McDonald's !!

The word “Service” gives me a impression of fulfilling of both material and emotional needs.
Making special order is not comfortable with me since I have had bad experiences by encountering unfriendly staff in several franchise restaurants in Manhattan.

I went to a McDonald’s which is located on 27th street and 8th Avenue.
First, I waited on a line to make my order. On my turn, I ordered one hamburger from the Dollar menu and requested the cashier to put four pickles on the patty. She repeated my order to make sure. When I ordered French fries, I told her not to put salt on it. She misunderstood that I ordered a soda so I had to emphasized that I did not want salt on the French fries. When completed order taking, she placed my order directly to the kitchen and told them to put four pickles-I assumed since they spoke in Spanish.
While I was waiting, a manager came to the cash register and I paid $2.05. He did not
give me the receipt. Another staff person made French fries. However, she put salt on the fries. The first staff person who took my order put the hamburger in a paper bag and prepared new fries as I requested. When she handed me the bag, I asked for my receipt and got it.
To complete my order three people got involved since one of the staff was preparing
only for her customer. It took me about 10 minutes which was less time than I expected.
As I mentioned earlier, my expectation toward the staff was very low since I already had
bad experiences. Their attitudes toward customers were neither friendly nor rude.
They just did their job. It did not seem that long until I got my food.
The food was prepared as I ordered. Four pickles placed on the patty and no salt was
added on French fries.

There were no specific management processes showed. However, the staffs followed
the certain steps to complete customer’s order. Through McDonald’s Mission and training the staff learned and were led by the company’s goal. It was hard to find whether they were motivated or not. Their attitudes showed that they were not enjoying the work. Though there seemed no problem on communicating among staffs, it was not organized. Even though my order could be done by two people, unnecessary help was intervened and that gave me an impression of poor service.
There are many factors creating good image of a certain business. Fast food restaurant like McDonald’s has to provide not only fast service but also pleasant service.
Compared to the impression I got from west coast, the employees of service related business in east coast were not that friendly. There should be a training session for managers to maintain the quality of the company’s service. This training session could motivate the managers and their attitudes influence other employees. Through managerial training, the managers learn how to communicate with other employees. This leads to a well created working environment that will lead their staff to the company’s common goal.
Intervening while other staff was working on something(like the manager who intervened a cashier) might discourage others. Showing respect is very important whether they are on a managerial position or not.
Their expressions reminded me the movie “AI” which the heroes were not human beings. Service training is necessary to motivate each of the staffs. People can be told by looking at their faces if they are satisfied with their job or not.
This McDonald’s I went needs to be refreshed. It would be better if they can arrange a training session to teach how to take orders, the attitude while they take orders, etc.

Overall service quality was higher than my expectation. It has potential to be improved if they get motivated as I mentioned.

CAREERS!!

There were many careers that I wanted to be when I was young. Many of them were ended as dreams. When I look back my past, my situation led me to a certain career. However, I realized that I liked the job and I still seeking to get the same kind of job. I studied hospitality management and got a job in a hotel. If I can get a job after finish my school at Baruch, I want to work in an international hotel such as Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton and so on. Even though, my personality is somewhat introvert, I still like meeting people. When you work in a hospitality industry, you can meet people who have various back ground. It is interesting and challenging.
Secondly, I want to be a social worker. I am not an ambitious person who is eager to achieve something through my career. However, if I can get a job in such field, I do not want to limit my boundaries. I might go overseas to join some kind of organizations to work with.
Hopefully, my study could be a help in my future career as a social worker. I do not know how it can be applied to my work.