Before I begin my little story, let me just remind everyone of the first rule of customer service: The customer is always right.
Okay, so I am a person who hates confrontation. I hate it. HATE. IT. I will go to great lengths to avoid it. Everyone once in awhile, however, something will tick me off just enough that I am willing to get in someone’s face. Today it was the dummy at the local Dunkin Donuts. Megan wanted to buy a couple of drinks for herself and a friend before heading into work. We went through the drive-thru, gave them our order which they repeated back to us, and pulled up to the window to pay. The girl at the window took our money and handed us the drinks.
The drinks were clearly not what we’d ordered.
“Are these caramel mocha lattes?” I asked.
“Yes,” the girl replied. We pulled out, Megan took a sip, and declared that they were, in fact, caramel, but there was a definite lack of mocha.
I pulled a U-y, and sent Meg in to get the drinks fixed. She returned a few minutes later, clearly agitated and informed me that the girl had been rude to her. We headed towards work, and on the way Meg noticed that the drinks had been made incorrectly again. It was too late, however, to go back a second time.
After I dropped the girl off at work, I headed back to Dunkin Donuts. Now, I know this is a minor thing, and I probably should have just let it go, but I was mad. Making a mistake is one thing. Making two is annoying, but it’s still just a mistake. Being rude to a customer, though, who simply asks you to correct your error is not okay, and being needlessly rude to one of my kids is not now and never will be okay. Ever.
I went in and calmly asked to speak with the girl working the window. She came over and immediately declared, “This is about the lattes, huh?”
“Yeah,” I said. ”You got it wrong again, and I don’t appreciate you being rude to my daughter.”
“I didn’t make the drinks,” she said.
“Um, I really don’t care who made the drinks. I do care that you were rude. I’d like to know what you’re going to do about this.”
“I was just working the window. It’s not my problem,” she replied.
Really?! I took a moment to breathe. ”Is there a manager here?”
There was no manager, but there was a senior employee who very appropriately diffused the situation quickly with an apology and an offer of another round of drinks, which I declined. I got the manager’s number, thanked the senior employee and headed out feeling slightly better if not completely mollified.
Now, I totally understand that working fast food jobs is hard, and customer service can be trying. I get having a bad day, being frustrated, feeling defensive. I get it. But giving somebody attitude when it’s your mistake is just something you cannot do if you want to keep your job. And giving someone attitude when they call you on giving someone attitude is just digging your own grave, don’t you think? The good new is, you can’t drive two blocks around here without running into a Dunkin Donuts, so avoiding the Dunkin Dummy’s store will not be a problem for me. Meg and I will not be without our donuts and lattes!