by Heather Moores

Created on: July 20, 2009

There are several components of fast food service and if even one of them suffers, problems can arise. As a Swing Manager for McDonald's, I see this happen daily. Broken equipment and an unfriendly, uncaring staff will wreak havoc on any business. I believe the number one cause of service problems is customer service itself. I have had many employess that simply do not care about customers; they just want customers to get their food and go. Customers are not essential, they are irritants. This is the underlying problem. No one wants to go that extra mile.

There could also be training issues involved. It is not wise to put a new crew member on the floor and tell them to operate the register. How is this person going to know how to take care of customers? McDonald's is a first job for many people and they have no idea how to handle customer complaints or how to enter special orders. Naturally, their first shift is a nightmare and they are very upset by the time they leave. I have seen this happen and I am not at all surprised when these employees do not come back the next day. People need to be properly trained before they can be expected to do a good job. Before a new employee is put on the floor, he or she is required to go through a computerized training program. This program details everything the employee needs to know about his or her job. There are segments for fries, shakes, grilling meat, cleanliness, food safety, etc. There is also a segment involving customer service. Naturally, this is a high priority because without customers we would not have jobs.

Many of my employees don't seem to understand this simple fact. They also don't understand that they are lucky to have a job in this economy and that they should do everything they possibly can to secure their employment. I was correcting a crew member's procedures on the grill one day. He was grilling too many meat patties and not using the seasoning. I was in the middle of educating him on McDonald's policies and procedures when he laughed and said "Who cares? It's just McDonald's!" For a moment I was speechless. I sent him home with an assignment: watch the news for two hours and then go online and see how many companies have gone under since the start of the year. He came back the next day with a very subdued demeanor. He told me that he had learned some "seriously terrifying things". He had a much different attitude concerning his job and I have not had a problem with him since. In fact, he

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