I get a salad at McDonalds almost every day and today everything went as usual, I drove up to the drive-thru window and placed my order. The voice in the box told me how much the order cost and prompted me to drive to the first window to pay for my food. I followed the directions and when I arrived at the first window, I paid and drove to the next window to pick up my food. I had to wait a few minutes, which was fine. Fast food isn’t always fast anymore, but under normal circumstances, I really am a patient and understanding person. It’s only when unusual things occur that sets me off, Like when the manager came to the window to show me a small package of dressing and commented that “he didn’t have any more of the usual ranch dressing, but he did have this” as he held up a small container of “mystery” dressing and asked if it was ok. I scrunched up my nose as I contemplated if I was going to like this new dressing, when he said, “Oh well, it’s all I have” and proceeded to push the bag with the salad through the window at me. It’s the unexpected stuff like this that: (1) upsets me; and, (2) catches me so off guard that I don’t react. On my way back to the office, I went through the scenario of how I should have handled the situation. Had I been given the choice, I would have ordered a different salad, but this manager made the choice for me that day of what I would eat for lunch.
First of all, when I was placing my order I should have been told that there was no more dressing so I could have had a choice in what I ate, not what the manager decided to substitute. Secondly, when the manager saw my scrunched up nose, why didn’t he ask if there was another substitute type of dressing I might have preferred?
If I wasn’t caught so off guard by this manager’s lack of customer service / regard for me as a customer, which you would think by now, I’d be used to the lack thereof – these days – but if I hadn’t been so caught off guard, I would have told the manager that it was unacceptable for him to decide what I was going to eat for lunch and because I was not given the choice, I wanted to “other” salad (that cost .20 more) at no extra charge. The McDonald’s – not me – should have been inconvenienced for: (1) running out of the salad dressing; and, (2) for not offering me that choice when I placed my order.
goldenrulechoices 