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From Rude Customers to Robots: Navigating the Future of Fast Food
Customer service challenges can be transformed through better wages, automation, and respect.
I want my two kids to start working in customer service as soon as they are legally able to.
I have seen a lot of disrespect from customers who lack empathy towards service employees, whether at a fast food restaurant, car rental agency, doctor’s office reception desk, Uber drivers, or delivery workers. It seems that customers show no empathy towards these employees, and I don’t want my kids to be the kind of people who disrespect customer service employees.
I had to defend a young cashier from verbal abuse.
I just got back from Target, where I saw a customer yelling at one of the cashiers because there weren’t enough cashiers open. The cashier was a 17-year-old who was called offensive names for something she had no control over.
I intervened and asked the customer to go somewhere else if she didn’t like it. The cashier’s tears and my actions encouraged more people to join me in asking the rude customer to leave the building; needless to say, the rude customer was very descriptive, calling me colorful names as well.
A woman threw a burrito bowl at a Chipotle employee.
This incident reminded me of the hundreds of stories I’ve read on Reddit and other social media sites about rude customers who want to insult fast-food workers but get upset if a worker fights back.
That’s why I admired Judge Timothy Gilligan, an Ohio judge who handed down an unusual sentence to a rude customer. The customer threw a burrito bowl at the Chipotle assistant manager, Emily Russell, who juggled multiple tasks as her understaffed restaurant struggled to keep up with orders.
The customer became frustrated with the delay and the quality of her burrito bowl, which she considered “disgusting.” After a horrible verbal exchange and an unsatisfactory order remake, the rude customer left, only to return moments later to throw the bowl at the assistant manager.
