Antbag.com

While making my way through the local McDonald’s drive-thru the other day, something in the background caught my attention. This drive-thru is one of those where the first window is where the financial transaction occurs, and the second window is where the customer is rewarded with the food they’ve paid for. In the first window, I noticed two signs on the wall which served to remind employees of the goals. The first sign read:

Obviously, no big deal. It’s good that they have goals to keep things moving. The drive-thru is not a place where the customer wants to sit and wait. I’ve been under the impression that the whole purpose was the speed. The sign that hung just below the first read:

Again, not a big deal to me at all. The faster we can exchange the money, the quicker this whole deal can go down. Let me pay you, you give me the food, and we’re done. At this point, the customer has to drive up to the next window to retrieve the food. I was interested to see what the “Order Fulfillment Goal” would be. Unfortunately, there was no sign hanging on the wall in the second window. At least it wasn’t visible to the customers as the signs in the first window were.

I’m not on an Anti-McDonald’s crusade. My impression was that them taking my money was much more important than delivering hot fresh food in a quick and orderly way. Unfortunately, the first two objectives, order-taking and money-exchanging, were the fastest parts. When I got to the second window, I waited for 3 or 4 minutes until I was asked to pull forward……where my order would be brought out to me as soon as it was ready. I guess they didn’t want me to hold up the line……and no, my order was no complicated order with “special requests”. A simple combo meal as it comes “stock”.

So, is McDonald’s missing the point?