Hey Burger King, You're Getting Timed for a Reason!
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Something weird happened at the Burger King drive-thru, and I finally figured out why.
Last night, on the way home from camp, the kids and I went through the Burger King drive-thru. When we were next in line for the window I noticed that the guy in front of me had his reverse lights on, so I stayed back about 10 feet-I can't tell you how many times I've seen people back up for something, forget they're in reverse, then hit the gas.
When it was my turn at the window, the BK cashier asked me to pull forward and then back up. I was so surprised and busy processing what she was saying and trying not to back up into the window with my mirror and asking for salt and checking the orders that I didn't get a chance to ask her why. But I guessed that she had asked the guy in front of me to do the same thing. As I was leaving, I looked in the review mirror and saw that the guy behind me was doing the same thing as well. WTF?
It bothered me for the rest of the day that I couldn't figure out what the purpose was. I went back in my mind to my days working at McDonald's and Arby's, but at both places I mostly made the food. I worked the registers occasionally, but I rarely worked the drive-thru (and when I did, I got overwhelmed easily-it's the hardest job in any fast food restaurant that has only one drive-thru window).
Then, finally, it hit me: I've seen big timers in some restaurants, timing how long each Drive-Through order was taking. There must be a sensor somewhere that stops the clock and starts timing the next order! Was she asking each car to stop the clock on their order so that the restaurant's stats would look good?
I went back this morning in the interest of investigation, not because I was dying for a Croissan'wich (OK, I was-they're really good!). Once again, when I got to the window, I was asked to pull forward and back up. I said "Why? Are you trying to stop the timer?" She said yes. I said something to the effect of "But that's cheating. How will the process get any faster if they think you're already really fast?"
I know enough about fast food restaurants to know that they really study this stuff. There are systems that figure out when you should drop fries based on how many cars are in the drive-thru lines. There are McDonald's that have outsourced their drive-thru order-taking jobs to call centers. Corporate sure as hell wants to know for how long people are sitting in the drive-thru.
The BK worker admitted that yes, it was cheating, but that the restaurant is given time goals each week and they're not meeting them. So I said something like, "But how will the times get faster if you don't acknowledge that there's a problem?" She told me I didn't have to pull forward if I didn't want to. I'm not really sure it was necessary for her to tell me that. Was the alternative for her to hold my food hostage until I pulled forward?
When I go through a drive-thru, I want the process to be fast. And more often than not here in Brooklyn, the process is anything but. So as a customer, it is absolutely not in my best interest to help Burger King trick corporate into thinking that they're already speedy. I'm insulted that they'd ask.
2024 EDIT: Wow. I just found this post and read it for the first time in a very long time. I come off as very bitchy. If I'd written this today, I would be called a Karen.
I still stand by the principle of the post: circumventing systems meant to make things faster doesn't help anybody in the long-run.
But first of all, I absolutely should not have talked to that employee about it. I mean, seriously, dick move. I'd had those types of jobs, you would think that would have kept me from being so uptight about somebody just trying to get through her minimum-wage shift.
And second of all, I didn't do a good job (either to that employee, or in the post) of explaining that the problem I had was with the system that corporate had set up, because ultimately I'm sure their goal was to do less with more. To drive their employees as hard as they could.
And in my naive little mind, my thinking was that if you could just show the bosses the real numbers, you could convince them that the system they'd set up was doomed to fail, because they were giving the employees impossibly high goals. That cheating, by asking me to back up, was really cheating the employees out of a chance to improve things for themselves.
I'll bet that when I wrote this, I actually believed that. Because that's the way I want the world to work. (But of course, that all kind of falls apart in the last paragraph, when I make it about me getting my food faster. I'm guessing I thought that that was a "strong" way to close.)
But of course, we all know that that's not how things work. Most companies don't care even a little bit about their employees' well being. They care about profits. It was bad then, and it's gotten worse now. And yes, I'm just stating the obvious here, I know. But the post makes it seem like I don't care about the employees at all, just the rules.
Hopefully my writing has gotten better since then, and I can now get my points across better. I know that my empathy has grown, although there is always room for more.
