"I'll order my burger with a huge serve of customer experience please.."

It’s not every day that you can write about burgers and customer experience in the same article but today I can.

Let’s start with customer experience. It doesn’t matter what you’re buying, a product or service, the customer experience doesn't get any better than when you get to control the process from start to finish. You just need three simple things – this is what I want, how I want and when I want it. If you get all that would you say you've had a great experience? I assume so.

So let’s now talk burgers. Burgers are big business today and there are more burger joints out there than ever before.  Once upon a time McDonald's were considered the kings of burgers, however today when you get a craving for a burger, McDonald’s is not your first choice.

From a business perspective, it is always interesting to watch how the giant players who once ruled their markets go about turning things around after they've lost their number one status. For McDonald's to turn this around would have to be something big, bold and very different. To use a very commonly used term, they would need to find a way to ‘disrupt’ the burger industry.

How could they make their burgers relevant again? If you have stepped into one of their restaurants recently, you may have noticed a new piece of technology. They have rolled out across Australia and the US the ‘Create Your Taste’ touch screens. A huge digital screen with choices to build your very own signature burger from scratch.

You get to choose everything from the bun, meat, cheese, salads, sauces and other add-ons. You tell them how you want it cooked and how big you want it to be. As long as you are happy to pay for it, they will make it!

When it comes to disrupting an industry, to succeed you don't need to think up the elusive ‘never been done before’ way to do something. You are better off focusing on the basics and being the very best at whatever you are in business for. One of those basics must include the customer experience. If you give your customers exactly what they want and they can have that same great experience again and again then you have succeeded. Reputations are built on memorable customer experiences.

McDonald's have shown us a great lesson in customer experience. Instead of trying to think up new ideas for burgers they think you would like to eat, they have simply put the control of designing the burger back in your hands – you get to decide what, how and when you want it. Is it enough to make McDonald's your first choice in burgers again? We will watch this space with great interest.