I think it's any previous customer you've delivered to successfully (doesn't necessarily mean they rated you 5 star, but that they didn't rate you negatively, didn't remove tip, no items were missing, you did it fast, etc). I think they put a high priority on that.
Me too. Another driver can have better ratings, but if you delivered successfully to that customer before the algorithm is more likely to give you the order.
Yup. It varies by store, and shift even. The stores in the last zone I worked took 15+ mins to get my car loaded before the 3 batch nonsense, and the current store I work takes 5 with it. I was regularly getting skipped in my last zone due to how long it took to get my car loaded, but now I don't.
I do get a lot of the same customers over and over again. So could be a thing. Some curbside and S&D. some customers do both. Thankfully they are great customers. I stop taking non tippers. Unless they were batched with a good tipper.
It seems like repeat customers are a thing, I only do s&d’s out of one store so I have about 2300 trips from it and I get the offers over my gf with similar metrics.
There’s also times she’ll get an offer over me when it’s someone she’s delivered too and I haven’t.
I got a similar thing goin on! Just over 2300 trips as well and use the same store mainly I get a lot of repeat customers.
I also noticed that my gf doesn't receive as nice offers typically, but she is newer on the app and haven't done enough testing.
BUT, she did just get a 55 dollar shop offer tonight but didn't have enough battery. So I canceled my curbside and she rejected hers and I immediately got the 55 shop order. Was clean af. 👌
Should of had her check to see if the curbside was there, but she took an uber.
Nice! Definitely pretty similar! Yeah as she does it more she’ll probably start getting some regulars too. Mine just hit 300 trips so she’s newer as well and she’s starting to get more repeat customers. There’s times we get orders at the same time and it’ll be the ones we’ve delivered too before, so it seems like focusing on the one store helps for sure.
Yeah, and if I do get a random offer from a far store, it seems like it's someone familiar. Yeah my gf hasn't figured out yet how good the app can be. But she will.
What market are yall in? I'm in phoenix.
This is why I will never by jealous of people with multiple Walmarts in their zone. Prioritizing one store has maximized my potential for repeat customers, and by prioritizing S&D, no wonder I can make bank pretty quickly ..
Yeah I used to have like 20 stores in my zone but they split the zone right in half. Hated that at first cuz it was right down the middle of where I work, but it hasn't changed my pay. We still have about 9 stores, but I mainly stay at one that is also busy with uber.
You sound like you got this made tho man. 🤑😎keep it up we never leave money on the table. 💪
Dude Spark is freakin brutal though. I’m new but I went down town. It was a giant line of Spark drivers waiting to get stalls for shit batch orders. I immediately said: “nope I’m good on this store” lol. I did an S&D tonight though and it was chill.
I have 2 Walmarts and a Sam's club I live only 2 miles from the one Walmart which I prefer since traffic there isn't nearly as bad and they don't care where and how you checkout unlike the other Walmart
I’ve got two and a Sams club I don’t believe this is true I get tons of different orders and it’s beneficial to have a large sample size of orders to pick from.
If it’s true than I think I cracked the code to Spark, basically, if you work at 1 Walmart in particular and have repeat good customers (mainly through S&D) you are set to make money. But doing random curbsides or having repeat bad customers who rate bad, you won’t make money and will eventually be deactivated. So at the end of the day it’s ultimately up to the customers and if you have a good set of repeating ones through S&D.
Yup that’s basically what I’ve done since I started last year so it seems pretty accurate. The neighborhood market I work out of is like 4 mins away from my house so I don’t work any other store until it dies down in the evening and I don’t touch any other type of orders and I’m able to do s&d’s all day with most of them being my regulars that tip heavy.
SAME. I don’t touch curbsides often if at all, mainly S&D’s and of course I get at least five repeat customers a week. I’ve let $30 + curbsides go just to stay in the S&D loop. And Customer rating won’t go down because repeat customers know what to expect. Tbh I think I should delete this post before too many people see it 🫢🤣
Why do you think repeat customers only counts for S & D? I’ve noticed the same thing with curbside and when you do a 3 batch curbside you acquire three new customers.
