Restaurant Dining Review Drive Thru Blues

Were your drive-thru customers. The ones who pay your bills so listen up. Ok, lets admit it, we occasionally find ourselves in your takeout drive-thru line, particularly on football nights. Why cant we understand anything your menu board says? Its not a lot of fun sitting out here talking to a backlighted piece of plastic under the best of conditions. But when it spits out a bunch of verbal gibberish, we begin to doubt ourselves. Maybe we just dont have the right stuff to order drive-thru takeout.

Drive-thru operations with talking menu boards existed long before we put men on the moon. We have no problem talking to the men on the moon. Law enforcement agencies beam a listening device at our living room window from the next block and hear us whispering. But talking to your drive-thru order taker 100 feet away seems beyond current technology.

Probably after a monumental operational study and several Board of Directors meetings, Jack decided to add a pre-ordering menu board to the Jack in the Box drive-thru. Imagine the loss of self-esteem suffered by us drive-thru customers shouting at this mute piece of plastic, especially when the yardman tells us that around the drive-thru corner, hidden behind some bushes, is an identical menu board with a squawk box. Then discovering that we cant understand a word it says, anyway. We leave, broken shells of our former selves, holding a white paper bag containing God knows what.

This is a common drive-thru conversation (Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.)

Welcometobicsbetterbur(static)homeoftheflam(someone shouting)chick(cash register ringing)edsteak

What?

welcometobicsbett(scratchy sound)burgersmay(cough)akeur(cash register ringing)der.

Do you want my order?

goheadplez

Go where?

What-would-you-like-to-order?

Wow! You speak English great.

Eight what?

Never mind, just give me: 2 #1s, 1 #2, and 3 #4s

Ok, thats: a #1, a #2, a #3, and a #4. frieslawbeansurtots?

And so it goes.

Not all the drive-thru communication problems are the result of cheap, faulty audio systems. Many drive-thru operations that pay their order takers a whopping $7.00 to $9.00 per hour, feel these minions should multitask to earn their lofty wage. They are fitted with a wireless headset (an endemic source of communication mayhem), freeing them to fill drink orders and sack orders, while taking orders, cashing out orders, and handing the orders through the delivery window. Five for one: not a bad deal if the operator discounts our frustration when the overtaxed person just cant keep your drive-thru moving along smoothly.

It would be an interesting study to determine the cost/return ratio of putting a real live, smiling, happy person in the drive-thru line for three hours each at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Thats nine hours daily of personal contact with us, your drive-thru customers: greeting us; taking our orders; selling us lots of extra stuff; keeping us satisfied and streamlining the whole operation to process more orders in less time. The increased sales could be shocking.

Since that idea is way too radical for most operators, then how about trying these solutions to help us out:

1) Convince your order takers that they are communicators, not speed-talkers. 2)Let your order taker do just that: process the orders, collect the money, and hand the orders to us. 3) If there is a better order taking system, buy it.

Bill Miller Bar-B-Q, a South Texas chain with over 60 stores, opted for all three above. Their audio system is good, and their order takers are not overtaxed and usually are comprehensible. Heres the big difference. Immediately next to their backlighted piece of plastic, they placed a pylon containing an LCD screen that shows our order as its punched into the cash register. What a sense of accomplishment, just knowing that our order is correct.

In a survey of your drive-thru customers, most would vote for the real, live person. If you feel you cant do this, then any of #1, #2 or #3 above would help us. Or follow Bill Millers lead and do all three, and well keep on driving-thru.

copyright 2006 Bill Stephens

Bill Stephens writes the syndicated column http://www.heyrestaurantguy.com His 35 year career in food service includes restaurateur, caterer, food and wine columnist for Harte-Hanks, Murdoch and Hearst Newspapers, food and wine magazine journalist, and he consults for restaurants with Bill Stephens Associates http://www.billstephensassociates.com

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