Looking at Burger King's
Contact Us form it helps explain the breakdown in communication between the manager and the customer, and why so few customers complain, and why the non-verbal unpleasantness continues. The Contact Us form doesn't support participation and quick spontaneous feedback. Simply looking at it is a turn-off. It takes way too much time to fill out their form just to say, "When I placed a drive-through order I didn't experience being appreciated."
*One sure way to tell if employees are dragging around perpetrations (abuses, upsets, withholds) is if they are less-than pleasant with all customers, perhaps nicer to school friends
** —respectful enough to not draw complaints but not welcoming and appreciative—like a teen dramatizing an upset with a parent."
I'm referring to managers at Burger King (east Hawaii, Hilo and Pahoa) who have unconsciously trained their drive-through order-takers to communicate their upsets, withholds, and unacknowledged perpetrations to customers. They communicate, not with words but, non-verbally, with an attitude, "
Yah, what do you want? As you can tell I don't like my job and I sure as hell don't appreciate and value you as a customer. My job isn't to make you feel welcome, or to encourage you to return again and again."
I post because the usual supportive communication — "Sounds like you've had a rough day." wakes up the clerk who then becomes friendly — hasn't been working. This reveals the managers are not in-communication with his/her employees, they have become stuck doing their
imitation of communication; it reveals that the manager requires some coaching.
A "manager"
*** knows it's easier to train a happy well-adjusted employee because they treat everyone with aloha. Someone
in the process of becoming a manger is unconscious most of the time, they don't see the upset nor do they know how to get and disappear upsets; they usually can't tell that an employee is dragging around childhood incompletes into each present-day interaction.
* It doesn't matter that the day and time are missing. If it's a rare complaint then it serves as an employee clearing-meeting reminder; if it's a frequent complaint then it's serious and needs to be addressed.
** Many employees develop a way of interacting that is unpleasant, energy-sapping, not uplifting. It's just short of being rude; here in Hawaii it's often an imitation of aloha. It comes across as unappreciative, not welcoming, not a pleasant experience. It's how employees bring to anyone's attention that they are upset, not satisfied, not happy. It's how
those in the process of becoming a manager reach out for support—eliciting-causing-intending daily customer feedback.
*** Communication Tips for Managers Note to managers: It's not your fault. You've been promoted before you were qualified to supervise. In truth, you are not being supervised correctly. Your job now is to manage your manager, else all his/her branch employees will treat customers unappreciatively for another 24 hours. Begin with the
Clearing Process for Professionals —it's free—without having to change or learn anything new, you'll find yourself communicating more effectively.
Update: 12/11/21 Since posting I've noticed that some of the order-takers are more friendly
