{"id":13729,"date":"2014-10-27T13:37:49","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T13:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thefranchiseking.com\/?p=13729"},"modified":"2016-10-13T14:01:01","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T14:01:01","slug":"mcdonalds-moving-mcslow-franchisees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefranchiseking.com\/mcdonalds-moving-mcslow-franchisees","title":{"rendered":"McDonald’s Is Moving Too McSlow For Its Franchisees"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"too<\/a><\/p>\n

What’s the deal with McDonald’s<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

It’s embarrassing.<\/p>\n

Why is this fast food empire having so many problems? Why is it taking forever to fix them?<\/p>\n

Let’s dig in.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What Joe Told Me<\/h2>\n

Joe Stokar<\/strong>, the guy I credit for teaching me basic and even some advanced selling skills years ago, once told me this:<\/p>\n

“Don’t be an ‘I told you so’ kind of guy<\/em>.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As the the new car sales manager, Joe’s job was to manage the sales team, and make sure as many cars as possible were sold.<\/p>\n

My job-at the time, was to sell them.<\/p>\n

Most of our prospective customers shopped around a bit…trying to secure the “best price<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Sometimes, a customer would go to one of our competitors and get a price from them that was shall we say, rather low. As a matter of fact, the prices would be so low, we couldn’t compete. We would tell the customer he was being lied to, but he didn’t believe us… he thought we<\/em>\u00a0 were lying. That’s because the customer was given what’s called, “a shopping around<\/em>” price. The sales team at the other store knew the customer was going to probably go to 2-3 different dealerships to get prices, so their sales team would throw out a price that was super-low. So low as a matter of fact…no one could touch it. In a nutshell, the customer was being “low-balled.<\/em>” \u00a0The hope was that he would come back in because it was such a great price. Once that happened, the dealership would make up a story about how they must have made a “mistake.<\/em>” Then they would try to hang on to the customer (who would be pretty angry<\/em>) and sell them the car. \u00a0Nice, huh?<\/p>\n

Sometimes, it even worked.<\/em><\/p>\n

When it didn’t<\/em> work, which was fairly often, the customer would come back to us, tail between his legs, waiting for his salesperson-me…<\/em>to say, “I told you so…I told you they were lying<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Joe didn’t want me to say that. He told me not to be an “I told you so kind of guy<\/em>.” Instead, he told me to smile, and say, “let’s just get you into that car you want<\/em>.” So I did. And, I sold the car. Hundreds of them over the years before I was promoted to management.<\/p>\n

Anywho…<\/p>\n

I bet you’re wondering what my little story has to do with the slowness of McDonald’s.<\/p>\n

Keep reading.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\u00a0McDonald’s 2012<\/h2>\n

The McDonald’s franchise has been having problems…big problems for a couple of years.<\/p>\n

Here’s what I wrote about McDonald’s in 2012:<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ll tell you what I see; too many choices! No wonder cars and trucks are backed up 8 deep x 2, (Double Drive-Thru) at lunch and dinner. (Breakfast, too?) I\u2019m no mathematician, but looking at that menu board, I\u2019d guess that there are around 250 possible variations in the way that customers can order. That slows things up a bit, especially with poorly-trained staffs. Now, I\u2019m not saying that every McDonald\u2019s franchise that\u2019s been equipped with the Double Drive-Thru is a disorganized mess. I can only go with what I know from the two that are open and operating in my local area. It\u2019s really disappointing. Especially for someone who\u2019s constantly extolling the virtues of the McDonald\u2019s franchise model<\/em>.” Read the rest of the article here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’m not going to be an “I told you so<\/em>” kind of guy, here. But.<\/p>\n

Someone<\/em>\u00a0 at McDonald’s headquarters read that blog post-and the countless others I’ve written about McDonald’s<\/strong><\/a> over the years. Here’s one about Ray Kroc<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Someone<\/em>\u00a0 monitors the things that are said and written about the brand…several people probably. Why didn’t they do something? Why didn’t they share what was being written? Or, if they did, why didn’t management pay attention to what I and several others wrote about their problems?<\/p>\n

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist<\/strong><\/a> to see that the McDonald’s menu is too damn big! No wonder the drive-thru lines move at a snail’s<\/del> turtle’s pace. There are too many choices!<\/p>\n

Corporate did nothing. Nothing<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

McDonald’s Is Moving Too McSlow For Its Franchisees<\/h2>\n

Headquarters is definitely moving too slow if you’re a McDonald’s franchisee<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Franchisees of this fast-food empire have been complaining loudly for a while now. If I was a McDonald’s franchise owner, I’d be complaining loudly too. (Imagine that<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

The Dollar Menu<\/strong><\/a> was pretty much eliminated after several multi-unit franchisees complained, but that hasn’t helped the slowwwwwness going on at the drive-thru-and at\u00a0<\/strong>headquarters<\/b>.<\/p>\n