“Five pickles and fries well done, please!”

Extra Credit Assignment

   For this assignment I, actually, went to not one, but two McDonald’s locations! The first one I went to is conveniently located next to my house in Brooklyn (Sheepsheadbay). It was on a Monday evening about 9-9:30pm. I was the only customer and this place had only one guy working at the register and another person working in the kitchen (I could see it from where I was standing). I was greeted by a guy (Jason is his name) very politely and felt very welcomed. I started placing my order and couldn’t help but notice a smile Jason had on his face the entire time. That’s the reaction I expected. I pointed out a few times that along with a cheeseburger from a “Dollar Menu” and a side of Big Mac Sauce I am going to need “five pickles” and “fries well done” typed on a receipt. He turned around and asked a person who worked in the kitchen to put exactly five pickles on my cheeseburger (since I insisted on it).  The person working in the kitchen thought his co-worker was joking and asked him to repeat. After thirty seconds of going back in forth, the kitchen guy agreed to put exactly five pickles on my cheeseburger. Wheee!

   So, Jason said he would be able to type “5 pickles” on my receipt but, unfortunately, he won’t be able to type “well done” next to my French Fries order. I work in the service industry and know all kinds of computer systems very well. So, I asked him to highlight French Fries and then modify it. All the computer systems have this function nowadays. I know it for sure! Jason said their computers don’t have this option. I had a hard time believing this. I asked for a manager and guess what?! Jason turned out to be the manager! I asked if he had anybody who knew computer better then he did. He said that only one person might be able to help. That person is the GM and Monday is his days off. After five minutes of us going back and forth on the details of the order and after seeing that besides us, now, there were at least four other people in the store patiently waiting in line, Jason decided to call his manager! At 9:30 pm on his day off!!! Whoa! I felt bad for the guy. He called his GM at least two times and left him one voice message, but in vain…we never got any response. And then, very helpful and polite Jason decided to call another location in Brooklyn and ask them if they had the “modify” option on their computers. Some girl picked up the phone and he put her on the speakerphone. She said that they have that “modify” option at her location but not at the one I was at (I guess, she worked there before). Jason apologized and said that computers were very old.

I said that I was the one who had to apologize because I couldn’t place my order unless “five pickles” and “fries well done” were typed on the receipt. And then I apologized again and thanked him for his patience. He smiled and said: “Ok, No problem. Have a good night, Miss.” Awww!  

   FYI: I don’t think anybody else could be any more helpful or patient with the whole process. And I really appreciate Jason’s effort and other customers’ patience. I, personally, think that he was very very bored the entire day and finally found something amusing to do. And customers didn’t complain too much for the same reason: they were amused by a crazy girl trying to place her unusual order and were curious to watch the entire process…haha I would be curious too.

   So, I failed my first attempt and I knew I had to nail the second one. On Wednesday, November 3^rd, after school I went to another McDonald’s location, the one in Union Square. Very different atmosphere from the one in Brooklyn: very fast-paced, busy and so smelly! There were four cashiers working at the same time and about four to five people working in the kitchen, and one manager (I could tell that right away by the way the girl was dressed. She was wearing a different uniform from everybody else). I didn’t have time to wink when one of the cashiers screamed: “NEXT!” so loud and impatiently looked at me. I went closer to the counter and placed my order: “A cheeseburger from a Dollar Menu with EXACTLY five pickles on it, French Fries WELL DONE and a side of Big Mac Sauce.” The guy who I was ordering it from (everything went so fast I didn’t even catch his name) looked at me and said: “Excuse me?” I repeated my order but I had to ask him to slow down a little and hear me out because he was about to print out a receipt already. I asked him to type “five pickles” and “fries well done” on the receipt. He said he couldn’t do it. And before I even opened my mouth to say: “I know you can.” The manager showed up and said she would take care of this. I guess she overheard my conversation with the guy.

   A customer standing right next to me, obviously, thought he had to say something on the matter that didn’t even concern him. He turned out to be one of those obnoxious nosy people and, basically, screamed in my ear: “Are you friggin’ kidding me?” grinned at me, gave “I’m sorry you got the idiotic customer” look to the cashier and walked out. Well, I am glad everyone has an opinion!

