For those of you who follow this blog, I have some exciting news: Sonic finally responded to my call. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, click here to read the original story about my horrible experience at Sonic.
The response I received wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be. You can see the actual postcard above. If you can’t read it, here’s what it says:
Thank You. A SuperSONIC Experience. Thank you for your recent contact with SONIC, America’s Drive-In. We sincerely appreciate your feedback and look forward to making every effort possible to make your next visit a pleasurable one.
Please accept this postcard for a free sandwich of your choice on your next visit to SONIC. Simply mention that you have a “SuperSONIC Experience” postcard when you place your order and present this postcard when your meal is delivered. Thanks again for visiting SONIC, America’s Drive-In.
There’s several observations that immediately came to mind when I saw this. First, this was not personal at all. It’s obviously a generic card that send out to anyone who calls their feedback number. Second, this came straight from their corporate headquarters in Atlanta, not the actual restaurant that messed up. Third, a free sandwich doesn’t reimburse me for the banana split I paid for and never received. If I’m not mistaken, the banana splits are more expensive than most of their sandwiches.
Although it may surprise you, I don’t have a complaint with the postcard. The card was sent out by the corporate office hoping to make partial amends for what happened. According to the girl I spoke to, the actual restaurant was/is supposed to contact me about the actual problem that happened and set things straight. It seems like the corporate office was trying to go a little further to make things right, assuming the actual restaurant would fix things first. Unfortunately, I still haven’t heard from the restaurant. Kudos to Sonic’s corporate office for doing this. As for the actual restaurant…that’s sad.
The big idea behind the whole issue was to see how Sonic would respond. Would they do it in a personal manner? Would they do it in an automated generic manner? Would they do nothing at all? So far, I’ve seen automated generic + nothing.
I talked to my dad about this issue and he said it’s not surprising. Fast food places really don’t care who they hire anymore, as long as they have someone working. When the service is bad, many managers don’t care because a loss of 1 or 2 customers will not really hurt business, and definitely won’t change individual paychecks.
Believe it or not, I saw this firsthand when I went to Taco Bell last night. I ordered a soft taco with NO lettuce. The guy repeated my order back to me and said it exactly how I ordered it. Therefore my order should have consisted of: Soft taco shell, beef, shredded cheese. Instead I received a soft taco covered in lettuce, onions, nacho cheese, with a pinch of beef. By asking for no lettuce, did I actually annoy someone enough that they decided to add extra ingredients?
I thought about going back thru the drive-thru or calling the restaurant, but if they were jerks enough to intentionally mess up my order, there’s no way I’m going back and asking them to fix it.
Customer Service is definitely dead!
Tags: Customer Service, fast food, Sonic, Taco Bell
June 22nd, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I figured this would be the response you would get. I had a friend who had a similar experience and got the same card in the mail. I don’t believe they local Sonic ever contacted her, though.
If you want to eat at a really good Sonic come to Walnut Ridge, AR. They are consistently a simi-finalist at the Sonic Games (a national competition of the best of the best in Sonic).
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:16 pm
I agree with all of it except where you mention fast food employers hiring just anybody. I think Chickfila is an exception to that. In the past two years I’ve been there I’ve seen how our boss is VERY selective on who gets chosen. My friends at other Chickfila branches said it’s the same way.
Just laying that out there.
Good article!
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Good point Deborah. I actually wouldn’t classify “Chik-Fil-A” with other fast food joints. They seem to have much higher standards on just about everything, from customer service, nutrition, and even closing on Sundays.
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:59 pm
At Chick-fil-a we do have higher standards than other fast food places. I’m constantly getting on my mother for calling us fast food. I like to think that we’re better than just getting the food to you fast. I say that we are a quick service restaurant. We get you your food fast and you get good service at the same time.
June 24th, 2009 at 7:25 am
I know what you mean! A couple months ago I decided to stop at KFC on the way home from work. Granted, it was late so it didn’t bother me too much when they said that the wedges would take about 10 minutes.
So I pulled into a parking space and waited. 10 minutes came….15 minutes…20 minutes. I was able to see inside the store and take a guess at what I saw? Employees on their cell phones, texting, laughing with one another…clearly not doing their jobs.
When they finally DID bring my food out they were rude about it and so was the manager. I called corporate the next day and like you, was sent a generic coupon for $10.
It’s a shame, really, how fast food employees don’t have any work ethic.