McDonalds? ..... Update.....

I am not a fan of McDonald's. I live by the motto that I'd rather eat dirt. But, in fairness, historically, McDonald's has always prided itself on customer service. As soon as the store accepted your money, they committed to serving you and giving you the opportunity to eat your meals. If they didn't want you to 'eat in' then they should not have served you. Simple.

I'd write to McDonald's corporate and the local owner and the store and make sure everyone is copied on everything. And tell the story in excruciating detail. If I work at the corporate office, I would be highly concerned about this store. If I owned this store I would want to know. Badly. The manager ought not have this kind of job and if I had an employee who managed the store who behaved this badly, I would want to know.

I've heard several negative reports from local McDonald's lately with poor service and cold food. Again, I'm not a fan of McDonald's but I am sure that this is not what they would be willing to tolerate.

When I was growing up, I lived a few doors down from Dan Kroc, who I think (if my memory is correct) is the grandson of Ray Kroc, founder of McD's. He wasn't BS'ing, because besides the name, he had a seemingly infinite number of free coupons for McD's food.

Anyway, here are Ray Kroc's customer service principles. He really did value his customers, which is why his chain did so well....I've distributed this to my staff during a meeting: (I think I might do it again - definitely words of wisdom)

Ray Kroc, a giant visionary who founded the McDonald’s chain instituted service
as a primary value. His management influence remains at the heart of the international
hamburger chain’s day-to-day operations. Someone ran across a checklist McDonald’s
still uses to train front counter staff and shared it with us. It spells out the ten
commandments for customer treatment:

1 The customer is the most important person in our business.
2 The customer is not dependant on us – we are dependant on the customer.
3. The customer is not an interruption of our work, but the purpose of it.
4 The customer does us an honor when calling on us. We are not doing the
customer a favor by serving him/her.
5. The customer is part of our business, not an outsider. The customer is our guest.
6. The customer is not a cold statistic, but flesh and blood: a human with feelings
and emotion like our own.
7. The customer is not someone to argue with or match wits with.
8. The customer is one who brings us his/ her wants. Our job is to fill them.
9. The customer is deserving of the most courteous and attentive treatment we can
provide.
10. The customer has the right to expect an employee to present a neat, clean
appearance.

every business should live by those rules...

I agree. That is why I gave them to my staff. A printed copy for each. It is kind of odd for me to be handing out policy written by a guy whose place I now boycott, but that's the way it is.

Ray Kroc was right on about customers and customer service. Most establishments and most employees are nowhere near these principles. I truly think his core philosophies are why McD's succeeded (plus some other factors, like our car culture, desire for quick food, etc, and some luck).

i GUARANTEE he wouldn't be turning out the lights on his customers. He'd probably be over at their table asking how everything is and if they need anything else.

Cheers
-Nimbus

p.s. That name Ray has a nice ring to it...hmmmmmm.....

I am married to a Gatti and know the owners of this location and others quite well. I will make sure they here about this tonight. I want to make sure of the location. This sounds like it is on the corner of Taylorsville road and Bardstown road. Let me know if that is correct. I will be sure to talk to them tonight. They are good people and operators and I promise you they want to know about this.

Yay! I'm happy that someone is going to let the owners in on this story. If it were me and I owned the place, I would want to know.

Yay! I'm happy that someone is going to let the owners in on this story. If it were me and I owned the place, I would want to know.

If this would have happened to me, I WOULD have owned the place.

If this would have happened to me, I WOULD have owned the place.

......but seriously, I'm curious about the outcome.

I am very sorry about not responding to this earlier. Last week i was hosting the very guests that this happened to, I was their transportation to and from the conference. Their days started very early and meetings didn't end sometimes till after 11pm. This week my two babies have both been very sick, with super high fevers.......I have been having fun, fun, fun!!!

So......about the incident......

I had the Gatti and Young information and tried calling them all morning on Wednesday. I finally got someone and left my number and information. I received a call after 12pm and it was one of the Area Mgr. but not for that location but he was willing to look into it. I told him what happened. He was extremely surprised, kept saying "i cant believe she did that." "She said what?" "she actually left you in the dark?" He seemed honestly surprised and concerned. I told him how these people were from out of town and he commented: "So not only is she making McDonalds look bad, but she is making Louisville look bad for your guests." my point exactly i told him. He said he would relay the information to the actual person in charge of that store.

Later that afternoon i received a call. He also asked me about the situation. I explained everything, he stated how this is not her usual behavior. He said:

"well i saw her at the beginning of her shift and she seemed ok."

"she obviously had a bad day and was taking it out on you."

He said he was going to talk to her about the situation and he mentioned that they have cameras all over the store. Honestly, i felt he was maybe, AND THIS IS A BIG MAYBE, trying to let me know that if i was embellishing they would know. But when he mentioned cameras, i immediately said: "oh i didnt even think of the cameras. Yeah look over those, you will see my guests, and my children. You will see how we behaved and how she ignored me when i tried to speak to her."

He then said he definitely sit and speak with her and actually look at the videos while he is talking to her.

He then invited us back to eat at the store. I said to him that we really didnt want to go back. He stated how they have other locations and they really wanted to treat us to dinner and he wanted me to bring our guests as well. I kept saying we dont want free food. That it was not about compensation, it was about bringing her behavior to their attention. He stated that he didnt want to leave it like that and if we would really consider going to another location that he would speak to the manager there and they would take care of us. I kept objecting but finallyI didnt want to be rude and said that we would go. We did go that evening to the Poplar level location and they were really nice to us. We didnt take advantage and get all this crazy food, just got salads or combos for everyone. The kids played outside here and we actually sat there for quite a while talking. We had a couple of hours to kill before they had to be back at the convention center for the evening part of the conference.

I didnt hear back from anyone. I dont know if i should have. I have never had a situation like this on this scale.

Since there are some here that work on the inside:
Was this handled correctly "enough"?
Should i have been contacted again?
Would i be a nuisance if i also write a letter?

I will be honest, personally, i would have liked to talk to someone in person about it.

it's mcdonald's not much to expect from them

What's that supposed to mean? Because one person behaved poorly, expectations are automatically set for their entire name? Or is it you don't believe a fast-food joint is capable of good service?

here's my 2 cents for what it's worth. i had puchased some baked goods, and inside one of them was a 1 inch foreign object baked into this item. now mind you i forgot to mention i ended up choking on this piece and the heimlech manuver was used to extract it out. i told this lady how about $100.00 gift card and anything of my choice out of the bakery dept. she had no problem giving into my request.

I don't know.....I think I would have called up some ambulance chasing attorney instead.....Given that you had to be given the Heimlich and all....A hundred bucks and some donuts just doesn't seem like enough compensation for something like that.

A hundred bucks and some donuts just doesn't seem like enough compensation for something like that.

That made me giggle. I don't know why

A hundred bucks and some donuts just doesn't seem like enough compensation for something like that.

That made me giggle. I don't know why

Maybe because yesterday was National Donut Day!

(You did your free donut, didn't you?)

Gotta get a pound of flesh!

How irritating. I wanted to call the place ~ 454-6806 ~ that's what they advertised in the "Mickdee's Locator" online. Just wanted to question, "who are your managers?". Surely that would have incited a snippy tone because I KNOW they deal with a lot of BS, but come on, a place handling a situation in that way needs to know they're not under the radar.

I got a fax machine. Eff Mickdee's. I'll get my crap ass food from my own refrigerator, thank ya very much.