This article is part of our Lessons in Customer Support series. You can learn more about how companies, large and small, handled their customer service issues here.
McDonald’s: Fixing the Broken Customer Service
“… customers rate good service almost as highly as dollar value”
1 out of 5 complaints received by McDonald’s is about the “friendliness” of the employees. In plain speak, customers are unhappy with the rude and unprofessional service from their staff. Wall Street Journal has published an article detailing what transpired in the webcast between McDonald’s and its franchisees trying to tackle this problem.
McDonald’s isn’t wasting time to address this growing discontent and a number of measures have already been put in place to keep customers happy.The concept of a “dual point” ordering system in particular is an interesting attempt at mollifying customers frustrated with increasing wait times and long queues.
By moving the customer from the cashier with an order number in hand, to another end of the counter to pick up the food, McDonald’s tries to reduce a lot of friction. A “runner” puts the order together and hands it over to the delivery counter. The person at the delivery point has the sole job of delivering the food to the customer and greeting him with a smile.
It’s a simple and effective idea. But, the quick service industry has an average annual employee turnover rate of 60%. With this piece of info in hand, McDonald’s attempt to delight its customers with more people in the restaurants becomes a laudable effort.
