Posted by Matt Markins in Recently I had an extremely frustration experience at KFC. I walked into a rather empty store thinking I would rush in and out within just a few minutes. As I approached the cash register I noticed a few KFC team members in the back just talking. After a minute or so one of the team members made eye contact with me. I thought “Whew! Finally.”
At least another sixty seconds went by before she approached the ordering station.
As I placed my order I could tell that she was obviously peeved at my sheer existence in her store. Her body language was communicating “Gee wiz, I wish this customer would leave so I could go back to just talking and hanging out with my good ole’ pal in the back.” Or something like that.
Not long before that I was at McDonalds and I noticed that I did not receive my BBQ sauce for my chicken. No big deal, right? I’ll just go and ask for it. So, I waited at the counter for someone to notice me. And I waited. And I waited.
Then from around the corner a team member began to slowly stroll by. She did not ask if I needed anything, but I quickly notified her that I had not received my sauce and she nonchalantly said “Sorry, I am working the drive-through.” I thought to myself “Now wait a minute!” I have frequented this establishment enough to know that the sauce was right under the counter at the very point where she is standing at this very moment in time. If I were tall enough, I could even lean over the counter and reach down and grab it myself. At this point I was pretty frustrated and I fired one right back at her asking, “So are you not be allowed to hand out the sauces?” That didn’t go over well with her. Not only was she dissatisfied with my come-back, at that very point in time her manager finally appeared from out of who-knows-where to finally save the day by taking three seconds to reach down, pick up the sauce, and hand it to me. Was it really that hard?
Again, it goes back to what I was saying in an earlier post: in order to execute good customer service, you have to care about what you are doing. To care for/about something is to place value on something, and to uphold that value.
This may seem like a stretch, but I think this all points us back to D6. D6 says that I (parent) am to love the Lord with my whole person (mind, body, soul, strength, etc.). Then, I am to pass this along to my children by impressing these values upon their hearts. However, in order to do this, parents must hear, know and believe.
If we expect things like customer service (behavioral signs of the deterioration of our culture) to improve, than we as Christians have to do an excellent job of being Christ-like in order to shape our culture. We must be a part of an influential process of impressing these values on others around us: children, friends, neighbors, coworkers, etc.
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?
Romans 10:14 – 15
Matt,
Are you sure you didn’t stop in at the Denver KFC and McD’s?? Perhaps they are cloning employees now.
In any event, you are exactly right. These kids think they have one job and can’t multitask…unless they are on their cellphone listening to their IPod while driving a car!!
I know it feels like that Scott, but they are only doing either what they are modeled or what they are allowed to get away with (at work and at home). Apparently their models/parents are not doing a very good job or not keeping them accountable or simply not around. Perhaps all of those?
I could have written this post myself on a number of occasions – ESPECIALLY at the McDonald’s on Music Valley Dr. Don’t even get me started on them……….
Pam
I hear ya Pam on the Music Valley Dr. McD’s… I don’t know if I’m proud or ashamed to admit this, but I actually wrote a letter to the McD’s Corp about that location and it’s lack of customer service, accuracy, and cleanliness. All I got back was a “we thank you for you feedback”. At least Pizza Hut gave me 3 free pizzas when I got upset with them!
Good post, Matt. I remember it being especially frustrating when I worked fast food. I would try to do a good job–I’m a “whatever you do, do it well” type–but it was nearly impossible to get anyone to help me on those nights we didn’t have a good crew. I have to agree with you in that the reason they didn’t work is because they didn’t get in trouble with the managers if they didn’t–and the managers rarely praised you when you did do a good job.
Interesting?
Why does this not surprise me? Get this one, my wife and I were at the JCPennys at Providence this past weekend. Christmas shopping in all its glory. We have our purchases in hand, going to the register to pay and we walk by the “service” desk. Remember the word service. We see the boxes and we attempt to get what we need while we are there next to the boxes. The mighty and powerful “Oz” would not let us have his boxes unless we showed a receipt of purchase or the broom of the Wicked Witch, either one would do. Seriously, no receipt, no boxes. Like we were going to carry around all this merchandise just to steal his boxes. So we make our journey to the front of the store, keep in mind the boxes are in the back of the store, to make our grand purchases. After I spend a couple hundred dollars I asked the lady at the register to call her box bouncer to bring the boxes to us because walking all the way to the rear of the store was not going to happen. I explained to her that allowing the customer to walk back through the store with a bag is not a safe way to protect against shoplifting (not that I was going to) during the busy Christmas season. There was plenty of room at the front of the store for the boxes to be stored, maybe I do not understand the hi-tech world of box storage. I did suggest that this would be very uncustomer friendly for elderly or handicap people to make the trek to the back of the store, again. All this and we still don’t have the boxes. Yes, I able to walk back there and get the boxes, but Mr. Box Manager said he would bring them to us. Guess what? You got it. Nowhere to be found. The lady at the register had to stop what she was doing to do what he should have been doing and he need not do it, because we could have done it ourselves if they had an ounce of common sense. Box Distribution 101. Go Figure. Isn’t dealing with customers fun.
As far as I can recall, I’ve never had a completely satisfactory fast-food dining experience anywhere near downtown Nashville. Quality only begins to resume about 20-25 miles away from ground zero.
Your connection was not a bit of a stretch as you feared. The lack of integrity in the Nashville fast-food arena perfectly illustrates the immediate need for Christians to influence a lackadaisical, uncaring, ungodly culture. Good points, Matt.
Matt,
Time to get back to MORE blogging!
Just a friendly nudge!
Scott