Chicken Woes and Customer Blues: A KFC Saga of Ignorance

I want to share an enlightening and somewhat hilarious experience I had at KFC during what should have been a simple lunch escapade. Brace yourselves for a tale of fried chicken, communication mishaps, and the perplexing disappearance of customer service values.

Picture this: A customer, armed with an insatiable hunger for some finger-lickin' goodness, goes into KFC. The ordering process at the kiosk? Flawless. The crowd? Non-existent. Everything's smooth sailing until I uttered those fateful words: "Just the chicken breast, please."

To my amazement, my polite request for a breast-only ensemble was met with stone-faced silence from the dynamic duo behind the counter. Maybe chicken breasts are the unicorns of KFC, I pondered. But no, it seems I was dealing with the Houdinis of the fried chicken world, as they magically vanished into a realm of mutual indifference and fried chicken fascination.

Not knowing if they hear me, again, I attempt to pierce through their chicken-centric trance, I graciously increase my vocal amplitude. The response? "Not enough chicken breast," declared from afar, without turning around to look at me.

The Social Conundrum:

Well, before you think this is just another fast-food complaint, let's reflect on a more profound issue. It's not merely about the elusive chicken breast but the state of our society. Are we witnessing a decline in communication skills, a surge in self-centeredness, and a general disregard for others' basic expectations?

The perpetrators in this case were not ancient relics but spry individuals in their 20s. In an era of advanced technology and kiosk-driven orders, their responsibility seemed to vanish faster than a bucket of original recipe. Was it a lack of critical thinking, sheer indifference, or a disdain for the art of customer interaction? The plot thickens.

These incidents beg the question: Are they aware they represent a global brand? Customers don't owe them a chicken dance; they're there to fuel the fast-food economy. Ignorance may be bliss, but in this context, it's downright scary.

What's Next?

So, what do we do about this? Is it a symptom of a larger societal ill? How do we reignite the flames of communication, consideration, and common sense? I leave you with these questions, pondering the state of our chicken-loving, communication-challenged world.

In the grand scheme of things, my quest for a simple chicken breast unveiled a deeper truth. Let's hope the next time I visit KFC, the staff has found their voices and, perhaps, my beloved chicken breast. Until then, stay crispy, my friends.

When Can I Visit Hong Kong Again?

Hong Kong is such a good place to visit for a short getaway - shopping, historical sites, food, food, and food. However, the current political tense with protestors on the street basically every day has made Hong Kong the country to avoid. Wonder when can I visit Hong Kong again?

These are some of the memorable moments I had last year in Hong Kong as a tourist. I look forward to the recovery of this amazing country soon.

People and Government - a complicated relationship

 

The usual morning market

Always busy streets at Mongkok

A dedicated street for buying sports shoe, really!

Bye for now and hope to return one day...

Previous post about Food in Hong Kong:

8 MUST-TRY FOOD AND DRINKS IN HONG KONG (2018)

Dinning, Socialising or Watching Drama?

The advancement of information technology is a breakthrough in improving our social lifestyle and productivity. That is why hardware manufacturers keep on investing and introducing more powerful processors to support multi-tasking environment. Hence, these technologies has change our lifestyle and allowing many of us live in the world of multi-tasking.

Try to observe around you the next time you go for lunch or dinner. You may easily spot a family or couple like this: A couple having their dinner in a local restaurant, didn't talk to each other but started to watch something on the tablet after ordering their food. Both were doing something on their devices throughout the entire dinning process (multi-tasking).

Right or Wrong Direction?

Have you ever asked yourself if you are heading towards the right direction?

Source: http://choegraphy.blogspot.com/2013/12/road-users.html

I find this question very interesting as we always thought we are doing the right thing in our life and working hard crafting our future. However, if we really reflect on our past decisions or what we are doing now, we might find that our choices of decision may not be as good as we thought. Even if we find our choices are good enough, but try to look around and we may find that many people actually don't agree with us.

Sometime, our thought, stand or approach might be different; we might have chosen for different path...but our purpose could be the same...'to reach at the destination safely'. As long as we don't create problem to others, hurting people along the way, everybody should respect each other and where they want to go. Of course, we may find that some people could be heading to the wrong direction; but again, how to justify if it is right or wrong to the person if this individual (like us) have decided on the direction. Like the cow, can we tell the cow 'hey buddy, you are on the wrong side of the road...this is not the right direction"!!!

In family, at work or in any aspect of our life, we should stop for awhile and reflect on our direction; to see if we know where we are heading to; how are we moving forward and most importantly, are we causing any trouble to others? The cow can head towards its direction as long as our friend know how to use the correct lane or use the walk way.

So, nothing wrong with your direction or the path you want to take, as long as you know where you are heading to...the place you want to be. Once you know where is the destination, don't just keep thinking of reaching the place but to enjoy the scenery along the way. We might miss out something valuable if we passes it while we are heading towards our goal in high speed...

As such, it is difficult to determine if the direction is correct or not, we still need to move on. As long as our concious is clear, we should not simply change our course but to reflect along our journey. Lastly, we should just enjoy the process of life.

McDonald's Happy Meal Versus Minions

Are you a fan of McDonald's Happy Meal or the Minions in the movie, Despicable Me? The recent craze in Malaysia recently saw the increase in demand for the Happy Meal with the free Minion toy series. Is this a coincident or merely another effective marketing strategy?

We can analyse this emerging phenomena by applying the diffusion and adoption process of consumer (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2010). McDonald's has increases the adoption process of their newly launched toy series for the Happy Meal, embarking on the opportunity from the highly publicised movie, Despicable Me 2. How they did it? Let's look at the possible elements of consumer diffusion process being managed by the world's most popular fast food brand:

1. The Innovation
As usual, the toys that comes with Happy Meal will have playable special features or movements. This would different the toys with other retail version of the toys by major producers.

2. Channel of Communications

At the introductory stage of the new Happy Meal toys series, McDonald's has been shouting about their offerings using integrated channels such as mass advertisement and on social network. This helps to create awareness and building up the momentum of buying even before the commencement of sales; especially triggering the needs to possess, not just satisfying physiological needs, but social needs, self-esteem and self-actualisation (Maslow's hierarchy of needs)

3. Social System

With the current social system, many consumers are influence by the need of possession (materialism personality traits). Hence, a toy in Happy Meal has always been promoted to the parents with children where they not just get to eat and drink, but to play! This become a norm to many as an value added consumption process, especially when the Minions are Free! Well, not just children who likes free toys, but all ages, that's our social system here.

4. Time

The prolong time of releasing the Minions with various models in batches build up the demand from extensive Word-of-Mouth, especially when news and on social media started to cover this craze for Minions.

Of course there are many different views on this marketing phenomena, and the above is just one of my very personal view. Let's wait until the next Tsunami of Happy Meal next time, we shall learn more!

Cheers!