What’s your first impression of this directive? “Tray all drinks when more than two are
ordered.”

Your first impression is probably that you want to be the company selling the trays or,
perhaps, that this practice would cost you a fortune.

Having personally witnessed Pal’s Sudden Service pump cars through the window with an
average at-the-window time of under 20 seconds and do this, it seems a worthwhile
investment. Why? Instead of two trips (or two people) to get the drinks to the customers,
valuable seconds are saved to allow either more people to get through the line or more
time for selling. Either way, sales increase. Plus, it is much easier for the customer to
receive their drinks this way.

My past few experiences last week with other quick-service chains have proven this theory
— it took another 5-15 seconds just to get all the drinks, both when dining in or going
through the drive-thru.

So what other things can you do to save time and move the line quicker?

- Take condiment requests at the order point and have it print on the receipt. This will
increase your order accuracy — as determined by each customer — and make for a
speedier transaction at the pickup point. Again, last week in multiple experiences, I found
there were delays at the pickup point to get these things to me.

- Teach production staff to listen to the order. Instead of waiting for a ticket or the order
to appear on a monitor, they become more productive.

- Have everything in arm’s reach so production staff and cashiers don’t have to move too
far. This includes selling props or P.O.P. materials to help cashiers sell more effectively.

While these actions might seem to cost money, the minimal investment is cheaper than
advertising and an inexpensive way to continue to enhance service. Can you afford not to
do these things? Sure, if you want your customers to shop at your competition!

T.J. Schier is service professional, consultant and speaker with over 20 years experience in operations and training. Founder and president of Incentivize Solutions and podTraining, T.J. has helped numerous clients enhance their service and training programs and spoken to tens of thousands of managers, franchisees and operators in various fields. Visit http://IncentivizeSolutions.com/ for more info motivating today’s employees, training today’s generation and delivering outstanding guest service; or http://podTraining.us/, a unique new system and the foundation of ‘i-learning’ - using the device of today’s generation, the iPod - to train your workforce.

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