Friends Apoorva and Mihr own “Instacart\" in the emerging sharing economy. They

Question

Friends Apoorva and Mihr own “Instacart" in the emerging sharing economy. They are very interested in making plans for improving their business. Apoorva says to Mihr: "We should be benchmarking what some of the successful grocery delivery services are doing." Mihr responded; "I don't think we should only be interested in our direct competitors. Why don’t we look at benchmarking against entirely different businesses as well?”

What do you feel is the best approach with benchmarking here? What types of performance measures should a business like Instacart be benchmarking? Examples - Customer satisfaction ratings. Time from order placed to goods received. List 7-10. What are some of the specific companies within their industry and/or outside of their industry, that Instacart should benchmark performance measures? Explain why you selected these performance measures and these companies.

Example - Instacart should measure time from order placed to goods received against Amazon because …              They should also measure…

Explanation / Answer

Bench Marking can be with direct competitors as well as indirect competitors. Since they are into the grocery delivery service which would be based on a web platform, benchmarking can be done with any e-shopping giants like amazon, flipkart etc. The performance measure that "Instacart" should be bench marking are as below -

1. Delivery Time - Tight SLA's on delivery time. The product should be delivered on time which is promised while ordering. Just to give a competitive edge, they can make the delivery quicker than standard delivery time bby their competitiors.

2. Notification - Customer should be notified about each stage of the procurement from pick to packing to delivered. This will lead to customer satisfaction and it should be accurate.

3. Quality of Goods - The only thing an online business works upon is trust. If you ensure it, you have the customer. Quality of the goods should not be compromised.

4. No shipping charges - By puttiing this, you get an edge over your competitors as well as you show customers they are saving money and effort both.

5. Free replacement - If the goods delivered are not upto the mark as per the customer, get it replaced free of cost.

6. 24*7 support - Suport and service should not be time bound. You should be available at any hour of the day to sort customer issues. Also time should not be a factor while delivery like delivery should be available on a Sunday as well.

7. Order Cancellation - in case of cancellation of order before pick up, no penalty should be charged to the customer.

8. Promotional discounts - This should be a part of marketing in the initial couple of years. Promo codes should not fail to apply once provided.

Instacart should benchmark performance with below companies.

1. Amazon - for customer satisfaction

2. Uber - quality of service

3. Foodpanda - For promotional discounts

4. Dominos - Quick delivery

5. Grofers - Timely notifications

6. Alibaba - 24*7 support

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