Local McDonalds: An Evaluation Essay Example

For decades policy makers and individuals have complained about the quality of fast food, in particular, McDonald’s. Any discussion of obesity rates and mediocre fast food service is never complete without the mentioning of the fast food giant- McDonalds. Even though I have read an unlimited number of articles and watched documentaries about the nature of the food that McDonalds serve and its nutrient value; I still frequent McDonalds for breakfast and sometimes lunch. From since I started going to McDonalds nature of its drive through service has barely changed. McDonalds has tried to make its food healthier by introducing salads which has led to a better appreciation of its products and food. Since I always do drive through, I recently decided to visit a local McDonalds for lunch and actively observed what people ordered and how the workers in the shop dealt with customer orders, requests and complaints. In this essay, I evaluate the local McDonalds. The evaluation focuses on both customers and workers. Their interaction and how customers react to the service they get.
The evaluation is a result of notes taken while watching customers and workers interact. It focuses on the willingness of the workers to address the customers’ concerns, act quick on orders and the kind of responses from the customer. It further looks at the nature and character of the customers. It explores the question of whether customers should continue to frequent the local McDonalds considered the kind of service they get and the nutritional value of the food they order. There are a few limitations to this evaluation criterion. Basing a service evaluation on one single episode has its disadvantages since you can catch the staff at their best or worst on a particular event and sometimes the targeted place might have less people coming in which in the end makes it difficult to come out with a substantial evaluation. These limitations can be offset by the general knowledge that entities like McDonalds have a long history of service and track record and this prior knowledge is also important in an honest and apt evaluation. My criteria of observing the number of customers and the response of customer complaints remain relevant for this analysis.
The local McDonalds is always more active during lunch times than any other part of the day. I go to it mostly when I am in need of a quick meal and do not have the money for lunch at a fancier restaurant. When I walked in, it had one person serving and a couple of individuals at the back. There were about five people in front and eight others who had already placed their orders and were waiting for it to be delivered. I couldn’t tell the number of the people working in the kitchen. The meal took more time than it usually does when I do McDonalds drive though. There was another register but no one was operating it. I sensed that if it was opened the number of people just standing waiting for their food to be ready or worse still to order their food would have been reduced.
On the service counter was one middle aged woman. In addition to working on the front cash register, the woman working on the register would walk away from the front register so that she could serve individuals coming from the drive through. She disappeared for a few minutes and was probably serving an irate drive through customer who had gotten the wrong order. I sat facing the register and observed how the women patiently served customers and did try to address the customer concerns. One male customer with a little girl of about eight by his side ordered a kids meal which he did not get when his order arrived. He showed his frustration and disapproval of how they had mixed up his order. The women apologized and offered to get his the meal for free.
Despite the slow way in with the service were conducted people kept on coming in and one could see from the outside that the line of cars of drive through customers had grown. Instead of increasing the number of servers or seeing to it that the other cash register is open, the restaurant continued operating with the one individual working in front. All kinds of people streamed in. They seemed not to be bothered by the long waiting time which I attributed to the favorable and cheap prices of McDonalds products. From the demeanor of the customers, it showed that they were somehow used to this and were mostly probably regular customers who had the patience and were used to waiting.
In my evaluation of the service, I also looked at how the place was cleaned since it was flooding with people. A number of customers including a family of five had left their trash on their tables. No one came to remove the trash. A guy actually came and sat on the table, they just pushed the trash to the other side. I also used the restaurant twice; it was pretty clean both times. It seemed like someone was frequently going in to make sure that it was clean. My conclusion in terms of the slow service and lack of people to come and remove trash on tables was that the place was probably having staff shortages for the day. The only dirty that was in the restaurant was the unpicked trash on tables. The air-conditioning system was working well.
I ordered a Double Cheeseburger and an ice-coffee. The cheeseburger was warm rather than hot. It tasted like it had been on the grill machine for longer than it should. It had a bland taste. The Ice-coffee tasted good. I tried to signal to the woman working on the register that the burger was not hot and she told me to wait. After about five minutes of signaling, I went and sat down and ate the burger which was cold by now. Since the place was big, I knew that even asking for a refund of my money was going to take more time and in the end I would have missed some of my day’s assignments.
Most of the customers conducted themselves well especially when they did not get what they had ordered. I sensed this was because the people working in front were ready to help and did all they could despite their small numbers. Most of the complains had to do with the server forgetting ketch-up or other add-ons. It seemed like the people working inside and at the front were good at taking orders. Except for the man who got his daughter’s meal mixed up there were little complaints from people who were walking in and taking their orders.
In conclusion, through an observation of the local McDonalds, I was able to come to conclusions that despite the kind of service rendered people are always going to frequent McDonald’s evidence by how much people were prepared to wait in cars and stand inside the restaurant waiting for one single individual to serve a multitude of people. The place was hygienic except for the unavailability of individuals to take away trash immediately from people who would have finished their meals. Their bathrooms were clean. Despite the fact that she was working alone and serving a lot of people the woman in front patiently attended to customers’ orders, complaints and requests.
In is also important to note that McDonalds like other major corporations like Comcast have a reputation of bad customer service evidenced by how much time they respond to customer complaints. It was difficult for customers to vent on this particular McDonalds since there was only one person working diligently in from of the register.