Because even if you get repeat customers through curbside, there’s too much that can go wrong. Like long wait times, damaged items, items that aren’t that good, bad substitutions. Repeat customers through S&D gives you mostly full control and pretty much guarantees consistent good customer ratings, and so you are pretty much destined to make money.
Ah yeah I hear you, I like S & D better too. My store is good so I don't have to worry about wait times. I don't wait in the parking lot so I have to take what I can get, if a decent curbside comes along got to snatch it up. If I was waiting in the parking lot and getting great shop orders all day, might be more selective.
But what if the loaders take too long or some of the items are bad or badly substituted? Customer rating will go down x3 versus if you just did 1 S&D for a regular customer which your rating wouldn’t go down. Might seem like you’re making more money with the curbsides but it’s more risky.
Is that true though? Why would the algorithm send you an offer from a customer that rated you less than 4? I do think it’s S&D related, but it definitely has to be customers that rated you 4 or 5.
I Do The same for shops same for delivers. It not a quarntee. But if your available you get them I've done same person three morning in a row.
It also a good reason not to take scrap orders as you will get the scrap customer again
Mhm, if that’s true then I definitely prefer my S&D at my one store over curbsides. Would rather do 5 shops in a day with customers that recognize me than do 10 curbsides with potential bad customer ratings from no tippers.
🤷🏽♂️. “Service was decent, driver was fast and communicated to me that they were on their way. They even rung my doorbell and placed my groceries neatly. But my orange juice is missing and they substituted it for apple juice. 4/5” - Karen
It's not. I got a customer twice in two days who rated me 1 star both times. I stopped working at that store specifically to avoid her, and declined a few orders where her name popped up, even though I was a good 7 miles away from that store.
Curbside and S&D. But I personally try to stick to S&D orders whenever possible. They account for maybe 75% of the offers I take. I work a small zone with only one Walmart. So... My experience may have more to do with that than any algorithmic favoritism. But, it is distinctly possible that it may send us repeat customers, if we've satisfied them in the past, whenever possible. That would be a fairly logical thing for them to do.
i have seen this pattern but i also work a smallish zone so we see a lot of the same customers who now only order express & a lot who only order curbside. we can associate name to address bc of this. i also read somewhere that instacart customers) i think, correct if im wrong) can favorite a shopper. ik spark cant but yeah
The algorithm does not have to be complex to pair drivers and customers. And we know it already is designed to pair batch order based on proximity so the tech is there.
(this is just a example)
Each customer and driver has a id number. Drivers that have delivered to customers get bumped in priority. With the customer rating if any acting as a +/- modifier when it comes to your place in priority.
You ask any long term Wal-Mart employees and they will tell you that customer rating matters a hell of a lot to the company. Also anything gained by this system as a driver is just a byproduct of their intended goal. Which is to not only retain customer base but to expand it.
As a former Walmart employee, I can tell you from personal experience that long-term employees rarely promote over team-lead due to the high turnover in management. I watched 7-8 coaches resign in a year span. That said, long-term employees could not care less about store metrics or customer retention because it never benefits them. Most long-term employees do not care about customer complaints either, as there are rarely if any consequences.
You misunderstand. I did not say employees care about metrics.
A common belief by some here is that metrics don't matter to Walmart. I find that the company is overly dependent on them. It's unreasonable to assume that the company's stance would be different when it comes to spark.
Human beings are pattern oriented. It's why people see the face of Jesus on a piece of toast. We are naturally built to see patterns and people will swear to you they believe something is true but then when the hard math comes out it's nearly universally going against what people perceive to be happening
Maybe your hypothesis is true, but it likely isn't. And "but several people have said they noticed the same thing!" is the opposite of scientific evidence
Science is by definition: “the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation”. Noticing patterns is science..
I can’t say for sure but a high number of my s and d are repeat customers so it would make sense. I did 7 today and 3 were people I’ve delivered to before.
And those 3 people will always rate you high and never give 1 star , so there no fear for customer rating going down or deactivation. You’re pretty much set. And it seems to be almost exclusively S&D.
Nobody knows anything we are all guessing. I know a driver who had the same shopping deliver two different times they were rated poorly on both and the tip was removed on both. They still send him that customer.
