Today’s Scripture Reading (June 6, 2016): Psalm 94
The report is in. McDonalds and Burger King rank as the most hated fast food restaurants. Unfortunately, that is also not much of a surprise. And being the most hated has to do something to your sleep at night. I mean, how can you run a successful business knowing that your customer base really doesn’t like you? For McDonalds, the news might be even worse. The company has suffered two years of decline in their market share. The problem with both fast food chains is customer service. In the restaurant business, this is the dirty little secret. It is really customer service that drives the business, not the food. Okay, obviously a restaurant needs to serve edible food, but after a certain level of food quality has been reached, the payoff in increasing food quality and taste doesn’t match the payoff of providing increasing quality of customer service. There is a break where the quality of food ceases to make as much of a difference and customer service takes over. (Which might serve as a warning for places like A & W [a Canadian Fast Food restaurant], who have been concentrating their advertising on the quality of their food. What might be surprising is that it is not just food quality that is working for the restaurant. Part of what makes people tune in is the feeling of warmth that people seem to receive from their spokesman, actor Alan Lulu.)
So the question as far as McDonald’s and Burger King are concerned, and other restaurants with negative reviews like Baskin-Robbins and Kentucky Fried Chicken, is what comes next? Do they try to solve their Public Relations problems, or do they just bury their head in the sand and try to ignore what is happening. Of the restaurants with negative ratings, McDonalds seems to be the one with the most drive to fix what is wrong. They have obviously heard the complaints and are trying to repair the damage. They have increased wages and brought in good customer service people to try and turn the tide. They are willing to acknowledge the problem and at least attempt to fix it.
The psalmist words might actually describe what McDonalds is trying to do. The judgment is founded on what is right, at least right in the eyes of the food chain’s potential customers. And McDonalds has accepted the judgment and made a decision to act responsibly in the wake of that judgment. They are not pretending that the judgement is not true. They are not making excuses or trying to explain that they know what is best over the foolish customers who have responded negatively to the way the restaurant does business. They have accepted the judgment and have set out to find a way to reverse the problem.
It is the path of the upright at heart. It is the way that we are all supposed to act. It is the way that I need to act - relentlessly hearing the words of my critics and trying to do something in order to change the situation. Too often that is not our response. Instead of accepting the righteous judgment, we rail against the judgment as being unrighteous, because if the judgment lacks a righteous foundation, then there is no need for us to change. But it is often the other road that we need to take, even though the path might be hard. Life is about changing what is bad into what is good. And that is the path of those who are truly upright in heart.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 97
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