One day last week I was up early, worked all day and was in the car on my way to a dinner meeting. Having not slept well the night before, I needed some caffeine, so I pulled into the drive-through of a fast food restaurant to get a soda.

I ordered my soda, went to the first window and gave them my dollar and change and proceeded to the second window to pick up my drink. The person at the second window handed me a bag of food. I told him I just ordered a soda and gave him the food back. After some confusion and a minute or two looking at computer monitors, he gave me my soda. I then asked him for a straw. He told me the straw was in the bag and again handed me the bag of food. I again told him I did not order food and all I wanted was a straw for my drink. Dazed and confused, he called the manager over. The manager looked at the computer monitor and asked me what I had ordered for dinner. I told him I just ordered a soda. After a minute or two of deliberation he gave me my straw and gave the now cold bag of food, that we played catch with, to the person in the car behind me.

The moral of the story is that when processes break down (in this case due to an unexpected order during dinner time) the manager must have a deep enough understanding of internal business processes to analyze the problem and make appropriate corrections. Also, if the manager had empowered his staff to make small decisions regarding customer care, the employee could have made the decision to just give me my straw and let me go on my way.

Posted On Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 6:05 pm | Filed under Uncategorized |