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Mcdonald’s Wants To Make Every Customer Experience Count

McDonald’s, the leading Quick Service Restaurant (QSR), has always believed in making the customer feel special, in every way. Therefore, making every experience at McDonald’s special for each customer is high on the list of priorities for the restaurant staff.

Having achieved the 20-year milestone recently, McDonald’s (West & South India) decided to create a fresh blueprint for examining the various ways in which it could be done better.

The culmination of the effort was a plan for a “customer-centric hospitality culture”. While the McDonald’s staff have always been friendly and polite, the plan was to make it more meaningful, based on a key catchphrase for their operations, namely, Going The Extra Mile To Make You Smile (GEMS).

GEMS starts off by asking the staff to anticipate customer needs. Then, it advises them to take the interaction to a beautiful place by exceeding their expectations.

The idea is to make an emotional connect and building a valuable relationship with the customers, the main focus of the restaurant chain. This is even as the restaurant is a quick-service one where the pace of work is fast. But that doesn’t have to add up to an indifferent approach to individual customer needs. Top-notch hospitality is something that leaves a pleasant mark and creates memories.

The fulcrum of such a hospitality ethos is a “happy to help” attitude. When combined with a great service, it translates into the best experience that a customer can possibly have.

McDonald’s stamp of quality – in the quality of the food as well as its presentation - has wowed customers for over two decades. What customers are looking for is fresh food, neatly prepared, quickly served, in a comfortable ambience, and McDonald’s matches this expectation each and every time.

Just like intricate steps go towards making a perfect cup of Japanese tea, McDonald’s staff practice small steps like having a friendly attitude, a warm smile, making eye contact, and – the 2-metre rule to meet their objective of pleasing a customer.

The 2-Metre Rule wraps up the hospitality experience. It relates to every time a customer is within a 2-metre radius, the McDonald’s staff need to acknowledge their presence with a smile or a greeting.

How does hospitality matter? Hospitality matters because customers are the most important people in the business. A positive interaction and the right service will help create the best experience for them. If satisfied, they will come back to the restaurant to celebrate and have a great experience.

Some guidelines for working are: Putting in one’s best to convert an unhappy customer into a satisfied one; being customer-focussed; and making their experience memorable. In this regard, particular emphasis has been placed on the crew’s behaviour throughout the shift, and everyday behaviour is seen as the litmus test of hospitality.

Appreciating that appearance does matter, customers have been advised to arrive in neat, clean and wrinkle-free uniforms. To make a customer smile back, the staff has been asked to share warm smiles and to keep the mutual interaction friendly. In this regard, the power of eye contact cannot be underestimated. It is also important to “customize” hospitality, as each customer expects a different kind of hospitality.

 

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Parisha Kumari

Parisha Kumari

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