McDonald's and Absentee Staffing

Hi!

I go to McDonalds. There, I said it. I refuse to tear up my LTHforum card over this wee indulgence! I like their steak and bagel breakfast sandwich. I like their filet-o-fish, which, like Poland, was off the map for a while.

I drive my niece to school every day. If we leave especially early or I learn she will take a test on an empty stomach, then I will divert the car to McDonalds for some breakfast. I usually don't join her because I already had my breakfast. We rarely go inside because we don't have that much time, so we are often in the drive through lane.

In my community, the workers one likely encounters at McDonalds are those whose English is a second language. Any language learned as a second language has different challenges when one reads, which is usually easier to comprehend compared to listening-only, which is hardest. Second language conversational one-to-one is the middle range as you can use visual and physical clues to help interpret. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising there are problems ordering food via the drive-through when the English as a second language worker can listen-only. It is the reason why the drive through has text message boards to double check your order contemporaneously.

My local McDonald

Cathy2,

I enjoyed your post very much.

What you describe is another example of the infinite adaptability and genius of the McDonald's corporation.

Ditto: the recent decision of the McDonald's empire (started by local hero and another of my personal gods, Ray Kroc) to rent DVDs at select stores. You've probably heard about this: McDonald's will offer DVDS, for one dollar a night, at kiosks that will hold the top 30 new releases; DVDs can be returned the next day at any McDonald's. This is brilliant: McDonald's will probably make little on rentals, but offering DVDs will certainly drive traffic. Who can simply go in to rent a movie without getting fries...or perhaps dinner (traditionally a meal that is not eaten at McDonald's)?

Having a remote bi-lngual unit handle orders is, again, the kind of innovation that you'd expect from a company like this.

Makes me proud to be an American. Really. No kidding,

David

On the other hand, McDonald's is discontinuing SpeedPass. Since they never actually hooked it up in a way that made it speedier than paying cash or using a credit card, I can understand why their experiment with it failed, but I never understood why they implemented it the way they did. First you had to tell the cashier you were using SpeedPass, then you had to wait while he or she went away and did something and only then could you wave your SpeedPass. Sometimes they still wanted you to sign a slip as if you had used a credit card. Moreover, during slow periods when they reduced service to a single window, it was rarely the one with the SpeedPass setup.

Hi,

I only saw a Speed Pass used exactly once by a local police officer who was in for his morning coffee and breakfast. I think I even have a Speed Pass, but goodness knows what that thing is. It is just too easy to loose, which is often the case when things are over-miniaturized.

Somewhere in my house is a small data chip for my camera with pictures I want to manipulate. Not big enough to easily detect and tiny enough to disapeer into just about anywhere.

&&&

I remember once reading about test marketing a la Dave Thomas of Wendy's. The idea was to introduce a chili. The marketing department outlined an expensive and elaborate test marketing plan. Dave Thomas tossed it aside, took the chili to a local outlet to begin serving immediately, then inquired directly with the customers their opinion. Test marketing can indeed be that simple.

Regards,
Cathy2

Test marketing can indeed be that simple.

But practically never is, believe me...

This was actually before my ad career started but it's one of those things that has stuck with me all through it. I lived in Wichita when Pizza Hut (then based there) created the personal pan pizza with the five minute guarantee. And after I had my first one, I was surveyed about it, by a young woman using this electronic pad to record the answers. And after about ten questions I said to her, "All your questions have to do with how fast the service was. Don't you want to ask me if I thought it tasted good?"

She sort of scanned her device and then looked at me helplessly, "There's nowhere to put that in."

Ever since, I've had a high degree of skepticism toward research, recognizing that the answers you get are in large part a function of what questions you ask. And whenever I can, I try to leave a large area for the person to say WHATEVER they want to say to the company, with no guidelines, and have spent hours reading the feedback we got that way.

P.S. Speaking of Wendy's, one of their humorous commercials some years back made fun of excessive product research, and if you looked at the background, you saw that the research lab had a sign up which read:

RESEARCH PROVES
RESEARCH WORKS

Says it all.

On another list I'm on there is a guy who used to market food enhancement chemcials, etc. I think it was in an email discussion with Gwiv when either he or Gary mentioned the goal was to find the food that was the least offensive to the most people. I know a guy who used to work for Kentucky Fried Chicken back when Col. Sanders was still in charge. As the company grew the the new management began to want quality control and turned the food into what it is today.

I knew it! The mysterious voice is part of a phone bank of order takers. Another mystery nobody worried about is resolved.

As the Trib's John Kass wrote eloquently about G Wiv's BBQ efforts, maybe we can "feed" Kass on Cathy2's research abilities.

Mike G wrote:P.S. Speaking of Wendy's, one of their humorous commercials some years back made fun of excessive product research, and if you looked at the background, you saw that the research lab had a sign up which read:

RESEARCH PROVES
RESEARCH WORKS

Says it all.

This reminds me of Emo Phillips' old line: "I used to think the brain was the most important part of the body. Then I realized who was telling me that."

Hi,

About ten days ago, I was driving to Midway airport listening to market news on the radio. They reported McDonald's experimented with call centers accepting drive-through orders and forwarding the order electronically to your local restaurant.

I practically blush I beat out Bloomberg by at least 6-7 weeks! I feel like some nose-to-the-pulse reporter who can exclaim, "You read it here first!" ... only because you did!

I heard that story on the radio too. I had told your findings to a few friends and they did not believe it possible. So I was proud to hear the reportings and to know you really did scoop everyone.

Apparently McDonald's is doing this at a store in oregon also -- for economic reasons. The minimum wage in oregon is $7.25/hr, so they can save some money by using a call center in Fargo, North Dakota, where the minimum wage is $5.15 an hour.

Article here.

It is not JUST an issue of cost. It is also an issue of finding people in the Chicagoland area willing to work in fast food restaurants that speak understandable English.

I read about the McDonald's call center thing some time ago. It was actually developed by a francishee somewhere out west. It is primarily a solution to quality, as opposed to cost, issues--though everything has aspects of both. It basically is a division and specialization of labor so that the order taking function can be staffed, trained and equipped to do that job perfectly and the order filling function can be staffed, trained and equipped to do that job equally as well. The problem, whether you attribute it to English-as-second-language or whatever, is getting the right stuff in the bag and this was shown to reduce the error rate considerably. Technology has simply evolved to the point where it poses no obstacle to this sort of arrangement.

This is in the news once again. (Link goes to an article in the Fri/3/11 Trib, which Web surfers can read at no cost for a week.) Note that this one's an AP article, so Cathy, you beat out the national media by a full nine months!

Thanks Bob!

I've been listening to the radio via streaming audio while working this evening. The talk show host just played a snippet related to the absentee staffing at McDonalds. She is reacting quite surprised, which is normal as I felt the same way months ago.

I must admit I am pretty thrilled to have ferreted out this information so early.

Regards,