focus
- Due to the fierce competition in the fast-food market, even heavyweight McDonald's cannot take its customers for granted and must constantly maintain its leading position.
- During this process, the company attempts to identify weaknesses in its business or customer concerns.
- While it may be obvious, the focus is on a simple ordering experience, low-cost but delicious food, and responsive customer service.
Simplified menu
Eating at McDonald's is quite an experience as the menu flips at high speed creating an ever-changing cycle of choices that can seem overwhelming. By returning to its roots (burgers, cheeseburgers and French fries), the McDonald's brand can strengthen and continue to establish itself among its core consumers. Quick and easy ordering means happy customers, and recurring customers are at the heart of every restaurant's business.
fast food
McDonald's failed pizza experiment in the 1990s should have taught the company that consumers don't go to fast food restaurants and sit down and wait for their food. Franchisees complained that pizza ovens were expensive and took long to cook, but McDonald's didn't end its pizza business until 2000.
Another example is consumers and franchise owners alike complaining about McBurritos. This tricky menu item takes longer than expected to prepare and leads to consumer frustration and impatience. McDonald's has since phased out the McWrap, admitting the menu had become "too complex." The problem with trying and failing is that consumers become attached to the product and lose loyalty when the product is discontinued for operational purposes.
By listening to franchisees as well as consumers, McDonald's can restore its image as a restaurant that offers fast and cheap food.
Delicious burger
McDonald's once made the tastiest burgers in America, but these days the award for best burger increasingly goes to fast-casual restaurants like Shake Shack Inc. (SHAK) and five people. In a bizarre move, McDonald's is abandoning its core brand of fast, cheap and trying to copy upscale burger joints to attract consumers.
McDonald's should focus on improving the quality of its core products. Local ingredients, organic food and high quality standards are not necessarily top of the list for consumers at McDonald's.
customer service
At the management level, there seems to be a general lack of initiative to provide a delightful experience within McDonald's that matches the service levels of its competitors. The best and easiest solution to improve your time at McDonald's are self-service kiosks, which are increasingly popular and widely used in Europe and Canada.
These popular machines enable fast, precise ordering, secure payment options, and free up employees to perform other tasks and improve customer service that wouldn't necessarily require a human interaction in an automated restaurant like McDonald's interaction between.
Lower price
McDonald's raison d'être is to serve cheap food quickly, and consumers willing to spend more than $5 for a burger will go to the fast-casual burger restaurant. With its gourmet Angus burgers and wraps, McDonald's failed investors and consumers who frequented the stores looking for cheap calories.
By simplifying its menu and implementing self-service ordering, McDonald's can reduce labor shortages and cross-use ingredients in price. A smaller, simpler menu not only reduces staff costs but also doesn't force franchisees to purchase expensive specialized equipment or keep as much inventory as possible to sell various menu items.
bottom line
It seems McDonald's franchisees and customers have made it clear; McDonald's will never be the place where people go to eat exotic meat burgers stuffed with artisanal bread and imported cheese. Empirical data shows that customers want a place to get cheap, tasty burgers that are ready within minutes of entering the building.
McDonald's is not unique in its desire to expand beyond its core markets. Many companies try to venture into new areas of growth within their industries, often at the expense of customer loyalty. In addition to potentially alienating your customer base, this strategy often opens the door to increased competition from competitors eager to exploit any apparent weaknesses or missteps. As long as McDonald's continues to compete with the wrong companies, it will leave the door open for real competitors -- Wendy's Inc. (WEN) and Restaurant Brands International Inc. (QSR) subsidiary Burger King -- to take over the lion's share of the fast-food industry. -Food market.
