One of the top food delivery platforms in India, Zomato, on Saturday said that it has laid off 541 employees, across customer, merchant, as well as delivery partner support teams. The 541 employees that have been laid off, estimates almost 10 per cent of the company’s strength. The company has been becoming popular day by day and is at the loggerheads with the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) over deep discounts in its fine-dining Gold program.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Zomato has said introducing AI technology led to firing of customer support
- It said that only 7.5 per cent of its orders need support
- Company planning to introduce Gold programme on its delivery platform
The company said in a statement explaining the reason behind the move, the step has been taken because of the improved Zomato platform with Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven bots along with the automation in determining customer inquiries that have led to a complete reduction in direct order-related support queries.
“While this has been a painful decision, to make the transition smoother, we have extended between two-month months severance pay (based on tenure), family health insurance cover (till the end of January 2020) and career fair opportunities with companies,” said Zomato.
The company claimed that it has improved the speed of service resolution and at present only 7.5 per cent of its orders need support (down from 15 per cent in March).
“Over the last few months, we have seen our technology products and platforms evolve and improve significantly. This has led to an overall reduction in direct order-related support queries,” said the company.
Zomato also stated in the statement that it has hired more than 1,200 people all over its functions (apart from its last-mile delivery fleet) as well as an additional over 400 off-rolls positions and is presently hiring in technology, product along with data sciences teams.
In the meantime, the company is planning to present its Gold programme all over the multiple cities on its delivery platform.
The NRAI also stated on August 30 that there is an in-principle agreement in the middle of the association as well as the two major online delivery platforms, Zomato and Swiggy, in order to decide the matters of the industry which also comprises of deep discounts.
On the other hand, Zomato is hellbent on carrying on with its strategies in order to make its Gold programme accessible for delivery at present.
