Today was kind of a mess as 3 of my peak partners were borrowed from another store (lovely people, worked great, just stressful trying to run a floor without knowing them, their strengths/areas for improvement, etc.)

I was a closing shift for two years and moved to mornings a few months ago. I work 40+ hours in the mornings every week.

Anyway, it was about 10 AM so the middle of peak for us on a Sunday and this girl pulls up to the drive thru and orders her drink, but says “i need you to not make it until i’m at the window.” to which my DTO partner looked at me confused.

I told her no, we can’t do that, that’s not how this works and we’re in the middle of peak which my partner relayed to the customer in the most customer service-esque way possible.

The customer then got an attitude, saying “seriously? They do it for me all the time why can’t you just make my drink how I want” then proceeded to say that she didn’t want the drink then and sped off.

Literally less than a minute later the store phone rings and I knew immediately it would be her. I answered my usual way and she asks for a manager and I tell her I’m the shift lead at the moment and she relays the event to me, saying it was horrible customer service.

I explained to her nicely and as clearly as possible the reasons we won’t wait for her to get to the window before beginning her drink:

1) That’s not how a drive thru works. the point of a drive thru is speed, we’re timed and expected to get every car in and out of line in a matter of seconds.

2) She was in a line with 4 cars ahead of her, and a consistent line behind. It would be about 2 minutes before she got to the window (our times weren’t great.... we’re so understaffed) which the cars behind her would also have to wait. if i took the extra minute to make her drink at the window, that would add on to the wait time of everyone else behind her.

3) Bar partners work in sequence. It’s the only way to keep things moving smoothly, it’s the way we’re trained to do things, it’s COMPANY STANDARD. I can’t ring your order through, pull it off to the side, interrupting sequence and setting other orders back even more just for you.

I couldn’t give her special treatment at the cost of my stores efficiency and other people’s time, and i explained that to her pretty thoroughly. I even offered the alternative- come inside to order to ensure you get your drink as soon as it’s ready (I assume she wanted it as fresh as possible??)

But she wasn’t having any of it. She went on to tell me that my sole job is to make the customer happy no matter what. She also claimed that she orders it this way at my store every morning and has never been refused before but i’ve never seen her before, nor had either of the two openers i work with multiple times a week who were also there. I work 5-130 5 days a week and this was the first time i had ever heard it.

“as a manager this is your job it’s your job to remember the customer is always right.”
Not when it goes against standard.
Not when i’m being yelled at.
Not when i’m being told my job description by anyone other than the person who employed me.

After explaining it all again, apologizing (as insincerely sincere as possible), and once again offering the alternative, she cut me off again to say she was at the window and demanded that i go make her drink immediately and give it to her.

This caused more confusion and totally threw off the rest of the baristas since she said earlier she didn’t want anything and drove away from the speaker box.

Ultimately it just amounted to more yelling at us and arguing and our next car having to wait 6 minutes before reaching the window.

Super inconvenient and a huge setback, but i, being a person i am, can’t help but wonder if i was in the wrong at all. I apologized, explained, and offered an alternative because i’m so tired of people thinking they deserve special treatment and being so entitled, ESPECIALLY when it interferes with the business and other customers experiences.

Please let me know what y’all think, i’ve been a SSV for two and a half years and have gone through hell and back with the company but am still super hard on myself when it comes to this kind of stuff.