"Everyone, first of all, I need to confess a mistake I've been making recently."
"I thought that when our competitors couldn't afford subsidies, we could use our funds to follow suit and quickly dominate the entire market. But the reality proved me wrong. Our competitors still have ample funds, so subsidies were definitely not the right choice."
"I know there's a famous saying online that goes something like this."
"The reason trolls are invincible online is because they are adept at using various linguistic tactics to bring their opponents' intelligence down to their own level, and then defeat them with their vast experience!"
"I don't know if the original wording was exactly like that, but that's the general idea. In terms of subsidies, our competitors have extensive experience, and yet we are choosing to compete with them in their strong suit, which is clearly a very foolish decision. Consequently, fifty billion of our ten billion yuan have been consumed. This is a huge mistake I made."
"Fortunately, this mistake didn't persist for too long, and I've realized it. Now is the time for us to correct it," Zhao Yao said calmly to all the executives present. "I announce that our company, 'E Bu Pa', will be making three changes."
"The first is to stop simple and crude subsidies. Except for member subsidies, all existing subsidies will be canceled, and no further subsidies will be granted!"
"The second change is to allocate forty billion of the remaining fifty billion to improving our own service quality. Thirty billion will be invested in the procurement of electric bicycles and the construction of electric bicycle charging stations. Currently, our riders are mostly using their own vehicles, with most of them using their personal electric bicycles and carrying a large delivery box. While this helps us save costs, it also makes it very easy for couriers to encounter various instabilities during delivery!"
"Therefore, I require our procurement department to immediately contact and communicate with domestic electric bicycle manufacturers, asking them to design electric bicycles specifically for delivery. We will then procure them in large quantities and distribute them to all our delivery riders!"
"As for the specific features of these delivery-specific electric bicycles, the operations department will provide me with a plan, but the following features must be included."
"Firstly, the battery models for these delivery-specific electric vehicles must be unified, and they must have a battery lock and the ability to quickly swap batteries. The requirement is that the battery replacement time must not exceed 30 seconds. Simultaneously, we will build charging stations in all major areas of the city, stocking a large number of electric vehicle batteries. This will allow our delivery riders to directly swap batteries, saving them charging time and enabling them to dedicate more time to deliveries."
"Secondly, these delivery-specific electric bicycles must be equipped with a retractable canopy. Our delivery riders work very hard, and they have to deliver even in heavy rain. Therefore, I believe a canopy is very necessary for them."
"Thirdly, and most importantly, these delivery-specific electric bicycles must have a large delivery box on the back. This delivery box must be integrated with the electric bicycle itself and securely fixed, ensuring that no matter how bumpy the road, there will be no possibility of the delivery box shifting or even tipping over!"
"Finally, this delivery box must have a heating function. I'm not talking about wrapping the inside of the delivery box with a layer of cotton and calling it insulated. Instead, the delivery box should be directly connected to the electric vehicle's battery, and there should be a heater inside the delivery box. This physical means will ensure the insulation effect of the delivery box. My requirement is that the temperature of the food when it enters the delivery box must be the same as when it leaves."
"These are my specific requirements for such delivery-specific electric bicycles. I believe these requirements are not difficult. Whichever manufacturer can complete our requirements the fastest will receive this massive order worth three billion yuan."
"In addition to the procurement of dedicated delivery bicycles, there is another extremely important improvement, which is the improvement of food packaging and cutlery. Previously, to save costs, all packaging and cutlery were the responsibility of the restaurants themselves."
"This time, we will bear some of the cost and take charge of this area. The design department must immediately design a set of special packaging and cutlery for delivery. This set of packaging and cutlery should be designed according to the characteristics of different products."
"The most typical example is the packaging for noodles. A common complaint I often see is that many users complain that when noodle dishes are delivered to them, they become completely mushy from soaking up the broth."
"Therefore, we can design special packaging for noodles. This packaging will consist of a set of two bowls. The bottom bowl will hold the hot noodle broth, while a smaller bowl placed on top will contain the drained, cooked noodles."
