Not Just Broken Milkshake Machines…

While I was intentional about not mentioning either organization’s name before, I have no doubt that you had a very clear picture of the one with broken milkshake machines and the one serving God’s chicken sandwich. And you certainly weren’t alone! In cxtoday.com article called “McDonald’s Is Failing on Customer Satisfaction, Report Finds” opens with this:

A customer satisfaction report has found that burger behemoth McDonald’s is the poorest-performing major restaurant in the US.

Conducted by the American Customer Satisfaction Index organization (ACSI), McDonald’s received the lowest ACSI rating across all full-service and fast-food restaurants.

At the other end of the scale, Chick-fil-A claimed the top spot for the 10th consecutive year, strengthening its position as the King of fast-food customer satisfaction.

I cited an article called “The Poetry of Purpose: Inspirational Purpose Statement Examples” in Leading With A Clear Purpose that used McDonald’s mission, purpose, and values statements area as an example of how far companies can vary from each listed these as the core values holding up those golden arches: serve, inclusion, integrity, community, & family. Serve, the first listed, was defined as “we put our guests and people first.” I’ll ask you, if that value was being modeled by leadership - even remotely - throughout the organization, is it likely that they’d be receiving “the lowest ratings across all full-service and fast-food restaurants”? Seems like that may be more than even a reliable milkshake machine could fix…

Truth be told, I only bring up the milkshake machines because it’s become a running joke. For any joke to resonate, though, there needs to be at least some validity woven in. And just like most of us have been denied ice cream or a milkshake, it’s clear that many others have had similar experiences where the folks behind the counter did not put the guests first. It’s also clear that what I observed while our son learned all about those amazing chicken sandwiches wasn’t exclusive to our local stores.

The moral of this part of the story is that you and I have both made decisions, as consumers, about which organizations we’re willing to support and do business with. Those decisions typically tie directly back to whether or not the leaders in these companies choose to model their organizational values, and how they’ve set clear expectations for their teams to do the same. From time to time, we see raging boycotts that make headlines because a company has alienated some of the customers. More frequently though, we vote silently with our money and opt to do business with those we’ve seen upholding values that align with our own.

Make no mistake, I’m not suggesting that it will ever be a cakewalk for any leader to consistently model the core values defined for their business. It’s just as challenging to set high expectations for their team members to exemplify those values and to maintain accountability when someone falls short. That said, failing to do either kills profitability in many areas of that business - and I detailed the two in back to back chapters of What’s KILLING YOUR Profitability? (It ALL Boils Down to Leadership!)... Building the foundation of our organization on values, consistently, will always require making hard decisions so that’s what we’ll work through next.