One of the Mexican fast food shops requires a verbatim of the order takers greeting, as they are required to say a specific phrase every time. I usually record the entire drive thru process, which helps verify my stopwatch timing at each stop.
Last month, I didn't really catch the greeting clearly, but upon review on my recorder I was able to figure it out and verify against their menu, which item he was suggesting I try that day.
Tonight, the same thing happened. The young lady zipped gracefully through the greeting and I didn't fully comprehend the suggestion. No problem, it's recorded.
Problem. I got home and played it back and had no idea what she just said. I asked my wife to listen in and she couldn't figure it out either. Big problem! I called the restaurant, hoping they would use the same greeting. Nope. I asked if they had any specials tonight. Not the one that was in the greeting, that's for sure!
Two things were in my favor. One, is that the restaurant is literally two minutes from my house. Secondly, it was a bonused shop, so if I go back and get a token item, it's still a pretty decent pay day. So, I went back, again recording and the same girl greeted me in the same way. I still couldn't figure it out, so I asked her to repeat it. She did, slowly and precisely. It sounded nothing like how she said it previously, but in comparing the recordings, yeah, I can pick it out.
Lesson learned. Ask to repeat, even if you're recording.

It is so annoying when fast food restaurants insist that their employees use long, silly greetings. It is very frustrating, especially for people who are hard of hearing, when you can't understand a word they say since they have to rush to say such a long greeting.

When I get an employee that speaks at super-speed, I play the recording back at slow speed. That does it most of the time.

Having never done this shop, you can’t just tell the MSC that the employee was unintelligible? If they want real customer feedback, that’s what they’re going to get

I never make a strong effort to interpret what is said. It’s not necessary and not helpful. The client should know that staff are speaking in an unintelligible way. Even if I can get it after processing, I will still report it as too fast or whatever.

I also don’t record my shops unless the client requests it. I can’t imagine the work of going back over a whole shop in detail to give someone easier feedback.

I do a restaurant shop that requires a pre-visit call, and they want the person's name. This last time, between her rushing through the greeting and the enormous amount of background noise, I couldn't understand her name at all. I decided that it would be useless to ask her to repeat her name, and just reported that she spoke too quickly and there was too much noise for me to understand her name. No problem. But when Chipotle was shopped, you had to ask them to repeat their names. Once or twice, I couldn't understand the name even after they repeated it!

I agree that the end client should know if the greeting they are asking the order takers to give isn't realistic and/or that the order takers are rushing through it so quickly, nobody can understand it!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2019 03:07PM by BirdyC.

I've been known to quote the greeting: "Hello, welcome to (unintelligible)."

Then in comments, I mention the employee spoke so quickly that I could not understand the greeting. In the one I do, there's also an opportunity to check off that there was too much static, I could not hear the speaker at all, and other options.

I, too, agree that long greetings are time wasting.

Even when I'm not on a shop, if someone on the phone says something too fast for me to understand, I always just simply say, "I'm sorry, but you spoke so fast, I have no idea what you just said. Could you please slow down and repeat that for my sake?" And it always works, so if the same thing happens when I'm on a shop, it feels natural for me to ask them to repeat what was just said.

I do exactly as guysmom does. Works 99% of the time.

There was a few times while I was working at Burger King that I would say, "Welcome to Burger King. Would you like to try a Whopper value meal today?" if I was startled awake.

JW, don't you think the client needs to know that their front line employees are hard to understand? The average customer will not have a playback option.

@Hoju wrote:

Having never done this shop, you can’t just tell the MSC that the employee was unintelligible? If they want real customer feedback, that’s what they’re going to get

@guysmom wrote:

Even when I'm not on a shop, if someone on the phone says something too fast for me to understand, I always just simply say, "I'm sorry, but you spoke so fast, I have no idea what you just said. Could you please slow down and repeat that for my sake?" And it always works, so if the same thing happens when I'm on a shop, it feels natural for me to ask them to repeat what was just said.

I normally do the same and report in the comments that the employee spoke rapidly and/or not clearly and that I had to ask him/her to repeat his/her name. In the particular case I referenced, it was so noisy in the background I just gave up and reported what happened. The MSC gave me no trouble over it. It seems that's what the OP was worried about--flak from the MSC if he/she was unable to report the verbatim greeting.