What They Are
GapBusters can be a blessing or a curse to many a McDonald's store, depending on the recent efficiency of it.
A GapBuster is a variety of Secret Shopper employed by the above McDonalds company, designed to secretly audit stores across the nation.
What They Do
A GapBuster will walk into a store, dressed like Joe Nobody or Jane Average, order their food, pay, and walk out.
What they are really doing is looking over every single minute detail in the store, trying to pick out any discernable flaw. These are sneaky people indeed.
They appraise the store on a number of things. Mainly, these are:
Food Quality
A GapBuster will order a medium meal (Extra Value Meal and one dessert. These will be practically reduced to their component parts to determine if they are reasonable or not. The burger will be rated on taste, neatness of dressings, and temperature. The fries will be rated on temperature and freshness.
The drink will be rated on temperature (there is hot and cold drinks here) and taste (could have been standing too long, ice cubes could have melted, drink syrup may be running out). If the dessert is ice cream based, it will be judged on the consistency of it and the temperature, if it is an apple pie, it will rated on temperature and freshness. Most other desserts are thawed out, so they are judged on if they are still partially frozen or not. Any faults with this food results in marks down.
Service Time
The typical time a customer should be waiting for before being served is 1 minute. The customer should receive his/her food 2 minutes after that. Stores will be marked down if this is exceeded.
Staff Friendliness
This is a very important factor in service. The customer should always be greeted with a smile and eye contact should be maintained throughout the service. Staff should respond pleasantly, even if the customer is rude. Again, if any of these criteria is failed, points will be deducted.
Front Counter Cleanliness
Basically, points will be deducted if there is an excess of debris scattered around the main front counter area. This includes tray liners, drink spills, cup lids, McFlurry toppings, etc.
Dining Area Cleanliness
Points are deducted here if the dining area is untidy, due to random debris mentioned above. Also, points are deducted if there is no member of staff out on the dining area, and if condiments and napkins are not readily available from the dispensers.
Phew
As you can see, these malicious people are very, very picky. Scores are given on a percentile basis. Hardly any stores get 100%, even if they know that a GapBuster is visiting that day. This is mainly due to the stress caused to the managers because of these visits. This is the curse of the GapBuster. Luckily, there is a way of spotting a GapBuster.
Spotting a GapBuster
The thing about GapBusters, is that they always ask for a medium meal with a dessert, and ask for a receipt. If this happens, there is usually a little bell behind the counter which can be rung, announcing to the kitchen staff that a GapBuster is here, so that the food can be made to top-notch standards (as far as McDonalds goes).
Knowing this fact, it is possible for a non-GapBuster to ask for this, and watch as about half a dozen people panic trying to get your order ready ASAP. Of course, I'm not condoning making McDonalds staff run around like headless chickens. That would be cruel. Well, you never heard it from me anyway. Also, use your common sense. People using employee cards are not GapBusters, no matter what they say.
Earlier I mentioned that a GapBuster can also be a blessing to a store. How you ask? Simple. Any store receiving 100% on their GapBuster score will receive a 50 pence pay rise for all employees in that store, for a whole month. Big money you see.
Well, I hope this write-up has been reasonably informative. As an employee at McDonalds, I feel it is my mission to share what I can with the masses. Enjoy.
Another 2am node successfully completed.
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