I've put a lot of thought into this so forgive me if it's long.
I've been in Portland for the majority of the passed 5 years. I've gotten into my routine and know a lot of the baristas at various Portland Dutch Bros locations and it's through them that I've come up with my very complicated and signature drink. I've had rough experiences from time to time where my drink wasn't made properly or something just wasn't right, but no matter which Dutch Bros I'd go to, the Majority of the time, (About 91% of the time) they can get it right without blinking an eye.
Flash forward to about March of 2016 and moving back to Hood River, (my hometown by the way) and sharing my disappointment on a consistent level mistakes about 91% of the time....and yet I still kept going. (You'd think I'd stop going.) But as a coach and as a teacher, I still had faith that at SOME point, they'd get my drink right! I'd finally gotten to the point that I had to quit drinking what I normally drank for fear that they would mess it up and got a basic kicker instead. I couldn't ask for whip cream because about 70-75% of the time I wouldn't get it and because the line is long enough thru the drive thru, I wasn't going to make anyone wait another second of time, due to them not hearing/forgetting my request.
About a month ago I expressed my continued disappointment to what I believe was a shift manager and she came up with the great idea of having my Portland connections write down specifically what I get and how to make it. I'd made the comment to the Portland Baristas that the Hood River Dutch Bros was the "Wild West" of the Gorge where they do whatever they want to...The manager at one of these locations off of 187th and Stark in Gresham felt soo bad for the continued mistakes in Hood River that she refused to let me pay for the next two drinks I ordered and wouldn't even accept a tip from me because she felt that I shouldn't have had to deal with that kind of disappoint for that long without any changes.
After I came back from Portland I showed the multiple cards with the ingredients and how to properly build the drink. There was a very kind and very friendly young lady that I felt, really listened and empathized with my complaints and really challenged her crew to do this right for me. I had told her that not ONCE in the past 3 months had this Dutch Bros gotten this drink right and she was going to do what she could to get this right. Sure enough, it came out PERFECTLY!!!! Whip and all! And as I was pulling out, she stopped what she was doing with another customer and turned to me and I shared my Excitement with her saying, "YOU DID IT PERFECTLY!!! FIRST TIME IN 3 MONTHS! THANK YOU!"
The next day I attempted the same thing, by even bringing the cards with the order and how to do it and unfortunately they failed miserably. They even spent about 10 minutes looking over the cards, bringing everyone on shift over and sharing it and debating what was going on. You'd think that these young people where about to study for the SAT's and had the answer sheet in front of them. They studied and debated back and forth and came up with something that was soo off base, that I went to work and put in an 11 hour day and could not finish half of the drink they gave me...and BELIEVE ME, I'm not a guy that EVER likes to waste food or drinks!
I waited a day before going back and I even documented my journey in a SnapChat story, (follow me @rvaughan23), and I was fortunate enough to have the same young woman that took my order the day I got it right AND the Manager of the location. She looked at everything I brought and was kind and helpful enough to set the record straight on how this specific drink was made. She explained why the drinks consistently didn't taste correct and ordered her troops how to properly execute this plan! Sure enough, the drink was made PERFECTLY and she reported to me that she was going to send an email out to everyone directing them on how to do this moving forward. I've since gone back and they are 3 for 3 on successfully executing the drink as of 6/5/16!
It's a running joke now that I'm, "That guy." that always complains about my drink. But I made things very clear when I said I didn't want free drinks and that even though they were not being made correctly for an extended period of time, I was going to pay because in the end it's a service being preformed and these young individuals are probably not being paid that much more than minimum wage. Lots of love to all these guys for not only putting up with me for so long but for also making the efforts caring enough to want to make my drink correctly! Thank you guys for working soo hard!
BTW, the drink I get is a Medium, Iced, White Chocolate, Caramel Annihilator with Whip :) A mouthful I know! read more