The franchise restaurant where I and Mike S. were able to complete our extra credit assignment is located in Harlem. Our assignment was to place a special order of “hamburger with exact 4 pickles in it and well done French fries with no salt”. Then request a receipt that will have detailed list of what we wanted. Such task would require manual typing, and I have to say that not every franchise has such option. As far as I learned, there are different types of computer systems that are used for placing orders in McDonald’s restaurants. I have noticed that the most upgraded systems are in the busiest spots of the city like downtown and midtown. In such places employees and managers are not able to make any changes on receipts. They all claimed that they are not authorized to make any changes in the systems. As a result, we had to visit several McDonald’s restaurants. However, when we found one it was not easy to get what we want as well.
The cashier that was helping us obviously had no idea how to complete my request with a receipt part (which was not a surprise). First of all, she stated that it is impossible to type in all the details of my order on a printed receipt. When we claimed that we do it all the time and we know for sure, that they can do changes on printed receipts, she just pressed “pickle” choice four times. However it was not what we wanted. So she asked help for her coworker, but he was not able to help either. Meanwhile, a line was building up. I could hear how people were getting frustrated behind us. They were complaining why we have to be so demanding. I could imagine how annoying we were with all my detailed requests, but we are costumers and I want my order to be completed the way I wanted. Then we asked for the manager. The manager was nice. She told us to wait for her until she will take care of the line. We were waiting for her for 10 minutes before she was able to help me out. Once she was done, she invited us to her counter. When she heard our detailed request she was surprised why we need it that special way. We told her that we like to track what we eat and prefer to keep the receipts with detailed list of meals we had. After a little while of doing something on her touch screen, she actually handed us receipts with a completed request we wanted! Then she went in the back and personally fried our fries and prepared our burgers. When she brought my meal, I opened the bag and checked that my fries are crispy brown and there are four pickles in my hamburger.
I think, the effectiveness of manufacturing process meets fast-food restaurants expectations. Costumers are able to place their orders quickly and employees can complete costumers’ requests just by touching screen of their monitors. The preparation of food doesn’t take long time either. I observed that managers and cashiers are also involved in preparing orders, besides cooks. However, from experience I had, when it come to more deepen tasks employees are not able to complete costumers’ requests. Communication was decent. Employees were friendly. However in some other franchises I had to face impatience and annoyance from the cashiers that were serving me.
If I would be a consultant, I would require learning navigation o the system more deeply. In communication field I would suggest be more patient with costumers, since it is very critical good costumer service performance. Over all I was satisfied with quickness of order completing.
