Through the eyes of Kevin....
The fast food industry is continuing to grow and expand in North America. As individual fast food restaurants, such as McDonald's and Burger King, receive hundreds or thousands of customers daily they have a way of keeping track of each customers' orders using a customer numerical system. Whenever a customer walks into the restaurant and makes an order, they are given a receipt with their order number on it. This is a system that most major fast food chains use in order to ensure that they are giving the orders to the correct customer.
This numerical system involves the restaurant cashiers verbally calling out the order number on the receipt when the meal is ready. I believe that this way of delivering an order to a customer is not particularly effective since most customers don’t really look at their order number. Some other fast food restaurants call out the specific food order that the customer ordered. This method could be confusing since different customers may order the same or similar meals.
A relatively new and popular way of keeping track of customers' orders that some restaurants are using is writing down the name of the customer on the receipt or on the meal order. For example, Starbucks writes the name of the customer on the cups to ensure that each order is given to the correct customer. This is a great way to keep track of a customer’s order because it's personalized. Also, a customer is more likely to hear and recognize their name than their order number.
Do you have any recommendations for how major fast food restaurants should handle customers' orders?