   The manager typed my full order on the receipt, the guy who took my order originally screamed to the person working in the kitchen to put EXACTLY five pickles on my burger and I got what I ordered in the matter of 45 seconds, I think. I checked the number of pickles right on the counter and was surprised to find out that there were exactly five of them!!! I also checked my receipt and before leaving the place I gave my food to a person who was sitting lonely in the corner and looked like he had nowhere to go and wanted to eat. Basically, I didn’t have any problems at the second location except for the obnoxious nosy customer. Thank you professor for this experience!

   Analysis of the management process I witnessed:

   Organization: the manufacturing process at the first place I went to left much to be desired and the worker/manager seemed to be at a loss. He wasn’t set up to handle “extra special” orders effectively. At the second place, there was some hesitation at first, but the manager took the initiative and fixed everything quickly. I could tell they were prepared for orders like this. They didn’t expect it, but they were prepared and the manager knew exactly what she was doing. If I was the manager I would, definitely, make all the employees go through the training program, make sure they know their computer system very well and would stress the importance of better accommodating orders like this at a fast food chain. Everybody has to be on the same page and has to know how to act in this kind of situations.

   Communications: communications between employees were somewhat effective to almost ineffective at both places I went to. At the first place both workers (cashier and the cook) had a little miscommunication. I think the person who was working in the kitchen thought he was getting pranked and refused to make my special order at first. Only after going back and forth for a few minutes he agreed to do it. At the second place the communication between workers was missing, the cashier who was taking my order didn’t ask for help any of his co-workers and one of the other cashiers just smiled when she heard my order and made no effort to help her co-worker in figuring out what to do. When the manager stepped in, she just typed what I needed on the receipt without explaining it to her subordinate. Communication to me as a customer at both places was good. I had the best experience at the first place since Jason was very helpful, patient and polite. At the second spot, all the workers were really nice but reserved at the same time. They weren’t trying to relate to me. They just wanted to get their job done as quickly as possible and move on to the next customer, which I understand since it’s a fast food chain. As far as recommendations for improvement, I think, every place where they serve so many customers a day, should have some kind of small seminars on how to improve their service and communication skills. Good service is what makes a customer come back in 90% of the cases.

   Training: At the first place, Jason seemed to know what he was doing and even tried to explain to me how the computer system works at the place. At the same time, he didn’t seem too confident in his own skills and knowledge since he called his GM on his day off. I mean, I understand you don’t hear “I want five pickles and fries well done!” every single day at your joint, but c’mon! It’s not a 911 situation! The service at that place was not very effective and not very efficient, since they had a line of four-five people waiting in line for five long minutes. At the second place there was, definitely, some lack of communication between the stuff and managers were trained better than their subordinates. But, at least, the manager KNEW what she was doing, therefore the service was effective and pretty efficient.

   Leadership: At the first place, Jason displayed true leadership skills. He took the initiative in his own hands. Well, he didn’t have a choice: he was the manager who was working by himself that night! He called his GM, though, I didn’t expect him to do it. He also called another McDonald’s location and talked to one of the workers there. Yes, he might not had some knowledge about the computer system but he, definitely, displayed true leadership traits. At the second spot, the manager displayed necessary leadership qualities. She knew exactly what to do and she did it fast. The cashier who was helping me out just sunk in there and didn’t make an effort to take the initiative and figure out what to do on his own. Unfortunately, his lack of training and leadership skills was not hard to notice.

   Of course, leadership IS a necessary skill to work not only in McDonald’s or any other fast food chain but also in every aspect of our every day life. You have to have certain leadership skills if you want to succeed in life or even survive in this competitive world! Honest, forward-looking, competent, inspiring and intelligent people will always have a better opportunity to succeed in life and be better leaders. If you don’t take the initiative in your own hands and display some true leadership qualities you will just be the follower without any voice or meaning. That’s what you want to be? Not me!