McDonald’s admits app is ‘terrible’ but maps out plans to win back millennials and young mums
Daniel Lee
A senior McDonald’s executive has branded its My Maccas app as “terrible”, but promised new technology is on its way as the fast food giant continues its quest to win back millennials and young mums.
Daniel Lee, senior director digital experience for APMEA, said measures to make the customer experience more attractive are on-going, with the re-launch of its app among the immediate plans.
He said McDonald’s is also looking to utilise its mountain of data to drive the business forward and create a more personalised experience for customers.
“I don’t need to tell you it’s a terrible app because the one star rating in Google tells us so, and that’s ok,” Lee said. “It was an early beta that came through the corporate IT guys.”
*shots fired*
Believe me, this is the kind of thing that “corporate IT guys” have a long memory about. Yeah, maybe the app sucked – but they’ll remember that you threw them under the bus. Good luck getting them to cooperate with whatever agency you hire to do your next mobile experience.
That app has been appalling for over two years. Quite why they’ve shied away from using the excellent Macca’s apps out of Europe is beyond me.
Their skydiving game app was OK, but the whole mymaccas thing seems to be gathering dust on their site.
Lots of noise and little action seems to define their digital strategy.
I deduced from the article that Create Your Taste means:
1. You have to place your order by using some form of screen input, rather than by talking to a human being. And they said the early McDonald’s were soulless!
2. A steep increase in price.
Unable to believe it, I googled “Create Your Taste pricing”. My deductions proved correct. I quote from a review: “Prices are $8.95 for just the burger, $11.45 for a small meal or $11.95 for a medium meal… They’re about 20-30% more expensive than normal Maccas prices.”
I still can’t believe it, but there it is. McDonald’s, whose worldwide reputation rests on moderately priced fast food, is meeting a declining market with price inflation. Good luck with that!
As for drive-through service having not changed since the 1970s, i.e., in the whole history of McDonald’s in Australia, there is a reason for that. It’s drive-through, it’s what people want, and it works. And now they want to reinvent it. Why do I think of New Coke?
I think the public is less and less interested in promotional gimmicks and more focused on health and content.
All McDonalds have to do is make a healthier product, with complete transparency on the ingredients and where they are sourced from, then public wouldn’t feel so bad going there. I’m sure the public will even be ok with higher prices in this circumstance.
@ comments 1 and 2: if the app has a 1 star rating after 2 years, the corporate IT guys deserve a bollocking. they’ve obviously not done a good job. top comments are “can’t even log in” “app won’t open” “just keeps crashing” “neverending issues”
@ 4: you are correct. tackling declining customers with higher prices might look good on paper but i can’t remember it ever working.
Its now Christmas 2018 and the app still doesn’t work. If I was Donald Trump the executive in charge of app development would have been fired a long time ago.