McDonald’s Japan is to launch a new smartphone app for customer complaints as it looks to turn the page on a series of scares including the discovery of a human tooth in some french fries.
The move comes with in-country sales sliding, profits plunging and the burger giant’s reputation in Japan badly dented.
“We will introduce a new smartphone app customers can use to post their feelings, opinions and requests, aiming at strengthening our ability to listen to customers’ voices,” McDonald’s Japan Holdings said in a statement issued this week.
The firm also said it was reviewing its procedures for dealing with suspected cases of product tampering and would draft new rules on communication with customers by next month.
The chain came in for heavy media criticism for its handling of incidents over the past year in which unexpected objects were discovered in food. The firm last month said it saw a worse-than-expected year-on-year decline of ￥21.8 billion (US$179.65 million). Nationwide sales in January were down 39 percent annually.
McDonald’s Japan this week announced the appointment of a new chairman and a new chief operating officer. McDonald’s Japan chief executive officer Sarah Casanova remains in place.
Meanwhile, US fast-food chain Burger King on Tuesday said it was cutting soft drinks from its children’s meals amid mounting pressure to reduce the amount of sweet sodas on offer.
Following in the footsteps of McDonald’s, its rival Burger King said all its childrens’ meals would come with either apple juice, fat-free milk or low-fat chocolate milk.
“We have removed fountain drinks from our kids’ menu boards and they are no longer merchandised as part of kids’ meals,” the company said in a statement.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, one of a number of US groups advocating healthier diets for children, gave its support to the move by Burger King, which serves about 11 million people per day in 13,000 restaurants and outlets around the world.
“Soda and other sugary drinks promote diabetes, tooth decay, obesity, and even heart disease — and have no place on menus meant for little kids. We applaud Burger King for taking this responsible step forward, and call upon their franchisees — who operate independently of the company — to immediately follow suit,” the center said.
However, another healthy-food advocate, MomsRising, which had also pressed for the menu change, said more restaurants need to follow suit.
“While Burger King is now offering better default beverages, we need more restaurants to do the same because sugar-sweetened beverages uniquely promote heart disease and type 2 diabetes,” MomsRising said.
McDonald’s took a similar step in 2013 and another popular US fast-food chain, Wendy’s, did so in January this year.
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