are, the greater the chances are of getting that bad mark. An on time delivery will almost always be a 5.00 rating.

This is why you must be careful when stacking too many orders. If you have four orders stacked, chances are that at least a few of them are going to be late. This is especially true when the drop-off locations are not near each other. This is why you need to analyze each order before you accept it.

You also have to be careful with orders that pretty much set you up to be late. An example of this is an order that you accept at 3p.m., and the expected delivery time is 3:05 p.m. You will never make this delivery on time and may want to consider declining these types of orders.

Sometimes, you will be late delivering an orders with no fault of your own. There are times when a restaurant will take long and make you late. There is not much that you can do about this, but you may want to note in your mind that certain restaurants are slow. It can happen to the best restaurants, and if it happens once it is no big deal, but there are restaurants that are always slow and will frequently make you late. You eventually learn the habits of these restaurants, and if you want to raise your ratings, you may want to consider declining orders from these restaurants.

Fresh and hot food

It is very important to Doordash customers to receive fresh food. Unless a customer orders a sandwich or something, they expect their food to be nice and hot. If they receive cold food, they will most likely have to put it in their microwave and will not be happy about it. This is why it is important to keep the food in your hot-bag that Doordash provides you with. Sometimes it may take a half hour or so to deliver the food once we pick it up, and the food may get cold if not put into the hot-bag. Always try to keep the food nice and hot so you can increase your chance of getting a 5.00 rating.

Direct delivery from merchant to customer

Doordash customers expect you to pick up their food from the merchant and then drive directly to them, but this is not always possible. As a dasher, you will sometimes get stacked orders. This is a common thing as Doordash may send you orders that are on your route. You may have three orders which means you have three pick-ups and three drop-offs. Remember that the customers can see every move that you make via GPS. While looking at this, a customer may think that you are out there messing around while their food sits in your car. They don't know that you are stopping at other merchants and making deliveries at other destinations. They will be wondering why you are driving away from their house instead of bringing them their food. You must understand that many of these customers do not realize that you have multiple orders. To help yourself not get a bad rating, it is advisable to text the customers and update them on their order. Let them know that you have multiple orders so they don't think that you are out taking care of your own personal business. Most will understand what is going on. When it is busy, it is impossible to do a direct delivery straight from the merchant to the customer.

 

 

Making sure that all items are accounted for

I think new dashers will have more of a problem with this as they may trust the restaurants a little too much. Restaurants do make mistakes, and the dasher should do their best to make sure that everything the customer ordered is picked up. If a customer is missing an order of fries or a drink, they will not be happy about it and may leave a bad rating. At restaurants where you have to place the order yourself, it is very important to make sure that you look over the order carefully. If you are not sure about something, be sure to text or call the customer. Doing this will show the customer that you care about their order and will increase your chance of getting a perfect rating from them.

 

Making sure that the food taste good

Of course you cannot make sure that the food taste good. Most Doordash customers will order food that they have eaten before, but there are some customers that will try something new from a restaurant that they have never even tried before. Getting a bad rating because the customer does not like the food is not acceptable, but unfortunately it is reality, and the Doordash driver will frequently get the blame. The result is a very bad rating. Hey, it is not our fault that the customer did not like the food, but what can you do? It is sad, but many customers will leave a bad rating for food that they did not like. Since you cannot do anything about a situation like this, it is best to not even worry about it.

A friendly and pleasant delivery

When you deliver the food to the customer, it is very important to greet them in a friendly tone. A dasher that is grumpy and gives off the vibe that they do not want to be there will decrease their chance of getting a good rating. Nobody wants some grump that looks like they are mad at the world delivering their food to them. Smile, be polite, hand them their food and be on your way. People appreciate kindness, and they will reward you with a 5.00 rating.

Conclusion

By following the tips above, you stand a very good chance of getting a 5.00 rating from customers. Again though, there will be some people that will leave you a lower rating no matter how perfect you are. Don't ever worry about it. Just do the best that you can do, and you will be alright. In the eyes of a Doordash customer, a 4.00 rating is not that bad. They may have a bit of a problem with something that they did not like, and for that reason, they will knock a point off. In most people's eyes, a 5.00 rating is perfect, a 4.00 is good, a 3.00 is neutral and anything below that is bad. The customer does not know that by giving you a 4.00 that they are doing any harm. A few 4.00 ratings will not hurt your overall rating too bad anyways. It is the lower ratings that you want to avoid.