"it seems to me that the timer starts in the wrong place. It should start right after the menu board, where the order is taken. That way if the customer is slow or the ordering takes a long time, that won’t count against the workers. Or, if BK was smart, they would take the size of the order into account, giving an acceptable time-per-dollar-ordered guideline, so that larger orders could take longer and not penalize the restaurant. There are many ways in which BK could make this situation better, for the workers and the customers. " Now if only the district managers had enough brains to figure this out and maybe send the idea up the corp. chain.
I got stuck in a BK drive thru for 45 min one night on an order of 3 combo meals. The next day I went in to complain to the store manager. I would have complained that night, but no manager was on duty. I was told that the problem was with a lack of managers and employees having to work unsupervised. In complete stupidity I thought I could make a difference. I am a stay at home mom and this sounded like a good pet project. After 6 months as the assistant manager I can tell you that both Amy and Germain are right. We do have to cheat the system some times, especially at night when a lot of orders are getting cooked to order like Jack in the Box does. We just don't hold product for long enough to make enough fries, or fish or whatever for more than one order at a time. It could be 20 mins between orders for that item and then it is old and can't be served anyway. Germain is also right about ppl who waste time in line either placing the order, or changing the order, or not having their money ready.
HOWEVER;
It was my opinion that a lot can be done inside to change the drive thru problem. More ppl in the kitchen need to be wearing the headsets so that when a special order comes in, whopper w/ cheese no onions, the cook can make it before it comes up on the screen. In our restaurant, the orders did not come up on the screen until the cashier sent it back by closing the order. There also needs to be 2 drive thru windows open during peak times, 10am-2pm and 4pm-7pm. This would greatly reduce the times during those peak meals and lower the over all daily average. Lastly, there needs to be 2 expediters working during peak times. There is no way one person can properly sling food at the dinning room and the drive thru and get every order perfect and maintain the customer service needed for that position. Even as a manager, I had a real hard time keeping up doing it by myself.
In a perfect world, the customer knows what they want by stopping at the PRE ORDER MENU BOARD. There are 2 menu boards out there for a reason, the time doesn't start til you pull up to the speaker. There are 2 drive thru windows open and running, first one takes your money, second one gives you your food and drink. The kitchen can start special orders before the order is finished and finally, there are enough ppl filling orders that are ready so that the order is waiting for you when you get to the second window.
All of these things were an issue for me as a manager. Broken headsets and not enough staff for the expediters station were the biggest problem. Allowing more time for ordering delays and larger orders would only help, not hurt the problem or ignore it.
WHO CARES! Don't you have anything else in life to worry about?
@Germain - It is called law of averages. For every one of these problem customers there is another that has everything straight up. Whopper combo with dr peppr, instead of hemming and hawing for ten minutes.
This happens every single time I go to the Burger King in Covington, KY. They ask me to pull in the parking lot and wait. It is usually another 15 seconds until they bring it out. Annoying.
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@Germain - I understand that point of view, I know that sometimes corporate has its head up its collective ass. And I recognize that on the odd special order it makes sense to ask a car to pull into the parking lot, especially so that the people behind don't have to wait. But surely you're not suggesting that what this Burger King was doing to multiple customers was OK? It's like those schools that just give everybody a passing grade so that they can avoid the pain and trouble of actually making sure all of the kids are getting taught.
I don't blame this employee - if I did, I would have said exactly what BK I was at, and what time, and her name. I hope I made it clear that the system is what's completely messed up. If management doesn't know that this is going on, then they're not doing their jobs. If they do know - if they told the employees to do things that way - then they aren't good managers.
It's a ridiculous situation, from the top down. And you know who loses the most? The customer, who has to do stupid things at the drive through to help perpetuate a system that has been giving slow drive-thru service. From what you've said, it seems to me that the timer starts in the wrong place. It should start right after the menu board, where the order is taken. That way if the customer is slow or the ordering takes a long time, that won't count against the workers. Or, if BK was smart, they would take the size of the order into account, giving an acceptable time-per-dollar-ordered guideline, so that larger orders could take longer and not penalize the restaurant. There are many ways in which BK could make this situation better, for the workers and the customers.
