Name of client; Mc Donald's Background; McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving

around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948 they reorganized their business as a hamburger stand using production line principles. Businessman Ray Kroc joined the company as a franchise agent in 1955. He subsequently purchased the chain from the McDonald brothers and oversaw its worldwide growth. A McDonald's restaurant is operated by either a franchisee, an affiliate, or the corporation itself. The corporation's revenues come from the rent, royalties and fees paid by the franchisees, as well as sales in company-operated restaurants. McDonald's revenues grew 27 percent over the three years ending in 2007 to $22.8 billion, and 9 percent growth in operating income to $3.9 billion McDonald's primarily sells hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken, French fries, breakfast items, soft drinks, shakes and desserts. In response to changing consumer tastes, the company has expanded its menu to include salads, wraps, smoothies, coffee and fruit. Although a very successful brand Mc Donald's faces a variety of difficulties in terms of the service delivery mechanism. This case discusses about the not-so-quick service delivery system of Mc Donald's. Mc Donald's is known as the "Quick Service Restaurant" However the service delivery rate at different locations of Mc Donald's has had a subsequent level of inconsistency. Mc Donald's is proud to have served 99 billion customers and wants to deliver a flawless service delivery to their growing customer base. Problem definition; Mc Donald's would like to study the waiting time for an average meal order placed at different outlets of Mc Donald's. Mc Donald's would like to study this in major cities in Canada and then perform this study in other major cities of the world. Ottawa market is chosen to perform this particular research study.

Objective; The marketing problem is to increase the efficiency and consistency of the service delivery mechanism throughout Canada.

The main objective of this research study is to find the difference in the rate of service delivery of Mc Donald's at different outlets in Ottawa region

Approach

Since, the study involves client measure of its own organization, here the franchisor wants to ensure his/her franchisees are following the modus operandi of the service delivery, certain steps will be taken that are as follows. The first step is to ensure that Mc Donalds employees have been advised by their employer that their restaurant is expecting a mystery shopping study, where the start and end dates would be revealed. The second step would include the disclosing of the research/study objectives and the intended uses of the results. This information must be made clear to the employees by their franchisor. The mystery shopper will be selected in accordance with the Mc Donalds customer profile to be realistic and to avoid being found by the employee. The mystery shopper will also be trained to the content of the study, although not too well rehearsed, in order to seem natural. Out of the 3 mystery shoppers there would be one mystery shopper who will pose as a customer by purchasing a meal at all the Mc Donalds outlets in Ottawa. The mystery shopper will be reimbursed for all of the expenses and paid for providing a detailed report about their experiences at the end of each study. The visits will be scheduled at different time intervals (Breakfast, Lunch, Evening Snacks and Dinner) at all the Mc Donalds outlets across Ottawa. This would ensure we derive at a variance in the service response time for an average order of meal. The reason for the study is to ensure that there is consistency in the order to service time across all the Mc Donalds outlets. Questionnaire Mystery shopping questionnaires is developed based on service criteria and specific research objectives. The questionnaires reflected real customer experiences and all issues were assigned importance weightings agreed in advance with Mc Donalds.

Analytical Approach The data that we gain from the above questionnaire would be analysed using SPSS. We would use the above obtained data to measure the delivery time of per order of item . There are two distinct approaches to the use of statistical methods in quality improvement of services. These are the production approach, which uses traditional statistical quality control tools, and the marketing approach, which builds on the social sciences toolbox. The production approach has limitations in services because objective direct real-time measures of key service attributes can rarely be obtained. Instead, managers tend to act upon subjective results of customer surveys, even though they may be too late or too unreliable to be of any value for quality improvement efforts. Garvin (1984) described that 4 approaches in defining quality. The best applicable approach in this case is the Value based approach. Value-based approach 1. The quality is assessed by comparing cost or time and benet. A quality product conforms to requirements at an acceptable cost (internal focus, characteristic for production approach of Mc Donalds) or to performance at an acceptable price (external focus, characteristic for marketing approach).
1

http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/70/04700149/0470014970-3.pdf

Hypotheses The higher the flow of customers at the outlet the slower the service delivery of meals and lesser customer engagement.

