What can a McDonalds receipt teach us about maximizing opportunity?

Take a look at this receipt from McDonalds Canada. Just a purchase record of a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, right?

Look closer — it’s a lesson on maximizing opportunity. Outside of the boilerplate information about the transaction, this receipt is a powerhouse of brand communication and customer interaction. It has no less than 8 functional aspects and CTAs.

1. Friendly customer greeting — fairly standard but sets a friendly and welcoming tone.
2. High “information scent”: the most important information — the order pickup number — is large, obvious and up front.
3. Recruitment CTA — “Now hiring! Apply at McDonalds.ca/careers”
4. Turn Receipt Over CTA
5. Incentivized Survey CTA
6. QR code for customer scanning convenience. Cx’s can complete survey immediately on mobile and McDonalds does everything they can to reduce friction and enable this for the Cx.
7. Multiple header CTAs to diversify the survey message.

• Your feedback helps us improve.
• Tell us about your experience.
• Tell us how we did today.
• We want to hear from you.

All these messages communicate a consistent brand of an inviting company who’s eager to hear what you think. If you’re a repeat customer, each time you get a receipt you’ll also get a slightly different message — like a rotating campaign of banner ads.

8. Corporate Social Responsibility signaling — BPA Free Paper with Recycled Content.

These all combine to drive forward no less than 4 corporate goals with 5 CTAs — recruitment, brand consistency, customer feedback leading to early identification of in-store/franchise operational issues, building their marketing database, and promoting their corporate social responsibility program. All within a few inches of a standard instrument of commerce we all take for granted — the paper receipt.

McDonalds Canada is making the most of every opportunity — are you? Something to think about this week in our businesses.