Have a nice day, and an icy stare

What a wonderful gem of an article from Murray (MW last week). When McDonald’s first arrived in this country I remember, after grabbing my paper bag full of burger and fries off the counter, hearing that phrase – “Have a nice day” – blurted out, in a Brummie accent, to my back as I made a rush for the door. The incongruence, given where I was, was so irritating that McDonald’s might have well asked their staff to run their collective nails down a blackboard at the end of every order! Of course, after a while, they stopped.

Since then, we’ve had Wal-Mart throwing its massive financial muscle behind making its UK workforce act like an all-American paragon of plastic- fantastic service. Has it worked? Nope. The last time I went into an Asda, the textbook meet and greet was most certainly on the wane. The London Development Agency’s £3.5m for improvement to service in the capital will quickly boil down to a thick gravy of beefy arrogance, once our good old-fashioned service staff get involved – of that we can be most certain!

Chris McCann

Group account director

Tiger Tiger Communications

Bristol

Avon