Deepinder Goyal, the CEO of Zomato, caught the attention of many after reaching out to one of the talented social media users who made constructive criticism about the company’s recently introduced “Food Rescue” feature. This feature lets users get food wastage and instead, allows them to buy food that would otherwise go to waste in cancelled orders sold at a cheaper price with food for sale to near-off customers that remain 3 kilometres away from the restaurant.
On October 10, 2024, Zomato launched the ‘Food Rescue’ feature, where users can access otherwise cancelled orders at discounted rates. These meals, which are contained in the unchanged and true packing of their sources, are also offered to the customers within 3km distance for a set time. The whole system was introduced after considering the level of 400,000 cancelled orders that Zomato deals with monthly, quite a good number of them go to waste because of the no-refund policies in place.
However, it was the feedback of one particular user, Bhanu, a product manager from Bengaluru, that caught Goyal’s attention. Bhanu shared several practical suggestions for improving the feature, including excluding cash-on-delivery (COD) orders, preventing cancellations once a delivery partner is within 500 meters of the destination, and limiting customers to two cancellations per month. He also pointed out the possibility of some users gaming the system by ordering and cancelling simultaneously to grab discounted meals.
Impressed by Bhanu’s insights, Goyal responded directly on the platform, writing, “All this and more already in place. Good thinking, by the way. Who are you and what do you do? Would love to know you more, and see if we can work together? :) DM me please if you wanna chat more.” Bhanu, appreciative of the offer, revealed he was a regular user of Zomato and Blinkit, often providing feedback to help improve services. He works as a product manager in a startup and has a keen interest in reducing negative impacts while improving service delivery.
Goyal’s quick reaction and the way he is willing to interact with the users are indicative of his leadership traits which focus on innovativeness at the customers’ level and recruitment being open. As a matter of fact, Goyal has cut across the line and brought in hiring as one of his primary tasks and was even in charge of fresh recruit hiring in Zomato.
The characteristic of “Food Rescue” has encountered mixed reactions in the social media sector. Some have voiced out safety issues as well as the sense of buying up cancelled meals while quite a number have welcomed the concept of low-priced dishes. In answering these claims, he pointed out that those meals will be well packed and only offered to the people who are close by for poise.
Zomato is also looking into other strategies for the improvement of the system as the feature tends to grow so as to facilitate the modification processes such as with companies dealing in food banks and charities geared towards making use of leftover food. Goyal stressed that the main aim of this initiative is to prevent any food wastage and at the same time give an opportunity to the consumers to purchase the food at a much lower price than other days.
With “Food Rescue” now up and running and improvements to it already being considered, Zomato’s drive towards renewal and preservation is obvious. Bhanu, on the other vision, will meet Zomato team sooner than later to execute his pragmatic thoughts.
