Coalition of Franchisee Associations

August 24, 2018

Waiting On My Tenders

In last night's post, I neglected to mention that I got pulled to wait for my tenders order. 
The crew person said they were cooking my tenders. Now, my order included a QPC so 
that could have been part of the hold-up.

Nevertheless, from the time I parked in the designated stall to the time I received my 
food was a full SIX minutes. As a customer, I might try the tenders again. If I have to wait
second time I'll likely not order tenders again. I'll order something I know is quick (McChicken) or I'll go to the Taco Bell/Arby's/Sonic across the street.

Remember, the dumbest words ever uttered by a McDonald's corporate employee were 
said during the introduction of Made For You:

"Customers don't mind waiting a little longer if they know it's made just for them."
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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am getting HAMMERED by customers, saying y’all used to be fast, what happened???

My 5 Restaurants Speed was unsurpassed by Competition and other McDs.

There is NO way to explain to the customers that their Qtr. is in line to go down on the grill, it might be the 3rd or 4th Clam Back, So the time just continues to multiplies.

With 75% Drive Thru, A McDonald’s customer Does Not want TO:
WAIT, BE PARKED OR GET MESSY PRODUCTS (BBQ Tenders)

They Want: BLAZINGLY FAST, ACCURATE & FRIENDLY SERVICE.

McDonald’s has built a Rep. on being Fast. The customer has that Rep. cemented firmly in their head and we can not change it without PISSING them off.

My biggest Competition “Chick-Fl-a” has made Drive Thru Speed into an art form. With 3 Drive Lanes, I-Pads, Products that are made quickly and held in a BIN. I only wish I had the ammunition to fight with speed, I would spend the money.

I would give up Fresh Beef, Slack Chicken Tenders, Salads, Signature Crafted, Streamline McCafe and probably a number of other items as well to pickup the Seconds I have given away to the competition in Speed.

I am only severing 81 customers ALL day with the Kiosks, but from 12 - 1 I am doing 155 cars through the D/T at the same restaurant. Yet we make the biggest investment in a piece of equipment that will be obsolete in a couple of years.
JUST Shaking My Head (SMH).

Anonymous said...

My patience has been exhausted with this group of company’s leadership. If that is what you want to call leadership. I can only hope that Chris K and his lackeys will soon be shown the door. I have no sympathy for them at all if they lose their jobs. They should. At the end of the day, the way these people have conducted themselves in terms of how they treat people is flat out WRONG! Both company employees and operators are treated like commodities. The list of leadership treating operators like dirt is extensive. I think we should start calling all of them out. Chris K, Spero, both division presidents, the animals that are running franchising and more regional leadership then I have time to name. This was once a great brand! I have finally realized that everything must come to an end. I can only hope that as operators we can come together and make the company start putting the operators first! Which will ultimately help all parties. That is currently a long shot at best. Good luck trying to get people to buy restaurants that can’t even support the debt service let alone try to make a living off of them. The public has no idea of how the company treats people, especially with the commercials we put out showing how “people friendly” our brand is trying to portray. Until we get leadership with integrity, operators will be nothing more then Ops Managers to them. In my opinion, the only way this cycle will end is to stop funding their initiatives with OUR money! As operators we “own” 90% of all US restaurants. We need to come together and start acting like it!

Richard Adams said...

"I can only hope that Chris K and his lackeys will soon be shown the door."

That will depend on one thing - USA same-store sales - Before all these realignments McDonald's USA presidents had to worry about a number of things, same-store sales, building new stores, McOpCo profitability, Operator morale, etc. Today the USA management team is responsible for growing sales and TCs - that's all they'll be judged on.
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"I can only hope that as operators we can come together and make the company start putting the operators first! Which will ultimately help all parties."

I don't think Operators will ever come "first" but should be considered on par with shareholders (and be communicating with those shareholders). Operators and shareholders own the company, these corporate suits don't own anything.
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"The public has no idea of how the company treats people, especially with the commercials we put out showing how “people friendly” our brand is trying to portray."

Maybe I'm inferring too much here but in this labor market, we don't want a public discussion about McDonald's Corp's people practices.

The headline I would not want to see: "McDonald's Treats People Badly".

The headline I'd like to see: "McDonald's Franchisees Refuse to go Along With Corporate Plans".

IMHO the second headline would have little impact on your ability to recruit employees but would make MCD shareholders wet their pants.
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"In my opinion, the only way this cycle will end is to stop funding their initiatives with OUR money!"

That says it all. By "OUR money" I assume you mean Operator debt, Operator cash, Operator equity, Operator food costs, Operator advertising and promo, and Operator's personal assets.
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Anonymous said...

Operators may "own" 90% of the stores, but McDonald's "owns" 100% of the operators. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

"Endorsed & Supported" by your O/O leadership! Change starts with many of them.

Anonymous said...

Let do a quick review, Chris K., like all good snake oil salesmen sold us a plan that “WE” all knew in our hearts wouldn’t work. Regional Leadership pressured us to signing under duress on the bottom line the “Letter” that would become our undoing. Gladly many of these Corporate stooges have learned how important they were to the system when they were shown the door. Now we are in the “Save Chris” times, as with the movie Ferris Buller from the same city we are being lied to everyday. Our car has been stolen and the garage attendants that run this company they are running up the miles on our business each day destroying the value of a business that we depend upon. The “Millennial Force” that attend daycare at MHQ each day have no knowledge of our history, our founder or our business and would never tell their peers what company pays their salaries. These blue hair geniuses walk around the West Loop believing in “Change” because Chris & Steve tell them they are part of a movement to change the world. Ever heard of a cult? They think how they are told to think.

Leadership collectively believe that owners are idiots, and honestly why would they not? Sadly things are going to have to get worse before they get better. Individually folks are scared to speak their minds in fear of reprisals from?? They aren’t even sure who does what but I digress. Until operators decide that this is our business and leadership are just temporary in position for the stock market we will continue to be bullied. Ray said “None of Us is a Good as All of Us”. We owe it to Ourselves and Ray to fight the good fight to preserve the brand that we all owe our livelihoods to each day. I am starting to see waves of courage from individual markets voting down the latest wave of OPNAD entitlement. Travis has sold us out to corporate and Chris continues to push the edges of control. Like any good dictator he has eliminated any dissenters from his ranks and is pushing for total control by trying to empower the OPNAD body to have total control. Don’t be fooled by the “More Nimble” propaganda, its all about total control to “Save Chris”. Make sure you stay strong and tell OPNAD NO!

Anonymous said...

Follow the BK and Dunkin franchisees and form strong independent franchise owner association (note that I did NOT say Operator, I said OWNER) and have that association join CFA. Or continue on this path. It's an actual choice.

Anonymous said...

That's not a bad time to cook, assemble and get them out to parking place. Seriously can you beat that time for those two cook to order products?

2d if it was slow period when McD couldn't keep Chicken pre-cooked, you wouldn't have come close to that time with chicken.

That's not to defend everything going on, but keeping it Real 45yrs in System

Richard Adams said...

If six minutes is an acceptable service time for anything at McDonald's at any time of the day then McDonald's USA is in serious trouble.
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