So, the other day I was in the Wendy's drive-thru in Huntsville - you know the one in front of the WalMart that is always so quick and where everybody's nice?
Well, I drove up to the speaker and began to tell them what I wanted - what order should you do stuff in? Usually you order your combo first and they ask you the size. So then, I ordered one of the combos, and then I told her I wanted it "Large". So she says through the speaker, "Hold on, now I gotta start all over." Good grief.
She was about as nice with the rest of my order; I suffered through it and pulled around to the first window to pay they guy at the first window. We completed the entire transaction without exchanging a single word. He didn't tell me how much, he didn't tell me "good afternoon". He didn't tell me "thank you", "please drive to the next window", or even ask me how I was. Isn't it weird that he took my debit card, ran it, handed it back to me, and never said a single thing?
So I get to the last window and the manager seems nice. She gives me my food, and while she's going after some extra sour cream I asked for, I checked my order. They got everything right. So now I'm in a conundrum. Generally, they're pretty polite in the drive-thru. But they almost always get something in my order wrong. Either they forget the straw (and I have to run around the entire building at work trying to find one), or they give me a normal sandwich instead of the ketchup/pickle/mustard-only I order. Or, they like to be funny and when I say "no cheese, extra pickle", they give me cheese and no pickle. But they rarely get it right.
So do I prefer the kindness? Or the efficiency? What would you prefer?
not a fast food burger!!
ReplyDeletejuliannabanana
Ha! Don't tell me what's in them...I think I forgot.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely I prefer efficiency over kindness. I am in too much of a hurry for chit chat at the drive through window. Case in point - the dude at Starbucks this morning wanted to make small talk, and I am just needing the coffee and needing to get to class on time. When they make a mistake, I don't have the time to go back and get it fixed.
ReplyDeleteI know, it is because of people like me that the South just isn't as friendly as it used to be...but I think God's plan is that 50% of society will prefer kindness, and 50% will prefer efficiency, and as long as we all follow through on the type of person we are supposed to be, the world continues to be a fairly pleasant place! :-)
I don't see why we can't have both...but...if I had to choose, I would choose efficiency.
ReplyDeleteI prefer efficiency, although kindness helps masks the ineptness of people sometimes. There's nothing worse than getting to a game, etc., where we need to feed our family and we're missing 3 burgers and 2 fries. If they were nice, it's a little less annoying, but not much.
ReplyDeleteGina - Ha! I didn't think about it that way.
ReplyDeleteJulie - I don't either. I just thought it was interesting that they're usually polite and inept; that one time they were completely rude and efficient. I guess I'd pick that, too...sad...
Shara - That's so true!