SECRET SHOPPER SURVEY FORM Mc Donalds

Franchise Name______________________ Day & Date of Visit __________________ Time of Visit____________ Address__________________________________________________

Name or Description of Counter Staff_______________________________________

Number of Customers in the Restaurant 1. Approximately how many customers were in the restaurant at different time intervals Breakfast, Lunch, Evening, Dinner. How many customers were below the age of 10, age group of 11-20, age group of 21-30, age group of 31-60 and above the age of 60

below the age of 10 Breakfast 05 am to 11 am Lunch, 11 am to 03 pm Evening Snacks 03 pm to 07 pm Dinner 07 pm to 05 am

10-20 yrs

20-30 yrs

30-60 yrs

above the age of 60

Customer Foot fall at the Restaurant

(1 being poor and 5 being excellent) ______________________________________________________________ Parking Was there a parking facility made available to customers (1 being poor and 5 being excellent) 1 2 3 4 5 Was the parking lot vacant and clear (1 being poor and 5 being excellent) 1 2 3 4 5 How many cars were parked ( 0-5
5-10 11-15 15-20 more than 20 )

Seating Did you get a proper and comfortable seating (1 being poor and 5 being excellent)
How many Tables were vacant (0-5 5-10 11-15 15-20 more than 20 )

Kids Play Area Was the kids play area clean (1 being poor and 5 being excellent)
How many kids were in the kids play area (0-5 5-10 11-15 15-20 more than 20 )

Food Order Counter

How many counters were available to place an order (0-5 5-10 11-15 15-20 more than 20 )

How many customers were in the line up waiting to place an order (0-5 5-10 11-15 15-20 more than 20 )

Order Statistics

(Please check the appropriate box)

_____________________________________________________________________________ How many minutes was the orders delivery process (time taken to from placing the order till receiving the food) 1st Customer (0-3 3-6 6-9 9- 12 12-15 15-18 18- 21 More than 21 minutes)

2nd Customer (0-3 3-6 6-9 9- 12 12-15 15-18 18- 21 More than 21 minutes)

3rd Customer (0-3 3-6 6-9 9- 12 12-15 15-18 18- 21 More than 21 minutes)

4th Customer (0-3 3-6 6-9 9- 12 12-15 15-18 18- 21 More than 21 minutes)

5th Customer (0-3 3-6 6-9 9- 12 12-15 15-18 18- 21 More than 21 minutes)

6th Customer (0-3 3-6 6-9 9- 12 12-15 15-18 18- 21 More than 21 minutes)

7th Customer (0-3 3-6 6-9 9- 12 12-15 15-18 18- 21 More than 21 minutes)

8th Customer (0-3 3-6 6-9 9- 12 12-15 15-18 18- 21 More than 21 minutes)

9th Customer (0-3 3-6 6-9 9- 12 12-15 15-18 18- 21 More than 21 minutes)

10th Customer (0-3 3-6 6-9 9- 12 12-15 15-18 18- 21 More than 21 minutes)

How many food items did the 1st customer order

1-2

3-4

5-6

7-8

9-10

11-12

13-14

15 and more

How many food items did the 2nd customer order 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14 15 and more

How many food items did the 3rd customer order 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14 15 and more

How many food items did the 4th customer order 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14 15 and more

How many food items did the 5th customer order 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14 15 and more

How many food items did the 6th customer order 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14 15 and more

How many food items did the 7th customer order 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14 15 and more

How many food items did the 8th customer order 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14 15 and more

How many food items did the 9th customer order 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14 15 and more

How many food items did the 10th customer order 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14 15 and more

Additional Comments: ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________