This is one of the best answers I have read regarding speed of service (sos). I'm a manager at a burger king. This has been an ongoing problem and it's recognized, but the managers has no power in fixing it and are expected to just make it happen. It's come up in meetings but it's their standards. Last I looked it up, burger king nation averaged 3:41 SOS. That's nation wide folks, and one would think something would have done by now. This article dates back to 2009. It's nearly 10 years later and this is still a problem. The goal is actually 2:45, and it's based on the basic value meal order of a whopper, fry, and drink. My guys can get that out on average of 1:20s or less. I have been doing this since the yr 2000, and the goal is what it was then. But today burger king has increased in options on their menus, and some of the products take 45sec plus to prepare. That may not sound like a long time, but ppl are cooking less and less these days. It's not one of these items being ordered it's 2, 3, 4 and with new milkshake items which takes near 1min or longer to prepare, and God forbid 2 or more is ordered. In the past, my team and I have matched and broken some burger king SOS go's goal averaged less than 2mins for a whole day, and 2:17 for the whole month. But now, ppl order so so much more food at once, and new products take longer to prepare and let's not forget the heavy increase in coupons. This is also a result in labor goals. You would sometimes see restaurants hitting these goals, but or over in labor. Or restaurants not hitting these goals, but are below labor goals. The minimum is 3mins or less. Even that can be difficult based on your location, city, small town, near schools, business area, retirement area it's too many situation too consider. I have had crew members recognized the same solution to start the timer after the customer finish their order, why can't burger king see the same.
I just read your comment, which was much more level headed than I thought based on reading this. Sorry for the harsh words. I still think there's a little too much entitlement going on here and I'm only bringing it to light because if I were blogging, I'd be hoping for some constructive criticism. <3
and why does it bother people so much when theyre told to park ur still not getting out of ur car, we bring out to u like kings and queens lol....and trust me if u come trhu drive thru ur our priority so youll get ur food faster then anyone. else that comes in the dining room...lol cant belive im actually commenting.here...jut thought id let u know what i think...
Definitely seems like some super entitled people that have no idea what this kind of a job is like or what sorts of situations people working them are in. I understand that you dont want people to "cheat", but let's think about what their lives entail, how much they are getting paid, and how much you'd like to work at be scale of 1-10. Just some things to reflect about.
I work in burger king as a drive trhu cashier....and we do that sometimes. But it is not completely burger kings or mcdonalds fault... customers are really "dumb when it comes to ordering" they (corporate) gives us 2 30 seconds total to get the customer out of drive thru this icludes them coming up to the menu and deciding what they want....sometimes they are on their phone and tell us to wait...or theyll start asking their kids what they want..and tell us to hold then...also love it when they wanna pay with exact change..and are digging everywhere for loose pennies and coins. or when they have like a 40 dollar order at drive thru. it takes about two minutes to order that much food. damn rite were pulling to the parking lot.... u should look at it from our point of view. we get in trouble when our goals are not met and corporate doesnt wanna hear excuses they just wanna see the numbers and sometimes thats the only way our goals can be met....
Lol, now it's 2.10... yes customers act like they taking a test when it comes to ordering. It's not algebra! Go inside if you don't know what you want.
@Molly - @Lisa - OMG, does EVERY Burger King do this?
We used to stop at BK when I used to drive my son to a private high school some distance away. I remember the drive-thru order taker coming out of her booth with a stick of some kind, like a tuning fork? She would put it into some sort of groove in the pavement and twist it around; perhaps manipulating the timer as well? It was way too early on those mornings to even think about it!
Glad now that he's in college, walking to class!
That really sucks!! Now I know why they ask me to drive up and wait for them to bring my food out to me. This is crazy. Thanks for heads-up!
@Denise - Yup, that was it. Pretty crafty, huh?
Ah freaking ha.
Sunday morning, after BlogHer 09, we picked up TW's mom at the hotel she was staying at and for some god awful reason, we were all craving cheeseburgers. The closest drive thru, in a convenient area, was a Burger King. There was nobody in line at the drive thru. It was not crowded inside. It was five minutes 'til 11.
We ordered 2 cheeseburgers and a whopper. No fries, no drinks. Just those three burgers.
They asked me to park. I didn't understand why.
Now I understand why.
Because they we're about to close and have to cook those burgers which takes about five minutes to cook
@Divina - It just occurred to me that I could deduct that meal as "research." Sweet.
Wow I have not even heard of the timers. I will check it out next time and call it research instead of indulging. Ha. Have a great weekend.