As promised: Our classic McDonalds Rant
(Note: I promised in this week's Penny Press column that I would revisit my classic McDonald's rant. For those of you not reading almost two years ago, here you go...)
I was recently asked by one of my affiliate stations if I would consider
restarting my old Dollar Sense radio show. I did this show for a couple of
years on the old Sun Radio Network in the early 90’s and it was generally
well received where it aired.
The premise of the show was that there was s symbiotic relationship
between Consumers and Businesses. They need one another to survive. We
addressed the problems that consumers had with businesses, and the problems
that Businesses had in dealing with consumers, specifically customer
service and being effective. While I enjoyed helping listeners, resolve their
consumer issues, I truly enjoyed helping businesses understand why consumers
were upset. We would have guests who explained the dynamics of
good customer service, how to answer phones in an effective manner, and
how to deal with problem customer and the employees that create them.
I’ve had far too many problems with the latter in the past few weeks to
count.
Just last week, in fact.
I brought my wife home a single red rose to lift her spirits. She was
delighted. I remember we had a bud vase at home, but between her cats
and the 5 year old it was no longer. So where do you go to get a bud vase
at midnight?
Wal-Mart, of course!
We hadn’t had dinner yet, and thinking we’d kill two birds with one
stone, suggested that we eat at the all-night diner across the street. My wife
blanched, reminding me of our last visit there, when we waited 30 minutes
with no one else in the restaurant for someone to wait on us. When we were
finally waited on with no apology or kindness, we left.
My wife suggested, since we were already going to Wal-Mart, we could
eat at the 24 hour McDonalds in the store. I grudgingly agreed, not knowing
that by the time the evening was over, we would regret the decision.
As we waited, the shift manager was taking orders. My wife flinched,
saying the last time she was there he mixed up her order. I told her (in a
voice probably too loud) “Don’t worry, I’ll speak slowly.” I ordered my
wife’s fish filet sandwich with lettuce, onions, and tomato with fries and my
cheeseburger plain. He then proceeded to thoroughly confuse the order. I
patiently untangled his mess, paid for the order, and received no thank you,
no acknowledgement at all!
Five minutes went by, then ten minutes. There were no other orders,
and I was wondering if the steer had to be killed and the fish caught, when
our order finally came up.
My double cheeseburger was fine. After all, how can you mess that
up.?
My wife’s order, though, was a different story. The French fries contained
a pound of salt, the filet was not golden brown, but dark brown and
could have been used as a brick, and the tomato was vintage 2002.
The shift manager argued, bickered, and eventually and grudgingly gave
my wife a refund.
We then went to Smiths, bought a frozen dinner, and went home.
The sad part is, most people would say that these are minimum wage
employees. But this was a shift manager, making well above minimum
wage. His salary wasn’t the problem. I know that we have problems in my
full time job hiring drug-free qualified employees without attitudes at any
wage.
I told this story on my radio show, pointing out that McDonalds spends
millions of dollars a week convincing people to come into their restaurants,
and that this one employee earned them eleven minutes of bad publicity
on a nationally syndicated radio show. I further pointed out that for every
Wyatt Cox that has a problem like mine, there are hundreds of thousands of
people who have the same experience or worse, and walk away in disgust
and will never go back.
Who is to blame? Beats me. I could claim it’s the horrible employee,
or his management who hasn’t made high level priority customer service a
job requirement. Or it could be me for making the assumption that a billion
dollar company might actually give a flip about the people who do business
at their establishment.
Or I could blame Society. But then, I’m not a liberal.
Still, people seem to not give a damn these days about their jobs.
Motivating people to do their best at work isn’t easy. I encounter that
problem daily. And if I’m having that problem, how many other employers
are?
When I was younger, being out of work was something I feared. Being
employed and doing a good job and getting promoted was always top of
mind to me. For some reason it’s not anymore.
I guess the bottom line is, people don’t care. Why should I?
Because I was raised right. Because America is Excellence. Because I
am an American. Because of that, I must excel.
Too many people are not only NOT afraid to fail, they live for it, and
fail themselves daily.
Want proof? Watch Jerry Springer.
WYATT COX
...and our Follow-up Rant
Well, I doubt that my rants on air or in print had much to do with it, but a new report shows McDonald's service lacking. The source: McDonalds itself!
It seems that McDonalds emailed a report to it's franchisees entitled “Loud and Clear; The Voice Of The Customer”. Apparently a copy of that report got into the hands of an unidentified Associated Press reporter who ran with the story.
Among the report's findings, compiled from the more than half a million complaints lodged at McDonald's customer contact center last year:
McDonald's Bill Whitman wouldn't comment much on the document to the Associated Press reporter other than to label this an internal document and to state while customer feedback isn't "always what we like to hear, it's information we need to do a better job".
But are they listening?
