As the world‘s largest fast-food chain, serving over 69 million customers daily across nearly 40,000 locations in over 100 countries, McDonald‘s is bound to rack up a supersized serving of complaints. From missing fries to messy bathrooms to middling customer service, the Golden Arches see their fair share of unsatisfied patrons. But as a consumer, what‘s the best way to make sure your voice is heard and your issue is adequately resolved when you have a beef with McDonald‘s?
According to the company, McDonald‘s welcomes customer feedback and takes every complaint seriously in order to identify areas for improvement and optimize the customer experience. "Our founder Ray Kroc once said ‘If you work just for money, you‘ll never make it, but if you love what you‘re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours‘,‘" said McDonald‘s CEO Chris Kempczinski in a 2020 statement. "We view every piece of customer feedback, whether positive or negative, as a gift and an opportunity to strengthen our operations."
In practice, McDonald‘s offers several channels for customers to submit complaints:
- In-Person: Raise your concern to a crew member or manager at the restaurant
- Phone: Call the corporate customer service line at (800) 244-6227
- Online: Submit a complaint form on the McDonald‘s website Contact Us page
- Apps: Use the mobile app‘s "Feedback" section or direct message the McDonald‘s account on the delivery app for order issues
- Social Media: Reach out to @McDonalds or @Reachout_McD on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram via posts, comments, and DMs
- Mail: Send a letter to the McDonald‘s Corporate Office at P.O. Box 4623, Oak Brook, IL 60522
Complaint Volume and Type Breakdown
Each year, McDonald‘s receives over 1.1 million customer contacts in the U.S. alone, encompassing complaints, compliments, inquiries, and comments. The breakdown of U.S. complaints by category is as follows:
| Complaint Type | % of Total |
|---|---|
| Inaccurate Order | 41% |
| Speed of Service | 24% |
| Attitude/Conduct | 13% |
| Quality of Food | 11% |
| Cleanliness | 5% |
| Other | 6% |
Source: 2020 McDonald‘s Annual Report
As the data shows, order accuracy is by far the top pain point for customers, accounting for over 40% of complaints. Getting the wrong food, missing items, or no sauce for your nuggets can quickly sour the fast food experience. McDonald‘s is hardly alone in this struggle though, as order errors are the most common complaint across the quick-service restaurant industry, with an average error rate of 1 in every 7 drive-thru orders.
Speed of service is the second biggest complaint generator, as McDonald‘s built its empire on the promise of fast food, with goals of 90-second service times. However, as the menu has expanded in complexity and customization options over the years, the company has seen a slowdown in drive-thru times, averaging 4 minutes 33 seconds worldwide in 2020, a full minute slower than 2016 times.
The Ideal Complaint Resolution Process
So how exactly does the resolution process work when a customer issue arises? Ideally, it should look something like this:
- Acknowledgment: The customer complaint is received, documented, and acknowledged across all channels within 24 hours
- Apology: The customer receives a sincere apology for their unsatisfactory experience
- Investigation: The specific location and employees involved are notified and investigate the situation to identify the root cause and take corrective action
- Resolution: The customer is contacted with an explanation of the issue and a satisfactory resolution, such as a refund, replacement, or compensation
- Follow-up: The location follows up with the customer to ensure the issue was fully resolved and take any additional action needed
However, as many disgruntled customers can attest, the resolution process often falls short of this ideal. According to a 2018 Zion & Zion study, 57% of customers were unsatisfied with how their restaurant complaint was handled. The top frustrations were:
- Never receiving an apology (51%)
- Never hearing back at all after submitting a complaint (39%)
- Being placed on hold forever when trying to speak to someone (27%)
- Receiving a generic, copy-paste response (24%)
"The McDonald‘s complaint process is pretty hit or miss, in my experience," says Janet Olson, a longtime McDonald‘s customer from Chicago. "Sometimes you‘ll get lucky with a great manager who will bend over backward to make things right, throwing in all kinds of free food and sincere apologies. Other times, it seems like your complaint just falls into a black hole with barely an acknowledgment."
