Woman complained to manager about DD

[Bearaque]

So my DD works at McDonalds whilst she’s at sixth form and today she’s come home upset. She was working at the window, handing out the food.

This woman made a complaint to the manager that DD didn’t say a single word to her or look at her when she passing her the drink and food and that she was too busy talking to her friend. Complained to manager who had words with them both.

DD said this was true but at the end of the day it’s McDonald’s, it’s full of teenagers, as long as you get your food quickly does it even matter what the service is like?!

It sounds like your daughter was very rude

Part of a customer service role is being polite to customers

Standing talking to your mate while ignoring customers really winds me up

If she doesn't like that part of her job, then she needs to find a different one

Just remember, a machine could hand out cooked burgers in the very near future.

The one thing a machine can't offer? Human interaction.

Yep this.

Someone I know started on the till in McDonald's. Ended up heading up a corporate department in their head office and climbed the ladder quite quickly. You never know where hard work and politeness will get you.

OP ~ just wondering what you said to your DD when she told you what had happened?

It’s not great but I wouldn’t complain about that at McDonalds, as long as I get my food I don’t care. As she says they’re just teenagers, if I was eating in a proper restaurant it would be different!

Without the customer there is no profit and no job on offer.
Yet your daughter treated the customer as if she were an inconvenience to her social life.
Is she really rude by nature or is she trying to act super cool or is she so desperate to make friends that she totally ignores the customer’s right to customer service.

You are right, it isn’t deep at all OP, no. That’s why this is shocking.

But without the basic understanding that when at work, the customer comes first…every single time and you serve them with respect and a genuine smile, yes, even at Macdonalds, then your daughter is going to fail at the first hurdle.

As her mum, you need to be a bit more accountable instead of defensive …and help her with some very basic manners. Demonstrate a proper work ethic to her while you can. Change your attitude and realise this is a good opportunity to help your daughter get through the next stage of her life. She can choose to be a valuable asset to her employer and build up a good CV or she can choose to fail because she can’t be bothered to realise what it takes to succeed in life.

It doesn't matter where it is, what wrong with basic manners? Not sure I could be bothered to complain .

It seems really strange to me that your DD can have an interaction with someone without even making eye contact. I think most people would find that very difficult unless they're ND.

Women was a bit odd to complain, I couldn’t be bothered.
However a good lesson for her. You really shouldn’t be standing chatting and ignoring your customers while serving food wherever you work. Very rude, hopefully she’ll learn from it and sounds like she’s being a bit silly and sulky being upset about it.

So what do you think the manager is meant to say to the customer... 'It's only Mcdonalds love get over yourself' They have to acknowledge the complaint and were quite right to pull your dd up on it. It's part of working life I'm afraid and your dd needs to learn from the complaint and improve from it even if she thinks the job is below her like you clearly do.

Complaints are part of working life especially if you're client-facing. You have to deal with them with a bit of humility and try and put yourself in the complainant's eyes even if you think they're ridiculous. I am a doctor and regularly get complaints that I think are unfair but you just have to take it on the chin and deal with it as best you can.

My advice would be never give your dd the impression that a job is beneath her. I can honestly say I wouldn't have had the communication and customer service skills I needed to survive in a career in medicine without my prior work in a pub and a retail store. The skills you aquire are very transferable and at the very least she should be learning to take pride in her working life.

This.

I think 'customer service' is a bit of a red herring OP. The way your DD behaved would be rude in any situation, let alone when she was serving someone at work.

I would also have complained. Your daughter works in Fast Food Customer Service. People like to be acknowledged. She's not there to chat to her mates.

Stop defending her.

Blimey, not hard to see where your daughter picked up her lousy manners from.

Maybe YOU should get a job at one of those restaurants where customers pay the waiting staff to insult them. You'd do a roaring trade.

We are allowed to expect high standards of teenagers. The fact we don't has crippled some of them

The fact that you have been so nasty to others shows exactly why your daughter might be struggling to understand the very basic concept of who to give her attention to in any given situation. Ie in this case, the paying customer.

I completely agree with what @Itslevioosanotleviosaa says regarding transferable skills. I do a lot of recruitment for graduate roles in my company. No matter how many extra-curricular roles an applicant has had or how many uni organisations they may have been involved in, in my experience some of the best, most insightful responses to soft-skill questions always relate to part-time jobs the applicant had in pubs/shops/Nandos/wherever.

Perhaps encourage your DD to make the most of the opportunity and not denigrate the role and customers.

You should sit down with your daughter and explain to her what good customer service looks like. Maybe do some role play and I'm sure you will find plenty of videos to show her online. It is irrelevant whether it is McDonalds or a Michelin star restaurant where the customer is spending hundreds of pounds... Start by putting yourself in the customer's position of being ignored.

Also ask your DD if she wants a customer facing role? She might be more suited to working in the kitchens, cleaning, etc?

OP your replies sound like you're actually the DD.
Extremely rude, both of you.
If your DD doesn't feel that McDonald's customers are worth her attention, she really shouldn't be in a client-facing role at all. It's a matter of human decency, and not how expensive the meal is.
Unbelievable that you should question this and try to defend her.

Are you one of the op’s friends?

I agree.

When did having the manners to acknowledge a customer become "customer service". Surely this is really basic stuff that no one needs training for. I worked in a small shop as a teenager, I don't remember anyone having to tell me this.

It is basic manners to greet a customer and for the customer to do the same. I find it very unprofessional when this type of thing happens. It's a good learning opportunity for your daughter. Don't be defensive. Just ask her to reflect on it.

If you work in a service industry you are expected to communicate with customers. Your daughter has had a lesson about the workplace, she would be wise to learn from it.

This is so true. Both ways.

She sounds immature and you sound enabling

Your DD should have basic courtesy and manners whatever she does.

However, perhaps this woman needs to lay off the UPF’s and spend her time more wisely.

For the AIBU, yes you are, for letting your DD work at McDonalds. There are loads of better places for her to work.