Consumer Research
This research examines customer attitudes and satisfaction with compliance practices in the fast food industry, looking specifically at McDonald’s. Through qualitative and quantitative research methods, it was ascertained that as a majority, customers are satisfied and willing to comply with the requirements of the service routine. Customer attitudes were then determined and several motives for the compliance behaviour emerged.
LITERATURE REVIEW
McDonald’s has had such success since opening the first store in the 1940’s that today it is the leading global fast-food service provider. McDonald’s introduced a system of food service known as “Speedee Service System”, inspired by the assembly-line system of Henry Ford, which revolutionized the restaurant industry. It was the first restaurant to apply automation to both food production and service to customers, where getting food became a somewhat self-service concept. McDonald’s capitalizes on the nature of today’s fast-paced society by being organised so customers are fed as efficiently as possible; they offer a limited, simple menu that can be cooked and served in an assembly-line fashion (Ritzer, 1993:13-14). Ritzer (1993) also suggests that to increase efficiency McDonald’s must be concerned about controlling the customers they serve, which introduces the theory of compliance in a fast-food context.
Customers of service organizations have important roles to play, and McDonald’s is an example of a specific customer-service provider relationship. Well-developed rules and established guidelines exist, which define the activities of customers in the service production (Mills and Morris, 1986). Specification and control of customer role behaviour is straightforward and can be achieved through formalisation. McDonald’s standardizes the behaviour of non-employees in order to achieve their objective of routinization, thus it becomes part of the labour process to induce customers to behave in ways that will not
LITERATURE REVIEW
McDonald’s has had such success since opening the first store in the 1940’s that today it is the leading global fast-food service provider. McDonald’s introduced a system of food service known as “Speedee Service System”, inspired by the assembly-line system of Henry Ford, which revolutionized the restaurant industry. It was the first restaurant to apply automation to both food production and service to customers, where getting food became a somewhat self-service concept. McDonald’s capitalizes on the nature of today’s fast-paced society by being organised so customers are fed as efficiently as possible; they offer a limited, simple menu that can be cooked and served in an assembly-line fashion (Ritzer, 1993:13-14). Ritzer (1993) also suggests that to increase efficiency McDonald’s must be concerned about controlling the customers they serve, which introduces the theory of compliance in a fast-food context.
Customers of service organizations have important roles to play, and McDonald’s is an example of a specific customer-service provider relationship. Well-developed rules and established guidelines exist, which define the activities of customers in the service production (Mills and Morris, 1986). Specification and control of customer role behaviour is straightforward and can be achieved through formalisation. McDonald’s standardizes the behaviour of non-employees in order to achieve their objective of routinization, thus it becomes part of the labour process to induce customers to behave in ways that will not
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