I recently asked in an anonymous form for employees to share things they wished customers would know that would make their lives so much easier. It turns out there are A LOT of things drive-thru workers hate, and we all need to be a little more conscious of our behavior.
1.
“If you come to the drive-thru, please don’t call someone else to tell them, ‘I’m at $$$, do you want anything from here???’ It’s called fast food. Drive in and out.”
2.
“Please ask for everything you want when you order. This includes all condiments and free glasses of ice water. We have buttons for those, and then we can have everything ready for you at the window. Anything added at the window takes extra time at the window, and we are being timed. Higher times mean unhappy management. I work at Burger King. We have two drive-thru lanes and only one order taker, so when you pull up and the other car is ordering, please understand we will help you after we help them, not during, because it is not possible.”
3.
“I find the most irritating thing working a drive-through headset is when the customer pulls up and says ‘Hello?’ I promise I know you are there because I can see you and hear you.”
4.
“Keep in mind that we are not in the car with you and can’t see the menu that you can. If I ask what flavor you want, don’t tell me, ‘The one on the menu.'”
5.
“Please, please, please, please, PLEASE do NOT come through the drive-thru and make a huge order during lunch time. We’re on a timer, and most customers should not be in line for more than 90 seconds. When you get sent on the impromptu company lunch run, or ordering for your van full of kids, PLEASE come inside and get it to-go. Big orders will ALWAYS slow us down, and we get in trouble for having high/slow drive-thru times.”
6.
“When you go through the drive-thru when it’s raining, PLEASE turn off your wipers. When you leave them on, all you do is fling water in our faces, so we end up getting wet or wetter because of it. As someone who wears glasses, it is really a bother.”
7.
“I’m a Jack In The Box employee, and we have two menus in our drive-thru: One for figuring out your order before getting to the speaker, and one attached to the speaker to help keep your order in mind as you place your order. But no one ever uses the first one, and instead prefers to pull up to the speaker and go ‘uuuhhhhh’ for a good minute or so to decide their order. Our timer starts as soon as they get to the speaker, so when they do that, it causes our drive times to basically have a minute at minimum before we can start the order.”
8.
“If you order drinks and then order a Happy Meal, those drinks will automatically get put into the Happy Meal order, and it takes forever getting those out, especially when I’m trying to cash people out in the drive-through at the same time.”
9.
“If you are going through the drive-thru, put out your cigarettes before getting to the window. You might not realize it, but your secondhand smoke just blows right in. I’ve had two coworkers ask me to finish out orders just because they couldn’t breathe due to a smoker at the window.”
10.
“If you have an order you placed online, and you are picking it up through the drive-thru, please stop at the order screen to let us know. It slows us down to have you come to the window and ask for your order, and then realize your order hasn’t been made yet because other orders came before it.”
11.
“Look, I’ve worked BK, McDonald’s, and now Arby’s. Do not ever, not even once in your life, honk your horn in the drive-thru. All it does is annoy or give a migraine to the person on the headset.”
12.
“If you are coming through the drive-thru, don’t place a mobile order while you’re in line just because the line is slow. We have to prioritize orders as they first come up, and mobile orders usually have multiple other orders before them. So you end up shooting yourself in the foot, and make your wait time even longer, and in turn, make our drive-thru times slower. If you’re in a hurry, please come in and order.”
13.
“If you are in the drive-thru, please don’t have the passenger order. We can hardly hear them. It’s frustrating to keep asking you to repeat yourself.”
14.
“WAIT till sirens have passed, or try to quiet your kids down first. Remember this: The headsets are muted from our end, BUT we can still HEAR everything that goes on in your car (phone calls, arguments, sex, to name a few).”
15.
“When you pull up to the drive-thru, you’re on your phone, and I say, ‘Hello, how are you today?’ Please put your phone down and don’t put me on hold while you finish your call. If it’s that damn important of a phone call, don’t pull up to the speaker.”
16.
“Don’t ask the employee to wait for you to order at the drive-thru, then, when you are ready, say, ‘Are you there?’ It is rude, and honestly, of course they are there, it’s their job, and they most likely have been staring at the register screen for the five minutes you took to decide. If you are worried they are helping another customer, say ‘I am ready.’ It is more polite and does not imply they are purposely ignoring you.”
17.
“As a fast-food checkout person, please have money or a card ready when you get to my window, especially if you’ve had several minutes to do so; that’s the reason we tell you the total at the speaker. Don’t wait until you get to the window to start looking for a card and money, unless it’s not busy and you pull right up, even then, you knew it was going to cost money, get it ready before hitting the drive-thru lane.”
18.
Finally, “Don’t already be shoving your payment up my nose the second I open the window before I can even say hello to you. It makes me want to slam the window on the offending arm.”
Is there something you desperately want customers to do where you work? Tell us in the comments below!
