Two great things have happened in the past couple days to reflect that good customer service and great samples can happen every day!
While driving home from the beach a couple weeks ago, we stopped at a McDonald’s off the highway in Greensboro. The kids each got a happy meal which was supposed to have a “Night at the Museum” toy inside. They were bitterly disappointed to open their boxes only to find a “Madagascar 2” toy in the “NatM” box. Yes, there were tears. The next day, I hopped on the McD’s website and submitted a customer comment letting them know that they should advise their employees to alert customers when the promotional toys are not available. That’s all I said – I didn’t go off on them or tell them they were horrible. I just said it would be helpful if they told us they didn’t have the toys, because then I would have ordered something else for the kids and avoided the mild crying jag in the van.
I got an email back a couple days later stating that they would look into the matter, and thanked me for the alert. Content with that, I moved on with my life.
Just now my phone rang and it was the Greensboro McD’s District Manager (or something like that) calling to apologize for the mishap. He told me he was a grandfather to two young children and probably knows exactly what we experienced in the car when the mistake was discovered. He told me he was popping some freebie gift certificates in the mail for us so the next time we drive through the area we can pop in and get free fries, ice cream, etc.
I thought that was pretty cool – especially since I wasn’t expecting that. After all, I didn’t complain about the FOOD, I merely alerted them about a 50 cent TOY.
In other news, several weeks ago (perhaps even a couple months ago), I saw a freebie that was being given away – it was a bag of Dogswell dog food for those who had been laid off. I filled out the form and emailed it off (and was surprised they didn’t need my specific layoff information as proof (which I would have happily supplied)), and expected to receive a nice little sample bag similar to this one:
That bag pictured above is about the size of two dollar bills laying next to each other, and is a sample we got in the mail from another freebie giveaway. That’s kind of what I was expecting to get. So imagine my surprise when a box was delivered yesterday containing THIS:
You could have knocked me over with a feather. It is a full-sized bag of dog food like you would find in the grocery store!! Now THAT, my friends, is a fantastic giveaway!
So thanks to McDonald’s and Dogswell, who made both my children AND my dog very happy!
McDonald’s did the right thing. Too bad you didn’t get the gift certificate from Corporate. When is the next time we’ll be in Greensboro? Aren’t Katie and Brian from Greensboro? Why don’t you give the gift card to them? At least the restaurant gave you something. I was hoping they would send you a complete collection of the Night at the Museum McDonald toys. Oh, well.
Or you can save them for when we are going through or you are going through Greensboro in July and thank that particular restaurant in person and give them more business.
Jaynee can correct me, but we don’t normally go through Greensboro when we go up to VA, right? The Outerbanks was an exception, no?
Denis – we DO go through Greensboro when we take 85/95. It’s not my favorite route though. But the gift certs will be good through 12/09, so there’s plenty of time to have the opportunity to go through Greensboro.