A McDonald's Manager's #1 Concern is...
written by Allan on July 31, 2008
The other day I was watching a TV special on McDonald's, the fast food giant. At one point they mentioned something surprising; the #1 concern of a McDonald's manager is to keep the bathrooms clean. While driving people will stop at McDonald's to use the restroom and order drinks, which have a high profit margin. It kinda of blew me away, I would have guessed keeping the food warm would or having fast service. I knew clean bathrooms were important but a #1 concern, interesting.
Bathrooms aren't what McDonald's is actually selling but its a big factor in bringing the customer in. So this made me think. We're a products and consulting company, but maybe clients choose to work with us over company X because of something else outside of our skillset. Maybe its the way we handle their project, speak to them honestly and think about the user.
There are hundreds of great web development companies, so why do people choose to work with you? Maybe you're a copywriter but what keeps clients referring their friends isn't your vocabulary, it's your sense of humor that carries over into your writing.
Think about it, what makes you different besides the skill set you bring to the table?
This is off topic but here is McDonald's First Commercial (the Today's Show, Willard Scott is Ronald McDonald)
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Allan loves his family more than breathing. He lives in Panama City, Florida & grew up washing cars at his family's car washes. Oh and Allan hasn't worn underwear since 2004.
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I worked for PeopleSoft, Inc. for about 6 years, from 97 to 03. Dave Duffield, the company founder, would send out a missive to all employees about once per quarter, it was titled “Dave’s Rules of Business Behavior”. Rule Number 1 was “Keep the Restrooms Clean”.
Yes, I’ve been associated with this Business Rule from the early days of PeopleSoft, and it’s even more important now than it was then. I remember either listening to, or reading from one of Tom Peters‘ famous books on Customer Service. He gave an example of a passenger getting onto a plane, sitting down, and finding his fold-down tray covered with some mung from the previous flight. The passenger’s thought: “Wow. If they can’t handle the easy things like keeping the aircraft clean, how can they possibly deal with the hard things like engine maintenance?”
The customer/prospect analogy at PeopleSoft: “Wow, if they can’t keep the restrooms clean, how can they possibly develop quality products?”
So, … please pay attention to the little things like keeping the restrooms, kitchens, hallways, and other public places — even your personal work area Ron, Rick, and Aneel — as clean as possible. Our prospects and customers will think more kindly toward our products and services.
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The rest of the rules are reproduced here: http://www.chahinkapa.com/blog/?p=22
I never really thought about it, but I’ve driven coast to coast many times and always stopped at McDonald’s to use the bathrooms, and ended up buying drinks, even though I despise their food. So it definitely works.
Spending time developing your “soft skills” as a developer is definitely important. I’ve worked with guys that wrote great code but were hard to get along with, poorly organized, always late, and couldn’t communicate worth a damn. Given the choice I’d much rather work with someone who’s easy to get along with, well organized, prompt and easy to talk to even if they only code moderately well.
A) We spend the majority of our waking hours in our comfort zones
B) Comfortable individuals are more likely to hand over cash and more likely to agree with your Menu, Service
C) Personality and Style can put potential customers at ease
D) An at ease customer is closer to his comfort zone ( see B above )
Economics is governed more by social aspects than by having financial statements balance.
I usually have lunch at the same establishment.Its not the cheapest.The food isn’t twice as good.No special environment.Just … an elderly Brazillian lady that serves up with passion.Rainy day, sunny day, wrong time of the month, without fail.
It’s not the place I lunch at, but the place with the friendly lady.
It’s crazy, but it makes sense. Most restaurants make their profit margins off (alcholic) drinks, so why not fast food places?
Keep those bathrooms clean and I’ll keep swinging by McDonald’s on my road trips to use the bathroom.
Damn right I’ll buy a drink out of guilt.