McDonalds. Shocked by Customer Service!

We all know McDs as the place for fast as can be done, no nonesense service. Where service is limited to taking an order, fulfilling an order and then bringing it to your table if your Big Mac won't be ready in the next 60 seconds...

So last weekend I got a shock...

Strolling in to the McDonalds near the local Sky Train station with my daughter and niece in tow, carrying a number of bags ready for their bus trip down to stay with Granny, I attempted to make my order.... as I started a nice young lady interrupted me and asked me to sit down... I must admit I was confused, resisted, checked for her United Airlines ID and made a quick look around for someone rushing up to take me down... but no I was ushered over to a table where a Menu was presented to me, orders were taken and the delivered to our table. Service was somewhat slower than the usual DIY system, but certainly with two kids and a bunch of bags in tow I was very happy for the extra wait.

The question I ask myself though is why was I singled out for this service, Kids, Bags, Foreign Person... no idea because although I watched while we were eating no one else got the same service....Maybe you have to be "Foreign with kids and bags" to qualify, but sure as heck I felt very special.

So what's that got to do with Affiliate marketing. Every affiliate wants to get special service, to feel like they are the most important person an Affiliate Manager deals with, would you want to have an AM from the UA school of customer care or McDonalds? Unlike both of these services Affiliate Managers have the luxury of distance and email to mean they don't need to deal with "in your face" demands, so there should never be a reason for an Affiliate Manager to not treat each affiliate as special, no matter where they rank on the revenue table.