Wendy’s: Did you KNOW your Frosty machine was broken?
A confession up front. I have always LIKED Frosty’s from Wendy’s.
Willing to overlook the fact that Wendy’s takes 14 ingredients to do what others do with milk, ice cream and flavoring of some ilk.
So that I GUARANTEE that today’s post offers some educational value, here is what is in a Frosty:
Medium Frosty™
Milk, Cream, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Cocoa (processed with alkali), Guar Gum, Mono and Diglycerides, Cellulose Gum, Dextrose, Carrageenan, Calcium Sulfate, Disodium Phosphate, Artificial and Natural Flavor, Vitamin A Palmitate. CONTAINS: MILK
.http://www.wendys.com/food/Nutrition.jsp PHOTO: consumerist.com
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There, now the actual information value is out of the way, on with the story. But please note that a Frosty SHOULD come in a yellow cup and is thick enough to stand a spoon up in. Even though it now answers to the name, “Classic”.
Yesterday, I was playing nurse to Jeanette as she had a little oral surgery. On the way home, thought I’d swing in to get her something a little cold to make her feel better. What the heck, I hadn’t had one in forever, so I ordered a Frosty treat for myself while we were there. Make me feel better, too.
OK, make it a LARGE.
THIS is what I got.
Now does THAT look like the delectable gathering of 14 ingredients pictured above? The one I expected?
The marketing folks at Wendy’s have branched out with something like 4,000 fru-fru new choices to add variety to the Frosty offering. That’s fine. But those are just pretenders to the throne. That’s not what I ordered, I ordered the “Classic”. As it should be.
When I am handed this pretender, I pointed out that I had ordered the “Classic”, fully expecting that just a simple mistake had been made. Surely it would be corrected.
ME: “Excuse me, I ordered the classic.”
THE WINDOW: “Our Frosty machine is broken. We are just putting vanilla mix in the cups and adding some chocolate instead. Trust me, it’ll taste the same”.
WHAAAATTTT? You didn’t know this when I ordered 20 seconds ago? Is this the treatment the “Frosty Posse” would expect to get?
I don’t THINK so.
Now, I realize that this is just one franchise. One person’s decision that “close enough” was good enough. I am sure substituting vanilla mix, tossing in chocolate flavoring and barely mixing the two is NOT corporate policy.
I also realize that we’re talking $2 that I ended up throwing down the sink.
But for years, Wendy’s has spent a bundle creating the Brand differentiation the Frosty offers from the other burger joints. Everybody can do a shake, only one can do a Frosty. You are NOT going to dip your fries into a shake from McDonald’s. Sacrilege!
PHOTO:dosomething.org
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But isn’t this what has happened to much of the “Customer Service” industry of today? “Close Enough” is good enough? Education, training, communication…lather, rinse, repeat. Who really does this kind of consumer experience heavy lifting anymore?
I am sure that graduates from Wendy’s University are NOT trained to act this way.
One experience, one consumer, what does it really matter?
But it doesn’t take too many pretenders in the ranks- poorly understanding your corporate values- to soon make your company a pretender in the consumer mindset, too.
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