Here's a small list of things that really annoyed me when I worked as a fast food drive-thru employee. Overall, just being a polite customer is all that us employees really want. You can go back to being obnoxious and rude after you drive away with your food. Please and thank you.
1. When customers leave money on the windowsill.
For one, this is extremely rude. If my hand isn't already waiting for you to place the money in it, then it will be in just a few more seconds. If you place money on the windowsill or counter inside of the window and it blows or rolls away, it's your responsibility to either go get it, or find another way to pay. In addition to this, handing me folded or crumpled up money, while not as rude, is still obnoxious. It takes just another two seconds to be prepared with your money and to hand it to me politely.
2. When customers don't listen to me.
I believe it's just a case of customers feeling elitist to the employees working to serve them, but it seems that they refuse to actually listen to what I say. Where I work, we're required to repeat the customer's order to them before we swipe their card or accept their cash. That being said, there's times where I'll ask if their order was "just the large fry?" In response they'll nod, and I'll put their cash in the register and they'll turn to me and suddenly say, "wait, no, I had the coffee." Sometimes, customers will ignore me altogether when I serve them, not even looking at me as they pay, or will ignore any additional questions I have about their order. In this case, if you won't acknowledge or listen to me and your order comes out wrong, it's on you, not me. Listening and communicating with me in the first place will make the whole interaction a much better experience for both of us.
3. When customers aren't ready to order when they get to the speaker.
The entire point of a drive-thru is efficiency. While we do have the menu there, and it's okay if you take a few seconds to make a decision on your meal, it really shouldn't take every person more than a few seconds each to order their food. In my personal experience, customers have taken up to five or more minutes to order their food -- it's even worse if they're indecisive. Honestly, if you don't have a good idea of what you're going to order before you get to the speaker, you should probably just go inside the restaurant. This way, you have plenty of time to look at the menu without holding up the other customers in the vehicles behind you.
4. When customers are impatient.
Fast food restaurants feed a huge amount of people each day. We have a limited number of employees both cooking and serving the food. That being said, when an abundant number of orders are being made, things can take a little longer to come out of the kitchen, and often it may take the person (such as myself) who takes your order and cashes you out a bit more time than usual to get you moving along to the next window. However, this does not mean that you should drive passed the cashier's window because you're impatient or in a rush. This is very rude and it also causes confusion between the employees, such that we may accidentally hand out the wrong order. It definitely does one thing, though: it takes more time to cash out your order. In my personal experience, if you wait a few more seconds to pay for your order at the first window like you're supposed to, it will overall take less time than if you become impatient and drive off.
5. When customers are just plain rude.
This one is pretty simple: say please and thank you. At times, I've experienced as little as two or three people being the only ones to say please and/or thank you during my eight hour shift. While it's not essential for getting reasonable service, it does make us employees smile a little bigger. We're often faced with hot-headed and unreasonable people throughout the day. It's nice to hear someone say thank you every once in a while. I don't think this is asking too much, given it's simple manners that we've all been taught since childhood.
