100 Ways to Improve Your Drive Thru

[Ill_Used_Heroine]

I just saw this on another forum and I know that we have a lot of people here work the drive thru. Any thoughts on this?

http://www.qsrmagazine.com/ordering/...thru?page=show

[Nurian]

Sounds like an REMF trying to pretend he knows better than anyone else.

20 Clean the windshields of waiting cars. No one does this, which is precisely why you should.

And how in the name of Helio's flaming ball is the crew supposed to do this in a rush? Are you going to pay for the extra supplies and a guy whose job is just this?

6 People love their dogs, and distributing canine treats (although not alongside human food) can be a simple effort to distinguish your operation.

Seriously? No, just..no.

81 Customers respond favorably to outside order takers, a more personal system that serves as a line-busting technique during peak hours.

Where does this joker live??

[Merriweather]

I just saw this on another forum and I know that we have a lot of people here work the drive thru. Any thoughts on this?

http://www.qsrmagazine.com/ordering/...thru?page=show

Ok, I've never myself worked drive thru, but d*mn, even I can see the problems all over the place on this one. So, from more of a customer-sided reference, here's my take (will try to hit a few highlights, not all 100, LOL).

#1 can't be done. You can provide the items the normal person would need, but there's bound to be SC's who expect you to know they want taco sauce for their fries, or ketchup for their milkshakes

#5 Ok, politelness is good, but eye contact? I'm trying to find money to pay, put change away, keep control of my vehicle, I really don't care about whether you look me in the eye or not. And "sincere" smiles? From what I've seen, fast food employees are mostly overworked & underpaid & have to put up with way too much, and then you want them to give not just a smile but a "sincere" smile? My aren't you special.

#6 is great, but ain't gonna work. My Yorkie knew the gas station & McDs that kept treats and was ready and waiting when we pulled in - but of course, while practically everyone loved it, one SC at McD's saw the worker hand out a treat (and they always handed it to the driver, NOT to the dog directly) and complained, so of course, management had to put a stop to it (one complaining customer vs. loads of appreciative ones, and we know who wins that round).

#7 - see # 1

#10 fine and dandy, but they still have to actually pull up to them - can't change SC's who stop 10 feet before the speaker and can't understand why you can't hear them.

#12 - ask quickly, and they'll yell at you cause they haven't made up their mind

#14 - allow them more time, and get yelled at when you don't sense by telepathy that they're ready, or ask again after 7 cars are behind them and get yelled at cause they still aren't ready - you can't win on this one

#20 - you have GOT to be kidding me


#21 - this one made me laugh. Go thru your own drive-thru to see how measures up? Like employees are going to react the same to their own manager in a controlled order like they would if coping with real life? Reminds me of a mayor years ago in San Francisco - made a big deal of how safe one particular area, known for it's high crime level, really was - and proceeded to "prove" it by walking thru it at night unscathed - with a frickin' camera crew & reporters in tow Yeah, wonder why he didn't get mugged?

Did you noitce they listed things such as positions of ordering posts and whether or not to serve breakfast as "customer service" - like an employee can do any of that to make a difference. Then under management, we get off into fantasyland, like incentives & higher wages. And all the upscale technology section - guess one can dream.

#75 - this is an article on improving drive-thru, not in store service. So how on earth would having wi-fi make things better for a drive-thru customer, unless they plan to sit in the order lane and check their email (oops, sorry, forgot where I was, nothing would surprise me).

#76 - anyone can spot that flaw, depending on an SC actually reading something is asking for disaster.

#94 ok, we all eat & drive, everyone does it now and then when they have to - but actively encourage It? Police are gonna love that one.

#95 - drive-thru only specials Any happy drive-thru customers will be more than negated by all the people inside whining & complaining about not being able to get that special too.

[Bandit]

29 Go off site. With a singular focus on sales and accuracy, outsourced order-taking staffers receive thorough training, including upselling and add-on sales strategies.

Outsource the order-takers?

If they are anything like any telco, cableco, or my help(less) desk, they'll outsource to a country that is more renown for curry and very thick and almost unintelligible accents.

B

[bhskittykatt]

I've never worked a drive-thru, but...

1, 2, and 7 are all saying more or less the same thing.

6. I found out my local DQ gives out free cups of cream for doggies. And a local drive-in joint sells "puppie patties" which are plain hamburger patties. My dog loves drive-thru and drive-in treats.

