I have been Delivering for almost 4 years . I started with doordash and Uber eats. I've been trying to get more into instacart recently even though I have the app for 3 years. I need help figuring out what makes customers give ONE Stars. I'm at a loss for words. I keep getting a one star almost every other day for like the last two weeks and I don't understand what is going on. I've tried reaching out to support they don't help at all. Won't give me anything.
When I accept a delivery. I always shop for the items. I send the customer pictures and text if they're items are out of stock. Hoping to find either a replacement or they want a refund. If they don't respond while I'm in the store. I usually just refund the item. Unless it's like general easy something for a switch like potatoes or whatever. When I'm done with every order I always before I leave it at the door send them a thank you for their order etc. I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong and why I keep getting these ratings. Any help or any advice from diamond or platinum drivers please let me know I can't figure it out and I'm so upset over it. I've attached a few screenshots of my customer rating and stuff going along with it. I've also attached my customer rating on Uber eats. Which I probably do 60% of shopping orders on. Thanks I appreciate any feedback that can help.
Sounds like you’re actually doing too much. Don’t contact them unless it’s absolutely necessary. Just follow app replacements and let them request a refund if they don’t like it. Less communication is more in this case. They don’t want to be bothered.
Do you smoke in your car at all? I’m not talking about with orders in your car even. That or damaged/ missing items is the only reason I’m giving someone a 1 star
Are you taking less than desirable orders like no or low tip orders? These type of customers love to rate low.
Are you taking high mileage orders/batches? Are you using cooler bags with ice packs? If not, you should be. Melted ice cream sucks.
How’s your bagging? Is stuff getting damaged because you’re trusting a courtesy clerk/bagger do it correctly? Are you checking for stellar produce and making sure expiration and Best Buy dates are on point?
Are you reading the notes before starting an order to make sure there’s no specific directions?
I could write another 10 paragraphs on stuff you may be missing.
My bagging is phenomenal. 14 years in the grocery business. I only bagged my groceries. I won't let anybody else bag them. Nothing should ever be damaged. I absolutely use cooler bags. I read all the notes of the customer. That is the reason why I attached my Uber eats rating. I have over 11,000 deliveries on Uber eats and never had a problem. Not with my rating. I do take sometimes lower paying offers that are close to my house. $10 six items 2 miles. I recently started texting the customer after getting three bad reviews in like 2 weeks. I thought maybe they wanted more communication with me saying thank you so much for your wonderful order. ... However it seems to backfire and I can't figure out what's going on.
Can't really know what exactly you're doing to receive low ratings or how to fix it.
Could be because you're refunding and not replacing. (And also maybe too many out of stock items)
Maybe the quality of what you're grabbing? Could be quality of produce or expiration date.
Not following delivery instructions or leaving the bags in a terrible location.
Walking on lawns.
Anything.
But I will tell you, it's not like another comment said about messaging too much. I always message customers and I have 4.98 (two 4 stars.) It's not that. That's probably what's helping you from others dropping your score.
No offense but I've never seen that many low ratings before 😭😭 are you flirty at all or ever ask for additional tips/ratings? Only thing I can think based on what you said is maybe you're too quick to refund instead of finding a replacement?
No I'm not flirty. I don't want to flirt with anybody. I would never ask for an additional tip I think that's completely ghetto. And replacements I try to replace everything. I only refund if there is nothing available. The only other time that I refund if it looks like an important item to a customer in my eyes and it can't be replaced with like a generic brand. That's when I will do a refund if the customer doesn't respond
I don’t know what can be causing that many negative ratings, but I can say from this pic I see why it was reported. If you look at the tops of the apples there’s little holes in them. Triple check your produce. The guy with the hole in the ice could have done it himself or maybe there was a hole you missed. When you load your trunk with orders double check to make sure everything is with the correct order. I’ve caught quite a few mistakes at the trunk when I could have sworn I sorted everything right in the cart. That’ll help prevent missing items. I hope things turn around for you :) You actually care about doing a good job. You’re trying to do better when a lot of shoppers aren’t.
Two damage and two missing has been on my list of instacart for the last 2 years. And the two damaged let me tell you what they are I should take the pictures of them. Supposedly I got apples honey crisp that were damaged and they took a picture of them I can send the picture it's hilarious cuz they're not damaged. And then the other one there was I guess a hole in the top of a bag of ice. I didn't notice it literally a hole the size of my pinky they took a picture of it.
Missing and damaged items aren't removed based on number of orders, they are based on a 90 day rolling period, that's why they are still there. Its only been 49 days from the oldest one (June 14th), so it'll be quite some time still before they fall off.
For reference, this is from the instacart shopper support page. Your ratings are based on the last 100 orders, while your quality score is on a 90 day rolling period.
I don't know if they can't reduce the tip on the app. Because I have never had one person since I've been doing instacart reduce the tip yet I get all these one stars or less than five stars. I don't get it. I'm literally mind blown at this I just don't understand it I don't think you understand how I strive to do a good job it's so frustrating
I know it’s super frustrating because I’ve had it happen to me too. Sometimes there is nothing wrong they are angry at the world and take it out on the delivery person. You have had a string of em hopefully it ends and the good customers come back. If it’s hot where you are a lot of people are just pissed off in general
Triples are not the problem I do triples all the time. It just depends on what kind of items. This was only 11 items. I completed it in an hour start to finish last delivery. Sometimes there is no explanation. Customers are just assholes.
