Digital reporter Aimee Seddon offers a video tour of the new McDelivery site in Preston and speaks to the staff in charge of its operation...
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 Hi, I'm digital reporter Amy Seddon and today I'm visiting Preston's newest McDonald's.
00:07 Located on Chain Callway, it's not like McDonald's as you know it because this one is delivery
00:11 only. Because you guys, the hungry customers, can't take a look inside, I've been invited
00:17 down instead to show you what happens behind the scenes. It's fairly cold today so I'm
00:22 excited to go in. Let's go!
00:26 I couldn't find the McDelivery address on Google Maps so it's safe to say when I saw
00:30 the famous golden arches I felt relieved. But as you can tell straight away, the McDelivery
00:38 is not at all like a normal McDonald's store. Instead it looks like a regular warehouse
00:43 on a very industrial street and not exactly inviting to customers.
00:49 This is the McDelivery site at a closer look. Again, warehousing with a massive metal gate.
01:01 It's a different type of experience because we're encouraging our delivery couriers and
01:18 partners and making it more of an environment for them to come in and feel welcomed. Sometimes
01:23 when they visit our restaurants they feel a little bit in the way of our customers,
01:30 they feel in the way when families are trying to dine and have an experience with us. So
01:35 it gives them a great opportunity to come to this store, come and collect their deliveries
01:40 and then deliver them to our customers.
01:43 So you're getting to know delivery drivers more?
01:45 Yeah, it's about building a partnership and a relationship up with our drivers and making
01:50 sure that they feel welcome in the restaurant and not a burden really when they come to
01:54 us.
01:55 Has it had any effect yet on your scores on Just Eat and whatnot?
01:59 Yeah, so previously on the platform we were struggling to be above three stars on average
02:06 across Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber. But since we've opened this restaurant we've managed
02:11 to get our reviews above four. Our customers are telling us that the experience from the
02:16 delivery kitchen is better, more accurate and they're getting their orders quicker.
02:20 So for us it's win-win.
02:27 It's nice to be able to focus on the delivery drivers and the customers that we don't see
02:32 face to face. I know in a lot of the other stores they can be quite busy and the drivers
02:37 might feel like they get pushed to the side. But here it's nice because even the drivers
02:40 come in and say to us, "Oh, it's brilliant. The customers are getting a better experience.
02:45 They're getting a better experience." So it's just good for them really as well.
02:49 Would you say that staff in the kitchen are less hassled?
02:51 I'd say so, yeah. It's probably just a lot, not easier, but it's a different pace I suppose
03:00 than you would be if you had customers coming at you from all angles. You're inside the
03:04 restaurant, you drive through. So it's just nice, like I said, to be able to concentrate
03:08 on that one set group and improve their experience.
03:11 And we're in the staff room right now. How is this compared to other sites?
03:15 It's lovely. It's massive. It's nice to have a big window as well. It's just lovely, yeah.
03:24 If any more jobs came out at this site, would you encourage people to join your team?
03:28 Yeah, definitely. Definitely. It's a great team. There's some really good people involved.
03:33 A lot of the crew are brilliant. They've worked at different stores and they've all come together
03:36 and they've really grouped together to make it a great experience for the new people that
03:41 have joined us as well.
03:42 What's the difference between the delivery and the delivery of food?
03:46 I think when the delivery kitchen opened, because over the last two or three years,
03:52 I guess post-COVID, delivery has become a really big deal in the country actually, as
03:58 well as McDonald's. And I just think with, you know, McDonald's sort of five years ago
04:03 was eating, takeaway, drive-through. Now McDonald's is eating, takeaway, drive-through,
04:11 click and serve, app, orders and delivery. So it became as a customer and as somebody
04:19 running the business and the people, it just became more challenging to incorporate the
04:28 delivery within the business. So the restaurants around here, Riversway particularly, which
04:35 is just a couple of minutes away, we've closed the delivery off in that restaurant and opened
04:41 this kitchen. So no customers, no money changes hands. It's all in the cloud, I guess. And
04:50 it just gives a better experience for our couriers in this restaurant. And I think talking
04:57 to a couple of people who I know, it's given a better experience for the customers in our
05:02 Riversway restaurant. So it's a week. It's kind of still a test, but it's something that
05:10 I think may have legs moving forward. But like most things, I guess we'll look at it,
05:15 evaluate it and decide what we're going to do with it going forward.