Usually Jovial

Employee Breaks

Ok, I worked in food service. For three years when I was in high school, I cooked pizza. Fridays and Saturdays were tough: 5 pm to close. "Close" meant 3am. The restaurant would get so crowded that people were stacked up in the foyer, and pizzas were lined up waiting to get to the ovens. We each got one 30 minute break to grab a quick bite or just to unwind. I tell you this to set the stage for what comes next.

I've had two recent experiences where I was under served as a customer while employees took their breaks. The worst of the two was at our local KFC. We arrived at around 6:30 pm, apparently on the heels of a dinner rush. They were "out of" the original recipe chicken preferred by my family, there was no drinking water in the cooler, and there was not a single clean table available. In fact, the entire place was a filthy mess. We got our second-choice food, went without water despite having asked twice to have the cooler refilled, and wiped off a table with napkins just to have at least a moderately clean place to eat.

We did this in plain sight of a group of four employees sitting in a booth having a break. We did this in plain sight of the manager and a couple of other employees leaning around and BS-ing back in the kitchen. We did this on our last visit ever to that restaurant!

When we took our breaks at the pizza place, we did it one at a time, we did it when there was no impact on customer service, and we did it in the back of the kitchen where customers could not see us. In fact, if we wanted to eat in the dining room, the requirements were that there were no customers waiting to be seated, and we had to change into street clothes. Was that difficult? Sure it was! But it was an introduction to how things should be in the service industry: the needs of the customer should always come first. Our local KFC ignored that fundamental service industry tenet, and our local KFC has irretrievably lost our business as a result. Fast food restaurants are fungible - we'll just drive a few more miles in a different direction if we decide we want KFC again. When will these people learn??

Labels: Bad Service

posted by DaveG @ 9:33 AM