No offense taken, don’t worry.
Actually ALL of my jobs have been in some form of customer service or another. They’ve been:
~ Candygirl at a large downtown theatre
~ Bank Teller
~ Bank Customer Service Rep
~ Casino Gaming Dealer
~ Casino Gaming Pit Boss
~ Owner of my own interior decorating company
Believe me, I’ve SEEN it all. And I know exactly what kind of client you’re talking about. But there’s a way to difuse them, which I won’t elaborate much on here.
You EMPATHIZE a lot and make them see that YOU understand them COMPLETELY. And then I’ve often gone into the “grey area” with facial expressions saying (without saying) that I think they’re totally right and it’s SO not fair etc (with exception to my own company of course ~ because I always manage to find a way to keep everybody happy ~ no red tape when you’re the boss).
Then you’d be doing human society a disservice. People who run down others with their car because a single fast-food restaurant gives them resistance to a special burger order are not the sort of people that a healthy society should have running about loose.
Seriously - I can’t even see how it is defensible in any way. Anger and frustration may be justified, true, but there is a several order of magnitude difference between the “crime” and the “punishment” that most sane people have no trouble seeing.
That sounds awfully mean-spirited.
And you see…I do agree with you somewhat on the issue of their being a lack of customer service and an assholishness to some businesses that can really make customers upset.
Here’s an example: while Fierra and I were in Wolverhampton (UK), we stopped at a pub there to have a long, leisurely meal about 2:00pm. Whilst sitting there, a man went up to the bar and met one of the staff to place his order.
Man: “I’d like 4 shire sausages please.”
Employee: “You mean, you’d like 4 sausage dinners?”
Man: “No, my mate and I just wanted some sausages.”
Employee: “I’m sorry, I can only sell you the whole meal.”
Man: “What do you mean? We always just get sausages and a pint when we come here.”
Employee: “Our new register won’t let me enter just sausage. It has to be the meal.”
Man: “What’s the difference?”
Employee: “It’s £7.99 a meal.”
Man: “But…we always just get the sausages! They’re supposed to be £3.99 each! Can’t you just write it down or something? I’ll pay cash.”
Employee: “I’m sorry, but our register won’t do it. So…you’d like 4 sausage meals then?”
Man: “No, I would not.” (exits, with mate)
Think about it - a customer came in - apparently a long-term one too - to exchange money for goods and services which were in fact in stock and ready to be sold, and was told “Sorry, our register won’t let us sell you what you want”? I can understand the plight of the employee, but on a larger sense this is some seriously fucked-up shit!
You only get yelled at when the supervisor denies the request? I often got ten more minutes of yelling even when the supervisor granted the request. Apparently, the customers believed that the fact that the supervisor granted the request meant that i could have done so without checking.
I’m not so sure that the adherence to rules is so ridiculous , in part because I don’t know if the rule is “No mayo on cheeseburgers” or "No special orders in the drive-thru “. Unlike some other fast food restaurants ( such as Burger King or Wendy’s”), McDonald’s dresses the burgers in a certain way, unless there is a special order. An order including a cheeseburger with mayo will take extra time, because it can’t be filled from the bin of already prepared cheeeseburgers. In every drive-thru I encounter, that increases the wait for every car behind the special order , even though those orders may be ready. There is no way in those drive-thrus to have the customer waiting for the special order move to the side so that the later orders can be delivered.
I’m not a big McD’s client, so I can only speak for the one near my house. It DOES have a special waiting zone (a space for 3 cars). I’ve seen cars being told to pull into one of those spots, where an employee would later go outside and bring the order to them. I always figured they were for BIG orders that would slow the line down. But I guess it would also be used for a mayo/cheeseburger order.
PS: About “the chick would have needed me on the jury”… I was being a cheeky smart-ass because I was “in the moment”. I’ve always said that what she did was wrong. At the end of the day, it’s just that I “get” where it came from.
I can only speak for the drive-thrus I use (three McDonald’s, two Wendy’s and a Taco Bell), which don’t have waiting zones because there isn’t any room for one- there is only enough room for one vehicle between the restaurant building and the next building. The driver with a special order can’t just pull into a regular parking space, because left turns out of the drive- thru are prohibited and the parking lot entrance is to the left of the drive-thru exit. Under those circumstances I don’t believe adhering to a rule of “no special orders in the drive thru” is ridiculous. They can either satisfy the customers who want to place special orders in the drive through or the customers who want to place a standard order and get out of the drive- thru quickly . They can’t satisfy both. I don’t know which kind of drive-thru the McDonald’s in the OP has, but since Nolan claims she gunned her car forward when she realized she was blocking the drive-thru , and the employee apparently encouraged her to park and go inside to the counter to speak to the manager, I’m guessing there was no place for her to pull over while she put ketchup on her burger (or waited for her special order).
What I don’t get is why no one wondered what the hell she was doing sitting at the drive thru window putting ketchup on her burger???
