My new friend Amazonia and I are the best at upselling. Or, well, at getting donations for the Ronald McDonald House Charity. How are we the best? By being the only ones who do it! But don’t worry, I’ve got some other tips and tricks to help you on your way to being the Upsell Champ!

The biggest trick behind upselling is showing your customer that you want to help them get the most and best out of their experience at your restaurant. Here’s a few tips on how to do that (Clue: it’s everything but the words you actually say).

1. Eye contact

Don’t speak into your register or to the ground or to the restaurant in general. Speak directly to your customer. Nothing says “I genuinely want you to listen” more than honest eye contact

2. Smile

The tone of any spoken word largely depends on whether or not you’re smiling. Even if you sound exactly the same either way, if a customer sees you smiling while you talk, they will automatically read it in a cheerful tone. Your cheerful tone tells the customer that you support them buying the item. Science doesn’t have to prove that people are more likely to buy stuff off a happy person than someone who’s not.

3. Body language

Your whole body should face the customer. This shows them that your entire attention is on them. Don’t multitask. Don’t fiddle with your hands or anything else. If you want, lean forward a little (but not too much – not over the register because that’s creepy). Open hands, your feet and hips facing the customer, that is body language that shows all your attention is on the customer. It might be a little intense, but how can you say no to that?

All this shows the customer that you like them and are genuinely interested in them, which then means they’re more likely to believe that you have their best interests at heart. If you’re a business – any business – then a customer’s best interests should always be the reason for everything you do anyway.

Another trick is to always suggest the upsell to every single customer, even if you know they’ve already heard it twice. In fact, if they’ve already heard you ask once or twice, they’re more likely to say yes (especially if the people before them said yes).

Perhaps the most important tip is know your stuff. For example, if I’m upselling donations to the Ronald McDonald House Charity, I should know enough to tell customers what exactly the charity is for and their purpose as well as what McDonald’s as a business does to help.

Otherwise, can you answer questions like, is the meat in the new burger halal? Are the chicken bites made from free range chicken? How much does the sundae cost normally?

If you know the item well enough, people respect you. You are the McDonald’s expert. It’s a little embarrassing when a customer knows more about your products than the person who’s selling them.

Okay, last tip. I should point out that you should never shame a customer for not getting the suggested sell (or donating). So my reaction to every answer, no matter the answer, is the same “Cool!” And if someone is taking quite a bit of time to decide whether they should get the suggested sell, make sure they know that they really don’t have to.

Bigger people with PhDs might say not to do that, but remember that the customer is number one. The point of the upsell is to help them get the most out of their experience. At the end of the day, the customer is prioritised over profit. Because if you lose the customer, you lose profit. They go hand in hand.

Well, there you go, my friend! We’ll make an upsell champ out of you, yet! I suggest using all the tips and tricks together for maximum effect and customer happiness!

Good luck, soldier.

“Oh, you are back! I thought they were just rumours.”

I walked into the restaurant on my first day and saw on the back wall that a girl called Amazonia was Employee of the Month and had also sold the most donations the last week. My eyes narrowed.

A challenger.

I had yet to meet this … Amazonia. And it wasn’t long before I did.

“Oi, are yoo the new girl?”

“Uh, yeah,” I tittered.

A bit of an outspoken young lady who wasn’t afraid to call out the managers on, well, anything, we formed a bond over the fact that, hmm, I guess because I was competent?

James, the restaurant manager, catches me as I headed towards the counter, “We are getting donations for the Ronald McDonald House Charity. Ask every customer if they want to donate one dollar. If you get ten, that’s a free frozen coke. Twenty is a dessert, and thirty is a free burger of your choice.”

I paused, “Any burger?”

“Any burger.”

I grinned. I had tried the new guacamole fries once before and they were amazing. I’m sure he’d let me have some if I made thirty-five or something. I had heard this before. Last year it was popping candy, but now this was a cause I thought worthy of my upselling skills.

I would bark my numbers to Amazonia, trying to spark competition with her but, to my dismay, she wasn’t interested. “I’m doing it for the kids,” she said.

