A slight departure from our core theme …

Let me set the scene. I’m sitting at a long table in a suburban McDonalds in Sydney about a 10 minute drive from where I live.

I had purchased a new & shiny wireless modem router yesterday and in the process of installing it I wasn’t able to provide access details to the ISP we use at home for some crazy reason. The username & password I had been using for the last 12 months was wrong – go figure!

Consequently I had no internet access at home for at least today and in an example of “that’s just great” timing my 17 year old son, who was leaving for a study camp, asked if he could use my mobile broadband while he was away. Being a good father, of course I said yes.

So that’s the back story of why I’m at McDonald’s using their free (and pleasantly reliable) wi-fi internet access.

Two people served me at McDonalds this morning; one for food and the other for coffee. The first person was a 19/20 year old woman who greeted me with a pleasant smile, served me with an efficiency that was impressive and wished me a great day. Obviously, GenY, I would score her a 9/10.

The other person, was an older woman (say early 40′s), who wasn’t that pleasant. She was busy and obviously stressed. She took my order, I paid my money and she got back to the coffee machine. A few minutes later my order was called out and I went to the serving counter. As she was placing the coffee cup and saucer on  a tray, I asked if I may have some more milk on the side (I tend to have my coffee quite weak). I got the impression that she wasn’t that happy but she gave it to me anyway. I also asked if there was any sugar since there were only sachets of Nutrasweet – she almost barked back, “Only what’s here” – pointing to a large glass jar containing white sugar with a big spoon. I’d score the service experience a 4/10.

Without putting too fine a point on it, I was amazed that two employees working less than 10 metres apart for the same organisation, doing similar jobs, could be soooooooooo different in the way that they served me.

Now I know the above situation is a one-off, isolated case but I was surprised to see such a contrast between a Gen X and a Gen Y. Usually people (including me) have been quick to judge the young people today (i.e. Gen Y) to be lacking the right work ethic and having a terrible attitude to customer service. Well I, and maybe you, could be wrong!

See you next time,

James E.

James Evangelidis

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Tagged as: Customer service, Gen X, McDonalds