Let me begin by saying I am a BIG fan of the Panera Bread chain, I frequent the location near my office, and having one close to home was exciting! Being that this one has only been open for a short period of time, I have visited twice... the first time service was slow, so I figured growing pains, they'll get better at it! My food was delicious and exactly as I expected from Panera, and the same goes for the other two meals purchased during that visit... now lets talk about my most recent visit.
I'm going to summarize as much as possible...
I decided to be efficient as I don't like to waste time... and I called in an order for 4, the guy that answered the phone seemed new, handed the phone off to someone as if I was calling his house and asked to talk to his friend. I let it go, but this is where it began... The woman was slow in taking my order, and let's just say that after a looong talk and a few "can you please hold so that I can check on that", I got off the phone at 3:19pm, this is on a Saturday. She asked for 20 minutes to have my order ready, so I figured perfect... food will be ready at 3:40... I showed up at 3:46 and waited about 3 minutes for the woman at the phone order counter to finalize the order for the customer ahead of me. She then tells me to hold on as she answers the phone and takes an order for someone else, just under 7 minutes. About 10 minutes just waiting... mind you the line at the front counter is now GONE! All waiting for their food.
So I figure, I'll just add some pastries to my order and be gone, what the heck Im up-selling myself... I promptly paid, after she went to look for a pen to sign the receipt, and waited another 4 minutes for my two muffins, and I got handed the muffins... "excuse me, what about my food?" "Oh go wait over there" I'm told as she points to the pick up counter... and then it gets better! About 5 dine-in orders and 3 take-out orders... fulfilled... mind you these people ordered AFTER I got there. So I ask the "shift manager" Destiny who is working hard behind the counter, "Excuse me is my order ready, I called it in at 3:20 and I've been standing here for about 10 minutes (about 40 minutes since I got off the phone now)... she says "Oh it cause we're busy" without even looking at me... thats when I had enough "I said its been 40 minutes since I ordered my food, how much longer will it take?" She didn't acknowledge me, simply shouted orders at staff and a while later, my order was thrown together, placed in a bag, and she said "There it is..." WOW!!!! Excuse me for bothering you, is exactly what I wanted to say, but since I had 3 others waiting for food at home, and my mom was with me, I decided to play it cool. I walk to a table to check my order... ( I wish I'd taken pictures) my order was complete, but a DISASTER, all thrown together. As I'm noticing a half-sandwich is missing, a kitchen employee walks up to me with what is supposed to be a sandwich, looking more like a Mc-Donalds egg-mcmuffin that was barely wrapped and said in a coy demeanor, "sorry for the wait, we forgot your sandwich" I'm sure she was embarrassed to be a part of that circus...I tried to be polite and thanked her, and let her know this service was completely unacceptable, she offered me a free pastry, but come on... a free pastry for walking out of there 56 minutes after I placed the order... I've maybe waited that long for a fine-dining restaurant so that my steak is cooked properly, not Panera, not even a pizza.
To sum it up:
Slow service
Lack of communication from staff and shift manager
The manager had no leadership skills with her staff
No customer service experience from the staff whatsoever!!!!!
Sloppy food presentation
Bread was stale
Maybe they should limit the amount of customers to 10 an hour so that they can learn how to run this place efficiently.
There are plenty of food options in this area... I'll continue to enjoy Panera for lunch at work! read more