A Mc. Experience

After reading what the assignment was, I immediately thought of the upper east side of Manhattan. My first thought was “upper east side” because I pictured that if I wanted to complete the assignment in a good area I would probably enjoy the experience, accomplish the goal, and also taste the food. The task was to find out a Mc. Donald’s and complete a peculiar sort of picky request. Prof. K wanted a printed receipt that specified a small burger with 4 pickles and a small side order of French fries, well done with no salt. I felt very enthusiastic about the task and then a little bit concerned as well. I was feeling enthusiastic because I wanted to see the reaction of the restaurant staff after making the emphasis for such distinctive details on the order. I was also concerned, as I already specified, because of the fear I had of some angry employee throwing dirt into my food. After watching a variety of news reports in which employees wipe themselves with food and then, put these foods back on the meal for customers to eat; I was scared.

A few days ago, I got everything necessary to complete the project and went to the nearest store. I took my wallet, my pen, my agenda and my appetite to Mc. Donald’s; I went straight to the counter and tried to place the order. First I wanted a #9 (Chicken Burger). I started to demand the 4 pickles and the peculiar characteristics to the fries. The clerk started to look at the keys of the register to mark what I wanted on my order. The store manager immediately noticed the employee was having some trouble; therefore she approached us. She asked me to repeat what I wanted and I did so. The manager asked if there was “something she should know about”. My answer was “No” with a big smile on my face. After approximately 7 minutes, I told her to cancel that order and just give me a regular burger with 4 pickles, she did. Then I also asked her to give me a small side of well done French fries with no salt. At that moment she looked at me and asked me for the second time if “there was something she should know”. I told her No, again. A few seconds later she told she couldn’t specify my request on the receipt but, she also said she could write it down for me and place her manager signature next to it. I refused to accept her offer and requested again for a printed receipt with the order details on it. At that moment she gave up and told me she couldn’t complete my request. I had to thank her for the effort and cancel everything, again. All the other cashiers looked back at me. I guessed they were trying to recognize me from a TV show or something related to the media. I was angry because I couldn’t complete my assignment and I was also starving. The staff gave up on a picky consumer and lost a customer.

As I got home, I checked online for all the Mc Donald’s around the area and decided not to give up. Its extra credit what we are talking about. The following night, coming back from school I was still feeling upset because I couldn’t complete my task yet. I stopped at 59^th street on Lexington Ave. and remember from my research that there is a Mc D’s. close to that station. It was pretty late by that time, but because of the area I didn’t think the staff was going to be rude to me. So, I arrived there. The cashier looked young and was very nice. I demanded the exactly same order as before: A cheeseburger with exactly 4 pickles on it. He smiled at me. A few seconds after, the manager approached us. He asked what was going on; the cashier explained to this person what I needed. The manager smiled, turned around and left. He was going back and forth until he actually told me “you got me with that”. He took the place on the register and tried to configure my request on the machine. A minute later he told me,” I got it, is there anything else he could help me with?” So I did, I told him about what I needed with the fries. He got that fast. So I smiled and I thanked him for being so nice. I paid and waited for my order to be complete. While I was waiting for my food, the manager asked me how he was supposed to do the well done fries for me. I just told him to do whatever he understood with that order. He was so nice that he took out another bag of fries and cooked them right in front of me. There they were, well done and no salt on them. The entire process took approximately 15 minutes, so I thanked him and walked out with the infamous order. I felt so glad from that experience at that store; the staff that assisted me was very respectful and didn’t give up on me as the prior store did. They surely put some good quality effort into my request. As soon as I was ready to eat my order, I had to check the pickles on my order. Well, there were not 4 pickles in there but 6 of them. Either way, I took off the pickles because I don’t even like pickles at all, and ate the entire meal.

If I was brought as a consultant to Mc. Donald’s to help them improve their efficiency, I would have to congratulate them for the good customer service the staff provided but I would also have to point out that printing out a receipt with a customers request is not all. They also need to make sure that both the order and the receipt match, especially with such special orders. The staff did a good job preparing the fries just how I wanted them, but the burger didn’t have the number of pickles I requested. I would have to grade them for the entire manufacturing process with a 7 on the scale from 1 to 10. The lack of communication and coordination between the person receiving the order and the people in charge of cooking the order was not satisfactory. If the communication skills between these two parties were effective, there wouldn’t have been such mistake on the preparation of the burger. For the staff’s lack of communication and coordination I would have to grade them with a 5 on a scale from 1 to 10. Now, customer service ranking is different. I would give the staff a 10 for customer service because the entire group was very kind and respectful with my request. It was certainly a good shopping experience for me.