18 Things Drive-Thru Workers Wish Customers Would Stop Doing: A Guide to Better Customer Service

Introduction: In an effort to make our lives easier, we recently asked employees in an anonymous form to share things they wished customers would know. It turns out there are a lot of things drive-thru workers hate, and we all need to be a little more conscious of our behavior. Here are 18 things that drive-thru workers wish customers would stop doing.

1. "If you come to the drive-thru, please don't call someone else to tell them, 'I'm at $, do you want anything from here???' It's called fast food. Drive in and out."
2. "Please ask for everything you want when you order. This includes all condiments and free glasses of ice water. We have buttons for those, and then we can have everything ready for you at the window. Anything added at the window takes extra time at the window, and we are being timed. Higher times mean unhappy management."
3. "I find the most irritating thing working a drive-thru headset is when the customer pulls up and says 'Hello?' I promise I know you are there because I can see you and hear you."
4. "Keep in mind that we are not in the car with you and can't see the menu that you can. If I ask what flavor you want, don't tell me, 'The one on the menu.'"
5. "Please, please, please, please, PLEASE do NOT come through the drive-thru and make a huge order during lunch time. We're on a timer, and most customers should not be in line for more than 90 seconds."
6. "When you go through the drive-thru when it's raining, PLEASE turn off your wipers. When you leave them on, all you do is fling water in our faces, so we end up getting wet or wetter because of it."
7. "I'm a Jack In The Box employee, and we have two menus in our drive-thru: One for figuring out your order before getting to the speaker, and one attached to the speaker to help keep your order in mind as you place your order. But no one ever uses the first one, and instead prefers to pull up to the speaker and go 'uuuhhhhh' for a good minute or so to decide their order."
8. "If you order drinks and then order a Happy Meal, those drinks will automatically get put into the Happy Meal order, and it takes forever getting those out, especially when I’m trying to cash people out in the drive-thru at the same time."
9. "If you are going through the drive-thru, put out your cigarettes before getting to the window. You might not realize it, but your secondhand smoke just blows right in."
10. "If you have an order you placed online, and you are picking it up through the drive-thru, please stop at the order screen to let us know."
11. "Do not ever, not even once in your life, honk your horn in the drive-thru. All it does is annoy or give a migraine to the person on the headset."
12. "If you are coming through the drive-thru, don't place a mobile order while you're in line just because