It's Your Responsiblity Too

Imagine going into a Burger King at about 11:15 pm after a long shift at work. You are tired (and obviously hungry). When you walk in you see what appears to be the lone employee sitting behind the counter. After waiting to be greeted and standing at the counter for a minute, you make eye contact with the sitting employee and ask to place your order.



The employee (still sitting) says, "You'll have to wait ten minutes, I'm on break."



This happened to a friend of someone on my team.



The person, after asking again, not sure that the employee was serious, and receiving the same, "You'll have to wait ten minutes, I'm on break." decided to leave.



This is a true story told to me last week, and of course, is an awful example of Customer Service.



I don't share to complain about Burger King, but rather to ask myself, what would I have done about it? The two people I have talked to both said they would have called the 800 number and reported it. I'd like to think that I would, but up until now, I'm not sure I would have.



Why should we?



Because the owners and managers of this Burger King can't be there every hour the store is open. Without feedback on employee performance (or lack thereof) they can't improve it.



We can all shake our heads at service this bad, or we can give the feedback - not just in indignation for being wronged - but to improve the situation long term.



If we would all give feedback for service that is less than outstanding, we would begin to improve the service we all receive.



The only thing that we as Customers can do to improve service more is to make sure we provide feedback when we are delighted by the service, but that is a topic for another day.