First of all, to the OP and the original point of this thread, that should never have happened and yes, you should call and speak with the restaurant manager. Make sure it's not an assistant, because that honestly won't get the job done. I'm an assistant manager at BK and DD, and I'll be honest - I'd rather have someone complain to my boss, as she is more experienced, and has the resources to make changes happen in the restaurant. An assistant, at least in my two stores, really only run the shifts... we don't make changes throughout the store, though. Yes, we do try our hardest to make sure our crew members are exhibiting good customer service skills, but if they don't, like in this case, we usually have to pass the power over to the restaurant manager....
Second, I wouldn't go around calling the district manager and owners until you've spoken with the restaurant manager. If, after speaking with this person, you feel that the situation was handled properly, then you could proceed up the ladder, but I honestly think that the restaurant manager is the one who can handle the situation best. They're the ones in control of their restaurant, and are there frequently. The district managers often don't know each individual crew member; their job is to watch over the restaurant manager and, unless the RM treats you rudely when you go to discuss the crew member with them, your initial problem isn't with the RM.
Originally Posted by TinkandAriel View Post
....at Wendy's I asked for a hamburger with no mayo and no cheese. Got it with cheese, so I brought it back in. The woman hands me a hamburger with mayo. I said "no cheese and no mayo, please", and she says "Oh, this job is so HARD!!"
For some people a job at a fast food hamburger place is simply the only kind of job that they can handle for a multitude of different reasons. So perhaps that job is actually 'hard' for her.
This is very true. We do not discriminate against people when deciding whether or not they can be employees. Some of my employees are Autistic, many are handicapped in various ways, and some are in their 80s or even 90s. If they want to work, we can hire them. We dont usually have them handle the customers, but sometimes it ends up that way. For example, I have a very sweet 90 year-old woman who only works a few hours a week doing dishes and wiping down tables. She loves her job and would never want to leave; but people do come up to her sometimes with their problems and Ill be honest, she doesnt know how to handle them! If a sandwich is made wrong and handed to her, she has no idea what to do with it
but we still love her.
I also found the probation comment to be slightly insulting
. I know thats not why I have the jobs that I do, and Im unaware of anyone who works in my restaurant for that reason, but regardless, I think the comment was a little uncalled for.
Those of us on drive thru duty knew that the microphone system was not the best and tried very hard to speak clearly and to listen HARD to the person and confirm everything before moving along. And if there was a mistake, we just shrugged it off, apologized to the customer and moved along. And some customers were JERKS about it.
I sympathize with this so much. The drive thru speaker system IS horrible, both outside and inside, but I wish people would understand that its not our fault! Im sure they know this, but they dont think about it when theyre frustrated
were frustrated, too!! Theres nothing a crew member, an assistant manager, or a restaurant manager, and probably even the district manager, can do about these systems. Its so annoying, but theres nothing we can do to change it .
I guess some folks think that anything beyond "I'll have a dozen doughnuts of any type you feel to give me" is a complicated order.
The reason so many fast food places have gone to combo deals is because that is the only thing their employees can figure out. Hit button 1 if the customer orders combo 1, button 2 for combo 2, etc.
Sometimes it is fun just to order by item or ask for no mayo (or some other request) just to watch the eyes of the person taking the order glaze over.
This post made me pretty mad, honestly. I do not think the OPs order was complicated, so I agree with the first part, but the second part is completely untrue. That is NOT the reason so many fast food places have combo deals. I laughed out loud when I read that. Have you worked in fast food? Thats not how a combo meal is rung in. Im not even going to get into the details, because the keyboards themselves are ridiculously complicated for what they are (again, not any crew members or managers faults! We dont buy these systems!) but its not, Hit button 1 if the customer orders combo 1, believe me.
Also, I dont think that Sometimes it is fun just to order by item or ask for no mayo just to watch the eyes of the person taking the order glaze over. If that is the only reason you are changing your order, Im at a loss of words for what to even say! Yes, if youre going to change the way a sandwich is made, it takes a couple of seconds to press the different buttons necessary, but Ive never seen any of my employees eyes glaze over when receiving a big order
Uh?????
I didn't think her order was complicated at all. Maybe they should get people with some brains to actually work the drive through instead of putting insane and unwritten restrictions on what you can order in a drive-thru. A dozen donuts and a couple of coffee's is difficult and confusing?
It's great to know that you are a responsible manager and would handle the complaint effectivly. Unfortunatly not all managers do this. Sometimes the employee doesn't even get spoken to or the situation is not even dealt with and the only way to be sure that it will be dealt with is to go up the chain. I'm sorry if your upper managment chews your butt out without first speaking with you and questioning if the problem was resolved. Doesn't sound like a very nice company.
She wasn't directly it towards you or your crew and since you (I assume) don't work at the donut shop in questions I can't understand how you would take insult to her comment?
Heck around here even if you order it straight off the menu with nothing added or anything special about it they still screw it up and take forever.
And the language barrier............
Oh, lets not get started with that. Is it some sick joke that management wants to play on their customers by putting the person who speaks the worst english into the drive thru?
