What did you do on the weekend? I changed the Subway global cheese policy.
One Saturday night I ventured to Subway with a mate. As the sandwich maker (let’s call him Mr Cracker Barrel) threw the tasty cheese on a meatball foot long, I had a thought. Shouldn’t they place the cheese top-to-tail instead of all facing the same way to get a more thorough and even distribution of cheese?
As I casually asked this question to my mate, Mr Cracker Barrel jumped in and sharply defended, “there’s no time, no time”. As I looked around the empty store and looked back to Mr Cracker Barrel he quipped, “there’s no time, there’s no time. I’ll do it for you now, but there’s no time during lunch time, too busy."
A little bit of love and a little bit of care makes the sub taste that much sweeter, Mr Cracker Barrel.
I relayed my cheesy woes via the online feedback form at subway.com. Concerned with their representation as a fast-food chain as opposed to the ‘restaurant’ they claim to be.
Two weeks later I got a response.
After the standard apologetic response citing mandated US policy, store manager Joshua left another voicemail on my phone:
Listen to the voicemail.
(Open with iTunes, or right-click to download the mp3.)
Success! (And an even bigger win for Drew, who, as it turns out, has been campaigning since 2007 to right the 'unnecessary dairy overlap' injustice.)
I think there is a little cheddar in this for everyone. See, the cheese is digital advertising and we are the sandwich builders. We need to give the users what they want, or they’ll complain and eat somewhere else. But where Subway failed we will succeed by giving users exactly what they want - even when they don’t know what they want.