I went to the Dunkin' Donuts at Dudley Station for the first time today around 9:30am. When I walked through the door, the place was hopping with people holding their hot beverages and chatting lively. But when I joined the long line of customers, it soon dawned on me that the place was going through a mini-meltdown. Customers in line looked confused about when or whether they would be able to order and the cashiers looked overwhelmed. After about 30 seconds, a woman behind the counter yelled out to the room that it was too loud for the staff to hear new customers placing orders and that people who already had their orders should leave or else (yes, the tone really was like that).
What the hell?!
Yes, it was buzzing, but it was the noise of customers enjoying each others' company and a hot drink. The youngest person was probably in her late 20s, but there were plenty of older folks, too. It's not like these were rowdy teens just getting off a bus after school. Not only that, these were customers who were using the counters and their free time without any intention of disturbing business. That had to be the poorest of poor service I've seen in a long, long time. It's one thing to ask customers to quiet down, but another to say take your stuff and git! America shouldn't be run the hell out by Dunkin' (not that anyone really took her advice).
Aren't there known calming techniques that corporate America uses to quell a crowd? Does music or TV hush up folks? There was a TV in the store, but it wasn't on. There was also no music playing. So there had to be some other technique at their disposal other than to shout like that. At least my cashier was nice, though. She looked happy to hear me say hi and ask how she was doing. Maybe that little nuggest common courtesy will spread back through the rest of the staff.
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