What? ….4 Pickles?……No salt?

4 pickles in a hamburger is way too much and no salt on fries?!!! This extra credit assignment forced me to become a very picky customer which I am definitely not good at. This was going to be one tough assignment.

The fun begins……

Luckily, when I arrived at Mc Donald’s there were no lines. Knowing that I will be facing some conflict, I scanned the 3 available cashiers hoping to find the one that seem the nicest. As I walked towards the cashier, I gave a big smile and placed my special order from the dollar menu: a hamburger with 4 extra pickles and small fries with no salt (emphasizing the 4 extra pickles on my burger and no salt on my fries). I specified to the cashier that I need the details printed on the receipt. She took my order, punched in a whole bunch of keys with no hesitation and no questions asked. Surprised that I encountered no problems with my order, I repeated my order stating again, “I need this to be shown on the receipt.” She replied, “Yea it’s there but it will only say extra pickles. Don’t worry I will tell them to put 4.” I paid for my order and received my receipt. She turned around and yelled out “4 pickles for the order with extra pickles!” The 2 staff members in the hamburger assembly line made the burger as usual placing the meat on the bun followed by a squirt of ketchup and lastly placed 4 extra pickles on my burger. At the frying station, there was already someone making a new batch of fries. So she simply told her to hold off the salt and poured the unsalted fries into the little pouch and the rest was salted. I sat down and checked the correctness of my order. To my surprise, my order was fulfilled completely- hamburger with exactly 4 pickles and salt less fries.

The whole process was much faster than I expected, I would say it took less than 10 minutes. Majority of the time was spent specifying the order, but the actual time to make the order took less than 5 minutes. The cashier was very nice. She took my order without any complaints. The rest of the staff members fulfilled my order like any regular order given on a routine basis. Waiting time was minimal since there were no prior orders. In total 4 people were involved: the cashier, the 2 staff from the hamburger assembly line and the person making the fries.

During my entire order, no management was involved. It was not necessary for management to get involved since the cash registers were well equipped with a system that can print orders with such specifications. The staff members were well trained to fulfill such orders. No one perceived my order as a “special” order at all. To them it was like any order they received on a regular basis. Everyone was nice, no eye rolls, signs of irritation or complaints, so for customer service I would give them high marks. Communication was fairly done; the cashier only had to inform the hamburger assembly line to add the extra pickles. As for the fries, I guess I was lucky that a new batch was being made. The staff members coordinated with each other very with no obstacles to note.

If I were a consultant for Mc Donald’s I would tell them “keep up the good work.” However, I noticed I made my order during a less busy time. If I had placed my order during a more hectic hour, say lunch time, my order might not have been so easily fulfilled. Yelling out the 4 extra pickles might not be as effective because of the multiple orders coming in. So to make improvements, they should implement a system that is able to list the 4 extra pickles on the orders screen for the burger preparers. Other than that, they are doing a great job taking special orders. Overall, it was quick painless process.