Links and Minifeatures 10 14 Sunday

The importance of customer service: In my opinion, Burger King probably has the best hamburgers of the fast food industry, and I like their chicken sandwiches better than the competition's as well, but I'm patronizing their competition a larger and larger proportion of the occasions I have a reason to buy fast food. Friday night was a case in point. Not only was the order taker unable to understand enough plain English to understand my family's order, but kept interrupting to try and upsell me combos and cheese and fries, the first two of which I didn't want and the third which I did, but I was planning to order them all in a group at the end. After the third time she had gotten my order wrong, at least partially due to interrupting, I told her, "Stop interrupting. I will tell you exactly what I want, and I want only that. If you have questions, save them for the end. To make you happy, I'll start with the fries this time." She not only couldn't understand what I wanted, she was unable to stop interrupting and she gave me attitude about it. If Burger King corporate is interested in a likely explanation of why sales are off and they've had to close about 40 percent of the local outlets, there it is. It doesn't matter to me if the cooks don't speak English, as long as the counter help can communicate with them. It does matter that the counter help not only doesn't understand enough English to get my order right, but that they keep interrupting to try and sell extra items that I do not want, as if they could understand me if I said anything other than "yes" or "no." Honestly, I'd rather cope with a phone tree. I'd much rather take the time to order my food ahead of time on the internet, and they start making it when I pay, whether by walking through the door or online. Or they can put up a GUI screen like the supermarkets are getting as an alternative to live checkers. All of them infinitely preferable to what they have now. And they'd probably stop hemoraging customers (That store used to be a lot busier).

I got so frustrated at that point that I called the manager over, explained very succintly why she wasn't getting my family's order that night (no cusswords and lowered tone of voice, too), left the store, and drove over to McD's. Their counterperson had no difficulty understanding english, and took my family's order efficiently and without interrupting - and without me saying a word on the subject. It was so much a better experience that I did something nobody does very often - tip a fast food worker. I also made a point of thanking the manager for training them correctly. I think I'm going to make a point of going there at least the next couple of times we decide on fast food.

I speak more than enough Spanish to order a meal, and had we been in Mexico or Spain, would have done that from the beginning as a matter of basic courtesy (hamburguesa con queso, hamburguesa sin queso, dos whoppers - sin queso si pregunta - y dos papas fritas grande). However, this is the United States. Anybody who cannot or will not comprehend enough English for my business obviously does not need it, and if they can't understand the most universal rule of all - if you make the customer unhappy, nobody ends up happy - that magnifies the whole thing beyond anyone's ability to ignore.

It's been a while since we had any good campaign slogans in this country, but
IMAO has some good suggestions. Do not be drinking fluids while reading. Some of the commenter suggestions are even better. Severe language advisory applies.

Are these clowns really the best we can come up with in a nation of 300 million? If so, we are in some serious trouble!

How to win the Nobel Peace Prize

It seems like Al Gore will fit right in. George Catlett Marshall is probably wishing he had refused his, but he earned whatever forgiveness he may require from anyone for anything.

As the coup de grace for whatever legitimacy the peace prize may once have had, Ronald Reagan, who made inevitable the defeat and surrender of the primary sponsor of ideology that killed 150 million people in the 20th century, and almost without firing a shot (definitely no large direct military confrontations) has not to date been honored even as a nominee.

neo-neocon talks about the three fourths of General Sanchez' speech that the NY Times omitted.

My reaction? I'm bored with discussing what a worthless place the NY Times is for getting actual reporting. It's kind of like going over the fact that anything times zero is zero for the five millionth time. It's just one of those background things everybody needs to be aware of, and there's no need to make a big deal out of. Let's find something interesting to discuss, not more brand new same old thing.