Macdonald told you personally that they have bad coffee!

by chee Leng (on coffee makers)
(Singapore)

Nobody would associate McDonald with Good coffee, but one would still be surprise to hear it from the horses mouth right?

I mean, you don't go around airing your dirty lingerie so to speak. But on Monday in Australia, the boss of McDonald Australia came forward and told Aussie exactly this -Customers told us about the bad coffee, we know about it and we would do better.

And this is not just speaking. They just to appoint specialist baristas to improve the quality of their coffee.

All these coming from a big company is very humbling and highlight the drive to correct what they think is important to the customers.

Of course, this also meant that what the customers say matters to them.

My $0.02.

In my previous articles, I have touch on how McDonald is already the largest coffee sellers and how they command the highest heart share in terms of customers' loyalty.

But, it still does not negate the fact that their coffee to many coffee drinkers is not up to standards. And Australian has a very sophisticated palate when it comes to coffee.

By saying that they are serious about making their coffee right, McDonald is trying to get a few things right and perhaps preparing for something bigger.

Here is what I think they are trying to get right:

1. The coffee taste is of course the top most priority. With specialist baristas, I think the only way the taste can be is better.

2. Even if the taste does not improves drastically, the perception definitely would. Call it a PR campaign or some very shrewd move by McDonald.

But to come out, acknowledge and correct things which are not that good, is rare for a big company. And by doing this, I am sure, they would get alot of approval just for doing it.

And, in return, they should be able to get many "how it has improve" customers that just want to try it.

If they coupled with the right promotion and some more PR, they could potentially add many more loyal customers.

3. They want to tell the whole world that customers is and always would be the center of Mcdonald modus operandi.

You tell them that their coffee is below par, they apologizes to you and try to make it better.

What are they preparing for

Even without consciously trying and with very low quality coffee, Mcdonald has captured huge chunk of coffee market by virtue of their huge network and their low pricing.

If they are able to formulate a great tasting coffee (the way they did with their fries), I believe the growth would be exponential.

Sure, they would never be able to convert and get all the coffee drinkers (especially the coffee snobs) to drinking their coffee.

But, if they can get 20-30% more, that is probably worth many times the effort and investment that they are pouring in right now.

I too is looking forward at what the difference might be when the baristas come in...