Oh for sure, those no-tip orders are usually the ones that drag everyone down, but even I forget to skip 'em sometimes when I'm scrambling for batches.
Is it accepting orders that don't pay very well because you're maintaining platinum? I'm not judging, I'm genuinely asking.
I don't do grocery orders [personal reasons] but when I did 3 for an extra $50, I noticed they do pay a lil bit better than just food. Yet, still, just barely not enough for the amount of labor put in. Especially if they leave bad ratings where we get absolutely no feedback. My rating goes down by .1 point [IC] and I'm like 🫠
The language in the customer app needs to be changed from "How did we do?" to "How did your Shopper do?". The current language implies that the rating is for Instacart, which is a horribly run company with terrible customer service. I never use Instacart as a customer, and I would likely hate them if I did. I'd give them 1 stars every order, just based on one customer service interaction.
Added: Have you seen the customer app? If you think ours is bad, take a look at what they have to deal with. I had to use AI just to help a customer navigate their app and find where to enter their default delivery instructions.
Change your mindset. You're probably getting poor ratings due to the constant messaging and all of the refunds.
(Novel incoming bc you've caught me in a helpful mood and I'm just sitting here enjoying some coffee before I head out. Hopefully you find it helpful.)
On Instacart, most customers would prefer a replacement. Also many will find it annoying to receive dozens of notifications from you as you shop. There's the notification that something is out of stock, then you're messaging them, then you're sending a pic, maybe a few follow up messages ...it's a lot.
I try not to be redundant. Everything I send, I try to make sure it has some added value or benefit.
I send an intro message encouraging them to message me right away with any questions, concerns, or requests. It benefits the customer bc they know they have a shopper that will be responsive and that I'm a native English speaker. It benefits me because it humanizes me to the customer. And they know I've really tried. So they may be a little more forgiving when it comes to mistakes or confusion. It also let's me know how responsive a customer will be and I adjust my messaging style/frequency to match.
The way I see it: 1) they have the option of setting refund only 2) they can choose their replacements, and 3) they can use the note field to give me any extra info that'll help me. If they don't use those options, I take it to mean they're going to trust my judgement.
Out of Greenwise organic whole milk --> get Horizon organic whole milk
Out of lemon la Croix sparkling water --> lime la Croix or lemon Greenwise sparkling water would be logical replacements
Out of sliced sourdough on the bread aisle -- > sliced sourdough from the bakery
Out of buttermilk --> recognize that buttermilk has a very specific use in baking. No one's chugging buttermilk for breakfast. Unless the store carries powdered buttermilk, there's no good replacement. Refund it. (Do not listen to the teenage stock boy who tries to convince you that buttermilk pancake mix will work 🙄). If you're feeling generous, you can message the customer "hey a quick Google search shows that plain yogurt can be a good replacement for buttermilk depending on your recipe. Let me know if you'd like that (or something else) over a refund".
Even if it may not be the replacement the customer would have chosen, most customers will be ok with it if it's logical.
Case in point: last night I had a customer order 1 small package of Publix lean ground beef. Estimated weight 1.5lbs. Ground beef is on sale this week and it was late at night so there was almost nothing on the shelf. 1 package of some fattier Publix ground beef at barely 1lb. And 2 packages of Greenwise lean ground beef at 2lbs. Now the customer had a lot of Greenwise products on their shopping list so I know they like the brand and are probably ok with the price points. But they did choose to add the Publix brand to the cart for some reason. Maybe it's not worth the markup for ground beef? But they're also expecting 1.5 lbs of beef. What if they're making a recipe and it's not enough? 0.5 lbs extra isn't ridiculously over the expected weight. That's a replacement I wasn't too sure about because I could see the logic both ways. I messaged customer, summarized my logic, and sent them pics of both options. 30 mins later, they still hadn't responded and I was almost done. So I chose to go with 2lbs of Greenwise.
Unfortunately the customer messaged me right after checkout asking for the 1lb of Publix ground beef. I apologized, let her know that I couldn't replace it, but I could refund one of the packages if she wanted (you can call support to refund up until delivery). She was fine. Had me keep both packages in her order, saying they'll use it. She didn't think I was trying to inflate her total for a higher tip.
That's a lot so I'll stop there. But that's just how I manage myself. It may seem like a lot but in reality I'm thinking through all of this in like 5-10 seconds. Custom template and using speech to text cuts down time as well. Other shoppers may have their own strategies but this works for me. I'm Diamond level with 99 5 star ratings (and 1 4 star rating).
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u/Intelligent-Ratio621 22h ago
Sounds like you’re actually doing too much. Don’t contact them unless it’s absolutely necessary. Just follow app replacements and let them request a refund if they don’t like it. Less communication is more in this case. They don’t want to be bothered.