Delivery Hero announced it has adopted Twilio’s communications platform, in a bid to reduce rider friction, improve customer reachability, and lower support escalations at global scale.
Operating in around 70 countries, across four continents, Delivery Hero is responsible for 11 leading brands, including foodpanda, talabat, foodora, HungerStation, and PedidosYa. Every day, millions of customers rely on Delivery Hero for everything from restaurant meals and groceries to pharmacy items, flowers, and specialty retail. The rider app alone supports a vast global community of active riders, helping fulfill more than 10 million orders daily.
Fixing the last-mile handover
When customers were unreachable at the doorstep, riders faced delays, language barriers, personal call costs, and long waits for agent support – while using personal phones raised privacy and regulatory concerns across markets.
“We need customers’ attention at the right moment. If the final handover fails, everyone loses. The customer doesn’t receive their order, and we’re left holding goods that can’t be used elsewhere,” said Philip Grefe, Product Manager, Rider App at Delivery Hero.
To solve this, Delivery Hero leveraged Twilio’s technology to engineer pickup and drop-off communications using Twilio Programmable Voice, global phone number pooling, and Text-to-Speech.
Local, automated voice
With a single tap in the rider app, an automated call is triggered from a local phone number, delivered in the customer’s preferred language, the company said. Riders no longer need to use personal devices, eliminating out-of-pocket costs and protecting privacy, while customers are more likely to answer trusted, localized calls.
Built in Twilio Studio and integrated with existing systems, the IVR workflow enables customers to confirm availability or cancel deliveries without agent involvement. Scaling from first code to thousands of daily calls took under three months, rolling out a consistent experience across dozens of languages and markets.
“Delivery Hero’s use of Twilio shows how programmable communications can remove friction at critical moments,” said Jake Kanter, Vice President of Sales, EMEA Communications at Twilio. “By combining global coverage with local trust, they’ve turned last-mile delivery into a measurable, scalable, and customer-first experience.”
Measurable Impact
By improving reachability at the doorstep, Twilio has helped Delivery Hero cut support tickets, reduced operating costs, and improved delivery reliability, without slowing riders down. Specifically, the company saw 25% reduction in overall rider contact rates, and 60%+ fewer rider-to-agent escalations in “customer unavailable” scenarios.