11. I like the drive-thru since I usually go there after the gym and I'm sweaty and stinky and prefer to keep that all in the car. However, if they have a drive-thru, then they're already offering the breakfast menu there (at least in my experience). However, I'm not going to expect a non-breakfast restaurant to open early for breakfast.

15. Good advice, actually.

20. A nice thought, but really not that feasible.

44. I like these, since I can toss my cup from the last drive-thru trip to make room for a new drink. Oh God, I'm bad, aren't I?

70. Really? I've never worked a drive-thru, but from the glimpses I see, the person taking my order is usually punching in my order, filling an order ahead of me, prepping drinks, and doing a gazillion other things. They're not going to have time to have a nice little sit-down video-chat with me when I want to order! Again, nice thought, but not feasible.

96. This. I want this. Especially because Hubs sucks at making up his mind. It seems that whenever they remodel a drive-thru here locally, they take out the "pre-menu menu". I like to browse while I wait in line. This is something good that needs to be added, not removed!

[Becks]

Some of these are common sense/already industry standard, and the rest are a -a-thon.

[SpaceCore]

Okay, when you're making a list, don't give yourself a goal for how long it will be.
If you say "It NEEDS to be 100!" you're going to repeat yourself. And if you're bad at making lists you'll repeat yourself at number 7.

I was going to ask who this list is supposed to be for, because around me the only drive throughs are the major chains, and they're constantly making changes and improvements to their system. Then I realized, it's perfect for sucky customers. They'll read it and say "Yeah! They should totally do that! Now I have something else to complain about!"

Outsource the order-takers?

These are actually very real. I know when I'm ordering at some Mcdonalds in my area (New England), I'm talking to someone in an office in Kentucky somewhere.

[Kiwi]

15 Using “what” questions encourages upselling. For example, “What would you like to drink with your cheeseburger?” The alternative, “Would you like a drink today?” fails to invite a drink purchase in the same way.

This one kills me the most I HATE it when staff are foreced to upsell to me. If someone asked me that I would then have to waste both of our times clarifying that I DIDN'T order a drink!

[mikoyan29]

Outsource the order-takers?

If they are anything like any telco, cableco, or my help(less) desk, they'll outsource to a country that is more renown for curry and very thick and almost unintelligible accents.

B

I think McDonald's was trying that in some places. But doesn't that run contrary to having the order takers outside?

[fma_fanatic]

#14 - Just asking for drive thru rage. I can see lots of bad things happening because the person behind mr/ms take their sweet time takes forever to make a decision

#75 - White Castle does this already. Thought I'm not sure of they will allow you to pick it up at the drive thru or if you have to go inside.

#88 - While this may be a good idea, I suspect that it might be abused. People would go to the drive thrus at peak times knowing they'll get a free drink, and if they don't get it, they'll bitch up a storm. Besides, most places that do this already usually hand out the drinks. At least they do at the places I go when I'm asked to pull forward and wait.

[Racket_Man]

Outsource the order-takers?

If they are anything like any telco, cableco, or my help(less) desk, they'll outsource to a country that is more renown for curry and very thick and almost unintelligible accents.

B

YES McDonalds is doing this. or at the very least experimenting with it. Just like my pizza place did with routing all of our incoming calls to a inbound call center whose CSRs just read a script and badgered the HELL out of our customers (who got very ANNOYED AT US generating more complaints in 2 months than in 3 or 4 years about fucked up orders missings stuff annd the like)

[notlovinit]

As someone that works drive thru I HATE this idea:
15 Using “what” questions encourages upselling. For example, “What would you like to drink with your cheeseburger?” The alternative, “Would you like a drink today?” fails to invite a drink purchase in the same way.

This only leads to confusion. For example, if someone doesn't want a drink then this leads to a whole conversation about how they didn't order a drink and possibly a confrontation about "always trying to get your hands in my wallet."
Also, it could lead to confusion amongst people that think if you are asking in that what fashion that the drink is included with the cheeseburger (i.e. free) and then get pissed off when it isn't. Demanding refunds, demanding it for free, etc.
This will only work on the minority, not the majority.

This one also bugs me:
13 Drive-thru staff should start the ordering process rather than relying on guests to initiate the order.