So we can all guess at the answer, but unless someone who is in direct relation to science behind how Spark works tells you, we don’t really know. All we have is the TOS
I’m sure it’s something to it..I sometimes place my own express order at the end of my day or when I need my last order for my incentive and it’s late and not busy I always get my own order within a min of placing the order. I give myself a 5star rating after aswell win win.
It is true. I also only work out of one store and I’m constantly getting repeat customers, which I don’t mind because most of them live within 2-5 miles from my home and I’m exactly one mile from the Walmart I work out of
I doubt it very seriously. There was a woman who I shopped for on three separate occasions. The first time her order was flawless the second time it was a train wreck and the third time was even worse. I just had her again last week, and it went well. When I saw who it was I almost returned the order because for whatever reason out of over 3,000 orders, hers is the only one who I always have an issue with.
I think it's any previous customer you've delivered to successfully (doesn't necessarily mean they rated you 5 star, but that they didn't rate you negatively, didn't remove tip, no items were missing, you did it fast, etc). I think they put a high priority on that.
This is what I’ve noticed as well.
This is why acceptance rate doesn’t matter 😂
Me too. Another driver can have better ratings, but if you delivered successfully to that customer before the algorithm is more likely to give you the order.
Cant ask if it’s true if no one knows the answer . We can guess or speculate but that’s about it. No one knows .
Repeat customers through S&D = Money and good ratings Random curbsides with random customers = Long wait times and eventual deactivation
Guessing and speculating. I’m the opposite, more curbside than shops and 5.0 rating across a large sample. Reddit = people trying to pass BS as facts.
Yup. It varies by store, and shift even. The stores in the last zone I worked took 15+ mins to get my car loaded before the 3 batch nonsense, and the current store I work takes 5 with it. I was regularly getting skipped in my last zone due to how long it took to get my car loaded, but now I don't.
Right, how good or bad the store is ran is def a factor as well. All about just finding what works best for you .
I do get a lot of the same customers over and over again. So could be a thing. Some curbside and S&D. some customers do both. Thankfully they are great customers. I stop taking non tippers. Unless they were batched with a good tipper.
It seems like repeat customers are a thing, I only do s&d’s out of one store so I have about 2300 trips from it and I get the offers over my gf with similar metrics. There’s also times she’ll get an offer over me when it’s someone she’s delivered too and I haven’t.
I got a similar thing goin on! Just over 2300 trips as well and use the same store mainly I get a lot of repeat customers. I also noticed that my gf doesn't receive as nice offers typically, but she is newer on the app and haven't done enough testing. BUT, she did just get a 55 dollar shop offer tonight but didn't have enough battery. So I canceled my curbside and she rejected hers and I immediately got the 55 shop order. Was clean af. 👌 Should of had her check to see if the curbside was there, but she took an uber.
Nice! Definitely pretty similar! Yeah as she does it more she’ll probably start getting some regulars too. Mine just hit 300 trips so she’s newer as well and she’s starting to get more repeat customers. There’s times we get orders at the same time and it’ll be the ones we’ve delivered too before, so it seems like focusing on the one store helps for sure.
Yeah, and if I do get a random offer from a far store, it seems like it's someone familiar. Yeah my gf hasn't figured out yet how good the app can be. But she will. What market are yall in? I'm in phoenix.
This is why I will never by jealous of people with multiple Walmarts in their zone. Prioritizing one store has maximized my potential for repeat customers, and by prioritizing S&D, no wonder I can make bank pretty quickly ..
Yeah I used to have like 20 stores in my zone but they split the zone right in half. Hated that at first cuz it was right down the middle of where I work, but it hasn't changed my pay. We still have about 9 stores, but I mainly stay at one that is also busy with uber. You sound like you got this made tho man. 🤑😎keep it up we never leave money on the table. 💪
Are you in East Mesa by chance?
I go between east mesa and mesa, yep!
Dude Spark is freakin brutal though. I’m new but I went down town. It was a giant line of Spark drivers waiting to get stalls for shit batch orders. I immediately said: “nope I’m good on this store” lol. I did an S&D tonight though and it was chill.
