Early one morning Harry found himself hungry, alone, and lost in the land of no customer service as he stumbled into a donut shop. It was a rainy, gray morning and he was tired. Cars were parked at odd angles because the lines on the lot had long ago faded. The parking lot was dirty and the trashcans overflowed.
Inside were disorganized lines of people, most wearing parkas, waiting to buy donuts. There appeared to be no systematic way of serving customers. The bold ones stepped up and demanded service while the more timid (or courteous) hoped for attention from the clerk. Harry waited for about seven minutes as the two clerks repeatedly took orders, disappeared into the back room, reappeared, and took peoples' money. All along Harry observed the uncleared, coffee-stained counter where he soon would sit to eat his donut. It hadn't been cleared recently, and it apparently wasn't going to be cleared now. Customers groaned, as the advertised two-for-one sale didn't apply when they ordered donuts of different prices, and the clerks explained with bored, unsmiling expressions.
Probes
1. Assume you are the owner of this donut shop. What would you do? What specific behaviors would you seek to change?
2. Focus on the problems of slow service. What could be done, specifically, to improve this?
3. To what extent might the slow service be a source of employee irritation and dissatisfaction? Explain.