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Posted by nodnarb232001 Promoted 65 days 12 hours ago 2427 views
editorial
Informative / Informative General
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52 comments
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Did you know that customers are, in reality, the deciding factor in good customer service? Here's some hints for the next time you eat out to avoid drawing out that little part of any fast-food worker's mind that compels them to shank you with a stale cheeseburger.
I think there's something we all can agree on- Fast food is the lowest common denominator of food. Not to say it's actually bad, but it's "Dollar Store" equivalent to restaurants. Customers are busy, employees are stressed. Tensions can run high, shit could start flying.
I can understand why some people would think that they're not getting good customer satisfaction at times- Employee not giving two shits about getting the order right, waiting forty-five minutes on couple of tacos, there's a weird stain on the table and it's...moving. I empathize with anyone who has had to deal with bullshit like that.
But, on the other hand, it's no picnic for the employees either. We must interact, and deal with, groups of the most condescending, unpleasant, ill-mannered, self-serving, petty, filthy, and, at times, loathsome people that have ever been regurgitated into this world by a dirty whore. These are the kinds of people that would make Ghandi himself shit bricks in anger.
This guide though- This is not about these people. The following tips are for the average guy, who just wants a quick bite to eat, and get on with his day, and have minimal troubles.
#1- Speak Clearly, and Speak so That We Can Hear You
Ask anyone who has ever worked drive-thru "So, could someone do that pissed you off the most?", I guarantee that nine times out of ten, they'll say "They just won't fucking speak up." The ability for us to hear your order is the most pivotal part of the order taking process- a fact that seems to elude a lot of people. If we can't hear you, either because you've got screaming kids, you're not actually speaking INTO the speaker box, or you're a person who couldn't out-yell a mime and are ordering from the passenger seat; don't be surprised if we ask you to repeat part of your order. If we could hear you, we wouldn't have to ask. On a related note- Us asking you to repeat your order is not insulting your intelligence. So, don't fucking give us that "Iiiiii waaaaaaaaaant aaaaaaaaaa cheeeeeeeeeeeeseeeeebur-GER..." bullshit. We're not idiots, we're not deaf, we're not mentally-slow; so starting in on that condescending nonsense is only going to piss us off even more.
#2- I Don't Care if You've Had a Shitty Day
This is a fucking nuisance. "My day has been bad so I want to piss and moan and take it out on you!" Piss off, I don't need your shit. I get paid to do transactions, make food, and try to be friendly. I don't get paid to listen to your whining about "Oh how bad your day at work was", nor have I ever been particularly keen on the idea having to listen to you go on some long-winded tirade about "there not being enough onions on your sandwich, you're pissed off about something else and this doesn't help, blah blah blah." You think your day is bad? Try putting up with you're flinging day in and day out.
If go about your day so angry that you feel the need to take it out on the people who are paid to try to bestow a little bit of convenience upon you, then it's psychotherapy you should be seeking, not a Big Mac.
#3- Check Your Stuff Before You Leave
One might consider this to be common sense, but looking at how many people complain about not noticing their food is messed up before getting home, or work, or whatever, I'm just completely baffled. It only takes, at most, 30 seconds to check your food to make sure everything is correct- how is that difficult? The 30 seconds it takes to take your sandwich out of the bag and check it , or look in the bag and make sure everything is there, can save you so many hours of being pissed off later.
#4- If We Say We Don't Have It, We Don't Have It
Fast food places serve hundreds of customers every hour, and we go through a lot of product in that time, and some times- you just get some bad luck. I'm my particular store- we only have a minimal amount of equipment with which to cook food. Four fryer vats, two grills, and (generally) only one person running them. We'll run out of a particular product, and be "holding" (not having enough to finish making an order). It's not because we're incompetent, or we don't care, but sometimes we just have that one jackoff who decides to order every last thing we have. It's not our fault, we're doing what we can with what we have, deal with it.
Oh, and by the way, if we tell you that our ice cream and shake machine is broken, it's broken. Rarely will you ever find any brand new equipment in a fast food place- it's all refurbished stuff that breaks down from time to time.
Yelling at me is not going to fix it.
Throwing a temper tantrum is not going to fix it.
Threatening to call the owner is not going to fix it.
The thing's a piece of shit, you'll just have to do without your precious Mc. Flurry for one night, deal with it.
#5- The Store is NOT a Playground, nor is it Your Own Home
This is where some customers' actions go from being annoyances, to purely despicable. I don't care how you live your life at home, I don't care what condition you leave your house in- if you leave some huge mess at your table, don't expect to be let back in. We're not your maids, we're not your bitch-slaves. Busting open sauce packets against the table, or the window, is vandalism, pure and simple. Don't go jumping over tables, or running through our lobby. The trays are not for sliding on. Throwing food will get you immediately kicked out. And if I ever catch anyone in the bathroom, pissing in the sink, I'm confiscating his "wing-dang-doodle" and clubbing him to death with it.
How is this point related to customer service, you ask? It's simple. If you leave a huge mess, we WILL remember you, and we'll be less than nice. A lot less.
#6- We're Human. We Makes Mistakes
Never go into any fast food place expecting perfection, it doesn't happen. When you serve thousands of people, daily, you're bound to mess something up every once in a while. Handing out the wrong order, making a sandwich wrong, things like that. When you factor in that we're forced to work under completely arbitrary, and insane, time constraints it compounds the mistakes and adds to the stress. Statistically speaking- We work under a margin of error that's only a fraction of a percent. In my store, we only mess up once in every 15 orders, an extremely low percentage. If your order is messed up, you have every right to request that it be fixed- we're moderately honorable people and will gladly do that.
What you don't have the right to do, is start yelling at us, hurling insults at us, throw your food at us, or physically assault us. That will get you nowhere, except your ass thrown out of the building. Also- refunds are purely at the manager's discretion. You have no right to demand both your food fixed AND your money back. If you're nice, polite, and pleasant about it, oftentimes the manager will just give you the money back for it anyway BECAUSE you were nice. Getting hateful, and demanding entitlements that you don't deserve, puts you well on your way towards being banned from the place forever.
That's it- Those are the six thing you need to keep in mind the next time you trundle into a fast food place, wanting to eat something. None of these are very taxing to do, nor are they in any way demanding. All we ask, as food service people, is just that you treat us with a some dignity and respect, and we'll treat you the same. The more nice and decent people we serve, the happier we'll be, the more productive we'll be, the more smoothly everything will go. Everybody wins.
