I visited my local Dairy Queen, 6255 Central Portage, IN 46368, on 4/16/14 and was completely unsatisfied. The reason I am writing this first without addressing it with the franchise manager/owner is because I felt completely turned off from speaking with the staff.
My wife and I previously worked at a DQ and wanted a sweet treat on the listed night. We entered the establishment and observed numerous people standing in the east part of the lobby. Since this was the first time I visited the establishment, as it recently changed owners, I was completely unsatisfied with the flow and forceful service. We began to look over the menu and choose what we wanted. As there were no other customers in line and the employees noticed we were looking at the menu they yelled loudly and speedy "Can I help the next customer!" Though they were smiling and not yelling in a negative way, and this is great to show customers that you are ready and willing to take their order, it made us feel as if we were on their time and them not on ours. We felt like we had to choose what we wanted quickly and promptly ordered. While ordering, another female was holding a completed food item behind the counter and yelling out to the entire lobby area for the customer who ordered it. As a customer came up quickly it seemed like this place had to be fast passed for some reason even though it wasn't busy and there were approximately 6 employees working.
The female who took our order relayed it to another girl who yelled behind a wall to another employee what to make. This seems quite inefficient and off putting as a mistake in the Chinese telephone could be made. While waiting for our order, another male and female couple came up to us and asked if we were also off put by how forcefully speedy the employees made them feel. We agreed. They also stated that "It never use to be this way; and why is this big wall here." We said we didn't understand it either, as a group of customers waiting for their orders congregated near us because they had nowhere to go. As new customers came in it made them confused who was "in line" or "waiting for their order" as they had to ask other customers these questions. When I observed my wife's small blizzard finished and the female put on the lid I was relieved that our experience would be over soon.
I observed the yelling female behind the counter who was completing the orders take my small blizzard from another employee and begin to put a lid on it. Before she did she looked at it and told the employee to put more ice cream in it as it was not completely full. A few seconds later she produced my blizzard, put a lid on it, and handed me my bag of items and said have a nice day.
When I got home I opened my $3.60 small blizzard and observed it not full; empty approximately 1/2 inch from the top. I was disgusted that the service was so off putting and now I had paid almost $4.00 for a small blizzard that wasn't even full. As my wife finished her blizzard, which included chocolate chunks, she observed the bottom to be only vanilla ice cream and not completely blended.
I felt that the service should be more inviting and not so forceful. Also I think that if there are going to be so many employees and some that seem like "in charge" personnel then they should ensure that every item that goes out should be something that they themselves would be satisfied with if they were paying customers. It is sad to see because this establishment was not like this with the previous owner and management. We have decided that if we are going to visit another DQ near us we will not use this one. We want to feel like we can hangout, eat, and have a pleasant experience at this location.
The point of this letter is not to get anyone in trouble, but to express my opinions about mine and at least one other couple's experience at this location. I hope there are changes before summer or I feel this location will crash and burn when summer comes and baseball teams and such visit this establishment.
Concerned customer read more