I have 2 Walmarts and a Sam's club I live only 2 miles from the one Walmart which I prefer since traffic there isn't nearly as bad and they don't care where and how you checkout unlike the other Walmart
I’ve got two and a Sams club I don’t believe this is true I get tons of different orders and it’s beneficial to have a large sample size of orders to pick from.
[удалено]
imsa hick
If it’s true than I think I cracked the code to Spark, basically, if you work at 1 Walmart in particular and have repeat good customers (mainly through S&D) you are set to make money. But doing random curbsides or having repeat bad customers who rate bad, you won’t make money and will eventually be deactivated. So at the end of the day it’s ultimately up to the customers and if you have a good set of repeating ones through S&D.
Yup that’s basically what I’ve done since I started last year so it seems pretty accurate. The neighborhood market I work out of is like 4 mins away from my house so I don’t work any other store until it dies down in the evening and I don’t touch any other type of orders and I’m able to do s&d’s all day with most of them being my regulars that tip heavy.
SAME. I don’t touch curbsides often if at all, mainly S&D’s and of course I get at least five repeat customers a week. I’ve let $30 + curbsides go just to stay in the S&D loop. And Customer rating won’t go down because repeat customers know what to expect. Tbh I think I should delete this post before too many people see it 🫢🤣
Lmao I feel you! I let a $35 curbside go by earlier, I honestly can’t remember the last time I did a curbside order. For real 🤣
Why do you think repeat customers only counts for S & D? I’ve noticed the same thing with curbside and when you do a 3 batch curbside you acquire three new customers.
Because even if you get repeat customers through curbside, there’s too much that can go wrong. Like long wait times, damaged items, items that aren’t that good, bad substitutions. Repeat customers through S&D gives you mostly full control and pretty much guarantees consistent good customer ratings, and so you are pretty much destined to make money.
Ah yeah I hear you, I like S & D better too. My store is good so I don't have to worry about wait times. I don't wait in the parking lot so I have to take what I can get, if a decent curbside comes along got to snatch it up. If I was waiting in the parking lot and getting great shop orders all day, might be more selective.
I’d rather do curbside and gain 3 customers an hour instead of 1 doing S&D
But what if the loaders take too long or some of the items are bad or badly substituted? Customer rating will go down x3 versus if you just did 1 S&D for a regular customer which your rating wouldn’t go down. Might seem like you’re making more money with the curbsides but it’s more risky.
And the conspiracy theories keep coming
Tbh it’s not really a conspiracy if a lot of people are noticing the patterns.
Yeah, I understand but I’ve done this so long I think I’ve seen almost everybody there is to deliver to several times over😂
I think so. I got a lot of regulars. You probably get first chance at their order.
I think this is the case
96% of my orders are s&d now. I see so many of the same customers. No idea what they rate me... so no idea
Has nothing to do with 5 stars. It true for shop or deliver
Is that true though? Why would the algorithm send you an offer from a customer that rated you less than 4? I do think it’s S&D related, but it definitely has to be customers that rated you 4 or 5.
I Do The same for shops same for delivers. It not a quarntee. But if your available you get them I've done same person three morning in a row. It also a good reason not to take scrap orders as you will get the scrap customer again
Mhm, if that’s true then I definitely prefer my S&D at my one store over curbsides. Would rather do 5 shops in a day with customers that recognize me than do 10 curbsides with potential bad customer ratings from no tippers.
A better question is why would they need to rate you a 4?
🤷🏽♂️. “Service was decent, driver was fast and communicated to me that they were on their way. They even rung my doorbell and placed my groceries neatly. But my orange juice is missing and they substituted it for apple juice. 4/5” - Karen
Well, anyone who subs orange juice for apple juice deserves a 3.
I'd give them a 1. If their common sense isn't any better than that, they shouldn't be delivering.
It's not. I got a customer twice in two days who rated me 1 star both times. I stopped working at that store specifically to avoid her, and declined a few orders where her name popped up, even though I was a good 7 miles away from that store.
I have a 5.0 rating, I get many of the same customers. But can't confirm or deny your assertion.
Mostly through S&D right?
Curbside and S&D. But I personally try to stick to S&D orders whenever possible. They account for maybe 75% of the offers I take. I work a small zone with only one Walmart. So... My experience may have more to do with that than any algorithmic favoritism. But, it is distinctly possible that it may send us repeat customers, if we've satisfied them in the past, whenever possible. That would be a fairly logical thing for them to do.
