On doing work that people notice

[mcroft]

The Joy of Tech describes, in an eerily accurate way, the customer experience getting Free Wi-Fi at McDonalds.

This is really interesting to me because I work for AT&T Wi-Fi Services and one of my responsibilities is Software Release and Deployment management. I executed the script that turned 11,000 McDonalds Wi-Fi to free. Clearly these guys are responding to us--they even got the brand-new oval-shaped McD Wi-Fi logo, so they're paying attention.

Something we did got cartooned, and not in a bad way. It's pretty damn amusing.

Comments

[shadowflyer.livejournal.com]

It is, of course, not actually free but free*. The * being "for AT&T customers only." Which means I still have to go a bit further to find a Panera.

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

Nope! Free as in "for anyone who can accept McD's legal T&Cs, or click a check-box that says they do."

Try it!

[shadowflyer.livejournal.com]

Is this new in the past week or two? And/or is it being phased in regionally?

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

yup. Last Thursday (officially last friday, but we put it in on Thursday so we could go make sure it worked in the real world the day before).

No phase in. Splash in. However, stores can choose to opt-out. Only a few did so.

[libskrat]

niiiiiiiiiiiiiice. Congratulations!

[prince-corwin.livejournal.com]

I am still baffled by the notion that McD's is giving away stuff for free that makes people hang around. Does that violate their basic business plan, which is, move customers in and out as fast as possible?

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

The McCafe business plan is "compete with Starbucks for coffee dollars."

They're happy to have you linger: you might buy another coffee or grab some lunch.

In any case, the vast majority of the cash-flow at a McDonalds is at the drive-through, so in-store traffic isn't as important as you might think, as long as the drive through is efficient.

[fleetfootedfox.livejournal.com]

that's pretty badass. does the jargon have any bearing on reality, or did they make that up?

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

It's pretty much a description of Wi-Fi actually. Our radio dude nearly ruptured something laughing at it.

[(Anonymous)]

Yep, as someone who works in a very closely related field, I can vouch for it-- that's real jargon, used pretty accurately. I could have a go at explaining it, but the last panel is the one that's actually funny.

[prince-corwin.livejournal.com]

Bah. That was not supposed to be an anonymous comment....