McDonald‘s Complaint Resolution KPIs
To track and improve its customer recovery process, McDonald‘s measures several key performance indicators around complaint resolution:
- Response Rate: % of complaints responded to within 24 hours
- Resolution Rate: % of complaints marked as resolved by customers
- Average Resolution Time: Hours between complaint submission and marked resolution
- Customer Satisfaction Rating: Star rating by customers on their complaint handling experience
While McDonald‘s does not publicly disclose its KPIs, data from customer review and complaint sites suggest there is significant room for improvement. For example, according to ReviewTrackers data, McDonald‘s has an average complaint resolution rate of just 32% across major review platforms.
| Platform | # of Complaints | % Resolved |
|---|---|---|
| Yelp | 3,528 | 36% |
| 6,201 | 29% | |
| 892 | 34% | |
| Better Business Bureau | 712 | 31% |
| Total/Average | 11,333 | 32% |
Source: ReviewTrackers
This resolution rate significantly lags competitors like Chick-fil-A at 52% and Starbucks at 60%. However, McDonald‘s does outscore pizza giants Domino‘s (25%) and Pizza Hut (12%) in the complaint resolution department.
In terms of customer satisfaction with the complaint handling process, the results are even more dire for McDonald‘s. On Complaints Board, McDonald‘s has an average 1.2 out of 5 star rating across over 1,600 reviews. Hissing Kitty users rate McDonald‘s complaint process a 1.4 out of 5.
Expert Tips for Crafting an Effective Complaint
As a professional consumer advisor and retail expert, I recommend taking the following steps to lodge complaints that are more likely to get you the results you want:
- Be specific: Document the date, time, location, and your order number. Describe exactly what went wrong and how it made you feel.
- Have a desired resolution in mind: Do you want a refund, a replacement, an explanation, an apology, or all of the above?
- Start local and escalate: Always try to resolve your issue with the manager at the restaurant first before contacting corporate.
- Keep a paper trail: Put your complaints in writing, keep copies of receipts and correspondence, and take notes on verbal conversations with employees.
- Set a deadline: Give them a specific timeline to resolve your issue before you escalate or take further action.
- Mention your loyalty: If you‘re a frequent customer, make that known to underscore the value of retaining your business.
- Don‘t let emotions rule: No matter how angry or frustrated you feel, being rude or aggressive with your complaints is more likely to work against you.
- Show gratitude: If an employee provides a satisfactory resolution, follow up with a positive review for them on social media or to their manager to reinforce those good behaviors.
The High Cost of Complaints
Failing to address complaints doesn‘t just create customer ill will, it has a significant financial impact for a business as large as McDonald‘s. Consider the following:
- It costs 5-25x more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one
- A dissatisfied customer typically tells 9-15 people about their negative experience
- It takes 12 positive experiences to negate a single unresolved negative experience
- 58% of American consumers will switch companies because of poor customer service
- Increasing customer retention rates by 5% boosts profits by 25% to 95%
Source: Help Scout
A 2018 Accenture study estimated that the cost of customers switching due to poor service is $1.6 trillion annually in the U.S. If McDonald‘s share is proportional to its 21% of the U.S. fast food market, that amounts to a whopping $336 billion in potential revenue lost to subpar complaint resolution each year.
Conclusion
Lodging a complaint with a massive, bureaucratic fast-food chain like McDonald‘s can feel like screaming into the void. But by understanding your options, carefully documenting your case, and escalating strategically, you can significantly improve your chances of a satisfactory resolution that keeps you a happy customer.
At the end of the day, customers just want to feel heard, acknowledged, and respected by the companies they choose to do business with. A prompt, sincere apology and a good faith effort to make amends can go a long way in repairing trust and loyalty. While McDonald‘s may have the largest customer base of any restaurant chain, it would do well to remember that every single one of those customers has a voice – and a choice in where they spend their dining dollars.
As Ray Kroc said, "If you‘re not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business." For McDonald‘s, the far riskier move is not taking those customer complaints seriously. Hopefully, they‘ll put their money where their customers‘ mouths are and beef up their complaint resolution process. That would be a real Happy Meal ending.
