While dashing, Dashers have always been able to read the Doordash customer's instructions. Now, it seems that Doordash is making sure that a Dasher doesn't miss those instructions. The Doordash app will now read those instructions out loud as the Dasher approaches the drop off destination.
How the Dasher app READ INSTRUCTIONS ON ARRIVAL feature works?
As a Dasher is approaching the drop off destination, the Doordash app will start talking with the same voice that we are accustomed to hearing on Google maps. She will say that the customer has special instructions and speak whatever those instructions are. It is the same instructions that you could read for yourself by glimpsing at the customer's order. She may say something as simple as "Customer has requested to drop off at their door." I received many of those.
It seems like it could be a good feature for some drivers. There's nothing wrong with getting a quick reminder. But, for me it was more of an annoyance than anything else. Why? Because the app started speaking at a moment when I would rather have it not. If it began reading the special instructions when I was a half mile away from delivery, it would be alright, but for some reason the Dasher app wanted to wake up the houses I was delivering to.
As I would approach a Doordash customer's front door, the Dasher app would start speaking real loud saying "Customer has requested a door drop off, bla bla bla, bla, bla, bla." Mind you, I'm making these drop offs late at night so the houses are dark, and it is very quiet. The people in these homes certainly heard my Dasher app going off.
This happened with every one of my deliveries, and it irritated the heck out of me. I never needed a reminder of dropping off at a customer's door before. I know how to read!
What I ended up eventually doing was turning the volume down on my phone when I would get out my car to deliver. Sure, it's not difficult to do, but why should I have to do this extra step because of the Dasher app mouthing off in front of the Doordash customer's door? The bad part is that a few times I forgot to put my volume back up and ended up missing a couple of Doordash offers.
Is the Doordash READ INSTRUCTIONS ON ARRIVAL a good thing?
For a small percentage of Dashers it can be a good thing. If a Dasher knows that they forget to read the special instructions a bit too often, they may want a little reminder for themselves. But, I can confidently say that for the majority of us it's a waste of time. I really believe that Doordash had good intentions here, but for the majority of Dashers, this feature will cause more annoyance than it will do good. Most of us know how to read simple instructions! And we really don't mind!
How to turn the Doordash voice activated instructions off
I thanked God when I found out that this was an optional feature. Toward the end of my work day, I accidentally figured out how to turn the Dasher voice feature off. I was so glad that this wasn't a feature that I would have to deal with anymore!
When you are Dashing, you will need to click on the little hamburger symbol on the top left of your screen.
You will then be taken to your Dash Options. Your screen will look like this.
Notice the "Read instructions on arrival" option. Until now, I never noticed this there. It may have happened when I updated my Dasher app to version 2.212.0. I really don't know. But, it is there now, and I was happy to push the slider to the left. This turned off this terrible feature that I don't want. Your Dash options screen will now look like this.
As I've said, I never noticed this feature there before. I know I didn't turn it on. Doordash may be activating it by default and hoping that Dashers would like it.
Trying out new features is always a good thing, but I doubt this one will be widely used by Dashers. For some reason I think that the only Dashers using it are the ones that don't know how to turn it off!
No comments:
Post a Comment