McDonalds’ Ten Commandments
Published January 10th, 2007 in GeneralI was pointed in the direction of this glowing reference for a McDonald’s employee in one of their Irish stores recently. The story brought to mind something which I read recently about McDs. In his book “Treasure Hunt - Inside the Mind of the New Consumer“, Michael J. Silverstein recalls Jim Cantalupo’s bid to turn around MacDonald’s fortunes at the start of this century. Canatalupo’s aim was to refocus on the company’s “ten commandments”, which had been drawn up some fifty years earlier. I’ve listed them below because they are as relevant now as they were back; not alone for MacDonalds, but for all companies.
- The customer is the most important person in our business
- The customer is not dependent on us - we are dependent on him
- The customer is not an interruption of our work - he is the purpose of it
- The customer does us an honour when he calls - we are not doing him a favour by serving him
- The customer is part of our business, not an outsider - he is our guest
- The customer is not a cold statistic - he is flesh and blood - a human with feelings like our own
- The customer is not someone to argue with or match wits with
- The customer is the one who brings us his wants - it is our job to fill them
- The customer is deserving of the most courteous and attentive treatment we can give him
- The customer has the right to expect an employee to present a neat, clean appearance. The employee should have trim, clean fingernails, be clean shaven and keep his hair cut
Update: Damien Mulley (who pointed me in the direction of the original compliment) has linked to another example of great customer service in McDonalds. Here’s what the customer had to say:
Just wanted to highlight what I thought to be very good customer service after making a complaint.
Went to my local McDs this morning to get myself some breakfast.
Was served by, without doubt, the rudest employee I have ever had to deal with in a restaurant. Made a balls of my order, barked something at me when I pointed out his mistake and I think if he smiled, his face would have cracked.
I started the day in great form - last working day before the holidays and ended up in such bad form that I emailed McDs head office and told them my tale of woe. Was not expecting any reply as it was sent to the generic info@ mail acount.
Within 2 minutes of sending the email, I had a return reply…A phone call from the area supervisor within 5 minutes and a call from the restaurant manager within 10 minutes. All were very apologetic and thanked me for highlighting the problem.
Well done McDonalds…now if only some of the other companies mention in this section of boards.ie were so quick to respond to us customers…
Technorati Tags: McDonalds, Piaras Kelly, Customer Service
5 Responses to “McDonalds’ Ten Commandments”
- 1 Pingback on Jan 26th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
- 2 Pingback on Jan 23rd, 2008 at 8:27 am
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And another story from Boards.ie
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055032005
It’s funny how a company that gets so much flack from the opinionated masses is actually scoring points all over the place.
See here also: http://spongebopp.blogspot.com/2006/12/im-loving-it.html
E.
I read yesterday in an Argentine PR e-zine that GW Bush had met the big US companies and had asked them to help the US Government to improve its image abroad. Apparently they agree on some specific points.
If you understand Spanish, here is the first paragraph of the article:
“El gobierno de George Bush entendió el mensaje: la mala imagen de Estados Unidos en el exterior es el verdadero gran problema que debe enfrentar la superpotencia desde el fin de la Guerra Fría, ahora agravado por la guerra contra el terrorismo. Por eso la Secretaria de Estado, Condoleeza Rice, y la encargada de la Diplomacia Pública de Estados Unidos, Karen Hughes, una amiga íntima de George Bush, convocaron la semana pasada en Washington a 150 directores de PR corporativos de empresas con filiales en el exterior y jefes de grandes consultoras a la primera cumbre conjunta de la historia del gobierno norteamericano con el sector privado sobre diplomacia pública, esa disciplina del Departamento de Estado para mejorar la imagen de Estados Unidos en el exterior.”
Anyway, I wonder how much the US image around the world affects MCDonalds image. Those “ten commandents” are wonderful, but sometimes people resist MCDonalds because of its immediate association to US. I am talking from Argentina, where polls show that US does not have a good reputation. However, sometimes people here say something and do a different thing.
Regards from Buenos Aires,
Ignacio