PIN Code at Dropoff

We introduced a feature that required certain “at risk” diners to provide PIN codes to their delivery drivers upon receipt of their items. This duel-sided experience required changes to the post-purchase experience as well as the driver handoff flow.

Today, driver-to-diner dropoff issues cost Grubhub $61M annually, with "new diners" alone contributing to an $11M loss.

Problem

The dropoff issues lead to negative diner experiences, which can affect reorder rate. By requiring a PIN code to verify the driver/diner dropoff experience for order types that are prone to higher missed delivery rates, we can reduce fraud and the propensity for other driver/diner dropoff issues, saving an estimated $7.7M annually.

User Goals

Diner:

• Friction-free handoff experience
• Transparency into why they’re required to provie a PIN code
• Seamless web and mobile app experience

Driver:

• Easy to understand instructions/onboarding
• Quick and simple exchange

Business Goals & Success Metrics

• Reduction in New Diner missed delivery rate (est. $6.63M savings)
• Reduction in driver related fraud
• Reduction in missed deliveries: ONR (order not received)
• Decreased CPO (cost per order) stemming from missed deliveries/fraud
• Increased reorder rates due to decreased ONR
• Future state benefits: other order types such as high value orders, alcohol and Shop & Pay (est. $1.1M savings)

My Role

As the design manager across multiple workstreams, my primary goal was to ensure the driver and diner designs were cohesive and offering the appropriate level of transparency and support to the designated user. I established close communication between the cross-cutting teams and reviewed designs holistically, understanding how they fit within the greater driver and diner experience flows.

End-to-end High-level User Journey

Design Solution

Diner Flow

We designed a clear, focused solution that gave diners the transparency they needed without overwhelming the Post-Purchase Experience (PPX) page. Messaging was intentionally crafted to provide just the right amount of information at each stage, aiming to help diners feel informed and confident.

Driver Flow

For drivers, the streamlined steps aimed to limit the friction during hand-off, maintaining a speedy path to complete the delivery.

Desktop & Mobile Web

Results

After a successful initial launch, the team expanded PIN at dropoff to 100% of new diners, diners with a previous missed delivery, and late night orders. To date, this has resulted in a 70% decrease in missed deliveries, from 2.74% to 0.87%, saving an estimated $10.8M annually. With continued expansion, we project annualized savings could reach $12.9M.

Future Considerations

While cost savings are high, the data has also shown us that if the PIN is uncessessful, missed delivery percentage increases and click-to-door time is longer. Additionally, by improving our PIN success rate from 76% to 100%, we could unlock an additional $2.3M in annual savings currently left on the table. We could achieve this by better understanding why the PIN failures are occuring and actioning on it.

If we were to explore a continued expansion, it's important for us to keep in mind the user experience. Customer retention is very much top of mind, and introducing this additional point of friction to more than the high-risk segments only is something we will need to thoughtfully evaluate and monitor closely.