We hear continually of customers being
rude to employees of restaurants, especially in the fast food
businesses and even throwing food at them.

Disgraceful.

However, I have had experiences the
other way round and other persons have reported to me of similar
occurrences.

Only yesterday I telephoned my order in
to a fast food outlet here in Cayman and after going through the
items I wanted and before I could finish a voice in broken English
shouted at me “telephone number!”. He went on shouting this at
me like a parrot. When he eventually stopped I said to him, “Do you
mean to tell me you haven't recorded any of the items I've just
ordered?”

“Telephone number!” Once again the
voice continued this discourse.

Even when I told him he was being very
rude, he still kept shouting “Telephone number!”

I hung up.

A lady told me she had placed an order
for a small food item at a fast food restaurant here on Grand Cayman
costing $5 and tried to change it for a much larger order she was
told she had to pay for the one she had ordered first. It had been
cooked she was told. They would not cook anything else for her until
she had paid for the smaller item. She asked to speak to the
Supervisor who came and told her the same thing. She said there was
no 'sorry' it was a demand.

She handed over the $5, left the food
and her body, too without any food. Never will she go back and a lot
of us now know and that place is given a wide berth.

I overheard a young lady asking for a
job at a fast food restaurant and the employee told her to “Go
away. No jobs today or any day.” With great gobs of laughter at he
rhyme.

And then there is the major problem
with discovering that the order you have picked up is wrong. You
then have to go back and speak to another rude employee.

It is not just here.

In the US, Carol Tice writing in Forbes
wrote an excellent article on this very thing. This is what she had
to say:

“Bad customer service when we're
eating out is always a drag. The capper is if employees are rude or
goofing off while you're trying to get your food.

“If you're looking to avoid
drive-through nightmares, a new study from QSR magazine, a fast-food
industry trade publication, sheds light on which chains are failing
to deliver. To compile the data, QSR survey partner Insula Research
made more than 2,000 visits to seven top operators -- McDonald's,
Burger King, Chick-fil-A, Wendy's, Taco Bell, along with two
southern-based regional chains, burger-oriented Krystal, and
Bojangles' Famous Chicken 'n Biscuits.

“The most error-free chain was
Chick-fil-A, with fewer than 3 percent order mistakes. Ironically,
restaurants that have "order confirmation boards" -- the
light-up display that shows you a printout of what you've ordered --
did worse at accuracy overall than those that didn't.

“On the rude/lazy employee front, Krystal and Bojangles' also did poorly, and Burger King again takes first place among the major chains. So bad attitude and inaccuracy seem to go together. Nearly 6 percent of Burger King visits found robotic or lackadaisical help, and just under 3 percent of help were downright rude.

“McDonald's had slightly more workers
on autopilot or goofing off, but had far fewer rude employees --
under 1 percent.

“Maybe firing your rudest employees
could help on two fronts -- customers have a better experience and
they get the food they ordered.

“The poor marks are cause for much
concern at the fast-food chains, and there's plenty of discussion of
how to do better. Speeding up delivery time with mobile ordering is
among the options on the table. But that won't win my loyalty if my
order is delivered wrong more quickly, by an employee with a sneer on
his face.”

To read the whole article go to:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/caroltice/2012/10/12/rude-employees-and-order-errors-worst-fast-food-chains-for-drive-through-service/#79f7597c4877