Tale of Two Restaurants

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Actually it was the best of both times. Here are two short stories about the power restaurant employees have over the entire dining experience:

Brown Salad

You might recall from a couple months ago, my wife's and my encounter with Rick the Night Manager from Chick-Fil-A. Long story short, we got a brown salad through the drive thru, tried to return it and Rick the Night Manager accused us of picking the salad out of the trash (read the whole post here.) The experience was frustrating, annoying and most of all made us not want to return.

Today, my wife was at Chick-Fil-A again.

Through a strange twist of fate, Rick the Night Manager was there (not working) eating in the dining room.

She ordered her meal, got her iced tea, took a seat and opened her salad.

Much to her surprise - she noticed that a piece of lettuce was brown. She pulled it out, set it to the side and dug around a little more. She found more pieces of brown lettuce and after short analysis realized the entire salad was brown.

She got up (Rick the Night Manager was watching closely from his booth), went to the counter and explained that the salad she got was a little brown. The kind Chick-Fil-A employee promptly replaced the salad with no problem. (In your face Rick the Night Manager).

My wife, relieved sat back down and ate her fresh salad delighted with the service.

Jolly Drive Thru

We stopped today at McDonald's to get two unsweet iced teas with lemon. We got in the drive thru, pulled up to the speaker and were greeted by a cheerful voice, "Welcome to McDonald's how can I help you today"

I was shocked at first that I could actually understand the employee and I was even more surprised that she greeted me and didn't just grunt for my order.

I asked for our teas and the conversation was finished off with a, "No problem is there anything else I can get for you today?"

Wait, wait - you mean you aren't just going to shout my total at me and demand I pull around to the 1st window?

Upon our arrival at the 1st window I compliment the McDonald's employee, Nicole on her great customer service.

Never before have I had such a personal experience through the drive thru - especially at McDonald's. When we got to the 2nd window, I told the manager on duty that Nicole did outstanding work AND made my experience better because she treated me with respect.

Final Thoughts

Two completely different restaurants - one similar theme: we were treated like we were the ONLY customers in both situations. Did you notice that I didn't talk about how good or bad the food tasted? Our entire judgement of the experience was based on service and service alone.

At the end of the day, it's not about the food, the quality, the atmosphere, or the pricing. It's all about how the restaurant employees make us feel inside. The power they have to control the customer's experience is greater than anything else.