Alpha Oumar Diallo
Prof: Kurpis
MGT 3120
Fall 2010
Baruch College
11/12/2010
On Thursday November 4th around 9 pm I went to a MacDonald located in 215 W. 125th Street in Manhattan to complete an extra credit assignment. It was raining and chilly. When I arrived at the location, there were a lot of people there and I had to wait to make my order. There were three different situations that I experienced: it is the situation before the order, during the order and after the order.
The line was long and employees were not enough to serve the number of customers who were there as fast as possible. You have to wait for several minutes to place your order. There were only two registers opened and one was moving better than the order. Unfortunately, I was in the slowest line. I saw someone who seems to be the manager because she was telling employees what to do. In addition, most of the employees seemed to me Spanish descendent due to their accent and physical appearance. After five minutes of waiting, it was my turn to make my special order. It was a Spanish young girl who was at the register. As I stepped in front of her, she said, “How can I help you?” I said, “Can I have a special order of one hamburger with exactly five pickles, and one small French fries well done with a side of big Mac sauce, and I need the receipt please.” She smiled and asked me to repeat again my order. I repeated it and she started looking on her register, as it was her first day to use the machine. It took her two minutes to register the entries. Finally she said $3.12 and asked me to pay. Once she gave me the receipt, there were not five pickles and extra Mac sauce on the receipt. I retuned the receipt to her and said, “This is not what I want. I need to see the five pickles on the receipt. She told me directly it is impossible. The manager saw us talking. She came and asked what’s going on. The employee explained the problem to the manager and the manger also confirmed that order was impossible. I kept repeating the order is possible. At the time we were arguing about the possibilities of the order, people started screaming at the back due to the long waiting line. The manager asked me to wait on the side and she is going to open a new register and try to find a way to fix my order.
Once she opened the new register, she started by voiding the first order because it doesn’t satisfy my requirement and I want to have everything that I ordered to show up on the receipt. She asked me to repeat slowly my order. But she did the same mistake as the employee did it before. And, I told her again that the five pickles should be on the receipt. An employee who was working at the cooking area came and explained to her to press the pickle button five times. Finally she was able to enter the order correctly. I assumed that she was a manger for some reasons, but not her competences. If competences really matter, the man who was at the cooking area was more qualify than her.
After the order was placed, it was the time preparation of the order. I heard the manager telling the employee who was in charge of my order to make sure that there are exactly five pickles. The employee took his time and did exactly what the manager said. They gave me the order after few minutes and I opened it in front of them to count the number of pickle. Fortunately, I had exactly five pickles in the hamburger with French fries well done and a side of big Mac sauce. At the end, the manager told me that she was sorry about the misunderstanding. And all the employees were looking at me when I was leaving the place. I assumed that they were thinking that I was crazy.
As a consultant to that MacDonald’s, I would say there was great organization pattern. There was one manager who gave orders and solved problems, and each employee performed his or her task. Some employees were at the cooking area and others were in the front to take customers’ orders. The preparation time was on the average time for that kind of order. The only problem was adding not the pickles on the hamburger, but on the receipt. I think it was very difficult to know about that kind of special order because it is unusual. But, the manger didn’t give up even though she told me it was impossible. I saw a kind of uncertainty when she was telling me that the order was impossible. I think also opening a new register to figure out how she could fix my order was an important decision that she made. Some people could be served while fixing my order without delaying the service.
In addition, the communication was effective. I think places like restaurant or other kind of business services area tend to have effective commutation because the chance of the customer to come back depends on the first service rendered. Mangers mostly hire people who have good communication skills to increase the customer service performance. The communication between management and employees were also acceptable. When the manger finished registering my order, she insisted to put exactly five pickles, no more or less and the employee did it as he was told to do. The only thing that they have to do is to think about what customers ask before reacting. They shouldn’t tell customers that some orders like mine were impossible. In contrary, they should ask customers some questions to find a way to place them.
When it comes to the training, I can say employees were well trained to take usual orders. Some of them don’t even look at the screen when placing orders because it becomes a routine for them. But, for special order like mine, they need more training. I recall when I asked the cahier to have five pickles on the receipt she gave me a crazy look that I can assume she doesn’t know what to do. I think MacDonald’s’ owners should invest in training for special order.
Finally, I can say that the man who came from the cooking area displays a kind of leadership. Even though he was just a regular employee in my opinion, but he expressed himself to help the manager resolve the problem. I think that place need a good leadership for it performance and increase the customer service qualities. The manager and the employee who helped to fix the order showed more actions of leadership that anyone else even though many people got involve in my transaction.
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