Due to customer feedback indicating overwhelming dissatisfaction with its delivery service, the Boston Avenue branch of burrito restaurant Boloco decided earlier this month to cease delivering to customers and instead focus on improving its in−store service.
Regional Area Manager Matt Taylor said that Boloco's commitment to high−quality service was a key reason for the new rule. When the delivery service failed to live up to the standard of the brand, Taylor, together with the operations team, the in−store staff and Boloco's CEO, decided to end the service, Taylor told the Daily.
"We pretty consistently heard that we didn't do a good job at [delivering]. ... We took a long time, orders were incorrect, the food was cold by the time it got there — pretty much any way that we heard that we could fail, we were failing," Taylor said.
Fiscal matters were secondary to consumer feedback in Boloco's decision, he said.
"Delivery wasn't so profitable, but our decision to end the service was primarily based on the fact that people have to love what we do, and overwhelmingly, we were hearing that people didn't love what we were doing," Taylor said. "There was a lot of frustration that we couldn't do it well."
Of Boloco's 15 total restaurants, all located in the New England area, the Boston Avenue Boloco was one of only two locations that delivered food to its customers. The other, located at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., strictly delivers food at night, Taylor said.
"By not delivering … that allows us to focus on what happens in the restaurant," Taylor said.
Another contributing factor in the store's decision stemmed from an inability to find a steady group of drivers willing to deliver the food. The store's new policy will not affect the livelihood of former delivery drivers, although in−store work is a different experience, Taylor said.
Lamar Walker, a former delivery driver who now works at the counter, marked one such case.
"As an in−store worker, I help a little bit more and spend more time talking to customers," Walker told the Daily.
Since the implementation of their new no−delivery rule, Boloco has seen a slight increase in the number of customers buying from the store, but the location is also planning for some loss in business, Taylor said.
"We've heard that there are people who will no longer order because [delivery] was the method by which [they] ordered, but when we were still delivering we were getting the same feedback because we weren't delivering well," Taylor said.
Freshman Anthony Santa Maria, a regular customer of the Boston Avenue Boloco for five years, expressed disappointment with the decision. Although he plans to start visiting the store more often, he said he will likely patronize the restaurant less frequently than in the past.
"Having to actually walk down to Boloco will definitely reduce my willingness to eat there," Santa Maria said.
Junior Daniel Meer, a Boloco cardholder, said he will continue to give Boloco his business even as the store cuts its delivery service.
"I was a very frequent Boloco customer," Meer said. "While I was disappointed to hear that they no longer will be delivering, it will not change my orders."
Walker said the new approach will not likely impact business at the branch significantly. Nor will it mean any change in the store's business dynamic, he said, instead expressing that it would enhance the overall Boloco atmosphere with more satisfactory staff−customer interaction.
Taylor agreed.
"The whole idea is that we're better able to take care of people who come into the restaurant," he said. "There are those who have chosen to come down and pick it up or come into the restaurant, which ultimately means that they are getting a fresher product."
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Correction: The photo credit in this article has been changed from its original version, which incorrectly identified the photographer as Meredith Klein. In fact, Danai Macridi took the photo.
