All In The Way You Present A Message

 Sometimes you run into a situation where a policy, technology, or other forces outside of your control interfere with your interaction with customers. I had one of those experiences with Manager Kevin at Taco Bell in Naperville, IL.

 Let me first say that Kevin was very polite and gracious in his communication with me. This is not a review of Kevin and Kevin acted in a professional manner at all times. This review is directly criticizing the policies and or training of the Taco Bell upper management and to identification of areas that Taco Bell can improve on in their customer service training.

 The turn off of this experience was the fact that I felt blown off and dismissed by Taco Bell. Again, I emphasize that the feeling was of Taco Bell and not the manager.

 I had walked into the the Taco Bell late one evening to purchase dinner. I decided to use the restroom prior to ordering. By the time I had come out of the facilities, the doors had been locked and the lobby closed. I walked up to the counter figuring that since I was inside the building before they locked up I would be the last person to be served inside the lobby.

 Much to my surprise, the manager told me that the lobby was closed and that we would have to use the drive through. He was unable to ring up my order on any of the dinning room registers as they were all closed out for the evening. This is where the policies and technology interfered with our interaction together.

 Sitting in the drive through line I was pretty ticked off and really just wanted to leave, but the hassle of finding something else and waiting in line again encouraged me to just stay put. Once I got to the window after placing my order, Kevin, the manager, was very apologetic about having me go out to the drive through which greatly improved my impression of him and what lead to this post, not with the purpose of tearing the place of business down, but to criticize the manner in which I was presented that the lobby was closed.

 If this were my place of business I was in charge of, if a customer got in the door before we closed up, I would simply let the customer that I would be happy to take his or her order and serve them, but that our dinning room was closed and that it would have to be a to go order if that wasn't too much trouble. Also, overcoming the closed register issue, I would ring up the order on the drive through register that was open and taking orders. This gives the impression that you have done something for the customer beyond what could be expected based on the posted hours. At the same time, it asks the customer to reciprocate the favor by taking it to go. If I had a customer that seemed to be put off by the idea of taking it to go, I would simply accommodate and allow them to eat their meal and close off the rest of the dinning room. More likely than not, the customer would be happy to get served and take the meal to go. In general, humans are non-confrontational. Most people would rather avoid conflict and would be willing to compromise a situation in the interest of both parties.