Learning Customer Service from Fast Food

I was recently out to dinner with my family. We stopped at a chain restaurant but at a store we do not usually patronize. Walking up to the counter to order we find ourselves facing the evening manger; the surprise is she used to manage at another store location that we frequently patronized, we will call her Jennifer.

Curious, we asked about the change; she replied “I got transferred over here as the GM.” I asked if it was a promotion, unfortunately, it was just a lateral move. My wife and I always found the stores this lady managed to be very responsive to customers and high in quality.

Correspondingly, we feel like the store we frequently patronize has recently declined in quality, but we did not know why. Now we do, I would expect the quality to rise dramatically at the new location.

OK, so what does this have to do with Technical Ministry?

I have been reflecting on what makes Jennifer’s management style so effective. I land on three things, the crew is well organized for the tasks at hand, customer service is really good, and the environment behind the counter is energized.

When you look at the crew, there is not anyone standing around doing nothing. Everyone has specific tasks assigned and that is where they put all of their energy and focus. The task division is well thought out and everything generally works really smoothly and effectively.

Customer service seems to live by the maxim of “the customer is always right”. That particular evening they got my sandwich order wrong. When I took it back, there was not any argument or difficulty. Instead, the manager had the grill crew make me a new sandwich that was correct. How often at restaurants do they have to go double check the receipt or the order monitor? The problem was fixed very quickly with minimum fuss.

The energetic environment can be attributed to Jennifer. She is a high energy, fast moving lady who is cheerful to boot. That outlook and attitude seems to spill over into the crew she is working with. I have seen her running any number of different crews and they are all similar in energy.

To be honest, Jennifer’s example challenges my own leadership style. I tend to be laid back and I do not always handle customer complaints very well. My crews are usually well organized and task specific, but we sometimes get too busy trying to help each other out instead of staying well focused on the task we are assigned.

I think I need to try and bring more of Jennifer’s style to my crews. At least the positive energy and being more task specific. I also need to be better at receiving congregation members when they have a complaint about the day’s services.

Two scripture verses come to mind to leave you with today:

“Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”(James 1:19 NIV)

“Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out.”(Colossians 4:6, msg).