McDonalds Cashiers Lack Training
Jun 24th, 2006 by Alex
When presented with a coupon, most McDonalds cashiers require a manager’s assistance to complete the transaction. This indicates a lack of thorough register training or a non-intuitive user interface, but definitely a disconnect between the franchises and the boardroom.
Birth of a Problem
Every few months, some corporate weenie/executive at McDonalds Corporate decides that franchise sales are down, that television ads aren’t effective enough, and that the sky is going to fall if profits don’t increase.
“We need to get more people into our restaurants,” he probably tells his cronies at the watercooler. “I don’t care how it is done. Hell, get Ferguson to mail out a ton of those coupons again!” That’ll get ‘em to come in and buy our slop, he thinks on his way to the golf course.
So it goes, and millions of people receive a small packet of coupons in their mailbox a few days later. They — just like me — afix the packet to the fridge with a magnet. Some — like me — place a few choice coupons in their car for those mornings when time is short and breakfast is going to had be on-the-go.
Though there is a McDonalds within a mile of my home, I must admit that I’m not a frequent visitor. If I have a packet of coupons, I may stop by every month or so, usually when I’m running late and need breakfast. My thought on this is that if I’m going to eat garbage fast food, I may as well not pay a lot for it.
The Problem of Poor Training
The only problem that remains is training the cashiers on how to handle the things. Every time I hand a coupon to a cashier, their eyes become slightly glazed. In most cases, a manager is called over to process the transaction. They usually inform me that I ought to inform them of the coupon when I order, versus when I go to pay. I refuse to do this; it’s dumb, and I’m skeptical of the quality of the food to begin with.
Imagine if it worked like that at your favorite deli. You stroll up to the counter and say “Hi there, I’d like a pound of your finest ham,” before mentioning “oh yes, and I only intend to pay $1 for it. Could you slice it extra thin?” Those slices would be as thin as the blade was set originally. Call me a cynic, but if I were in their shoes I’d be less likely to give good service if I knew they weren’t paying full price.
Some cashiers get visibly irritated when I hand them the coupon. This irritation is usually directed at the situation, but occassionally at me. Some of these cashiers can get rather nasty. Why get mad at me? Get mad at Corporate; their coupon-mailing golf-buddy-inspired wisdom is to blame here, not me. I’d complain to the manager after the nastiness, but they’d likely issue me more coupons in apology.
Sometimes the cashier doesn’t want to ask the manager how to do it, risking embarassment. So they just ring it up incorrectly. This was what I experienced recently.
My Recent Experience
On July 21st, I walked into my local McDonalds restaurant and ordered a Bacon Egg & Cheese Bagel (pictured above). I opted for the meal, which comes with the delightfully greasy hash brown square and a coffee. But I didn’t want the coffee; a soft drink was substituted.
This whole exchange took a few minutes, as English was clearly not the cashier’s first language. After a lot of pointing at the menu, I handed over the coupon. It stated plainly that the meal would be $1.99, discounted from the original $4 or $5 listed on the board. $2 isn’t too shabby for breakfast.
Here’s the receipt…
1 BAC EGG CH BAGEL ML 0.70
1 SML COKE 1.00
SUB TOTAL 1.70
TAKE OUT TAX 0.09
------
1.79
CASH TENDERED 2.00
CHANGE 0.21
So my $1.99 Bacon Egg & Cheese Bagel meal costs $1.70 after a substitution and tax? How does that work? Normally substitutions cost you more money, and I would have been fine with paying an extra 50-70 cents to “upgrade” my coffee. That’s always been the way it has been in the past. Maybe I’ve been ripped off a lot in the past and this guy is doing it right… wouldn’t that be nice?
More likely McDonalds’ profit just took a hit, here. While not a lot of money, the situation is compounded by 30,000 restaurants. If one (and ONLY one) 29 cent error were made daily at each location McDonalds would lose almost $3.2 million dollars per year. Mistakes add up. Suffice to say that most McDonalds employees could use a bit more training, especially those manning the till.
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Cheers! I came across this blog during a random Google search. I happen to be an employee of said Golden Arches, and wanted to explain the reasoning behind letting us know when you order about coupons. When those special deals are present, our POS has special buttons in place during the promotion: for example 2 for $3 McGriddles will have a button that says just that. If you happen to order in drive-thru and just say 2 McGriddles, we cannot distinguish whether you have a coupon or not, and most cashiers are pretty busy simultaneously taking orders and cash. When you come to the window with the coupon, we usually have to get a manager override by then to remedy the problem (probably because people abused those privileges in the past), but in a nutshell, your quality won’t change by announcing your coupon. We can’t cut half of a piece of sausage, and yell “I said GOOD DAY!” because you want to save a few bucks. No harm in that :*) Although this repsonse is pretty late, I hope it helps.