Why fast food service in NJ feels less human than ever

Sometimes you have to wonder if the problem with customer service in some locations is due to bad management and policies, or if it's due to the fact that we don't interact with one another as much as we used to.

Take fast food restaurants, for example. It wasn't that long ago when you went inside and talked to a human to place your order. Nowadays it's all about automated ordering on touch screens.

Today's customer service

I want to believe it's the latter, that technology is the reason we're becoming more awkward with one another. Although in this particular incident, it could also be partly on the company for poor training.

About a month ago during the holiday break, I took my boys up to the northwestern part of the state for a nice winter hike. On our way home we figured, why not take a break and stop at the first fast food restaurant.

ALSO READ: Quality changes may be coming for popular fast food chain in NJ

Now this particular restaurant had those self serve kiosks set up to order. We figured, no big deal. Just put the order in and wait.

An awkward experience

After waiting for quite some time we finally got our food. Unfortunately, they got the order wrong, but it's the way the employees interacted with us that I had a bigger issue with.

When I told the employee about it, he asked "what do you want me to do?" I mean, we paid for something we didn't get, so the right thing would be to correct the order, which is what I told him to do in a polite way.

He then went back into the kitchen. About 10 minutes later, he came back. But before giving us the correct order, he reached onto our tray to take away the items they got wrong.

Yes, the partially eaten burger that was missing it's bacon and lettuce, and the wrong sized fries (they gave us small instead of medium). And when I say he just reached in, he just reached in.

Lack of communicating

No apology or anything for the error. It was just a very awkward interaction with someone who didn't seem to know how to talk with customers.

And that's what got me wondering. Is it really the employees fault that they had no idea how to interact with us? Makes me miss the old days when you had to talk to a human when ordering.

The above post reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host & content contributor Mike Brant. Any opinions expressed are his own.