I was pretty excited when I visited my neighborhood McDonald’s on Friday. At each register was a display prompting customers to go to a Web site called McDeals.com, enter the store code, and get a coupon for a free iced coffee.
I’m thinking to myself this is a great thing for the fast food biz. Start a loyalty program and learn a little more about their customers. It could be another way to find out if McDonald’s needs to bring the Shamrock Shake back, or axe the Angus Deluxe burger.
But to my surprise, I found a site and system in place as outdated as the McRib.
The only questions asked were my first name, the store code, and my e-mail address. Once I enrolled, that was it. I had an HTML e-mail sent to me with a link to my coupon. It wasn’t even a “Dear Tim” message, so why even ask for my first name?
When I clicked on the link, I got this PDF. There’s an expiration date, and a message telling me it’s only valid in the “NY Metro Region.”
In effect, I wasted my time going online for a bounceback coupon. But McDonald’s lost out on finding out more about me, the consumer.
What will the “NY Metro Region” McDonald’s learn? Probably that a lot more coupons are going to be redeemed for the free iced coffee than store codes entered at McDeals.com.
Lesson learned: If you’re going to incorporate online as a channel to communicate with your customers, don’t do it on the cheap, or hope to obtain information at a later time. All you’re going to do is lose out on that golden opportunity to truly engage your customer.
Network
