Kelli: Get Fast Food Out Fast
Kelli Rooks: When I did work fast food several years ago, I noticed some of my
employees who were trying to 
be more efficient by doing multiple tasks
at once were actually slowing things down because they were losing their
place and making mistakes. They'd watch me complete multiple tasks at
once and fail to account for the fact that I was a manager who had
worked there 12 hours a day, six days a week for several years, so every
job in the store was second-nature for me. Sometimes the best advice
to get inexperienced employees working faster is: concentrate on one
task at a time. The other bit of advice I handed out often was to stop
the long conversations with customers and work on getting food out
faster instead. Full post below.
Question: Can you multi-task?
I don't drink coffee often, nor have I ever tried Starbucks coffee, but I have enjoyed an iced tea from them periodically. I'll couch this the same way I do with any service I receive: I expect the person to be competent and pleasant, but I don't want a conversation beyond, “Hi, how can I help you?” or “Welcome to XYZ, I'll be with you in a moment.” I don't want to talk about my day, I don't want to hear about their day, and I want my service to be as fast as possible so I can get back to my day. It annoys me to no end when a fast food worker or a grocery checker is slowing things down with “friendly” conversation. That one customer may (and that's stretching it, because many don't) find it enjoyable, but it's discourteous and unprofessional to those who are waiting behind. Keep it simple, professional, and move things along.
When I did work fast food several years ago, I noticed some of my employees who were trying to be more efficient by doing multiple tasks at once were actually slowing things down because they were losing their place and making mistakes. They'd watch me complete multiple tasks at once and fail to account for the fact that I was a manager who had worked there 12 hours a day, six days a week for several years, so every job in the store was second-nature for me. Sometimes the best advice to get inexperienced employees working faster is: concentrate on one task at a time. The other bit of advice I handed out often was to stop the long conversations with customers and work on getting food out faster instead. Our sales went from 30th of about 600 restaurants in the US to number 3 and our yearly health department ratings went from 90% to 100% during my time there, so we must have been doing something right.