Until there is a sign at the drive thru telling me that i'm not allowed to alter the items I'm ordering or I can only order certain items, then I will continue to order anything on the menu the way I like it. Then I will check the bag before leaving the window to make sure that everything is there and if anything is "special", that also.
So, the people in the drive thru don't garner your respect because they didn't walk into the store and opted to go thru the drive thru?
Great customer service attitude!!
You have no idea why someone decided to go through the drive thru as opposed to walking into the store. I don't know..........maybe they are like me and didn't want to deal with a 2 year old, in and out of the car seat, holding her hand so she doesn't get killed by a car while trying to carry everything.....or maybe they are like my sister who has to use a wheelchair..........or maybe they had knee surgery and it's to difficult or a hundred other things. Don't be so quick to judge.
First of all, upper management is going to chew anybodys butt out when they hear that a customer is contacting every single person in the management change, LOL.
Maybe it doesnt sound like a very nice company to you, but if youre actually going to speak to the RM, DM, franchisee, owner, corporation, etc., everyones going to start flipping out on each other. It's sad, but true.
I dont think its some sick joke that management wants to play on their customers when they choose who goes on drive-thru. It is what it is, and if thats what the option is, it might be the best theyve got then. I cant personally comment on the English-speaking level in your community, and Ill admit that the towns where my DD and BK are both located are very undiversified, for lack of a better description, but I dont think the management is ever looking for a sick joke to play on the customers
.
One other thing about giving something to a customer at front counter, versus giving it to a customer at the drive-thru. This is how I interpreted the comment: If you have a customer at DT and a customer at FC who have ordered the same thing, and there is either not enough left for both (like at DD), or we will need to cook more (like at BK) and it will be a 5-minute wait, how do you choose who gets the first one? And there is really no distinct answer to that, that I know of. If theres a wait, I look at whose order is more complete already, and give them that the product. If were out of something, if the person working at FC gets to it first, then the DT customer misses out, and vice versa. I dont know of any other way to handle it; its tough that somebody doesnt get what they want, but again
it is what it is, and if we dont have it, we just dont have it.
For all of the people discussing who should and shouldnt use the drive-thru: As rough as it is to get completely slammed at the DT, anyone is allowed to use it and place as large and detailed an order as they want to there, and expect the same amount of customer service that they would under any other circumstances. The ONLY thing I will say about this is when people place a $60, or even $30 order (which is a lot in DT terms!), with lots of special sandwiches, and when we ask them to park (meaning pull forward and well bring its out as soon as the food cooks), they give us an attitude. People want their food to be hot and fresh, I understand that, but if theres a $30 worth of burgers and fries, we could potentially be making 15 sandwiches. Now, in order to keep the food fresh, we dont often hold 15 burgers at a time, so well need to cook more specifically for your order. That might bring the fast out of fast food, but its the best we can do to fill your order. And the people who want their food off the broiler, meaning we send new meat to fill their order, and then refuse to park, make me so upset. There are people behind you who just want a small soda, or a small fry, or a pie! We end up going outside to bring those people their food. Its completely unfair for them to wait because the customer at the window is being a little stubborn.
ONE more thing! I promise!
2- A little courtesy goes a long way in getting good customer service. Be polite and patient and 9 times out of 10, you'll receive good customer service. Fast food employees are not servants. They are people, maybe a future doctor who's working his or her way through school, maybe a young kid who's working his or her first job and gaining valuable life skills, maybe a single mom, working a second job to give her kids a Christmas, maybe it's an individual who is incapable of handling other types of employment for one reason or another. Commenting on employees lack of intelligence or poor English skills is being inconsiderate to fellow human beings who are putting out the effort to work and make a living.
I couldnt have said that better, myself. Im a 19 year-old college sophomore, with lots of (expensive!) schooling ahead of me before I can finally get my doctorate and the job I want. I started working in fast food in high school because, well, thats the only job I could get then. I truly love my job, my co-workers who have become like my family, and working with the public helped me become a better person in so many ways. As we all know, fast food places have a very high employee turnover rate, and I have seen so many people come and go, with various issues in their lives and various reasons for coming to work at BK or DD. Again, this gives them no reason to be rude to you, but when you comment on their lack of intelligence or poor English skills, its pretty mean. Everyone has to start somewhere, and I doubt there are many people in this world who just jumped into their desired career and everything was perfect from the start. Customers insult our intelligence everyday, and it makes me pretty upset sometimes. One time, the dining rooms fountain soda was out of Diet Coke, and the syrup needed to be changed. The customer who discovered this was less than pleased and came to tell me this. I thanked them for letting me know, and asked an employee if they could please go change the syrup. Well, the customer flipped out on me: Are you RETARDED?! Why cant you go do it yourself? What the **** is wrong with you? You must be retarded, thats why you work here. Sometimes I wish I could wear a sign around my neck that says, I have a 3.79 GPA (so I can't be THAT stupid), and Im working here to get through college. I also have a back problem, so sometimes I cant do everything another employee may be able to do better.
I know that this isnt the case with people on this board; there are so many amazing, nice people on the DIS
I just have to say, try to think for a moment about the people working in fast food.
: Of course I can't wheel my chair and hold a hot cup of coffee. Not sure how I am going to manage that. You seem to have all the answers, so why don't you help with that one?