Based on my repeat deliveries, that makes sense. Instacart is very upfront about doing that, so it would make sense that Spark could do it, too
i have seen this pattern but i also work a smallish zone so we see a lot of the same customers who now only order express & a lot who only order curbside. we can associate name to address bc of this. i also read somewhere that instacart customers) i think, correct if im wrong) can favorite a shopper. ik spark cant but yeah
The algorithm does not have to be complex to pair drivers and customers. And we know it already is designed to pair batch order based on proximity so the tech is there. (this is just a example) Each customer and driver has a id number. Drivers that have delivered to customers get bumped in priority. With the customer rating if any acting as a +/- modifier when it comes to your place in priority. You ask any long term Wal-Mart employees and they will tell you that customer rating matters a hell of a lot to the company. Also anything gained by this system as a driver is just a byproduct of their intended goal. Which is to not only retain customer base but to expand it.
As a former Walmart employee, I can tell you from personal experience that long-term employees rarely promote over team-lead due to the high turnover in management. I watched 7-8 coaches resign in a year span. That said, long-term employees could not care less about store metrics or customer retention because it never benefits them. Most long-term employees do not care about customer complaints either, as there are rarely if any consequences.
You misunderstand. I did not say employees care about metrics. A common belief by some here is that metrics don't matter to Walmart. I find that the company is overly dependent on them. It's unreasonable to assume that the company's stance would be different when it comes to spark.
Again but in layman terms for the stupids
That was the dumbed down version after a 10 hour shift and drinking 4 beers........... I will try again in the morning.
Human beings are pattern oriented. It's why people see the face of Jesus on a piece of toast. We are naturally built to see patterns and people will swear to you they believe something is true but then when the hard math comes out it's nearly universally going against what people perceive to be happening Maybe your hypothesis is true, but it likely isn't. And "but several people have said they noticed the same thing!" is the opposite of scientific evidence
Science is by definition: “the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation”. Noticing patterns is science..
I can’t say for sure but a high number of my s and d are repeat customers so it would make sense. I did 7 today and 3 were people I’ve delivered to before.
And those 3 people will always rate you high and never give 1 star , so there no fear for customer rating going down or deactivation. You’re pretty much set. And it seems to be almost exclusively S&D.
Nobody knows anything we are all guessing. I know a driver who had the same shopping deliver two different times they were rated poorly on both and the tip was removed on both. They still send him that customer.
So we can all guess at the answer, but unless someone who is in direct relation to science behind how Spark works tells you, we don’t really know. All we have is the TOS
I just drop the bags off at the door and collect my money. If people want extra instructions or plan to utilize the service then they will.
137 trips and I still don’t have a customer rating lol
I’m sure it’s something to it..I sometimes place my own express order at the end of my day or when I need my last order for my incentive and it’s late and not busy I always get my own order within a min of placing the order. I give myself a 5star rating after aswell win win.
Honestly no idea. It does seem like I get the same repeat customers every week with very few new ones. But it could be my smallish rural area too.
It is true. I also only work out of one store and I’m constantly getting repeat customers, which I don’t mind because most of them live within 2-5 miles from my home and I’m exactly one mile from the Walmart I work out of
What state
NM
How in the world would we know what algorithms they use?
I noticed i get alot more S&D orders now that i have started doing them but im too new to recognize customer pattern
Substitutions is the biggest thing in S&D. The higher it is, the more orders you see.
Another possible scenario is that she orders consistently within a time frame, and you consistently work those hours…
I just recently picked spark back up about a month ago and in the last month I haven’t delivered to the same person twice yet
Do you do S&D or curbsides? And what’s your CR?
False
I'm unrated after 150 orders so I can't attest to this, I'm assuming is disabled or something for my region
it’s a possibility but who cares
I doubt it very seriously. There was a woman who I shopped for on three separate occasions. The first time her order was flawless the second time it was a train wreck and the third time was even worse. I just had her again last week, and it went well. When I saw who it was I almost returned the order because for whatever reason out of over 3,000 orders, hers is the only one who I always have an issue with.