What is Avoidable Cancellation?
It happens: orders get canceled. Sometimes, those cancellations can be avoided, and sometimes they can’t. Avoidable cancellations are orders that are canceled — by you, your customers, or DoorDash – that could have been avoided. This includes cancellations due to:
Store hours not being up to date
A store continuing to accept orders when they are too busy to fulfill them
Out-of-stock items being listed as available
Lack of timely order confirmation from store
Store staff requests
POS errors (for point-of-sale integrated merchants only)
What does my Avoidable Cancellation number mean?
Your Avoidable Cancellation number measures the percentage of orders that were canceled for reasons within your store’s control. The ideal Avoidable Cancellation rate is less than 0.3%.
How to reduce your Avoidable Cancellation
Cancellation Reason #1: Your store is closed, but because it is still shown as open on DoorDash, orders were received
Solution: Maintain correct store hours by updating hours in the Portal or by POS/Tablet. This includes holidays and special closure. You should also provide clear Dasher instructions and signage so that Dashers don’t mistakenly report your store as closed.
Cancellation Reason #2: Your store is continuing to accept orders even though you're too busy to fill them in time
Solution: Use the Busy Kitchens tablet feature to update your kitchen status. You can update to Busy to add more prep time to each order or update to Pause to temporarily stop accepting orders. If you don’t have a tablet, pause your store in the Merchant Portal by clicking on Pause Store under Special Closures/Hours in the Business Hours tab.
Cancellation Reason #3: Items are out of stock but are still shown as available on DoorDash
Solution: Ensure your menu is up to date by marking items out of stock via the Portal or by using your POS/tablet.
Cancellation Reason #4: The order was not confirmed by your store in a timely manner
Solution: If using a tablet or POS, set it to auto-confirm orders. If you use phone or email protocol, make sure to confirm orders ASAP.
Cancellation Reason #5: A staff member requested to cancel the order
Solution: Ensure your staff knows how to handle order issues so that they’re less likely to cancel an order unless absolutely necessary.
Cancellation Reason #6: There was a problem with your POS integration, causing the order to be rejected by your POS system and resulting in a a POS error
Solution: Work with your POS provider to understand what happened and how to avoid it. Common issues include incorrect hours, an outdated menu, capacity throttling, or system setup issues.
How to find your Avoidable Cancellation Rate
Check View Details in the Cancellations tile under Operations Quality in the Merchant Portal.
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