Bad Day at the Burger Joint

"Service with a Smile!" A bygone saying as well as an action also, it seems. Now before I get on my soap box here, I understand that there are still a few places that give us genuine customer service from the moment we arrive at their establishment. Thank God for them. Frequent them, and compliment your courteous public servants.   I can also hear excuses. Well, it was busy. Yes, it was. Perfect opportunity to  shine! Why is it we excuse bad behavior? Oh, she must be having a bad day. Okay, what about me the paying customer, who that if I don't come in, you will really have a bad day 'cause you won't have a job! What happened to treat others as you want to be treated?

I've worked several places where they wanted their people all smiling, looking customers in the eye, helping those customers get what they wanted, and not settling until the customer left satisfied. We were instructed to smile even if we had lost our puppy before coming into work. Personal issues were to be left in the parking lot, not to be addressed with our co-workers, much less the customers!
We visited a store where the associate was so busy telling her co-workers about her creep of a boyfriend that she missed two sales I knew of, one that patiently waited awhile, gave up and left, and myself who wasn't willing to waste my time. Finding no one else to help, we left.
Today, I encountered some unhappy people. A local burger joint, during lunch rush. This poor girl and her crew must have struggled to come in today. Little did I realize that amusement was just minutes away as I stood in the snake shaped corral en route to the register. The first gal, well she was upset because her register was running out of tape. Another was stressing vocally because one of her little worker bees forgot a customers order.
Poor starving man - just standing there watching everyone else trickle by him with their food, glancing at his watch. He only gets an hour people - and that includes drive time from and back to the work site. He's gonna choke on those nuggets you just handed him. Wait - you forgot his sauce. Oh he is irritated. Giving up he will just eat dry, dry nuggets. Maybe there is some excess grease in there he can wash it down with. Silver lining (sorta) - the man got his money back. Not an apology, not a I'm sorry smile, just "I'm not the one who took your order, but I'll give ya your money back." SIGH.
Oh! They are opening another register. JOY! Uh- no. This one must have a rash for how many times he tried to inconspicuously scratch. Eww. I feel like I'm in Vegas at those little roulette tables praying my number lands on something other than him having to touch my food.
BAM! Prayer answered, the girl with register tape issues, that yells at the preparers in the back is the one that we get the pleasure of interacting with. I smile..sometimes that's contagious, nope not working. We place our order, (BTW Sweetie isn't smiling either) and a few minutes later our food is plopped down on a tray on the counter. It looks like our order. Could it be?
 No one is addressing us. Well, I only get an hour also and the majority has been used up wondering what the regional manager would think. We took the food and, yes it was ours. It was fine - we got what we expected (the bar was low), but it will be awhile before we venture inside, or visit that drive through for that matter.
What is so hard about cracking a smile? There is some little saying about how it takes less muscles to smile than to frown, so it's not like someone can claim laziness here. A smile is universal. Generally, it is welcoming. Sometimes, depending on the person, it can make ya wonder what mischief they are planning. Don't you agree that your experience is better when folks at least act like they care?
Don't get me started on folks that cannot count change back. Watch a cashier sometime that you give change too, after he/she has in put a certain amount into the register. If they lock up, and give ya the deer in headlights look, prepare for instruction in the basic math principle of subtraction. If they don't have that digital number handed to them, there is a melt down getting ready to happen. The paperwork required, the amount of management staff that has to re-configure the machine, and the basic math called subtraction which is apparently out of reach for some of our youth today, when the amount input into the computer isn't what the customer deserved back?  Oh Where, oh where has customer service gone?