Why Coca-Cola Tastes Better at McDonald’s

My first job was as a cook in McDonald’s, and wow did my greasy teenage skin not react well to that environment.

McDonald’s operate over 40,000 stores (roughly as many restaurants as Chelsea Football Club have seats in their stadium).

What got them to that scale was their focus on designing a factory-like operations processes, that can be repeated by untested youth (younger me), enabling them to churn out a consistent product with minimal training.

A great example of this focus on process development are the coke machines.

Since the 1950s the Coca Cola and McDonalds have worked together to maximise the consistency and taste of their drinks.

It’s a process that was developed and optimised over time.

Test, improve, test, improve, and repeat for 70 years and hundreds of iterations.

• The carbonated water and syrup and stored and dispensed separately for a fresher flavour than pre-mixed drinks.

  
  

• The syrup to water ratio is standardised to account for the melted ice, so the flavour is maintained throughout the experience.
  

• The syrup is chilled and stored in steel tanks so the drink stays fizzier for longer.
  

• The water is filtered and kept chilled, maximising the carbon dioxide level to optimise bubbles and provide the crispy sensation.
  

• They use wider than average straws to allow for bigger sips to make sure the drink swamps your taste buds.
  

• Finally the cups are designed to trap the gas and they do this better than a glass container or aluminium can.

It’s processes like this that enable McDonald’s to achieve great consistency.

Customers can walk in to any of those 40,000+ venues with confidence that their drinks and meal will meet their expectations.

Consistency Targeting

Consistency matters.

Meeting the expectations of guests is one of the key factors in building loyalty and sales growth.

As this diagram (using a popular competitive socialising concept, so that this post is absolutely on trend) illustrates, the more you can optimise the experience to deliver the expected experience the more your guests leave happy.

It’s relatively easy to hit the bullseye compered to McDonald’s (delivering a great product/service), but it’s a lot harder to consistently hit the board (delivering that level of product/service to all customers).

So much of hospitality and customer service is about hitting expectations and avoiding the multitude of opportunities for mistakes that leave a bad taste.

"Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get." - Ray Kroc (Former McDonalds CEO)

"A brand is a promise. A good brand is a promise kept." - Muhtar Kent (former Coca-Cola CEO)

So how can you achieve the same effect when you don’t have 70 years and 40,000 venues to test in?