TOKYO: McDonald’s Japan is to roll out a new smartphone app for customer complaints as it looks to turn the page on a series of scares, one of which was the discovery of a human tooth in some french fries.
The move comes as sales nationwide fall, profits plunge and the burger giant’s reputation suffers. 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, the parent company, said in a statement this week.
The firm also said it is reviewing its procedures for dealing with suspected cases of product tampering and will draft new rules on communication with customers by next month.
The chain has come in for heavy media criticism for its handling of incidents over the past year in which unexpected objects were discovered in some of its products.
A human tooth was found among french fries sold at an Osaka outlet last September, the firm admitted in January, although it said it did not know how the object got there.
McDonald’s said none of its employees at the outlet reported missing a tooth and that there is a very low possibility of contamination at the U.S. factory that shipped the fries.
Two days later in Hokkaido, a woman claimed she discovered what was later identified as “dental material” in a McDonald’s hamburger.
