We all know the drill you get a menu through the letterbox. There’s about twenty of them, we gently sift through them and ultimately settle on trying out all the Chinese takeaways that deliver in the hope that we won’t be poisoned. When we hit one where it’s quite nice we often become creatures of habit with one number wired into the phone for our Saturday night feasting.
But lets be frank a simple change in personell or just a mistranslation by someone who has English as a second language can turn your Peking duck into a General Tsongs Chicken. A recent experience with a wrong order from my local Chinese take-away in Dublin had this exact problem. It could easily have been your local take-away in cork or the galway delivery of a pizzeria, the problems can be the same. So what to do about it?
I decided to check out ways of getting my order in without it being misinterpreted at all.

• Going into the take-away and having them read the order back to me.

This worked quite well as I could correct things on the spot but lets be honest it does take some of the convenience out of take out food.

Verdict – Reliable but self defeating.

• Carrier Pigeon

I tried this but none of the carrier pigeons ever came back and I never received my take-away. I’m presuming foul play or that the owner of a local sit-down restaurant has intercepted them with an air-gun. Also pigeons make a mess in your living room and may get you into trouble with your landlord.

Verdict – Unreliable and slightly messy.

• An Post

This method didn’t work although I think that may be because the take-away may have thought it was a wind-up. Problems here are registered post is expensive and also mailing the restaurant takes a little of the spontaneity out of the take away meal.

Verdict – Reliable but untimely and expensive

• Online Restaurants

Seemed like a good idea and not bad if an individual restaurant has a system and if everyone wants the same kind of food.

Verdict – Reliable but limited

• Just-Eat.ie

This seems really the answer to all my prayers. I type in the order myself, I pay the money they deliver. No delays, no mistakes and no pigeon droppings or feathers.

Verdict – Feed me
So there you have it folks Just-eat.ie it’s better than the post or carrier pigeons for getting you what you want when you want it.

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Daniel Read joins company as Chief Product Officer as expansion continues

Just-Eat, the world’s largest online takeaway ordering service, has hired Daniel Read as its new Chief Product Officer. Daniel will be responsible for product vision and execution across the four continents Just-Eat operates in.

Daniel was previously at Ask.com in California where he was Chief Product Officer, driving product, user experience and innovation. He was the creative leader of a team which pioneered search and mobile products that set industry standards, won multiple webby awards, and became a PC World top innovator alongside the Wii and iPhone.  He was also a member of the founding team of Ask Jeeves UK, and a key executive in the turnaround of the company globally, which was acquired for $2bn by IAC/InteractiveCorp.

Daniel said “It’s an exciting time to join Just-Eat as it expands globally. We will be laser-focused on innovation and growing the business, to give our customers and restaurants a truly world class experience.”

Klaus Nyengaard, CEO of Just-Eat, said “We’re always looking to innovate and grow as a business, and give our partner restaurants a platform they can use to reach more customers. To be able to do that we need to have the best, most creative people in the industry working for Just-Eat, and Daniel fits the bill perfectly. He’s going to be a major asset as we expand our product range and develop our key channels.”

Daniel has also worked at British Airways and Royal Mail, creating both companies’ first web and ecommerce operations, and is the founder of product lab, Freeform, and an advisor to a number of consumer product and technology businesses.  He holds a BA from Leeds Business School and MA in Design from Central St Martin’s, and is also a Chartered Marketer.

About the Just-Eat Group

Just-Eat, launched in Denmark in 2001, is based in London and is now active in 16 countries around the globe. Just-Eat delivers over 100,000 meals a day and has received more than 30m orders since the site launched. There are currently over 20,000 takeaway restaurants signed up to Just-Eat’s site which uses proprietary technology to offer a seamless on-line ordering service. Just-Eat is currently generating over $500m in revenue per year for the restaurant industry and was listed in the TechCrunch Europe Top 100 Index 2010. Just-Eat was also recently ranked number 28 in the Sunday TimesTech Track 100.

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