The Life of Customer Service

The Coronavirus was the whole reason our county had gone under lockdown in March 2020. Only essential businesses were open. Schools were shut down and everyone who could was working from home. Of course, we weren’t the only ones suffering this. In fact, my state wasn’t even one of the few that first went into lockdown.

At the time, I worked as a cashier at a wing place. The restaurant was only open for takeout, as were many businesses during this time. I love my job. Before the virus, I worked in two other positions, plus my cashier gig. My hope is to eventually become a manager. I love the other people there, the management team, and the customers. Well, almost all of them.

Just like the servers, takeout also has its regulars. There’s one gentleman who orders our potato wedges with cheddar jack cheese and always has four or five kids meals at a time. A lady who always orders salt and vinegar fries and mild wings. A man who orders bone-in wings with all of his sauces on the side. We even have a state trooper who makes time to come in and get wings during his rounds.

Most of the people who come in are very friendly. If their order isn’t ready, they will wait patiently for it to be up. If it is ready, they are right there and eager to pay and go home to enjoy their delicious, greasy fried food, because after all, fried food is the way to any American’s heart.

As with every job you work in, there are the people who expect the world to revolve around them. That their order better be ready by the time they walk in. The line must part before them like Moses and the Red Sea. The cashier better not break eye contact once (or must not make eye contact at all). The type of people who don’t understand that the wait staff can get busy and that in reality, they are just another face in a line of equally hungry customers.

It was a Tuesday. The first Tuesday that I worked since the virus had closed our restaurant. It was the day of our buy one get one free traditional wing day. Now, this day was popular when the store was open normally, so it had a great effect on takeout for the evening. The virus had cut our staff down immensely. There were two managers, two cashiers, and two or three cooks in the building total. One manager helped make the food. The other helped bag up the boxes. I was bagging food that night, so I was rarely out front unless it was to take a bag out for someone who was waiting while my coworker cashed everyone else out.

On one of my trips to the front, an older man had asked if he could get a sweet tea. Being the person that I am, I didn’t take the easy way out to tell him that we were out, because the truth was, we weren’t. However, making three gallons of tea for one customer was a waste, hence why we didn’t have tea already made. I told him sure, but he would have to wait a few minutes. He agreed.

That was the start of the chaos.

For the last two and a half hours, it had been busy nonstop. The total wing count never went below four hundred. Box after box hit the window, all filled with wings or burgers or fries. There never seemed to be an end. I set the tea machine up and let it brew while I bagged some more orders up.

A few minutes had passed by and I suddenly looked over and saw the tea pitcher. I was sure my coworker hadn’t had the time to grab the tea for the man outside. No one else was there to make it. It was just me, myself, and I. I went out to the front to grab a cup and my first mistake was looking him in the eyes. I had never seen such anger and annoyance on someone’s face before.

He was leaning against the table with malice painting his features. “Your tea just finished. I’m grabbing it right now, sir,” I told him in my soft customer service voice. I tried to show empathy and ignore the line of six more people at the front desk.

“It’s about time!” he told me, rolling his eyes. I ran to the ice machine and filled his cup up and poured a little bit too much sugar than I should have into the cup. I thought to myself, maybe if I added more sugar for him to drink, it would make him sweeter to restaurant staff. I put the lid on and ran out and handed him the cup.

“Straw?!” he yelled at me. I turned around and grabbed one for him and handed it to him. He yanked it from my hand and stormed off, ignoring my apology.

I’ll admit that I don’t know how long it had been since the tea had finished brewing. What I do know is that brewing tea takes a good six or so minutes. Three gallons coming out of a small funnel and filtering through the tea bag isn’t as fast as grabbing a bottle from the shelf at the store.

At the end of our shifts, my coworker and I began talking about what had happened with the man. We were very busy. It was our dinner rush. We had to be at work while everyone was being ordered to stay at home just so we could ensure the public had some good takeout to eat. I tried to reason with myself. That we were busy and I got distracted. It was just a drink. He hadn’t been standing there that long, but in reality I don’t know. I told myself that I was not the only person who was available to him to ask for his drink. My coworker had been up at the register the entire time, and if he had been waiting longer than necessary, he would have told her and she would have got the tea.

Sometimes, the way business goes and the mistakes we make aren’t our fault, but other times, it is. Customers don’t see what happens behind the scenes. How much harm negative attitudes can have on us.

The next time it takes a server or cashier a little while for something, offer a gentle reminder and always smile. We are human too, and we are doing our best to treat you well at the counters.