Every once in a while, I will go into McDonald’s for an order of French fries, including at the McDonald’s near my home in Staten Island. Because I used to order French fries without any special request, I worried that the server will give me one kind of look. I know that the fastest way to send a fast-food restaurant into chaos or hold out the line is to make a special request. When I reached the restaurant, I saw a couple of people at the counter waiting to place an order and another two people standing near the counter waiting for their take-outs. There was only one counter open. The McDonald’s employees are taking quite a long time to fulfill the take-out orders. It took them more than 10 minutes to clear the two take-out orders. One person only ordered one Kids’ Happy Meal and the other person ordered two sandwiches and a Kids’ Happy Meal. I wondered what holding them up. Since there was only one counter open, a long line was form behind me and I worried people behind me will be furious with me for holding out the line.
When it was my turn to order, I was greeted promptly and the McDonald’s server was friendly. I placed an order as a to-go order. I ordered from the ‘Dollar Menu’ for one small French fries without salt and one small hamburger with four pickles. I stressed to her that I want four pickles with my hamburger and she just nodded. She entered my order promptly into the system without batting an eyelid. I presume she got my order correctly but when she told me my order was $3.24 instead of $2.16, I was so sure that she got my order wrong. When I asked her to repeat what I have ordered, she got it wrong. She placed an order for four McNuggets instead of four pickles for the hamburger. I politely told the woman that it was the wrong order and she quickly apologized and delete the McNuggets from the order. This time, she got it all right. Since I asked for four pickles for the hamburger, I presumed I will get charged for them. When I asked her about the extra charges, she just shrugged it off, “There will be no extra charges, sir”. She repeated my order stressing on fries with no salt and one small hamburger with four pickles. I paid for my order and then waited near the counter to receive my food. The whole ordering process took less than 4 minutes.
Since McDonald’s employee salts all their fries as soon as they are cooked, there are no cooked fries without salt ready for me. She told me that I had to wait for my food because she needs to make a fresh batch of French fries. She put a basket of uncooked fries into the deep-fryer and a button was pushed to start a timer. In 30 seconds later, the timer beeps and she shake the fries before putting them back into the fryer. One minute later, the timer beeps again and this time she take the fries out and drain them in the basket above the fryer to let the oil out. In 30 seconds later, she takes the basket and dumps the fries out onto another tray as the existing tray already laden with salt. My order was served promptly; however, to my disappointment, my hamburger came with three pickles and not four pickles as I have ordered.
I quickly get hold of my server and point it out to her that there should be four instead of three pickles in the hamburger. Basically I was worried she will roll her eyes and look at me like I was a lunatic for complaining about one missing pickle in the hamburger. She just calmly took back the hamburger and told me to wait while she gets a new hamburger for me. She went back to the kitchen and in 30 seconds later, she emerged from the kitchen with her expressionless face and gave me the freshly made hamburger without saying a word. I said thanks and gladly accepted the hamburger and in my mind, I hope they put the correct number of pickles in the hamburger this time. I do not wish to make a scene in the restaurant for just one missing pickle. Thankfully, this time they got it right.
Throughout the process, there was only one person communicated with me and it was the same person that puts the order into the bag. There will be another person prepared my hamburger in the back of the kitchen and another person takes care of the Drive-Thru customer(s). Based on my observation, when the drive-thru window has no customer waiting, the employee who tends to the window will walk away from the window and went to the kitchen to chit-chat. She continues to chit-chat with her colleague and it is obviously that she is ignoring the fact that it was short-handed at the counter and any extra help would be appreciated. I believe if she helps to assemble the orders while the other person enters the order, this will improve customer wait times. It will be recommended that there should be at least two persons for each cash register to help ease the waiting time. One person will put the order into the system while another person helped out by assembling the order. This will cut down the waiting time tremendously and avoids backlogs that cause customer waits. Furthermore the restaurant should open few more counters to serve the customers instead of just one counter. This is especially important when you have a long line is forming and you have another group of customers waiting for their orders. Since the special order process went smoothly and the register system already pre-set the regular menu with limited special orders function, I would recommend a small modification to the system where it allows the employees to key in extra information that are not pre-set in the system. For example, it will allow employee to manually key in ‘1 EXTRA PICKLE - 4’ instead of just of the pre-set ‘1 EXTRA PICKLE’.
