my respect for taco bell just went up. seriously.

Yeah they're clear bags but you remember how it's GRADE Z meat??

I loved working at BK just to criticize the really funny flow charts on really simple things like making a cheezeburger, or filling a cup with pop. Too bad I don't have pictures of them... they were too funny.

This is from ~2.5 years ago.

Drive Thru:
The greeting is recorded about once a week with the new 'special'. The greeting is there to try to speed up the customer and assumes that you have looked at the menu BEFORE you have pulled up to the speaker. You have a target time on the speaker, 60 seconds if I remember correctly. Someone trying to hit target time hates people who say "let me look for a minute" then take 5 minutes to figure their order of 2 soft tacos.

If there are two windows the first one where you pay is not timed. Where you receive your bag of food you are timed beginning when the weight of your car rolls onto the sensor in front of the window. The target time here was 60 seconds as well if I'm remembering right. The timer does not stop until your weight leaves the window. The cashier will love you if you pull a full car length forward BEFORE you start checking your food. Come inside if you had a discrepancy as if the cashier is good and was actually trying to hit the time, it is a well run taco bell, and especially if a manager or the drive thru cashier can see you then you'll usually be taken care of fast. Lots of times your missing food was made but was just left in an out of way place and forgotten about (like mexican pizzas above the preparer's head). It is easy to forget one thing when you are making thousands of tacos as fast as possible. This is especially true when you order 2 or 3 grande meals (20-30 tacos) and add on 3 pizzas and they made your order in less then a minute.

Food Preparation:
As stated before pretty much all of the food comes in plastic bags that are refrigerated. They are not huge garbage bags. They are small white plastic bags. Beef takes 2 bags to fill up a metal line pan. Cheese takes .5-.75, lettuce takes ~.5, chicken and steak are smaller bags and also are 2 bags put into a pan half the size of the beef pan.

All cold stuff is put into pans and placed on the line with the extra stuff put in mini fridges under the line and used to replace the line when low/out.

Hot stuff comes straight from the fridge (except the nacho cheese, rice, and beans it is non refrigerated) to a big heater that is full of superhot water, placed into the water, then heated back up for a certain time period. That thing is ridiculously hot and some silly highschooler actually stuck his whole hand into it to fetch something out. He was a moron.

Rice is stored in bins and measured out and mixed with super hot ass water a scoop of lard/grease, and their flavoring. Beans come out of prepackaged paper bags and are mixed with the hot water.

All the flour is taken from shelves and steamed in a steamer as it is used. Deep fried stuff is fried once twice possibly but hopefully not 3 times a day. The deep fryer is also used for chalupa shells, empanadas, and potatoes. They try to deep fry the cinnamon twists, salad shells, etc at the beginning of the day and in down time as it takes up the deep fryer and takes a huge amount of time.

Grilled stuff is the biggest rip off you can buy at taco bell since you're paying 2 bucks more for what amounts to the added benefit of having your item smashed between two hot plates for 40 some seconds.

Fun Facts I've randomly remembered or things that you get dirty looks about:
-I would never drink baja blast in my life as it leaves a blue film on everything it touches.
-When you complain because there are no napkins inside and see there's only one cashier and a line of 30 people don't be mad when the cashier simply places an opened bag of napkins on the counter for you to grab some out of.
-Please use proper grammar when you are cursing out a manager and accusing them of not having a highschool education. ( You aints got any highschools education! )
-If you go to a taco bell where the person in the drive thru is taking money+handing your order+taking orders+making drinks+checking your order, it is during a rush, and you got your order in less then a minute(at the window) then that person is most likely insanely good at their job and the line supporting him is as well.
-People are cyclic. It is really freaky and if you ever work at a place with the public a lot (any food) you will notice the fact that when people come they all decide to come at the same time. This is a given for lunch, dinner, etc but at taco bell it was even crazier because randomly at X:XXPM/AM on a slow day you just get a bajillion customers that wanted to eat at the same time. It is seriously freaky.

Ask more questions if you want to know. Much hasn't changed since I've left even the training is the same as we had tons of what is shown in the picture. They always revolved around the new special product and upsaling drinks too.

