We understand that you are probably a busy person. Possibly a safety-conscious person. Not necessarily a hyper-organised person.
But there is something we, the fast-food workers of the country, would like you to know.
We are being timed. And our ability in service is judged on that time. At our store, our target average is 50 seconds, which is a stepping stone to an ultimate target of 45. As some cars are unavoidably much longer than this due to large orders or unforseen issues, removing outliers the desirable time should be closer to 30 seconds. And when everything's going well, we can pull this off quite effectively.
I know some restaurants are slow. I know that some just don't care. But for those of us that do, every second that ticks by which you spend at our window hurts our average, far and apart from holding up other customers behind you.
Have your money ready, or at least readily accessible, when you come to the window. Sometimes you lose that one coin you needed - that's alright. Sometimes you're delivering a whole handful of change to empty your wallet out - that's okay too, we almost always could use more change. But if you're going to have to get out of the car and rummage through your trunk to find your purse, couldn't you have done that BEFORE you got to drive-through? Or heaven forfend, come in through the front?
If you don't know what you want, and want to have a long discussion with someone regarding the possibilities, do not use the drive through. Especially if your english is not great, or even if you have a strong accent. I know that sounds harsh and possibly racist, but realise that your voice is being transmitted through a speaker along with the wind and the sound of your engine and the radio and anyone else in your car for background noise, and if we can't understand you and you can't understand us then we're going to waste a lot of time failing to communicate, probably while we're trying to do other crazy things like serve other customers and keep the store organised and clean. A lot of what we do in drive-through is finding those few little syllables which correspond to a product we understand, and if you're making a complicated order when you pronounce things differently to us, we're going to have some trouble finding those hints.
Please tell us if you have any coupons or similar. Deleting and reentering meals is a task which requires manager attention in many stores, and if we enter a meal only to find that we need to re-enter it to adjust the price, it wastes your time, our time, and the manager's time.
And PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, once you have your meal, drive on. Make a cursory check to determine everything is there by all means, we're not perfect and mistakes do happen - at some places more than others, and I like to think at my restaurant less than most - but understand that while you spend time carefully putting change back in your purse, closing your purse, putting your purse in your handbag, putting your handbag carefully behind the seat - no, not there, just a bit that way, yes, that's right - distributing food amongst your children, making sure everyone's got the right thing, taking out some of the food and starting to nibble on it, putting the food in just the right place so it won't fall down, and adjusting it so you can pull some out to eat as you go, pulling your seatbelt on, readjusting the food so you can click it in, opening your drink, having a sip, then carefully closing and placing it on the cupholder...
THERE ARE OTHER CUSTOMERS WAITING, AND OUR TIMER IS TICKING. I fail my manager evaluation if that timer average goes too high. All the managers get lower bonuses, and yelled at by our bosses, if that timer goes too high.
We don't ask much. Please be nice to your servers - it's a crap job and we're underpaid, every little bit you can do makes us happier, and happier staff are more likely to make your visit more enjoyable too.
-- This rant was brought to you by me, having watched over the course of today alone, no less than three people whose orders were less than $5, and were ready to be handed out before they reached the window, and who could have been there and gone in less than 15 seconds, nonetheless spend more than one and a half minutes parked there fiddling with the contents of their car.
But there is something we, the fast-food workers of the country, would like you to know.
We are being timed. And our ability in service is judged on that time. At our store, our target average is 50 seconds, which is a stepping stone to an ultimate target of 45. As some cars are unavoidably much longer than this due to large orders or unforseen issues, removing outliers the desirable time should be closer to 30 seconds. And when everything's going well, we can pull this off quite effectively.
I know some restaurants are slow. I know that some just don't care. But for those of us that do, every second that ticks by which you spend at our window hurts our average, far and apart from holding up other customers behind you.
Have your money ready, or at least readily accessible, when you come to the window. Sometimes you lose that one coin you needed - that's alright. Sometimes you're delivering a whole handful of change to empty your wallet out - that's okay too, we almost always could use more change. But if you're going to have to get out of the car and rummage through your trunk to find your purse, couldn't you have done that BEFORE you got to drive-through? Or heaven forfend, come in through the front?
If you don't know what you want, and want to have a long discussion with someone regarding the possibilities, do not use the drive through. Especially if your english is not great, or even if you have a strong accent. I know that sounds harsh and possibly racist, but realise that your voice is being transmitted through a speaker along with the wind and the sound of your engine and the radio and anyone else in your car for background noise, and if we can't understand you and you can't understand us then we're going to waste a lot of time failing to communicate, probably while we're trying to do other crazy things like serve other customers and keep the store organised and clean. A lot of what we do in drive-through is finding those few little syllables which correspond to a product we understand, and if you're making a complicated order when you pronounce things differently to us, we're going to have some trouble finding those hints.
Please tell us if you have any coupons or similar. Deleting and reentering meals is a task which requires manager attention in many stores, and if we enter a meal only to find that we need to re-enter it to adjust the price, it wastes your time, our time, and the manager's time.
And PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, once you have your meal, drive on. Make a cursory check to determine everything is there by all means, we're not perfect and mistakes do happen - at some places more than others, and I like to think at my restaurant less than most - but understand that while you spend time carefully putting change back in your purse, closing your purse, putting your purse in your handbag, putting your handbag carefully behind the seat - no, not there, just a bit that way, yes, that's right - distributing food amongst your children, making sure everyone's got the right thing, taking out some of the food and starting to nibble on it, putting the food in just the right place so it won't fall down, and adjusting it so you can pull some out to eat as you go, pulling your seatbelt on, readjusting the food so you can click it in, opening your drink, having a sip, then carefully closing and placing it on the cupholder...
THERE ARE OTHER CUSTOMERS WAITING, AND OUR TIMER IS TICKING. I fail my manager evaluation if that timer average goes too high. All the managers get lower bonuses, and yelled at by our bosses, if that timer goes too high.
We don't ask much. Please be nice to your servers - it's a crap job and we're underpaid, every little bit you can do makes us happier, and happier staff are more likely to make your visit more enjoyable too.
-- This rant was brought to you by me, having watched over the course of today alone, no less than three people whose orders were less than $5, and were ready to be handed out before they reached the window, and who could have been there and gone in less than 15 seconds, nonetheless spend more than one and a half minutes parked there fiddling with the contents of their car.
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