Episode 4
What a Billion-Dollar Food Chain Can Teach You About Operating Your Business
If you’ve ever wondered how the world’s most successful franchises manage to stay consistent, efficient, and wildly profitable, this episode is for you.
In this episode of The Operations Fix, I take a look back at my very first job at McDonald’s. While it wasn’t exactly glamorous, working at this billion-dollar food chain gave me insight into the systems and strategies that drive business success. From the power of documentation to why customer service matters more than the product, you’ll discover actionable tips you can apply to your own business.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Why documenting even the smallest tasks leads to better consistency and efficiency.
- How defining clear roles simplifies hiring and onboarding.
- Why customer service is the true secret to long-term success.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Transcript
Welcome to the Day to Day Assist podcast.
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:I'm your host, Jennifer, here to give
you bite sized tips on how to transform
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:your workday with strategic processes,
technology, and human resources.
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:My goal is to help you run your
side hustle, six figure, or multi
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:million dollar business chaos free.
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:Most people are surprised when I
tell them that I actually started
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:working when I was 15 years old.
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:By the time I was a senior in high
school, I had two jobs and was going
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:to school part time because I had
finished my classes early and I just
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:had lots of free time on my hands.
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:I don't know about you as a teenager, but
when I had extra time to spare, I really
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:wanted to use it to make more money.
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:Um, anyway, my first
job was at McDonald's.
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:I worked in the fast food
industry and it really taught me
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:a lot about running a business.
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:While I hated every bit of working
at McDonald's and I probably should
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:have sued them for breaking child
labor laws on multiple occasions,
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:there are a few things that I learned
while working there that honestly
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:shaped the way I operate my business.
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:In this episode, I'll share three
things I learned about business
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:operations from working at a billion
dollar food chain, so that you can
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:apply these practices to your business.
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:But before I get into the three things
I learned, I wanted to stop and share
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:two fun facts that always blow my
mind when I think about McDonald's.
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:The first thing is that McDonald's
has almost 42, 000 locations
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:worldwide, 14, 000 locations in the U.
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:S., and they have over 120, 000 employees.
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:The average age The average age of
their employees is 20 years old.
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:Okay, the fact that their franchise is
so big and mainly run by teenagers and
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:young adults and they make 25 billion
dollars in a year always blows my mind.
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:The second fun fact that always blows
my mind about McDonald's is that it does
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:not matter what McDonald's you go to.
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:Whether you're in California, or
New York, or Texas, or Florida,
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:you get the same exact experience.
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:They've built such a uniform or strong
product that I, as a customer, know
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:when something is off like everything is
supposed to taste a certain way and it
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:typically does Um, if I go to mcdonald's
in texas and compare it to a mcdonald's
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:in florida the only difference would
be Maybe one location made my fries a
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:little fresher than the other or Maybe
one location made my fries a little bit
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:saltier than the other but I can pretty
much tell you what a mcdonald's fry
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:Tastes like And most of us who grew up
eating fast food, or if you, you know,
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:started eating fast food as an adult,
we can pretty much say the same about
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:all fast food chains like Chick fil A,
Zaxby's, um, Taco Bell, any of those.
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:You can tell when the food is off
because the experience is usually
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:so consistent across the board.
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:And you can say what you want
about McDonald's customer service.
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:You can say what you want about the
bad ingredients they use, or about how
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:their chicken nuggets, you know, you can
leave it in a backpack and take it out
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:a year later and they don't grow mold.
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:I've seen all this stuff about
these fast food places, but
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:their systems are top tier.
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:And as a food service industry, they have
really built a strong business model.
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:So let's get into the three things
I learned about business operations
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:while working at McDonald's.
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:Number one, nothing is ever
too simple to document.
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:When I worked at McDonald's, they had
a sign above the sink with a picture
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:demonstration and written instructions
on how employees should wash their hands.
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:Um, it had how many soap pumps
you should put in your hand.
