All photos courtesy of McDonald’s Canada.
With new Guest Experience Leaders, cooks, Self-Order Kiosks, table service and a hundred new ways to make your burger yours, the golden arches are looking a lot different in Ottawa.
McDonald’s Canada has officially rolled out their ‘Restaurant Experience of the Future’ in 25 Ottawa-area restaurants. This experience comes with plenty of new features that put guests in the driver’s seat.
“It’s really been an overall transformation,” says Natalie Saulnier, the Regional Vice President for McDonald’s. “It’s about changing and personalizing the experience of the guest.”
When you walk into one of these restaurants, the first new thing you’ll likely notice is the giant, easy to use touch screen – similar to a tablet or Ipad. You can use these screens to order exactly what you want from classic favourites, like the iconic Big Mac, to something completely different like creating your own burger.
To make the ‘Create Your Taste’ option extra special, McDonald’s is now offering guests the choice of nearly 30 ingredients – some that they’ve never seen before. There are five cheeses to choose from, like blue cheese, and toppings like guacamole and the ever popular sriracha sauce (the lifeblood of students everywhere!) along with two new bun options.
“You can also choose to have it in a lettuce wrap instead of a bun, which is my personal favourite actually,” says Saulnier.
Perhaps another interesting tidbit is that if you’re someone with eccentric tastes, you can combine them in whatever bizarre way you want – it truly is up to you. You can have three patties on your bun with nothing else at all, or come up with a really unique masterpiece.
“[There’s] no limit!” says Saulnier. “The way you like it we is the way we will make it…the combinations are pretty endless.”
If you do build your own burger, a cook who specializes in Create Your Taste will start working on it as soon as the order comes in. When the meal is done, a “Guest Experience Leader” will bring it right to your table. All of these features are launching alongside the McCafé Bakery, which appeal to a customer’s sweet tooth with French croissants, mini chocolatines and fruity cream cheese Danishes.
What might be most interesting about all these new additions is how they’ve challenged the way many people might view automated customer service. When we think of ‘self-order kiosks,’ it’s easy to imagine these restaurants will be cutting jobs, but with the new cooks, guest experience leaders and table delivery service McDonald’s Canada is actually adding about 10 to 15 jobs per location, which stacks up to about 300 new jobs across the city!
“Today we’re taking three giant steps forward, with not only the reate-your-own-burger concept, but with fabulous new pastries and the self-serve kiosks,” says Jeff Robinson, owner of seven McDonald’s franchises in the National Capital Region.
“It’s very exciting,” he adds, “another step in our transformation.”
You can find out more about McDonald’s new, fresh experience and ‘create your taste’ at mcdonalds.ca/createyourtaste.