Maybe more restaurants need to post charts like this to remind employees that they are there to serve the customer in a courteous manner.

FLConsumer: Even worse: BearingPoint! Aaargh!

Dontcha just LOVE when a Fast Food moron assaults you with, "Hi, would like like to try an (fill-in name of overpriced menu choice) today? before you can order? It's SUCH a fun annoyance and waste of time. I'd LOVE to know the success rate. Just shows to go that the only mcEmployees dumber than the clerks are the managers

McDonald's was my second job. Again, this was a long time ago, but we were never told to tell children that hamburgers came from hamburger patches!

@megan9039: There are some dialects of American English which I have difficulty understanding (heavy black or heavy southern). I don't seem to have as much difficulty understanding the broken Spanglish or Indian Engrish. Could just be me 'though. I've only resorted to ordering in Spanish a couple of times. Might have to brush up on my Hindi for talking with the offshore customer (dis)service agents.

@RINO-Marty: So how was life at Arthur Andersen? (Sorry, had to) I'm just glad you didn't go into engineering. I routinely have to drop-ship everything I need for a job, right down to the last screw. Buying some of these parts locally is out of the question. Plenty of second-guessing beforehand.

@vitonfluorcarbon: I saw something like this recently at one of the fast food chains. The guy had tattoos all over his neck and up the lower portions of his jaw. Real smart dude -- that'll help you get plenty of jobs.

@G-Dog: I don't want to criticize anyone who is making an honest effort and working, but sometimes I have to wonder. I see so many piss-poor attitudes from employees of various companies, including my own. I don't care what the job is, if you're going to do it, do it right. A customer asking you to do something that is part of your job shouldn't come off as a great effort or inconvenience to your social life of talking with other employees about non work-related issues or your bootie-call on your cell phone while at work.

The fast food companies and many retail chains spend millions of dollars a year in R&D to idiot-proof their business model. Unfortunately, idiots are quite crafty.

that means point of sale, its what on their registers.

I should complain, damn it, I spent 2 dollars on that crap! Each time! So, somewhere around 4 in total I suppose, those lying bastards.

What's the deal? Afraid you'll get good customer service at fast food restaurant?

I think I must be the only guy that doesn't see a problem with this. Seriously, the job is to sell food. You're shocked that a food establishment would like to sell you more food?

I'm just glad that Taco Bell is training their employees in the first place =D

It's called a McJob for a reason.

Yeah, gimme a liter'a cola!

@thewriteguy: Agreed but I still like it better than "Order when ready."

@RINO-Marty:

Ditto. I'm doing fairly well in the corporate world but I was the most God awful waitress at Pizza Hut as a high schooler. Absolutely atrocious. Eventually I quit because as a customer, I would never have put up with me.

but yea its clear from the chart they think their employees are complete retards.

Worst line ever. KFC and Pizza Hut are also owned by the same company, yucky!

Still my local T-Bell actually has pretty decent employees, many who do not have prison tattoes on their fingers.

hahahaha

I'd seriously be wondering if they'd replaced the ordering box thingie with some kind of loudspeaker telephone.

I think the funniest thing about this is that the instructions aren't even written in proper English: "Please pull [up/drive up] to the window."

If you are intentionally doing things that you know are likely to confuse a cashier, I hope that you don't complain too much when your order isn't right.

POS= Point of Sale (ie the system used to ring up the orders)

When I was 16, I worked at a friend chicken restaurant and had a very difficult time remembering the various combinations of chicken parts, potatoes, and biscuits that went into each meal. I worked there for about a year, as as of my last day I couldn't keep it straight. My performance reviews were not good. I was told not to expect any promotions to assistant manager anytime soon. Several years later, I was a waiter at Big Boy, a profession at which I also completely sucked. I recall being berated by customers on several occasions for not bringing toast with eggs, and the reason I kept doing this is that the toast is implied and usually not specifically mentioned, and so it would never occur to me.

Now I'm 35, have a degree in economics from a good school, and (I say this only because I'm anonymous here) I'm doing very well at a management consulting firm (insert joke here). But I have no doubt that if by some hideous twist of fate I had to get a job at Famous Recipe Fried Chicken again, I would need visual aides like this, or I'd be quickly fired and FLConsumer's orders would all be wrong.