Ahem. Sorry. That kind of self-centered behavior drives me batty. "No no, don’t worry about this line of people behind you, you just go ahead and put the condiments on all of your food. Why don’t you take a bit out of each item and make sure it’s to your liking while you’re at it??!!
Gah!
Cheeky, I understand where you’re coming from, but I do believe you’re putting a bit too much of the blame on the poor manager. You pelvis healing comment was a bit over the top.
Well, IMO, this incident wasn’t about “mayo” or the woman’s order or McDonald’s “rules”…it was about this woman (probably involuntarily) crossing a line…like that Michael Douglas movie about that guy walking home. What was the name of that film?
Every fast food restaurant I’ve seen does that; certain toppings come on the burger unless you ask otherwise. What may be unique is making a pile of “standard” burgers and hoping most people will want the standard. Sounds nasty to me… I wouldn’t want a sandwich that’s been sitting under a lamp for 10 minutes.
Drive-throughs around here don’t have any problem doing that. Wendy’s on lower Division always has my order ready for me before I’m ready for it; these places that won’t do special orders because they take too long should learn a thing or two from them.
When I worked at McD’s, special orders were allowed, but weren’t encouraged. What it sounds to me like is a case of incompetence on the cashier’s fault-she was mistaken in that extra condiments weren’t allowed, and when the customer became irate, she refered her to a manager, who was able to correct the problem. From there, it was just a matter of an incident growing out of control. I can’t imagine having to call the cops on a complaining customer. I’ve worked fast food for over 5 years now, and have dealt with tons of pissed off customers, and nearly all of them have left at least 95% satisfied. It’s not magic, usually just an apology.
And, for what it’s worth, the reason Wendy’s is so much faster is because of our communication. On most shifts, every member of the drive thru team is wearing a headset, including the sandwich maker, the grill operator, and the fry cook. When you order that double cheese only mayo, or whatever, the sandwich maker is already making the sandwich while you’re still debating on whether or not you want to spurge for the combo. The bagger is gathering your naplins and straws and spoons as you order each item. The fry cook is making up your fries. By the time you leave the speaker, your sandwiches should be done. While you’re paying, the bagger is bagging the sandwiches, adding the fries, and placing the accessories pile on top, along with a receipt. You get to the window, your order is ready. At McD’s (at least where I worked), only the order taker and maybe the back cashier wore headsets. The sandwiches and fries weren’t started until you decided you did indeed want fries,so go ahead and make that a combo, and the order taker rang it in to the kitchen. By adding the additional headsets, Wendy’s has an almost 30 second headstart on their competition. McD’s average service time was 125ish-Wendy’s can do it in 75. It’s the little things.
Oh yeah, and the parking spaces are usually for people who have to wait a long time for something, like if they order a chicken sandwich, and there’s still 4 minutes until the chicken is finished cooking. We try not to park people, because it makes them feel like they’re being pushed aside, and also because it means we’d have to take it out eventually.
A BRILLIANT movie that contains a scene that deals with exactly this theme. Douglas really snaps when he orders a breakfast sandwich 5 minutes after they stop serving breakfast. After pulling a gun on them, they agree to his sandwich, but he changes his mind and orders a Whammyburger (I think), only to get enraged at the disparity between the mouthwatering burger shown on the photo menu and the flaccid punky sandwich in his hand, whereupon he trashes the place (Not the customers or employees).
So for example, NO ONIONS (a common request) couldn’t/shouldn’t be granted at a drive-thru? Doubt it. As fast as you can make a cheeseburger without onions, is as fast as you can make a cheeseburger with mayo. I venture to say, mayo would be faster than no onions.
Yes I do think it’s a luxury. For the same amount of money to feed one person quickly, you could feed 3 people cooking at home. Easily. But it takes more time. And earned time, when you’re busy, is a luxury.
Didn’t say it couldn’t or shouldn’'t be granted at the drive thru. Only that it’s not necessarily a ridiculous rule to follow- what’s so ridiculous about expecting the special order people go inside and not hold up the others in the drive through? Is it ridiculous to tell someone who is ordering thirty happy meals for a class birthday party that they will have to park and go inside rather than hold up the line? Might be inconvenient for them, but it’s inconvenient for me to be stuck behind a car waiting for a special order. Sure, making a special order cheeseburger doesn’t take longer than a making a standard cheeseburger. But the wait for a special order cheeseburger is longer than the wait for a standard one pulled out of the bin, which is how McDonald’s operates. As best as I can tell, McDonald’s cooks the burgers with the onions so a cheeseburger with no onions means the burger doesn’t start geting cooked until you order it. An order of unsalted fries means you’ll have to wait intil the next batch comes out- might take no time (if a batch is about to come out) , or might take however long it takes a batch to cook.
This is ridiculous, you gonna debate the merits of “NO ONIONS” at the drive-thru after MCdonalds has invested countless hours and $$$ in research…Hell, that’s like doubting GWB made the right decision on the invasion of IRAQ. You people who want to second guess your betters should shut up.