I always greet the customer like this, "Hi, would you like to try our new such and such today?"
And then the customer 90% of the time says No, thank you and then stops. I don't completely understand why they need me to say "Ok what can I get you?" I think it's pretty clear they are there to order food. I greeted them, signaling that I am ready for their order - they should then ORDER! If they need more time to decide - fine, but don't just wait on me to say whatever magically keywords you need to order. I guess some people think we have auto-greeters so they don't know if we are ready, but even when we do have the auto-greeters I can still hear you. I don't need to do anything to hear the order. Either tell me you need more time or order - don't just assume I need more time. My job is to take your order, that is what I am here to do. If I am busy for some reason and you start to order, I will politely say "Oh hold on just one second ma'am, I'll get right back to you." It's not as difficult as people make it. I just super hate the silence, when they can't even acknowledge me, because if I go "Ok order when you're ready" I always get the asshats that will say "I'm not READY! Give me a MINUTE! GOD!" like I'm a mind reader or the people that will say "Oh I was just waiting on YOU!" No, you weren't. I've been here all along...

[Merriweather]

15 Using “what” questions encourages upselling. For example, “What would you like to drink with your cheeseburger?”

Also, it could lead to confusion amongst people that think if you are asking in that what fashion that the drink is included with the cheeseburger (i.e. free) and then get pissed off when it isn't. Demanding refunds, demanding it for free, etc.

Good point. We have a couple of restaurants around here where the waitstaff always use the exact same wording/tone/method when asking about extras that can add up to several dollars more, & things that are included in cost (for example, would you like onions & mushrooms on your steak is asked exactly the same way they ask would you like butter on your potato - but onions & mushrooms can cost $2 or $3 dollars each, while butter is free. If hubby and I both say yes to both, that's an extra $8 to $12 on the meal If I'm trying to stretch my budget, I tend to decline everything in case it isn't included, rather than sound like a cheapskate and ask if each thing costs extra. I absolutely hate that, they should be clear on things that will add to your bill. I don't hold it against the waitperson, I've no doubt at all that they've been told to say it that way to get more money for the restaurant, but it always feels like I'm being tricked (and I tend to avoid that restaurant a lot, as well).

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

People love their dogs, and distributing canine treats (although not alongside human food) can be a simple effort to distinguish your operation.

It can also be illegal.

Clean the windshields of waiting cars. No one does this, which is precisely why you should.

Gee, it only took until list item 20 for the author to go full retard.

Hire for personality. Engaging, articulate, and naturally pleasant personalities are specifically effective in the drive thru.

Because these wonderful, engaging, articulate, smart people are clamoring to have their balls busted for minimum wage. I really get the sense fast food is not one of those industries that can afford to be selective in hiring. If you happen to get people like this, great, but if you need to hire several people fast you're not going to get to be choosy.

Go off site. With a singular focus on sales and accuracy, outsourced order-taking staffers receive thorough training, including upselling and add-on sales strategies.

Great. Let's kill even more American jobs and send them abroad where the labor costs less. Brilliant.

The world’s increasingly going touch screen, which allows customers to customize meals and you to suggest add-on sales.

You're kidding, right? Touch screen isn't feasible in a drive-thru environment.

Plus, grocery store self-checkouts are touch-screen. Ever see some of the people who try to use those things?

Many customers use their cell phones while in a drive-thru lane. By providing an incentive for customers, restaurants can build market research with a simple text-in deal.

And why should be giving people incentives to text while driving, which they shouldn't be doing anyway?

Offering complimentary WiFi to tech-wielding consumers is a modern amenity and compelling perk.

1. See above
2. It's also a great way to encourage moochers to tie up a table for hours on end while ordering next to nothing.

Customers are on to your attempts to keep drive-thru times down. If their order takes longer than expected, send them to designated drive-thru parking spots and offer a free beverage instead of having them simply pull forward and wait.

I fail to see why being asked to step aside is so terrible that it merits freebies.

Participants in a 2010 QSR drive-thru focus group widely agreed that having an employee bring an order to the car was a plus. As much as tech dominates today’s lives, the personal touches continually resonate with customers.

This is probably incompatible with the above. It does work at a place like Culvers where this is how they handle all drive-thru orders.

Carhops can not only evoke a sense of nostalgia, but they can expedite service, take orders and payment, and hand completed orders to customers.

Geez, how many times is this moron going to contradict himself?

So far as I can tell, the author's suggestions are largely brutally stupid, so it's no wonder he's writing articles like this that even stupider managers will consider good ideas, and rush to implementation.

[MoonCat]

The windshield washing one completely floors me.

How unsafe is that going to be? Think about it - an employee would have to stand out there in the drive-thru lane, which is already very narrow; if they didn't move fast enough, they could get seriously injured or killed. That's not even counting the people who would actually get mad at them for touching their precious car, and the idiots who would demand to have their windshield washed in a rainstorm.