Well, I was doing it for the loaded fries, but at least I didn’t feel guilty when I asked people.

“I take offense to you asking me. You shouldn’t be allowed to ask people for donations.”
“I do charity and we’re told we’re not allowed to ask people. You shouldn’t be asking people.”

Well, I didn’t feel guilty most of the time. Some people gave me a solid no, others made dumb excuses like, “I don’t know if all the money’s going there,” (Um, yes it is) and “Perhaps McDonald’s should donate some of it’s profits to the charity instead of asking its customers!” (sigh, it does. In fact it set the charity up. That’s why it’s called the Ronald McDonald House Charity.)

In fact, McDonald’s does more than just give every cent that’s donated. If you don’t believe me, take a quick look here.

Alright, short rant over. (This blog may be full of rants, so apologies in advance).

Now, back to the competition that wasn’t a competition because Amazonia wasn’t interested in getting a free burger. I managed to get 39! Aww yeah. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see how well I did against Amazonia, because she didn’t count hers.

I guess this kind of makes me look like a bad person, but God says that we should reap our rewards with gladness. So I gladly reaped those guacamole loaded fries and ate them.

Hallelujah for guacamole fries.

There’s a bit of a gap between this one and the last one, because I really only had applied and was waiting to see if they would accept me (which I knew they would). Because, hey, I was 2014’s Employee of the Year, so how could they not re-employ me? Right?

Anyway, they did hire me again. As was expected. I was entirely confident that they would. I never worried or freaked out or anything because, you know, I was 2014’s Employee of the Year and …

Okay, I was a little worried. Mainly because I had been sitting at home for three months doing nothing because my internship from the year before had finished and I just really needed money.

ANYWAY.

I was told I had to do the orientation again, despite having worked for three years ending the previous year. I was kind of okay with that, but that meant I had to wait a whole month after being hired for the next class. Pff.

And then, when I finally arrived to the class, my name wasn’t on the list. Usually in a situation like this I’d start freaking out, because my worst fear is being in the wrong place. Still, with that fear biting me, I raised a hand and said I needed to go to the bathroom. I knew the restaurant manager’s boss, and he’d know I was supposed to be in the class, so while pretending to go to the bathroom, I came back with the big boss dude trailing behind me.

I felt like a badass, but also like that annoying kid in primary school who always gets the teacher to back them up in any argument. Which was always me, so I guess I haven’t changed.

But, finally, I have be re-recruited! Hello, McDonald’s! And come hither, 2016 Employee of the Year!

(I’m not obsessed about this, trust me).

Haha, well, this is a little embarrassing.

A little while after I uploaded my last post, I actually quit Maccas. I got offered an internship which demanded 20 hours a week on top of my university studies, so I decided to save myself the extra hassle of juggling a second job and dedicate those hours to rest and study.

However, I am now a graduate! And an officially unemployed adult. The internship was only for the year, and here I am, bored out of my mind, listening to K-Pop and watching anime. How pathetic can you get, right?

Alright, here’s the stich! (heh, nineties kid coming out) I’m going to go for a job in the filming industry, but it’s a very freelance career, so I need a flexible part-time job. Hence…

 MY RETURN TO MACCAS

Well, I’m hoping for anyway. Today, I returned to the mall and asked my old manager (praise the Lord it’s the same manager) about coming back.

I have to reapply online, but I was pretty good so it’d be silly of them to decline me, right? I mean, who can say no to 2014’s Outstanding Employee of the Year? Look, I’m still on the website!!

I’ve had a haircut since then, but watch out everyone! Here comes 2016’s EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR!!! THAT’S RIGHT!

This blog just got interesting. It’s going to be my journey to become the 2-time Employee of the Year! 2014 was so last year, amiright?

What was that? “This is such a pathetic dream“? Well, dear person who said that, I won’t insult your narrow mind, but if you can’t be ambitious about the small things, how can you be ambitious about anything?!

But first things first. I have to get re-hired.