Serves Them Right

-by Jack Falvey

Readers Digest, February 1993 issue.

                        Where I live are two similar buildings that I visit regularly. Both are free-standing, single story structures with ample parking and drive through facilities. Each has a canvas banner tied across the front. One says, “Try Our Chicken Fajitas”; the other, “Try Our ATM,” or automated teller machine. In many ways they are in similar businesses. The wonder is that they take such different approaches to the same customers.

            Dick Morrison, owner of the local McDonald’s, discovered that more than 50% of his business   came at his drive-through window. So he ripped out the side of his building and added a second window just for the cash part of the transaction. The existing window was used for order pickups. He then attached two-way radios to his employees so they could work as a team to better serve his driving customers. The object was to serve more customers faster, and thus build volume and profits.

            At the other business, a local branch bank, a larghe number of customer used the drive-through window. It did double duty. Hooked up to the window was a vacuum-tube system that connected with an-other drive-through unit on a small island opposite. This way, two customers could be served at once. However, the bank figured that switching the customer island to as automated teller machine would cut cost and increased profits. So the vacuum-tube unit was torn out and replace with an ATM. An hour was also cut off the drive-through window schedule.

            Soon there were long lines at the drive-through window, and customers were complaining. Ever the salesman, the bank manager replied that ATMs are the next great wonder of the world, and that everyone should give the machine the machine.

            At McDonald’s, Dick Morrison has an office in his building. He is seldom in it. He says his customers won’t take the trouble to go back to see him, so he works outside a lot, cleaning up trash and pruning the roses. Everyone in town knows that the guy in the cardigan sweater and baseball cap is Dick and that he owns the place.

            Inside McDonald’s, even though there are many more customers than in the bank, there are no red-rope mazes. No one says, “Who’s next?” all you here is, “Can I help you over here?” Behind the counter is a level of activity an army gun crew would admire. Sometimes three people will fill just one order. They look over ones shoulder at the computer screens and run to get what’s missing. All the managers help when things become busy. Often, during lunch hour, Morrison cooks the fries to free one more counterperson and speed up his operation

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            At the bank, the manager has an office on the corner of the building. It has two glass walls, so the drive in-line often wraps right around it. Everyone can see him in there, either on the phone or doing paper work. Since his back is to the windows, he never makes eye contact to those in line.

            Sometimes people line outside park their cars, hoping to get through quicker on the inside. But the teller line inside seldom seems to have more than two windows open. There maybe three or four extra workers doing things in the back, but they are usually too busy to help the people standing in line. And to all those bank people sitting at their desk only ten feet away, the customer seems to be always invisible.

             Do people talk about the fast service at McDonald’s?  Always, for they always go there. Do people talk about the slow service at the bank? All the time. And they do everything they can to keep them from going there. They cash checks at the supermarket or the gas station. They send deposits by mail.

            Knowing what customer needs and want is basic to any business. The people at McDonald’s have mastered this lesson. Many experienced bank managers have not. And they are paying the price. The  folks in my town aren’t surprised that McDonald’s has been thriving, while the area’s bank have not.