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:How much time you should wash your
hands for and what temperature the water
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:needs to be like this water needs to be
warm, Not super cold and then you know
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:They have little paper towels over to
the right where you can dry your hands.
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:When I started one of the first things
I had to do on my first day on the job
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:Was sit in this little back room and
watch a person on a screen In a little
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:mcdonald's button down shirt talk to me
for four hours on how to greet customers.
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:They have a step by step
process for greeting customers.
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:I mean, clearly they're not showing
these things to employees anymore because
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:every time I go to McDonald's, you know,
I just get looked at like I'm crazy.
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:But anyway, they have a step by
step process on something as simple
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:as how to say hello to someone
who walks into the restaurant.
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:They also have a step by step process
on how to put sauces into a bucket.
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:I remember one time my manager asked
me to put individual sauce packs in
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:a bucket for customers to grab them,
you know, people who are dining in.
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:And I was new so I kind of just,
threw the sauce in there and the
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:manager was like, What are you doing?
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:This is not how we stock
sauce buckets here.
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:Um, so I had to redo the whole thing,
but what I'm getting at here is that
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:McDonald's literally has a process
written out for every little thing
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:that you do when you work there.
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:This has really impacted the way that I
run my business and the way I encourage
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:the business owners and teams that
I work with to run their businesses.
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:Sometimes we think the things we do
every day are just common sense or
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:obvious, but in reality, they're not.
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:Team members are coming into a
totally new environment when they
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:work within your business, and
everybody has different things that
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:they deem to be normal or acceptable.
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:When they come into your business and
they see you doing things a certain
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:way, it's not always so obvious
or something that they pick up on
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:immediately without instructions.
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:There's never anything that's
too small for you to document.
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:You can document how to respond to an
email that's asking about a service, what
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:to ask on a consultation call, how to
organize things into a team Google Drive
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:folder, or even how to schedule emails the
way that you like them to be scheduled.
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:If you want things to be done in a
super specific way, you need to write
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:it down and you need to share that with
the people that you have on your team.
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:If you don't, you're going to set
yourself up for disappointment.
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:They will come in and do things in
a way that seems obvious to them.
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:And if that way is not in alignment
with what you feel needs to happen in
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:your business, then that's always where
that tension is going to show up because
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:like I said a few minutes ago, Everybody
has different definitions of what they
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:think is acceptable or common sense.
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:Okay, so the second thing I learned
from McDonald's is that hiring is more
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:about creating the right role than
it is about finding the right person.
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:McDonald's can hire anybody.
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:They hire 20 year olds.
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:They hired me when I was 15 years old.
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:They hire 80 year olds.
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:They just hire anybody.
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:It doesn't matter what you look like.
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:It doesn't matter what you have going on.
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:It doesn't matter where you live.
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:As long as you can get to work,
they literally will hire anybody.
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:And it has never mattered that their
turnover rate is always super high
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:because they've created such a uniform
role that anybody that comes in to
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:fill that role can just Pick up and
do the job, no matter who's there.
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:And they can do this because
they focus on clearly defining
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:the tasks within that role.
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:If you're a line cook,
this is what you do.
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:If you work at the window or the
drive thru, this is what you do you
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:work at the front counter, then
these are your responsibilities.
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:I could probably tell you everything that
all of those three roles are supposed to
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:do because they built those roles so well.
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:I feel like for more technical roles, or
more executive level roles, the person
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:matters a little bit more, but in most
cases, it's better to focus on the
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:role that you create than it is on the
person that's going to fill that role.
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:The reason that this is relevant to
you is because you may assume that
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:you'll never be able to find the
right team member or that nobody
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:will ever understand your business.
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:But when you actually take a step back
and look at the role that you're building
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:Most of that stuff can be done by anyone.
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:I mean anybody can answer an email,
Anybody can hop on a zoom call and
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:take notes during your meetings.
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:And anybody can schedule
a social media post.
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:Yes, people need to have soft skills, and
in some cases they may need to even pass
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:your vibe check or whatever it is that
you feel like you need to hire somebody.
