The Chivalric Family

Hey guys, I wanted to make our Family Blog/Feed a bit more lively, and I figured that rather than drone on about my day to day activites, I'll share what I do when I'm not managing The Chivalric Family, or attending classes at Cal State University Channel Islands; my employed life in the fast food industry! I have a lot to share about my life at Jack In The Box, maybe you'll learn something, maybe you'll get grossed out, maybe you'll become angry at the society that presents itself as my customers, either way I hope it encourages you guys (if anyone is indeed reading this) to make your own blogs on here, share your experiences in and out of home and have fun with it. If you'd like to have your own section in the news feed for your own blog as well, just let me know! (and yes, that handsome devil below is me)

Today's Guide: Upsell Questions

This weekend, when working with my (current) manager, "Fernando", I was instructed about how I failed yet again to wow the mystery shopper. To fully appreciate the gravity of this situation, one must recap what exactly happens during a mystery shopper encounter. 

There is a timer above the kitchen that will begin to count when a car enters the drive through and pulls up to the speaker, which will turn red once the time reachers 2:30 or higher. The employe working in the drive-thru is expected to fully take the customer's order, bag it ( and with it make their drinks, grab their sauces, and charge their order) and have them out of the drive thru before the timer reaches 3:30. 

Seeing as how most customers will take about two minutes just to order, it is quite obvious that this requirement will not always (or even usually) be met. In addition to all of these mundane and unecessary tasks that are required of each and every customer transaction, every employee is supposed to try and upsell as much to the customers as they possibly can. This means that when the customer says "And that's all I want", the drive-thru operator (against their own will) is required to ask; "Would you like any dessert? Something to drink? about another $20 worth of food?"

In all seriousness, most people that are working these stations know fully well that you don't want anything else, you just said that you've completed your order. However when the employee fails to try, they will fall out of habit and will likely fail to perform these seemingly meaningless tasks for the people that are actually paid to make sure they are carried out; the mystery shoppers.

Some people feel like this is a prime example of the cashier's incomptance, they don't listen, and they don't care. These are the people that either aren't going to school because they dropped out, or because they're too old to go back. The fact is, these people just like everyone else, have a set list of rules for their workplace, theirs are just a little bit more counter-productive, resulting in the unecessary question of how much cream you'd like for that coffee that you specifically requested black. 

In light of these kinds of unfun occurrances, I myself was already unhappy for having to work on Halloween at the time, making it that much more frustating that I had to keep annoying other people by continuously trying to upsell things that they clearly didn't want. Somehow reading my mind however, right when I tbought that the night wouldn't get much worse, 7 more customers walked in that I couldn't help but smile to see, my friends had come to visit me and stick around until my shift was over so we could go out together. Maybe they just wanted something to eat too, but it still made my night and put to rest the unecessary question: "how about some mini cookies with that order sir?"