The extent of COVID-19’s influence on the customer experience of online food ordering applications in South Africa

Abstract

Online food ordering applications (OFOA) have changed customer-interaction within the food services industry. The emergence of COVID-19 has influenced the state of business-to-customer relations challenging how businesses attain success as customer expectations morph rapidly and markets take on a new dynamic. This study empirically assessed the influence of COVID-19 on the OFOA customer journey. In conducting such an analysis, businesses can harness practical approaches to enhancing customer experience in line with how customers allocate importance to each phase in their customer journey. A quantitative research approach was employed by drawing on descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis (structural equation modelling) to determine how COVID-19 affected OFOA users. The study yielded interesting results, such as that COVID-19 affected how customers experience OFOA in the pre-purchase and purchase stages of the customer journey. Additionally, COVID-19 has positively affected overall customer satisfaction of OFOA, and the decision customers make on OFOA. The results revealed that the customer journey could not be isolated as a construct where customer experience is measured concerning the satisfaction of OFOAs use. Further themes were presented in describing the influence of COVID-19 on OFOA. The study has significant business implications as it can assist those in the food service industry to align their OFOA experience to customer expectation.