CNBC's Hampton Pearson spoke with Chris Denove over at JD power and associates -- the big "Customer Satisfaction" survey people who points to a trend to cut customer service to help the companies short term bottom line but not paying attention to the long-term implications of the cutbacks. Admittedly, the goal of a company is to make money, plain and simple, but some companies don't understand how much that "penny wise-pound foolish" attitude can cost them. It costs hundred of times less to keep a customer than to replace them. The implication is "To hell with the public, they'll take what we give them. Customer service is nice and all that, but it costs too much, so we're cutting back".
Great. More of the continuing Wal-marting of America.
Please understand, I am not opposed to open competition, but the outright low price and no service concept is not good for our nation. America excels due to good service. Do we honestly want to continue our "Race to the bottom" by crapping all over the people who truly pay the bills? It's not about branding, market segment, price point, or any of the other big buzzwords that the consultants spew. It's about a decent product at a decent price served by someone who at least acts happy to have their job and doesn't wear their resentment on their sleeve as a badge of honor. Give me five exceptional employees and I'll give you the best business in America today. I doubt you'll find that many outstanding employees in any fast food business in this country. (Or even one with five employees that are literate in any language, much less English.)
Do you remember the move Back to the Future? There's a scene in it where a car pulls up to a service station in 1955 and a half dozen attendants come out and begin washing windows, checking tires, checking under the hood, and of course, filling the gas tank. People roared with laughter at this. In 1985! Now 20 years later we are two generations removed from true customer service at the gas pump. Is there a real service station left in America?
JD Power's Denove says that companies need to look at customer service not as an expense, but as a capital investment. By looking at it as a long-term investment instead of a short-term expense, companies can understand how to make their bottom line grow, guaranteed. It's a strategy that McDonald's and Home Depot in particular need to examine closely. More on the Home Depot story in a future column.
Last week Bubba Brown wanted to go to McDonalds after he got out of kindergarten. I told him we weren't going back at all. He asked why, and I explained that the people at McDonalds were mean to his mommy and made her cry. He still doesn't understand it, but by the time I'm done, this boy will understand customer service in both getting and giving it.
Despite what the big corporations might think, it's the only true recipe for success in America today.
They Love To Fail
I was recently asked by one of my affiliate stations if I would consider
restarting my old Dollar Sense radio show. I did this show for a couple of
years on the old Sun Radio Network in the early 90’s and it was generally
well received where it aired.
The premise of the show was that there was s symbiotic relationship
between Consumers and Businesses. They need one another to survive. We
addressed the problems that consumers had with businesses, and the problems
that Businesses had in dealing with consumers, specifically customer
service and being effective. While I enjoyed helping listeners, resolve their
consumer issues, I truly enjoyed helping businesses understand why consumers
were upset. We would have guests who explained the dynamics of
good customer service, how to answer phones in an effective manner, and
how to deal with problem customer and the employees that create them.
I’ve had far too many problems with the latter in the past few weeks to
count.
Just last week, in fact.
I brought my wife home a single red rose to lift her spirits. She was
delighted. I remember we had a bud vase at home, but between her cats
and the 5 year old it was no longer. So where do you go to get a bud vase
at midnight?
Wal-Mart, of course!
We hadn’t had dinner yet, and thinking we’d kill two birds with one
stone, suggested that we eat at the all-night diner across the street. My wife
blanched, reminding me of our last visit there, when we waited 30 minutes
with no one else in the restaurant for someone to wait on us. When we were
finally waited on with no apology or kindness, we left.
My wife suggested, since we were already going to Wal-Mart, we could
eat at the 24 hour McDonalds in the store. I grudgingly agreed, not knowing
that by the time the evening was over, we would regret the decision.
As we waited, the shift manager was taking orders. My wife flinched,
saying the last time she was there he mixed up her order. I told her (in a
voice probably too loud) “Don’t worry, I’ll speak slowly.” I ordered my
wife’s fish filet sandwich with lettuce, onions, and tomato with fries and my
cheeseburger plain. He then proceeded to thoroughly confuse the order. I
patiently untangled his mess, paid for the order, and received no thank you,
no acknowledgement at all!
Five minutes went by, then ten minutes. There were no other orders,
and I was wondering if the steer had to be killed and the fish caught, when
our order finally came up.
My double cheeseburger was fine. After all, how can you mess that
up.?
My wife’s order, though, was a different story. The French fries contained
a pound of salt, the filet was not golden brown, but dark brown and
could have been used as a brick, and the tomato was vintage 2002.
The shift manager argued, bickered, and eventually and grudgingly gave
my wife a refund.
We then went to Smiths, bought a frozen dinner, and went home.
The sad part is, most people would say that these are minimum wage
employees. But this was a shift manager, making well above minimum
wage. His salary wasn’t the problem. I know that we have problems in my
full time job hiring drug-free qualified employees without attitudes at any
wage.
