Do Corporate Fast Food Chains Still Care About Their Customers?

I remember way back when I was a teenager working fast food, the work ethic required by fast food chain employers was very high. They drilled quality of products and services into every employees head over and over again and people actually seemed to care that they were doing things correctly. I know I worked very hard for my minimum wage to make every customer happy.

These days, the large chains have gotten so huge and are making so much money that it seems they don't have the same standards as they used to. I live in a small town with about 30,000 people and almost every time I go to a fast food restaurant, my order is either completely wrong, missing items, or the food is just terrible. When I wait in line a second time to get my order corrected, the general attitude of the employees is usually, oh well just another complaining customer. I remember a time when my orders were almost always right and if it wasn't, the employees would bend over backwards to make sure it got corrected with a smile and a generous invite to come back soon.

I realize, with the volume of business these fast food stores do daily and the average age of the employees, it's not going to be perfect every time but I do expect a certain level of satisfactory quality and service to keep me coming back, as do most people I'm sure. Recently, a trip to one of the major chains (I wont say which one but I'm not fond of clowns anymore) resulted in my order being wrong. The employee's attitude was so bad and I had waited in line for so long that I didn't want the order corrected, I just simply wanted a refund for the portion that was incorrect. The employee promptly informed me that they couldn't give me a refund and I would have to come back on Monday to talk to the store manager. This infuriated me to say the least. I contacted their corporate office with the details of the complaint and their answer, believe it or not, was let us send you a coupon so you will come back. I informed them that all I wanted was a refund and that I would not be going back to any of their stores.

This has put me off of fast food permanently which is probably the best thing I could have done for my health anyway. The real question here is weather it is really the fault of the corporate entity, the franchisees, or the customers not complaining about bad food and bad service. I personally feel it is a combination of all three. The corporate officers need to be keeping a closer eye on their franchisees, especially when there are a lot of complaints, the store owners need to keep up quality standards and hire responsible people that actually need the job, and the customers need to complain when things aren't right. I remember a time when fast food store owners would lose their franchise if they had too many complaints, this is obviously not the case anymore, it's all about the volume nowadays.

People are much more rushed these days than they used to be and it is almost as if they expect their food to be wrong and just accept it, or maybe they are just afraid of what the employees will do to their food which is why I ask for a refund and go somewhere else in these cases. I urge everyone that eats at fast food restaurants to stand up and do something constructive when they have a bad experience. Simply asking the manager for a refund and informing them you will take your business to their competitors will sometimes put a fire in the employees pants, if not you probably don't want to give them more of your business anyway. Most fast food chains have websites these days where you can file a complaint and it can even be done anonymously in some cases if you choose. If every person that gets bad or incorrect food would complain, a lot more franchisees would be forced to improve their quality or close down their business.

I am not here to speak badly about any company or try to put anyone out of business, I just want everyone to realize that it takes all of us to change the way things are going. If we don't complain, they will never improve and the quantity over quality attitude that these fast food companies seem to have will only get worse. This is just my 2 cents on the subject.