When it was my turn to order, I was greeted promptly and the McDonald’s server was friendly. I placed an order as a to-go order. I ordered from the ‘Dollar Menu’ for one small French fries without salt and one small hamburger with four pickles. I stressed to her that I want four pickles with my hamburger and she just nodded. She entered my order promptly into the system without batting an eyelid. I presume she got my order correctly but when she told me my order was $3.24 instead of $2.16, I was so sure that she got my order wrong. When I asked her to repeat what I have ordered, she got it wrong. She placed an order for four McNuggets instead of four pickles for the hamburger. I politely told the woman that it was the wrong order and she quickly apologized and delete the McNuggets from the order. This time, she got it all right. Since I asked for four pickles for the hamburger, I presumed I will get charged for them. When I asked her about the extra charges, she just shrugged it off, “There will be no extra charges, sir”. She repeated my order stressing on fries with no salt and one small hamburger with four pickles. I paid for my order and then waited near the counter to receive my food. The whole ordering process took less than 4 minutes.
Since McDonald’s employee salts all their fries as soon as they are cooked, there are no cooked fries without salt ready for me. She told me that I had to wait for my food because she needs to make a fresh batch of French fries. She put a basket of uncooked fries into the deep-fryer and a button was pushed to start a timer. In 30 seconds later, the timer beeps and she shake the fries before putting them back into the fryer. One minute later, the timer beeps again and this time she take the fries out and drain them in the basket above the fryer to let the oil out. In 30 seconds later, she takes the basket and dumps the fries out onto another tray as the existing tray already laden with salt. My order was served promptly; however, to my disappointment, my hamburger came with three pickles and not four pickles as I have ordered.
I quickly get hold of my server and point it out to her that there should be four instead of three pickles in the hamburger. Basically I was worried she will roll her eyes and look at me like I was a lunatic for complaining about one missing pickle in the hamburger. She just calmly took back the hamburger and told me to wait while she gets a new hamburger for me. She went back to the kitchen and in 30 seconds later, she emerged from the kitchen with her expressionless face and gave me the freshly made hamburger without saying a word. I said thanks and gladly accepted the hamburger and in my mind, I hope they put the correct number of pickles in the hamburger this time. I do not wish to make a scene in the restaurant for just one missing pickle. Thankfully, this time they got it right.
Throughout the process, there was only one person communicated with me and it was the same person that puts the order into the bag. There will be another person prepared my hamburger in the back of the kitchen and another person takes care of the Drive-Thru customer(s). Based on my observation, when the drive-thru window has no customer waiting, the employee who tends to the window will walk away from the window and went to the kitchen to chit-chat. She continues to chit-chat with her colleague and it is obviously that she is ignoring the fact that it was short-handed at the counter and any extra help would be appreciated. I believe if she helps to assemble the orders while the other person enters the order, this will improve customer wait times. It will be recommended that there should be at least two persons for each cash register to help ease the waiting time. One person will put the order into the system while another person helped out by assembling the order. This will cut down the waiting time tremendously and avoids backlogs that cause customer waits. Furthermore the restaurant should open few more counters to serve the customers instead of just one counter. This is especially important when you have a long line is forming and you have another group of customers waiting for their orders. Since the special order process went smoothly and the register system already pre-set the regular menu with limited special orders function, I would recommend a small modification to the system where it allows the employees to key in extra information that are not pre-set in the system. For example, it will allow employee to manually key in ‘1 EXTRA PICKLE - 4’ instead of just of the pre-set ‘1 EXTRA PICKLE’.
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