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:You can even add those vibes
to the role description.
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:But if you focus on building a really
strong role, Your thoughts should
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:never be that you cannot fill the role.
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:There are hundreds of thousands,
probably millions of people
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:that are out looking for jobs.
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:And when you clearly define the role
and post it in the right places, you'll
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:find a handful of candidates that
would be an excellent fit for the job.
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:It's more about making sure the role
is clear and that people know what
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:they're doing And that they have the
resources to do what you need them to do.
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:Then it is about finding this one
perfect person in the entire world
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:that can be the only one that
is good at checking your emails.
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:And when you think like that, it gives
you more hope when somebody on your team
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:leaves or if they move on or if they do
something else, because they were never
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:the only person that could do the job.
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:The third thing I learned from
working at McDonald's is that
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:customer service is literally the
most important thing in your business.
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:I've worked behind the scenes of several
companies, spas, online businesses,
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:non profits, brokerages, retail
stores, you name it, I've probably
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:worked there or somewhere similar.
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:And here's what I know.
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:It does not matter how good your offer is.
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:It doesn't matter how cheap your offer is.
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:It doesn't matter how appealing
your offer is and it doesn't
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:matter how popular you are.
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:If your customer service sucks, People
are not going to want to work with
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:you and they're going to tell all
their friends not to work with you.
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:I feel like mcdonald's is one of the most
stressful jobs that you can ever have.
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:I've seen people come in there screaming
at managers I've seen customers cuss
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:my co workers out through the window.
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:I've seen customers throw stuff at people.
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:And I've seen customers literally
have fits over the fact that the
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:food was taking too long after
they asked for it to be fresh.
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:And you know what?
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:Those are the types of
people that never come back.
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:And even though they're only spending
five, ten dollars on some fries and
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:chicken nuggets at McDonald's, that's
the last five or ten dollars that
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:they'll probably ever spend there.
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:And they're probably going to go
and tell all their friends and
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:family about that experience too.
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:Customer service is the most
important thing in your business.
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:How you deliver your
service is really important.
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:You may not like to do certain things
your clients are asking for, but if
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:all your clients have the same negative
feedback, then your focus should be
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:implementing a mutually beneficial
solution To help them get the best
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:result and enjoy their service with you.
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:So read over the responses
you get on testimonial forms.
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:And if you don't send those out
to clients, then start doing that.
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:Also start paying attention
to the unsolicited advice and
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:suggestions that clients may have.
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:It can seem annoying when they're
telling you ways to improve, especially
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:when you didn't ask for it, but
some of that advice can really make
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:your customer experience better.
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:So that's number three.
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:Customer service is the most
important thing in your business.
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:Today we discussed three things I
learned about business operations from
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:working at a billion dollar food chain.
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:Nothing is ever too simple to document.
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:Creating great roles is more important
than finding the perfect person.
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:And customer service is
your number one priority.
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:Now that you've listened to this
episode, I want to know which
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:one of those three things you'll
be applying to your business.
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:Send me an email at
hello at daytodayassist.
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:com to let me know.
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:If you are a service provider in the real
estate consulting or creative industry
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:and your business is not operating like
a well oiled machine, Your team cannot
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:work independently of you, and you're a
ceo spending most of your days working
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:on things that have nothing to do with
Business growth, leadership, or ideation,
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:I want to help you.
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:In our Done For You system service,
I will use my experience working with
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:dozens of businesses, large and small,
as well as McDonald's, of course,
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:to solve the nagging operations
problems your business has been
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:experiencing in two months or less.
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:Your processes will be simplified, tech
tools set up, and procedures documented
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:so that you can improve the way your
business operates and retain more
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:clients, all while removing yourself
from the day to day work that you hate.
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:You can find more information about
this service and my calendar link
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:for you to book a Clarity Call
today in the podcast show notes.
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:Thanks so much for listening, and
I will see you in the next episode.