As lovely an image as this is, it is not completely accurate. It isn't really "stored" in garbage bags. That's the way it arrives from the distributor.

I worked there for a couple of years, and have to say that as unappetizing as it may look, having beef, chicken, and steak precooked and sealed in plastic bags is a really big plus for food safety. This way, it is cooked in an environment that is easier to control than thousands of restaurants, and re-heated to about 180 degrees before ever being opened at the restaurant, so they never have to deal with raw beef or chicken.

That's my opinion, and I'm stickin' to it, but I can see how a "Welcome to (x), how may I help you?" works as well.

I like to do things out of order which totally throws them off. You can hear the pause as they mentally put things in order. Then they ask you the questions in order again. lol.

yo quiero taco bell!!!

Just watch one show of maury and you will see why they have to dumb down everything.

When someone I don't know asks "how are you today" or some other such prepackaged greeting, I'll usually say "fine thanks" and proceed with the business at hand, and a woman I know thinks I should ask how this person I don't know is, when frankly I don't care and don't even think it's any of my business.

Then again, I don't pretend I'm normal.

Same for the friendly greeting. Obviously they want to greet you as soon as possible to acknowledge that they know you're there, but I don't like to proceed until they indicate that they're ready, after all, they're doing other things in that booth.

Just to clear that up...

Heh, common courtesy is all you need.

Regardless, I know a certain someone who is making a run for the border tonight, eh Nicholas_schaulsohn?

Me: Uh, no. I'll have two bean burritos and a small coke.

Recorded greeting is almost always upbeat and female. Actual drive-thru employee is usually, uh, not so much. It kinda throws you off.

All your pleasentries mean shit when your customer can't gorge themselves on your beefy cheesy whats-a-dick, then come back all pissed off.

@Buran: I know, I kind of like it. It was weird, the first time the Taco Bell drive-thru said "Hi, how are you?" but now, it's sort of nice.

I would prefer a nice offer to help though - "How may I help you?" - instead.

@timmus: You must have missed the tongue in our cheek.

Does this sign come in another language? Every time I go to the drive thru, the person speaks zero english. (I don't mean to offend) but if you work the drive thru you should be required to be able to understand what I am saying....

Nothing wrong with promoting politeness. It's fast becoming a lost art.

No further suggestive sell??? Are they morons??? What about cinnamon twists!! The best reason for going to Taco Bell at all is the deep fried sugar coated twisty things!!!

(awright, now I gotta to go Taco Bell for lunch, and then go home early because my stomach hurts:))

@FLConsumer: You're just now noticing this? I have been weeping for our future for a number of years now, and I'm not even 30.

Wearing your pants down to your knees is just sad. I saw a guy downtown the other day crossing the street with one hand holding his pants up. The sad thing is he was walking into the metro courthouse. If that is dressing up for court, I wonder what dressing down is.

Hey that guy looks caucasian

Am I superstar material?

@Smitherd: I got a little chuckle out of that.

I like how they're supposed to ask how you are today, but they aren't supposed to ask for your order. If I actually went to the Taco Bell drive thru, I would answer "ok" and then wait for them to ask for my order.

@HappyPuppy: There are worse smiles. I've seen smiles that look as though the employee wants to skin me alive and eat my internal organs. Sharp, sharp teeth.

This seems to me to be the most reasonable of the scripted training I have seen. There are some places that consistently try to upsell you on new products. This seems to make sure you have a tasty beverage to go with your meal.

A drink? I had almost forgotten. I would like a Baja Blast Mountain Dew, if you please...

Looks pretty good to me. Especially the "LAST" emblem. I think it says Listen, Appologize, Satisfy and Thank. Every CSR should have that posted by his/her desk!

I was at Applebee's last week, and the bartender tried to sell me the "tub o' beer." I said to him, after he asked twice, that I appreciated the effort he was putting into the upsell but that I wasn't interested and that he'd get a better tip if he stopped asking.

He did and got 20%. God bless America!