Our first look at the area of Connecticut showed some suprising results for some high profiled fast food establishments. The four that we decided on were Mcdonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, and Dunkin Donuts. We will again rate on the basis of quality of the food, cleanliness of the restuarants and customer service of the staff in general.
1) This is a hard one to interpret but we posted reviews for the Mcdonalds restaurants from Norwich, Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, and Enfield. This gave a broad review of the geographic locations in the state to see if any would make a difference in order to be fair to the franchise. The results are as follows for overall quality a one star is issued *. For overall cleanliness a * is issued. For overall Customer Service a * is issued. Reports showed for all that the stores were not as clean as it should be during lunch and dinner hours. a) This indicater shows that all five stores across the state had a poor cleaning process for their restaurant. b) The quality of the food which also scored a one star all had problems with their food items. Two of the five raters had to return their item because more than one or more items were missing from their sandwich or the sandwich was no good in their estimation in regards to freshness. c) The customer service for all restaurants lacked what we would consider great customer service. In all restaurants employees talked to one another about their personal lives and didn't put much attention to the customer placing the order. Another interesting observation was that all the restaurants for this franchise showed this pattern in addition no smile as advertised by them nor what we may consider an attempt at quality customer service.
2) Burger King Franchise were also rated in the same locations to see if there is any difference in geographical location to any of the proposed reviews. a) For cleanliness the store was rated as a **. reports showed that all the stores were reasonably clean and only one in Bridgeport showed some signes of wear and tear. b) The quality of the food rated and amazing *** for all breakfast lunch and dinner. There were no complaints for any area rated and the food was on time. c) The Customer service aspect unfortunately was not up to par and only hit a half of a star. The customer service in each store showed that the cashiers and other personel did not make any eye contact with the customers, did not say thank you or would you like anythingelse with that. They also rolled their eyes in three of the stores when asked for extra condiments. In Hartford one employee refused to give more than one sauce for an order and argued with the customer. In Bridgeport one of the employees threw the ketchup packets on my tray. I was disgusted in Enfield the associate rolled her eyes three times at me when asking for more condiments.
3) Wendy's was suprisingly the best of the three in all three catergories but not what we consider the best. a) Cleanliness showed to be the best for this franchise and it scored a *** because as we noticed they have their own employee out there cleaning the tables and the floors constantly. Like the old days when the fast food industry picked up their own garbage they continue this practice and it shows how effective it is. Instead of having a tray and garbage with the words thank you like we are employees in these restaurants. You even get dirty looks from other customers when you don't decide to throw out their garbage. The fact of the matter is do you throw our your own garbage at any other establishment like chillis, hops, or well you get my point. They have us cleaning up their mess because they want to cut cost ? No bring back the employee who takes your tray when your down and throws out their garbage. Bravo Wendys.
b) quality- score * the food was ok although all of the stores and locations had problems with their sandwiches. One store added enough pickles on a sandwich to make relish, another location added a whole onion it seemed to my sandwich, and one store added barely enough condiments to my sandwich. I dont think that all these stores were having a bad day maybe some retraining or more support from supervisory staff would make this work right for this franchise.
c) Customer service scored a ** everyone looked at you and they werent into other conversations during service but nobody smiled but at least 4 of the stores gave a thank you at the end of the ordering process.
4)The dunkin donuts stores scored horribly in all three categories which made me write to corporate offices in regards to two incidents at their Hartford, and Norwich locations. Foroverall rating for this franchise is half of a star because 1) Cleanliness score half of a star because of stains on all tables napkins on the floors, bathrooms were very badly kept. In two of the stores the employees had powder on their shirts and stains. 2) quality half of a star 4 of the five stores donuts were not fresh. The coffee given in two of the stores tasted burnt and during an order of ice coffee about one cube of ice was added to the coffee. 3) There was no score for customer service since it did not score on this category. In Hartford one employee fought with one of our raters by giving dirty looks to the customer, whimpered profane words to the customer and got into a debate on how he could do whatever he wanted in his store. wow. This person is no longer employed thanks to us and in our efforts to strive for good quality customer service. This was an unfair indicator in rating all the locations so we tried another store in Hartford and saw the same affect take place so we concluded that certain areas in the geography of these establishments do have a considerable impact on customer service.
Our next rating will be more upscale and in five different locations in and around the state of Connecticut. We will examine again customer service, cleanliness, quality of food and see if they are any different than the fast food establishment and we will do a follow up and rate five more fast food establishments to see if anything has changed in this area.
