Drive-thru Etiquette (Part One)

People go through Drive-ups for fast food restaurants because a. they think it is quicker and b. it easier to sit in the car instead of getting out. For about a year now I have worked at Dairy Queen and have frequently been put on the drive-thru position taking orders and collecting the money. It can be quiet frustrating at times especially when we are busy because numerous people don’t know the correct drive-thru behavior. I have come across costumers that are the whispering queen to people who almost damage my ear drum. So, I have come up with a list of things that I think is correct etiquettefor the Drive-thru.

1.       Slow Down. I can only hear and remember so much at a time, so if you are talking a mile a minute I am going to miss something on your order and don’t go blaming me when that happens. Costumers usually talk fast when they have a really long order. I find it the most complicated when they order something on grill at Dairy Queen. As the person taking the order I have to ask them what they want on their burger, do they want fries, if yes do they want curly fries, onion rings or just fries and if they want a drink with their meal. I have experienced this quit often and am not sure how to handle it. Do I interrupt them and tell them to slow down? Or would that be considered rude. Do I just repeat what I heard and then have them say the rest again? This problem can be solved if the costumers would just pause for a second after they ordered one thing to make sure there are no complications in the order.

2.      Don’t Order An Ice Cream Cake. This doesn’t happen very often but since I have been working there I have gotten about five people through the drive-thru that came to pick up a cake. First of all I feel like it would be quicker to pick up the cake by going inside instead of running into the possibility of a car in front of you. The costumer can also make sure that that is their cake and it is decorated correctly. The biggest thing though is that because our drive-thru window is not very wide, none of the cakes we make, except the log cake, fit through the window. So, instead of thinking that it would be quicker this way, you have to wait while we go outside and deliver the cake to you. Does that seem convenient at all? No, it doesn’t.   This has only happen once so far but a costumer came through the drive-thru asking what kinds they had. So they had to list all the types of cakes we had in the display case and then they did even buy one. This would have been much easier if they would have come inside and looked for themselves.