Sorry Service At Fast Food Places
Several times a week, I have to eat something from a drive-thru restaurant. I have my top favorites:
1. Chic-Fil-A : Clean, friendly, and Truett Cathy makes the best chicken around. Always the same, and orders are always correct.
2. Arby’s Roast Beef: Deli Style sandwiches at reasonable prices, even though I did visit an Arby’s in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee once that had run slap out of Roast Beef.
3. Wendy’s- Chili is the best, hands down. (insert your own finger joke here) Chili and a salad are a great dinner item.
4. Krystal: A life-long friend. Southern Comfort Food in the middle of the night. And many a cheeseburger for breakfast.
5. Pals- based in Tri Cities, but I wish they were here. Great food, and tough internal regulations on cleanliness and service. Everything is fresh and tasty. Go to the one in front of ETSU in Johnson City. You will see what I mean.
And then, there is a rogue’s gallery of some of the worst drive thru eateries:
Uh…I don’t want to get sued…so we will just skip the list. But I will show you a copy of a letter I sent corporate headquarters of a chain today. I make no representation as to which company is is:
********* Restaurants
***** ****** **********
Knoxville, TN
April 4th, 2005
I regret sending complaint letters to any company, mainly because I hate to get them myself. But after many years of dining at your restaurants, I have to tell you that ********* has moved far down my list of preferred places. In fact, your company’s Knoxvillestores are now last on my list. Here’s why:
Today, at the ************ **************the wait between the cashier and the food window was about seven or eight minutes. When I arrived at the window, I was told you were out of fries, and please move forward. With consternation, I moved ahead wondering why it was a surprise to the people cooking inside that they might sell some fries today.
The staff member brought the food to my car, and I drove away, only to find that the order was wrong, and what I thought would be hot french fries, were actually barely warm.
In the past, I have found the staff at that particular store to be surly, and barely communicative, much less offering a “Have a nice day”.
At several of the Knoxvillestores, I have bought sandwiches- hamburgers, where the meat was barely on the bun. That is not to say there wasn’t a lot of meat- it was just that the cook didn’t take time to fit the meat on the burger. It makes for sloppy eating, and it shows that people on the cooking line don’t show much attention to detail.
The rest of the letter has too much detail that would let you know which place I was complaining about, so I don’t want to disclose that part.
Please people, take some pride in your work, your company, or your investment. Stop the nasty food reports from the health department. End the letters like I had to write. Hire people who want to work.
If you can’t seem to hire good people- call Chic-Fil-A, and see how they do it. Ask for Dan Cathy. Better yet, buy his dad’s book. It will tell you all you need to know.
