Upon entering the corner McDonald's located on Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, Queens, I was expecting another rejection from the McDonald's staff and the general manager. As soon as I opened the doors, it seemed that this franchise location was a busier one than most other branches that I have been to outside of Manhattan. Much to my surprise, however, this particular location was much more receptive and cooperative with its customers. As I asked for unusual favors such as talking with the general manager after placing my bizarre order, but the cashier, without any questioning, called for the manager and continued on with the next customer on the line. Understandably, of course, I was not met with much appreciation.
As my turn to order arrived, I was met with smiles and a welcoming, “how may I help you.” However, this gregarious greeting did not continue after I opened my mouth to place my order. When I tried to specify that I needed to have exactly five pickles on my McDouble, the cashier did not take my order with a great attitude. When I specified that I needed to have those five pickles on the receipt, the employee simply did not respond and continued on with entering my order into the database. Again, when I asked for small sized french fries that was well done and unsalted, and asked him to make sure that those orders are specified in the receipt, the employee did not acknowledge. Instead, he looked at me with an agitated expression and called, “anything else?” When I responded “no,” he simply ignored all of my favors and yelled to the crew in the back, “extra pickles, make it five with the McDouble, and the fries are unsalted!” Upon hearing this, I urged that whatever he said to the cooking staff must be on the receipt. To that he replied, “sir, please step aside,” and, “next on line.” Afterward, when I asked for the general manager, the cashier called for him in the back without any protest.
Waiting for the general manager to step outside to talk to me, I was watching very carefully how they were preparing my order. I noticed that the burger was made relatively quickly and put into a small sized bag, which was then placed next to the deep fryer. It was then when I saw that they brought out a whole new batch of frozen french fries just for my order because the batch that they had prepared before were salted already. It took a few more minutes for the french fries to cook, which made this the longest time that I have ever waited for my order in any McDonald's, and when the fries were placed inside of the bag, there was no employee to bring it over to where I was standing. A short few minutes later, a gentleman with a tie stepped outside with my food bag to where the customer lines were forming.
As the general manager placed my order into my hands, he greeted me with a, “hello, how may I help you?” To that I responded, “I am fine but having a little trouble here with my order.” I tried to explain to him that I needed the receipt to specify that I ordered a McDouble with five pickles in it, and small fries that are well done, and unsalted. Subsequently, he tried to alleviate the problem by ensuring that my lunch was prepared just the way I asked for it to be. When I asked him to command the employee to recreate a receipt of my liking, he replied to me that he cannot do that with the number of people waiting to be served during the busy hour. I realized then that the employees here were concerned more about the expediency of their job, so I decided to press the manager to take a private picture with me and signaled my friend to take the camera out. Immediately, the manager explained to me, like numerous other managers that have preceded him, that there is a strict no camera policy inside every McDonald's. I abandoned all of my ego and ambitiously tried to convince him that I needed this photo because it was my goal to record everything that I have done during my vacation in New York City. It was after this plea that the manager agreed to just one picture because he needed to be behind the counter to do his job. When I tried to take the food out to check that my order was placed correctly, the manager spoke to me in an impatient tone that he made sure that the food was prepared properly himself, and that he did not have much leisure. After the picture was taken, I decided to press further for the receipt to be fixed; however, he cut me off and told me to fix whatever I needed to fix and that he would sign the receipt to ensure its legitimacy. With my hopes suppressed, I just left the area after I had done as he asked and checked that my order was taken correctly.
The organization of this particular branch of McDonald's was very efficient. Everyone was placed where he or she was supposed to be to maximize speed. However, the only problem that I had observed was that they assumed there would be no orders of unsalted french fries, which slowed up one of the customer lines to accommodate my special order while trying to do the same for every other customer. Communication was also highly efficient from what I had observed. My order of “five pickles” was omitted in the order entry into the data; however, the cooking crew was able to prepare it with accuracy from just listening to the cashier verbally communicate with them in the midst of other chaotic occurrences inside the kitchen. A bit informal, but very effective. Training, I found a bit lacking in this branch. If they were trained properly, in my opinion, they would not have any problems with entering my order the way I wanted them to enter it. However, because of their lack of dexterity with the technology that they are working with, the employees resort to informal methods of communication without using the computers that they are provided with inside of the workplace. More training of the front cashiers to drill them to use the technology that is in front of them with the utmost efficiency is required. From my experience, the manager appropriately showed the greatest amount of leadership. He manages this group of employees by example, as he does not like to take much time off from his own work, and stresses the value of time very clearly. He breeds the importance of work speed within the work culture very effectively, which is a very important quality for a leader in a McDonald's franchise. The other individuals involved in my transaction could have shown more leadership qualities by taking initiative to serving the customer to ensure their experience to be one of the highest quality. They could do this by stepping away from their informal work culture and providing customers with the service that they ask of.
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