"This way, when users eat their noodles, they only need to pour the noodles from the top bowl into the broth in the bottom bowl to get a bowl of chewy noodles, just like they were freshly cooked!"
"There are many similar designs. For instance, for the barbecued items that are most common in late-night orders. Customers often complain that the bamboo skewers used for barbecued items puncture the delivery bags. If they accidentally grab their hand, they can easily get a bloody gash from these skewers!"
"Moreover, barbecued items often drip a lot of oil and sauce. These difficult-to-clean substances flow out through the holes punctured by the skewers. If they don't notice and place the bag on their table, their main task then becomes not enjoying the meal, but figuring out how to clean the oil stains from the table."
"I remember seeing a complaint where a customer liked to eat barbecue in bed. One time, accidentally, the exposed barbecue oil ruined his mattress, forcing him to spend several hundred yuan to buy a new one. Although I believe this situation is largely the customer's own fault, the issue of skewers puncturing packaging bags must be taken seriously."
"So, can we design a long, rectangular packaging box specifically for barbecue, allowing these skewers to be easily and completely placed inside the entire packaging box without worrying about puncturing the packaging bag?"
"The above are just two examples. In actual practice, there are certainly many similar pain points. If a company as focused on customer service as 'E Bu Pa' often overlooks these issues, it's even more so for companies like 'Di Da Wai Mai' which merely use subsidies to snatch users. They have never attempted to solve these problems, and now, we will solve them."
"What I've discussed above is how the thirty billion will be spent. What about the remaining ten billion?"
"We will use it to establish a fund, a consumer health protection fund, and we will also make a commitment to be liable for compensation. Therefore, we previously promised that any health issues customers experience after consuming our delivered meals will have their treatment costs covered by our company first!"
"However, this is still a vague statement, and many users have not had a real experience of it."
"So, we need to change our approach. How? By letting customers eat first and then pay!"
"We can introduce a new policy for all our member users: all member users can order meals for free first. After eating, they don't need to pay for a week. Only after confirming that the meal has not caused any physical discomfort will they need to pay. However, each member user is limited to three such 'eat first, pay later' benefits per week."
"I know many people will think this policy is too aggressive and worry about a large number of people skipping out on their bills."
"I admit that there will be a significant number of unpaid meals, which is why I am allocating ten billion yuan to establish this fund, specifically to cover the costs of these unpaid meals. However, our members need to register with their Jiangnan Wallet accounts, and these accounts are already linked to their personal credit. Therefore, behind each of our member users is a customer with real credit."
"If a customer abandons their credit for the cost of three meals, I believe that loss is acceptable. I believe there won't be too many such users who don't understand the consequences, and ten billion yuan will be sufficient to cover all the losses incurred in the interim."
"But in doing so, this policy can perfectly shape the image of our 'E Bu Pa' delivery service. Most importantly, it will instill confidence in all users who have prejudices against food delivery, assuring them that the food delivered by 'E Bu Pa' is healthy."
"At this point, someone might ask, 'Boss, we've spent forty billion out of the fifty billion. How will the remaining ten billion be spent?'"
"The answer is that these ten billion will still be used for subsidies, but the subsidies will no longer be for ordinary users, but for our core member users. Through the experiences of the past few days, we've all realized that the vast majority of ordinary users are driven by subsidies. Therefore, these users are actually undesirable users, and we can appropriately abandon them or find ways to convert them into our member users."
"Therefore, we need to strengthen our subsidies for member users. Previously, this subsidy strategy provided all users with four subsidy vouchers worth five yuan each month."
"I've decided to introduce new rules for member subsidies: after a user has used up their four five-yuan subsidy vouchers each month, they will unlock monthly discount subsidies. Initially, it will be a 9.5% discount, and with each additional order, the discount will increase by 0.1%, up to a maximum of 80% discount."
"Of course, the maximum subsidy limit for such a discount voucher is twenty yuan."
Zhao Yao confidently laid out his brand-new operational plan!