Starbucks Baristas: The daily grind
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Deaf Customer (self.starbucksbaristas)
submitted by gracemayhernandez
So I live in Austin, Texas where we have a fairly large deaf community. I work at starbucks and we have a fair amount of deaf customers. We are always happy to serve them! Usually our deaf customers will order through the mobile app and come pick it up. However, today our mobile order and pay was turned off because we are short staffed and we are also drive-thru only because of this pandemic.
So today I was working at the drive-thru window and a man came up and informed me that he was deaf. Okay no big deal. I smile and nod. He then types his order into his phone and shows it to me. I have had transactions like this before and so I read his order and went to grab a venti hot cup so that i could write down what cream and sugar he wanted. A moment later when I turned around I went to grab our I-pad, to type that we had no more cheese danishes, I could tell he was getting frustrated. I showed him the I-pad and he began to to speak sign language frantically. I think he was saying that he was deaf and repeating that he couldn’t heat me. (I was saying things like “I’m sorry” and “one moment”, but nothing that was important. I was assuming he was lip reading because I thought they were pretty simple words that they must notice a lot) I know this was probably when I made him really upset.
He then mouthed what I think was “Well what do you have?” And kinda shrugged his hands and shoulders. We are low on a lot of pastries so I looked up at my board to see what was written down that we were low on. I started to type it out and it was taking me a little longer than he expected. He then became really angry and signed something to me really fast and very angrily sped off.
I feel really bad. How could I have handled this situation better? What did I do wrong? I know that we are supposed to cater to customers, and deaf people are of course still valuable customers. In the past few months I have even wanted to learn sign language so that I can communicate better with the people that I often see and make our connection more smooth and “meaningful.” Please help me put on this.
So today I was working at the drive-thru window and a man came up and informed me that he was deaf. Okay no big deal. I smile and nod. He then types his order into his phone and shows it to me. I have had transactions like this before and so I read his order and went to grab a venti hot cup so that i could write down what cream and sugar he wanted. A moment later when I turned around I went to grab our I-pad, to type that we had no more cheese danishes, I could tell he was getting frustrated. I showed him the I-pad and he began to to speak sign language frantically. I think he was saying that he was deaf and repeating that he couldn’t heat me. (I was saying things like “I’m sorry” and “one moment”, but nothing that was important. I was assuming he was lip reading because I thought they were pretty simple words that they must notice a lot) I know this was probably when I made him really upset.
He then mouthed what I think was “Well what do you have?” And kinda shrugged his hands and shoulders. We are low on a lot of pastries so I looked up at my board to see what was written down that we were low on. I started to type it out and it was taking me a little longer than he expected. He then became really angry and signed something to me really fast and very angrily sped off.
I feel really bad. How could I have handled this situation better? What did I do wrong? I know that we are supposed to cater to customers, and deaf people are of course still valuable customers. In the past few months I have even wanted to learn sign language so that I can communicate better with the people that I often see and make our connection more smooth and “meaningful.” Please help me put on this.
cafeconleche97 4 points 3y ago
I've often heard that deaf people don't like it when people assume they can read lips so that likely did annoying him but honestly in this case I think its also worth remembering deaf people are humans and just like any other human (and customers) they can be impatient! there are some youtube accounts and videos that have ASL for service workers which might be worth starting off but becoming fluent in ASL is pretty hard so it may be worth it to just put effort into learning "starbucks ASL vocabulary/questions." Anyways, you are the one working through a pandemic so people can have their sugary fraps which is ultimately really not an essential service. He should've had some more patience but it is also a good idea to learn ASL.
BlazedCollegeKids 1 points 3y ago
I learned the ABCs of asl along with a few other words. Unless you went above and beyond and learned that you can’t really have done anything more except type on the IPad , or hand written on a piece of paper , don’t worry. I wonder what he signed angrily ...
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