I told this story on my radio show, pointing out that McDonalds spends
millions of dollars a week convincing people to come into their restaurants,
and that this one employee earned them eleven minutes of bad publicity
on a nationally syndicated radio show. I further pointed out that for every
Wyatt Cox that has a problem like mine, there are hundreds of thousands of
people who have the same experience or worse, and walk away in disgust
and will never go back.
Who is to blame? Beats me. I could claim it’s the horrible employee,
or his management who hasn’t made high level priority customer service a
job requirement. Or it could be me for making the assumption that a billion
dollar company might actually give a flip about the people who do business
at their establishment.
Or I could blame Society. But then, I’m not a liberal.
Still, people seem to not give a damn these days about their jobs.
Motivating people to do their best at work isn’t easy. I encounter that
problem daily. And if I’m having that problem, how many other employers
are?
When I was younger, being out of work was something I feared. Being
employed and doing a good job and getting promoted was always top of
mind to me. For some reason it’s not anymore.
I guess the bottom line is, people don’t care. Why should I?
Because I was raised right. Because America is Excellence. Because I
am an American. Because of that, I must excel.
Too many people are not only NOT afraid to fail, they live for it, and
fail themselves daily.
Want proof? Watch Jerry Springer.
WYATT COX
...and our Follow-up Rant
Well, I doubt that my rants on air or in print had much to do with it, but a new report shows McDonald's service lacking. The source: McDonalds itself!
It seems that McDonalds emailed a report to it's franchisees entitled “Loud and Clear; The Voice Of The Customer”. Apparently a copy of that report got into the hands of an unidentified Associated Press reporter who ran with the story.
Among the report's findings, compiled from the more than half a million complaints lodged at McDonald's customer contact center last year:
- Customer complaints were up at both company owned and franchise locations; 20.1 per 100,000 guests at company stores, 12 per 100,000 guests at franchisees.
- Tops on the complaint list was "transactional accuracy"-wrong items, missing items, badly prepared items, (sound familiar?) mischarging and the like. This category accounted for roughly a quarter of the complaints.
- About 15 percent of the complaints were for "rude and unprofessional service", (Deja vu all over again!) with "speed of service" coming in third (and completing our trifecta) with about 7 percent.
- Calls of praise or appreciation totaled 5 to 7 percent according to the report. For a retail business that's a high number; based on my recent negative experiences with McDonald's it should be considered nothing short of a miracle.
McDonald's Bill Whitman wouldn't comment much on the document to the Associated Press reporter other than to label this an internal document and to state while customer feedback isn't "always what we like to hear, it's information we need to do a better job".
But are they listening?
CNBC's Hampton Pearson spoke with Chris Denove over at JD power and associates -- the big "Customer Satisfaction" survey people who points to a trend to cut customer service to help the companies short term bottom line but not paying attention to the long-term implications of the cutbacks. Admittedly, the goal of a company is to make money, plain and simple, but some companies don't understand how much that "penny wise-pound foolish" attitude can cost them. It costs hundred of times less to keep a customer than to replace them. The implication is "To hell with the public, they'll take what we give them. Customer service is nice and all that, but it costs too much, so we're cutting back".
Great. More of the continuing Wal-marting of America.
Please understand, I am not opposed to open competition, but the outright low price and no service concept is not good for our nation. America excels due to good service. Do we honestly want to continue our "Race to the bottom" by crapping all over the people who truly pay the bills? It's not about branding, market segment, price point, or any of the other big buzzwords that the consultants spew. It's about a decent product at a decent price served by someone who at least acts happy to have their job and doesn't wear their resentment on their sleeve as a badge of honor. Give me five exceptional employees and I'll give you the best business in America today. I doubt you'll find that many outstanding employees in any fast food business in this country. (Or even one with five employees that are literate in any language, much less English.)
Do you remember the move Back to the Future? There's a scene in it where a car pulls up to a service station in 1955 and a half dozen attendants come out and begin washing windows, checking tires, checking under the hood, and of course, filling the gas tank. People roared with laughter at this. In 1985! Now 20 years later we are two generations removed from true customer service at the gas pump. Is there a real service station left in America?
JD Power's Denove says that companies need to look at customer service not as an expense, but as a capital investment. By looking at it as a long-term investment instead of a short-term expense, companies can understand how to make their bottom line grow, guaranteed. It's a strategy that McDonald's and Home Depot in particular need to examine closely. More on the Home Depot story in a future column.
Last week Bubba Brown wanted to go to McDonalds after he got out of kindergarten. I told him we weren't going back at all. He asked why, and I explained that the people at McDonalds were mean to his mommy and made her cry. He still doesn't understand it, but by the time I'm done, this boy will understand customer service in both getting and giving it.
Despite what the big corporations might think, it's the only true recipe for success in America today.
Comments