Thursday, April 24, 2008

McCustomer

This happened to me years ago and I thought I would share because I still remember it, and it’s still relevant.

We were traveling back from Pune, a destination about 3 hours from Mumbai (or Bombay as I still call it) on Christmas Eve. It was about 11:30 at night as we made our way on a truck infested highway. We were starving; to say the least! The last we had eaten was a late brunch in Pune city.

Knowing that there was a Mickey D’s coming up; decided that we had to stop there. We went in and it seemed like they were closed and cleaning up. Not a customer was in sight. We requested the servers and asked them if we could place an order (yes, we were desperate) and they told us that nothing was left!

They decided then, that they would put together salad and a burger bun; and pineapple jam (from their pies) and a burger bun. Needless to say, these two combinations were not on the menu. As it came time to pay up-the McD’s servers smiled and blatantly refused to let us pay. Boy, was I surprised!

Was it a Christmas act of kindness? Or was it the result of some great customer-centric training?
The fact is, years later- I’m still talking about the incident. So they must have done something right!

Lesson learned: You have to be on your game at all times-open, closed or rush hour (or in McDonald’s case, lunch hour)