Bill Chao laughed at the Richmond News’ tongue-in-cheek question asking when McDonald’s will start covering its restaurant tables with fine linen.
But the query is not outlandish given the fast-food icon’s recent option of offering customers upmarket, customizable, premium-priced hamburgers that nattily-attired staff will cheerfully deliver right to your table.
The change is an attempt to capture more burger-lovers who have a discerning taste that goes beyond the lineup of classic items on McDonald’s menu, said Chao, who owns and manages three restaurants in Richmond, including the Alderbridge Way location the News visited this week.
Each of his restaurants have been using new touchscreen order kiosks and serving customizable burgers with full-service style dining since the end of September.
But don’t’ worry, Big Macs, Quarter Pounders, cheeseburgers, Chicken McNuggets and even the venerable Filet-O-Fish remain on the menu. Meanwhile, the new set of choices with the advent of the Create Your Taste burger option boasts Angus beef, bakery-style buns and an array of toppings that put to shame the two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun cascade of ingredients breathlessly listed in a 1970s era TV commercial for Big Macs.
“When I started out after graduating from high school 35 years ago, I thought McNuggets were revolutionary,” Chao quipped. “Back then we’d also just started serving breakfast. The evolution and amount of changes we’ve had, I just could not have imagined.”
Increased competition in the fierce, fast-food marketplace with the introduction of more U.S. chains, such as Carl’s Jr. and Fatburger, has driven the changes. But so, too, has McDonald’s desire to elevate its status to include catering to individual taste and heightened service expectations, while not abandoning core menu offerings that are familiar to generations of customers.
“It’s all about more value for consumers when they come into our restaurant,” Chao said, adding many like the speed and convenience of McDonald’s, but felt they were not tended to well enough once their orders had been placed.
“We’re trying to change that,” he said.
The new “experience” for customers starts in the lobby area where, previously, a bank of four or five cash registers at the order counter have been replaced with just one. Instead, customers are now directed towards four, vertical, touchscreen monitors that with a swipe and finger point, take you through the entire menu.
A “Guest Experience Leader,” a new McDonald’s employee category, is available to help customers navigate their way and also make them aware of the new Create Your Taste menu that can build a burger in five steps, from the bun, up through a dizzying array of toppings and sauces.
You start by selecting either a black and white sesame seed brioche-style bun or artisian bakery roll. But if you’re looking to cut down on the carbs, there’s even a lettuce wrap option.
Then there’s your choice of cheeses: McDonald’s classic cheese, Monterey Jack jalapeno, natural cheddar, Swiss or even crumbled blue cheese.
Sauce-wise, ketchup is, naturally, first in line. So is good old mustard.
But you can elevate your burger even further with smoky barbecue, Big Mac sauce, chipotle aioli, grainy mustard, siracha sauce, sundried tomato pesto, guacamole, caramelized or crispy onions, sliced jalapenos, long-slice pickles, grilled mushrooms and red onion.
Hickory smoked bacon that comes in strips, as well as broken into pieces – can also be added to the certified Angus beef patty.
All of those options do come with a cost. A Create Your Taste burger starts at $8.49. Currently, a Big Mac burger costs $5.39.
To help entice customers to give it a try, the restaurant is offering a free drink and fries – which are refillable - until the end of November when they buy a premium burger, which also entitles them to table service.
That is initiated at the end of the ordering process when the customer is directed to pick up and enter the number of a special table tracking device – a puck-sized electronic locater which will allow restaurant staff to home in directly on where you are sitting and deliver your meal on a special wooden platter.
They will also clear away your meal afterwards, and in between visit to ask how your food is tasting and if you would like refills.
This is clearly not the McDonald’s from your parents’ childhood era when the way to attract customers back then often relied on shoe-horning a kid’s play area into an existing restaurant site with climbing structures and slides decorated with grinning, oversized McDonald’s Land characters such as Grimace, The Hamburgler, Mayor MacCheese and Big Mac the policeman.
“McDonald’s has always been one of those companies that innovates and continues to stay up to date with what consumers are looking for,” Chao said.
Change at McDonald’s has not been restricted to the menu. The roll out of the order kiosks and new burger line, which started at the end of summer in Ontario and slowly spread westward, has affected staffing levels, as well.
“They (McDonald’s corporate office) told us we’d need more people,” Chao said. “While we reduced the number of people taking orders, we significantly increased the number of people we need behind the scenes in the kitchen and in the lobby helping customers.
“Before, I had maybe two or three registers open. Now, I have kiosks (touchscreens) taking orders and need more people to get to the food to the customers.”
Chao said he has added 10 to 15 more workers to each of his locations. Nationally, the chain is expecting it will have hired 15,000 additional employees to implement the changes.
So, how does that affect the bottom line?
“More consumers are coming in. With these kiosks they are able to place their orders quickly and get their food.” Chao said. “As a result, we’re serving more people. That’s the difference.”
Away from the financial picture, the changes are also subtly moving McDonald’s away from its image as simply a place for a relatively low-cost, quick meal. And that perception is not limited to the customer base – employees are starting to view the chain differently, too.
“A lot of our Guest Experience Leaders we’ve hired have never worked at a McDonald’s before. But we hired them because they have good customer satisfaction and communications skills,” Chao said.
Once the remaining 20 to 30 B.C. restaurants have been fitted out with the new touchscreen ordering service and the Create Your Taste menu, McDonald’s plans to mount an advertising campaign that is hoped will drive even more traffic through the golden arches.
“The feedback, so far, has been great,” Chao said. “All the ingredients we have is what customers have wanted. And we’re finding that there are a lot of consumers who want to dine inside and enjoy their experience.”
