I'm not a huge fan of fast food. That said, it's true that with my busy schedule and four children to drag to various events we've been known to visit the golden arches.
This morning I was early for an appointment and hadn't had breakfast so I went through the local McDonald's drive thru for a coffee and muffin. I left with an orange juice and hashbrowns. Let's not get into the fact that I drove away, turning out of the lot onto a busy road with no chance to turn around, before I actually noticed I held juice in my hand instead of coffee. Did I mention it was really early?
The real point is service. The young lady taking my order didn't repeat it back but gladly took my money while talking over her shoulder the entire time to another employee. At the pick up window my order was thrust into my hands without a word of acknowledgment for my business let alone a thank you.
Now had this been the first time I'd received both rude service and the wrong order at McDonald's I would've been surprised. Shocked even. Nope. I barely blinked. As a matter of fact, I'll go so far as to say I'm more shocked and surprised when I encounter good service at McDonald's. I believe founder, Dick McDonald, is rolling over in his grave at the state of his company.
On the other hand, I took my daughter to lunch at a Red Robin restaurant the other day. The service was superb. I've eaten in some mighty fine high class establishments in my time and many of them could learn a lesson from Red Robin.
So what's my point? I think it's time to lower the price of fast food and start allowing the servers to accept tips. If their own pockets were directly affected by the actions of the service I bet we'd see a marked improvement. What do you think?
6 comments:
Pretty much the only fast food I eat is Mexican. We have little burrito shacks here like in California and they have a big styrofoam cup hanging outside the window. TIPS is written on it. I give them a buck every time. And you know, they've NEVER messed up my order. Mmmm...quesadilla. :)
I love Mexican. Hell I'm going all the way to Mexico to get Mexican this summer LOL. We just don't have many good Mexican places here in Vancouver *sigh*
I think I'm going to have to figure out a way to stop eating fast food altogether. God knows it would be healthier and you're right - the service is horrid and the cost is getting way too high.
My favorites are also - no napkins or ketchup unless you ask (and then they look peeved if you do), and when they hand you a drink dripping soda all down the side of the cup and are mad when you ask them to wipe it off or you won't put it in your car. I shudder to think what their rooms/houses look like if that's there idea of clean.
Ack. And it's even worse now that school is out. All the fast food places are staffed entirely by kids, and none of them really want to work. They just want to make money for standing around.
I live in a little town that only has one fast food place - DQ - and when school's out they screw up my order about 50% of the time. (If you don't count the times I only get shakes, the percentage is about 80%.)
Jana, I've been handed a cup with the lid askew plus it's dripping and they're wondering why you don't gladly take it.
b.e., when I was a teen and worked the golden arches we were trained within an inch of our life before we could work up front. Do you think it's just lack of training or laziness?
I've never worked in fast food (I was working farms in rural Michigan instead), but from what I'd heard McD's has always had a good training program. (I once had a teacher who thought the sun shone out of those arches.) I think it's laziness to a certain degree, but I also think it's got something to do with a loss of work ethic over the generations. I think kids today have less of a work ethic than my generation which had less of a work ethic than my father's. *sigh*
Post a Comment