Yumbird FAQs
General FAQs
What is Yumbird?
Yumbird is a user-supplied, referral-based food network connecting local consumers and everyday home chefs.
To consumers Yumbird offers a reliable and tastier, healthier alternative to fast food or frozen dinners. To home chefs Yumbird is a marketplace to promote their cooking talent and test the waters if they think of starting their own food business. To the community Yumbird brings new personal connections based on common interests in home and family values.
How does Yumbird work?
Yumbird’s vision is to build a mobile app-based social food network that will lead both food consumers and home cooks into the mutually beneficial and safe relationship. Yumbird platform consists of two connected mobile apps: one for offering home cooked food to nearby foodies; the other for browsing and ordering local home chef offerings. To help people find trustworthy sellers or consumers, we employ social media to refer home chefs and food buyers to the network.
What is social media referral model?
Our social media referral model allows Yumbird network members to ask their connections to vouch for them. Each chef or consumer can ask their virtual contacts to refer them to the network and give them a brief evaluation. Every positive mark brings one “referral point” to the individual. The number of collected referral points is clearly visible on the chef’s or consumer’s profile, and each complete transaction can add points to the chef’s or consumer’s referral capital. The more referral points the user has, the more trustworthy he/she looks to the potential customers or service providers.
Is it safe and lawful?
Each state has its own rules and regulations for selling home cooked food, and we encourage our chefs to find out about those rules and follow them. Yumbird was started with the intention to help food artisans offer their products locally. We are a technology company, not food vendor. Our social media referral model helps make Yumbird less anonymous and more personal for users. We help people connect, get to know each other, and spread the word about their experience
Consumer FAQs
Who are the Yumbird chefs?
Our chefs are talented individuals who are passionate about cooking and food. True chefs, like captains of ships, are the masters of their kitchens. Here they do magic of preparing stunning meals, creating new recipes, feeding the hungry, and teaching the novices.
What sort of food can I expect to see?
Get ready for foodie adventure every time you browse food on Yumbird! Chefs may share with you the very homemade dish their family is having today, or it can be something national, authentic, or exotic. Anyway, it’s going to be delicious - just find what you’d like to try, and tap to order!
How fast will my order be complete?
You can place your order anytime, but it will be complete within the dish time window (you can see on the upper-left corner of the dish photo). Usually, if you order before availability time, it will be ready as soon as the time window opens. If you place your order near the closing time, it might take some while to complete, or even be declined with an apology.
Can I order in advance?
We’re planning to add this feature to the second release of the Yumbird app.
If you like the dish and want to order it for another day, write about it in the “Special instructions to the chef” field.
Some chefs might sell pre-order items like complex dishes that require more time to cook, or special occasion items: wedding and birthday cakes, etc. These items will be named accordingly, and advance order time will be explained in the dish description.
How does the food reach the consumer?
Yumbird chefs provide delivery or pick-up options, or both. Depending on the option selected at the ordering, food will either be delivered or the consumer will pick up the food.
What if the Chef doesn’t provide the food as promised?
If you deny the completion of the order, the payment will be stopped and the problem will be investigated. The chef’s account on Yumbird will be frozen, and if your accusations proof right, the chef can be permanently disconnected from Yumbird network.
How is the price determined for the meals available on Yumbird?
Yumbird provides pricing guidelines to its chefs, however individual Yumbird chef is responsible for setting the price for the offered meals.
How much does the food delivery cost?
As with the food pricing, it is up to the chef to determine the delivery charge, or offer a free delivery. The delivery charge will be added to the total price of the order if the Yumbird chef is delivering the food.
How is the payment handled?
To place an order on Yumbird, consumers must provide a valid credit card number, which is safely handled by a third-party payment processor. The credit card is charged when the consumer confirms the completion of the order.
Why do I see different chefs every time I open the Yumbird app?
Many Yumbird chefs post their food listings when the dish is done or almost done, while others keep their listings on the platform, offering to order ahead. You see the current food selection for your area.
Can I order food from yumbird.com?
No. Currently yumbird.com website does not provide food ordering capabilities. A consumer will have to use the Yumbird smartphone app to order food. Similarly, a Yumbird chef will utilize the provider version of smartphone app to interact with the yumbird platform. We will be adding the order capabilities to our website in the near future.
Why should I provide feedback or rate the Yumbird chef?
Yumbird is a trust-based platform, where consumer and chef rate each other and their experiences. Ratings provided by consumers are used to calculate the score and referral capital for each Yumbird chef.
What is referral capital?
The chef’s referral capital our referral capital is the number of referral points the chef has collected from their contacts, plus any additional referral points they’ve got from the customers for complete orders.
The consumer’s referral capital is the number of referral points you have collected from your social media contacts, plus any additional points you’ve got from the chefs for finalized orders.
Why do I want to increase my referral capital?
The more referral points you have, the higher is your ranking within the community, and the more desired as a client you look to the chefs. Plus, Yumbird will award the highest ranking consumers: interview them for our blog, and include them into our monthly raffle.
Chef FAQs
Can anyone be a Yumbird chef?
Yes. Download the app, get referred, create your menu, and make your dream come true. No pressure, no schedule, no big investments. Cook what you like and when you like. Deliver your orders within your preferred range, allow your customers to pick up their food from your convenient location, or select both options to enhance your business.
Are there any selling limitations?
No. Sell as little or as much as you want.
Who can see my offers?
Depending on your location, your offers will be shown to local food consumers who have downloaded Yumbird consumer app.
How much does it cost?
The Yumbird app is free, however we’ll be withholding a 10% per transaction service charge.
How to create my chef’s profile?
When you download the app, you will be guided thru the registration and profile creation process. Go to Yumbird Chef’s kitchen for more info and examples.
Is it necessary to get referred?
Social media referral is a mandatory step for all Yumbird chefs. You can create your profile and your menu items (dishes), but to offer them to the public you will need your friends to vouch for you.
What is my referral capital?
Your referral capital is the number of referral points you have collected from your contacts, plus any additional referral points you’ve got from your customers for complete orders.
Why do I want to increase my referral capital?
The more referral points you have, the higher is your ranking within the community, and the more trustworthy you look to the potential clients. Plus, Yumbird will award the highest ranking chefs: feature them on our website, include them into our monthly raffle, give them free Yumbird food packaging sets, etc.
How to create a dish?
Once you created your profile, you can proceed to your kitchen and start creating your menu. Select “Create a new dish” and proceed with the dish name, photos, descriptions, diet features, etc. Save your new dish to your menu for future use, or publish it so the consumers can see it immediately. Go to Yumbird Chef’s kitchen for more info and examples.
Can I change my food listing?
If you don’t have an active order for the dish, you can edit or remove it. However, if you are currently processing an order for the given dish, you will be able to edit or remove it only when the order is complete. The only thing you can change in such dish is the number of servings available.
How do I get paid?
You will receive a payment from Yumbird at the beginning of the month for the previous month, along with the detailed statement.
It is your responsibility to pay taxes on time. To make it easy for you, we included a simple bookkeeping aid within the app, where you will be able to keep a track of your complete orders, expenses, and payments received from Yumbird.
Please contact us at info@yumbird.com with any questions about the platform, and one of our representatives will get back to you shortly.