Today you guys are in for a treat because the post you are about to read was written by my 24 year old son Dalton Anderson about an amazing interaction he had with McDonald’s that was so awesome it just had to be shared:<\/p>\n
“A month ago I received some of the greatest news the year 2017 could possibly provide. McDonald\u2019s brought back its chicken tenders! Now it wasn\u2019t the original Chicken Selects, but a new innovative twist, the Buttermilk Chicken Tenders. I was overjoyed. I mean the single greatest culinary masterpiece created in the history of this planet, which had been savagely removed from the Mickey-D\u2019s menu, was now back and better than ever, with eight dipping sauces! Truly, Providence was shining down upon me and the beautiful inhabitants of this Earth. In my jubilation, I knew I had to share the great news with my loved ones and the greater public. I took to Twitter, finding a McDonald\u2019s post and retweeting it. I added my own caption, sharing with my wife that we wouldn\u2019t be cooking dinner, but dinner would be provided by the Golden Arches. I didn\u2019t really think anything of it after I posted. I was doing it more as a joke for my wife and my nine Twitter followers.<\/p>\n
But then something happened. I got a reply to my tweet from @MCD_MidSouth, the MidSouth McDonald\u2019s Twitter handle. I never get replies, so that was the first shock, but the greater shock was that McDonald\u2019s was actually interacting with a random customer. The reply was a witty comment about how dinner was on them, so come on in and try the new tenders. I liked the comment, and then left it. I told my friends I was now a hotshot cause McDonald\u2019s noticed me, but my fame lasted for two seconds and it was over. Still, I felt pretty special, and had warm fuzzies about ol\u2019 Ronald. Later that night as I was driving home from work, my wife called in near tears. Our beloved baby cub had been acting fussy all day, and she had no time to cook dinner. \u201cGet whatever you want and bring it home,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna try the new tenders,\u201d I replied. The line in the drive-thru was both chaos and beauty, painted on a grand canvas which taught the first principle of economics: supply and demand. Clearly those tenders were HOT! I wasn\u2019t even upset that I had to wait 10 minutes in line, and no one else seemed to be agitated either. That\u2019s when I knew these tenders provided the best gift of all, love for your fellow man. Here I was connected with a bunch of strangers, all waiting in line for some delicious chicken.<\/p>\n
I digress. While waiting, I was reminded of the tweet I had sent earlier in the day. I took a picture of the drive-thru line, and replied to McDonald\u2019s earlier reply, letting them know that it looked like dinner really was on them. A day-or-so passed, and I received another reply from @MCD_MidSouth. They said they wanted to send me something in the mail, so they asked if they could get my address. Now, I\u2019ve watched a lot of movies where the innocent \u201cchicken-loving\u201d soul gets tricked into receiving a package of poison, so I was hesitant. Luckily, I had a safe mailing address, so I passed it on, wondering what they\u2019d possibly send. A couple of weeks passed and nothing arrived in the mail. I figured I\u2019d been duped. I let it slip from my mind, thinking that maybe it was a joke and no one from McDonald\u2019s was sending me anything.
\nThen today I received a blue envelope. Inside was a letter, from MidSouth McDonald\u2019s!!! My heart was a flutter, my pulse raced, hands trembled. I opened the letter to read a note with my name on it. It wasn\u2019t very long, but it was personal. They thanked me for the love I showed on Twitter, and wanted to thank me with a $25 gift card. They made a joke that dinner really was on them this time. My whole day was made. I felt like a million bucks. All I had done was sent a tweet out, not intending to get noticed, but someone running MidSouth McDonald\u2019s Twitter account took a few seconds out of their day to reply, to interact with a customer, and then go beyond that to send me a note and a gift card. I\u2019m sure to that employee, and to the McDonald\u2019s organization, a $25 gift card and a short note wasn\u2019t that big of a deal. I mean have you read the sign? \u201cBillions of burgers sold\u201d! I doubt they\u2019ll be affected by giving me a few meals. But to me, that meant everything. It\u2019s not about the gift card and the free food, or even the letter that was personalized and didn\u2019t have to be. It could\u2019ve been a copy\/paste note they send to anyone. It was the small effort of someone who I\u2019ll never know, but represents that organization, which has earned my loyalty for as long as I live. I\u2019ll never forget that kindness, that small effort. And you better believe I\u2019ll share this story every time I\u2019m with a group of people who want to hear an incredible epic of true customer service.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it feels like the only way to make a difference is to do something grand, or donate a ton of money, or be famous and have a public platform to speak your mind and be heard. And while those things do make a difference, the biggest difference made is the personal ones in your own life. The time someone you didn\u2019t know gave you a compliment, or offered you a small service that helped your day be brighter. Those matter more because those are your <\/em>stories. So why not be the stranger in someone else\u2019s story? Because while I\u2019ll probably never meet the person who represented a segment of the McDonald\u2019s organization, I\u2019ll forever tell the tale of how they brightened my day and changed my life.<\/p>\n To all the strangers who make small differences in day-to-day life, I want to say thank you. Your story will forever be told.”<\/p>\n ~Guest post written by Dalton Anderson – my son (Amy Rees Anderson)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today you guys are in for a treat because the post you are about to read was written by my 24 year old son Dalton Anderson about an amazing interaction he had with McDonald’s that was so awesome it just had to be shared: “A month ago I received some of the greatest news the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15414,15421,1361,395,15404,15415,15412,15409,2631,15419,11398,205,3599,4078,15418,15406,15405,18,3339,10346,13779,7530,3725,137,11117,4846,1894,15417,15402,15408,15403,13340,10674,15416,15420,15407,1654,15413,15411,15410],"class_list":["post-8564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-mcd_midsouth","tag-a-small-effort-makes-a-big-difference","tag-act-of-kindness","tag-amy-rees-anderson","tag-billions-sold","tag-caption","tag-chicken-selects","tag-chicken-tenders","tag-customer","tag-customer-interaction","tag-customer-loyalty","tag-customer-service","tag-dalton-anderson","tag-dalton-rollin-anderson","tag-dipping-sauce","tag-drive-through","tag-epic-story","tag-forbes","tag-gift-card","tag-golden-arches","tag-guest-post","tag-handwritten-note","tag-happy-meal","tag-kindness","tag-kindness-of-strangers","tag-loyalty","tag-mcdonalds","tag-mickey-ds","tag-midsouth-mcdonalds","tag-personal-note","tag-personalized-attention","tag-proud-moment","tag-retweet","tag-ronald-mcdonald","tag-small-effort","tag-thank-you-note","tag-twitter","tag-twitter-handle","tag-twitter-reply","tag-wow-your-customer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8564"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8566,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8564\/revisions\/8566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}