Is customer service at Rockford drive-thrus on the decline?

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) – Wednesday is National Drive-Thru Day, a day to recognize a service Americans have been taking advantage of since the 1930s.

The question of the day Wednesday was whether the level of service at drive-thru lanes is on the decline.

Rockford-area customers and fast-food workers are a bit divided on the issue.

“It depends if the person likes their job,” said Loves Park resident Gloria Stone.

Stone works as a recruiter and sees both sides of the argument about whether local workers hold how they treat their customers in high regard.

“It’s hard to find people who haven’t been job-to-job or with long tenure,” Stone said. “So, I understand the obstacle of keeping people there to work and enjoying their job.”

As a consumer, Stone sees her share of customer service problems—a forgotten milkshake here, a botched order there. She says even when customers are right, they don’t’ make always make the right decisions about how to resolve issues.

“It’s not like they’re doing it on purpose,” she said. “I don’t know any individual in this world that would take the time to miss a fork [just] to upset you.”

Those with fast-food experience say mistakes happen, and that people working drive-thrus, which are often understaffed, are just trying to do their jobs.

“In fast food, you’re supposed to move quickly,” said Amber Gruner, who worked in the industry for two years. “But, there’s only so much you can do when you’ve got a whole drive through and only people do to it.”

Gruner said she was thrown to the wolves more than once.

“I’ve been the one, single person on a shift covering a drive-thru that wrapped around [the building] before,” she said. “It’s not easy.”

And yet the complaints kept coming.

“Most of the time, if people are having issues at fast food it’s because they’re impatient, or they get attitudes,” Stone said.

According the 2023 National Customer Rage Survey from Customer Care Measurement and Consulting (CCMC) and the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, nearly 75% of Americans said they were unhappy with a product or service at some point during the year.

While the study was not limited to restaurants, experts say rude service reps was the No. 1 complaint among those surveyed.

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