A few weeks ago, I found myself a fast food chain in Nashville. This red headed fast food chain will remain unnamed, but when I entered, it was beautiful. It was the nicest and most modern looking fast food restaurant I had ever stepped foot in. It was clear that they had recently remodeled and spent a lot of money doing so.
This set my expectations really high! I see this is a trend that McDonald’s started by rennovating to make their restaurants feel classier, in the face of many people moving on from eating fast food. This restaurant chain had even added a fancy line of teas that claim to be very truthful, to help encourage this appeal to a new customer base.
But with all things, if expectations are set higher the experience can hope to meet you have been set up for failure. To match up with the expectations that were set, I would have had to have a great customer experience. But the reason that this is becoming a blog post is because, it wasn’t.
The bathroom was dirty and the service was extremely slow and uninformed. I tried to redeem a coupon from a local sports franchise and it was met with stares and to many questions. The issue was resolved when, i kid you not, a redheaded manager came and reluctantly gave me the item. Fortunately, I do not live near this restaurant but if I lived near it, I would probably not return to this restaurant.
I would have been more forgiving if they had not set a super high expectation based on the appearance of the restaurant. Instead of this remodel being an investment, it really has become a cost because the customer will expect a better experience then they will receive and have a much worse experience.
That money would have been better spent on improving the team and investing in staffing to ensure a great customer experience. [bctt tweet=”A new coat of paint fixes nothing. “]
