Reference no: EM133096478

Article 1 - Watch: Woman Trashes McDonald's Outlet Because Her "Coffee Took Too Long" We have all heard of - or witnessed - disgruntled customers and their unreasonable demands. But with the advent of social media, incidents of erratic behaviour by customers are often caught on camera and shared for the world to see. One such display of entitlement was recorded recently at a McDonald's outlet in Arkansas, USA. It all began when a woman grew impatient with the waiting time for her coffee at the eatery. When told that it would take five minutes as per the timer, she reacted by dropping food trays and table numbers onto the floor.

When threatened with a police complaint, the customer said that she was diabetic, and the low blood sugar made her act this way. The entire incident was caught on camera by a fellow customer, who shared it on social media.

According to Newsweek, the clip was shared on TikTok by the handle "till.bad.decisions" and has been watched over 1.1 million times. The clip was also shared on YouTube by ViralHog, which features a detailed description of what went down at the eatery as per the customer who recorded the video.

In it, the customer who recorded the video is quoted as saying, "While standing in line at my local McDonald's, the woman in the video started asking if it took five minutes to make coffee. The employee replied, 'Yes, it does literally, there's a timer on it.' The next thing she said was that everyone needed to stop standing around talking and do a little bit of work and be a little more professional."

Explaining what happened next, the description adds, "She then proceeded to push the trays to the floor in slow motion. Then knocked over the table numbers. The manager said there was a non-emergency police number she could call and asked for her license plate number...She walked back and said, 'Why because I have diabetes and my sugar is low?'"

The manager did, in fact, call the non-emergency line. The irate customer continued to hang around while others at the eatery helped the employees clean the mess. This angered her even more. "During that time, she said, 'this is ridiculous.' to which I replied, 'I don't reckon they're the ones being a ridiculous baby.' She snapped back with 'All they had to do was shut up and work,' before she walked back over to the table," the description added.

At no point, the video revealed did the woman attempt to clean the mess she created. The woman left before the police arrived. "I showed the video to the police," the customer who recorded the incident added. Reacting to the clip-on YouTube, viewers seemed appalled by the woman's behaviour. One user sarcastically commented, "What a powerful person: bullying the clerks at a fast-food restaurant. Impressive." A user, Tanbir, said, "She must have been a terrible bully at school."

Pointing out a hole in the woman's "low blood sugar" story, a user, Ladenna Young, said, "Coffee is not what people order to bring their blood sugar up. they would drink some type of juice or get a cookie or something. SMH."

Question 1

(a) Based on the above article, identify which category this customer belongs to under the TEN (10) characteristics of challenging customers.

(b) Based on above article, determine FOUR (4) reasons why this customer is considered as challenging customers.

(c) Differentiate TWO (2) characteristics of immature customers and TWO (2) characteristics of impatient customers.

(d) Describe FIVE (5) effective ways on how to interact with this challenging customer. Refer the above article in supporting your answers.

(e) Based on your opinion, explain TWO (2) ways that McDonald top management can involve in above situation. Support your answers with examples.