Workers Reveal What It's Really Like To Work In The Chick-Fil-A Drive-Thru

We've all been there. A craving for hot, buttery chicken hits you suddenly while you're out driving, maybe along with the ravenous hunger for some crispy waffle fries. It's time to hit the Chick-fil-A drive-thru ... along with seemingly everyone else in town. More often than not, you'll find yourself in a long line of cars with a bunch of hungry chicken lovers whenever you hit up the popular fast food chain. Yet, somehow, that line never seems to take very long to get through. After only a short time, you've got that delicious chicken sandwich right there in your hands, no matter how daunting the drive-thru looked when you first pulled up. 

That's all thanks to the Chick-fil-A drive-thru workers who work extremely hard and very quickly to make that kind of magic happen. They do it every day, no matter how busy things get, how difficult the customers are, or how many extra sauce packets you forget to add to your order. So, exactly how do they do it? How do they stand the pressure? And how do they keep a smile on their face the whole time? We've taken to the internet to see what employees themselves have to say about the job. Here's a look at what it's really like to work in the Chick-fil-A drive-thru.

Working any fast food drive-thru comes with the grueling task of taking order after order from hungry customers who may be distracted, in a hurry, or otherwise simply bad at communicating just what it is that they want. The same is true at Chick-fil-A, whether the employees are taking orders over the speaker or on outside duty, where they must walk up to cars and take orders face-to-face.

Just imagine the frustration of this scenario, laid out by an employee on Reddit. You ask "Can I have a name for your order?" and get the response, "yeah I'll get a number 2." Or how about this from the same worker, who complains that "the person driving the vehicle doesn't relay what the other people are saying and so I have to crane down to hear after being stiff from being in the cold for hours."  Mask wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic has only complicated matters of communication, according to a worker posting on Quora. At least Chick-fil-A's still successful during the pandemic.

At Chick-fil-A, customer service and a caring attitude reign above all, says Business Insider, but that doesn't mean it always comes easy. As one employee put it on Quora, "we've got that 5.0 customer service so I respect the guest because I care. That doesn't mean my blood isn't boiling from the inside."

There's a good chance anytime you hit up the Chick-fil-A drive-thru that you're going to find yourself in a line full of cars. Most of the time, that line moves pretty quickly, something on which Chick-fil-A prides itself. But backups do happen. As drive-thru workers hustle to get everyone moving along as quickly as possible, sometimes it's the customers themselves that are responsible for holding things up. Their antics go way beyond just taking forever to decide on an order. 

For one, everyone seemingly has a phone glued to their hand these days and some aren't afraid to use it in the drive-thru lane despite phone usage being a drive-thru faux pas. Chick-fil-A workers mentioned serious frustration when trying to communicate with customers in the drive-thru who are engrossed in their phone instead of paying attention to the person taking their order (via Spoon University). It's no fun when everyone has to repeat themselves a bunch, and even worse when there's an issue with the order, all of which holds up the line.

Another potential slow down? Not having your payment method ready to go. As one Chick-fil-A worker put it, it's super annoying "when people take forever to get payment ready. Like 'oh let me just grab my card. It's in the back filed under section Z of my third wallet in my 8th purse'" (via Reddit).

It's no secret that Chick-fil-A leads the drive-thru game. According to QSR Magazine, Chick-fil-A is a consistent winner of its industry-wide Drive-Thru Performance Study, frequently taking the top spot for order accuracy and customer service. However, even the restaurant's proponents must admit that the chain rarely scores well on drive-thru speed. 

Yet, a little wait is worth it for the service and food to many customers. There's a method to this successful madness. Each worker has a particular duty to fill, starting with the employees who walk up to your car, take your order, and send it to the kitchen via a tablet computer. Next, an employee with a card reader confirms orders and takes payments. Finally, you drive up to the window where another worker hands you your completed order (via Reddit). 

As a customer, this process means hot, fresh, delicious chicken in your hands in a matter of minutes, no matter how winding the line to the window is. Behind the scenes, this efficient and enjoyable experience is the result of a very specific, diversified system that the employees must learn to perfect. There's a lot of technology involved, as well as a team effort to keep track of all the orders, keep traffic flowing, and keep up with the leapfrogging between lanes, according to advice passed along between Chick-fil-A drive-thru workers on Reddit.

If you're wondering how Chick-fil-A manages to operate as quickly and efficiently as it does, many workers, like those on Reddit, will tell you it all comes down to communication. When you've got hundreds of cars zooming through multiple drive-thru lanes, it's no simple task to make sure food comes out for cars in the right order. Team members outside taking orders, those in the kitchen putting together bags of food, and the ones making the final handoff, all have to be communicating constantly or things can quickly go from an organized frenzy to just plain chaos. 

That's not always easy, especially with a big team. Some Chick-fil-A locations can have an entire team just working in the drive-thru operation (via Reddit). So, next time you see the drive-three workers on headsets and walkie-talkies like a secret operative, rest assured they are there to serve one mission — making sure you get your chicken.

When you're a Chick-fil-A employee working the drive-thru, you never know what you're going to get. With hundreds of cars a day on average passing through to alleviate their hunger, you're likely to witness the good, the bad, and the ugly of humanity. But there's also the chance that you might make someone's day, as has happened many times in the Chick-fil-A drive-thru lane.

One Chick-fil-A employee from North Carolina went viral, even landing a spotlight from the TODAY show, for his kind and cheerful attitude in the drive-thru, after a customer shared a clip on Facebook of him doling out compliments, fist bumps, and positivity while taking orders. The woman who filmed the video told TODAY that "hundreds of people have commented that they have had the same exact experience with Jeremiah," adding that "he's left his mark on so many."

In another instance of Chick-fil-A cheer, a drive-thru worker in Indianapolis made the local FOX59 news for showing off his dance moves while directing traffic in the drive-thru line, leaving customers smiling, laughing, or dancing right along with him in their cars. And one Chick-fil-A worker in Georgia is now called a hero after he helped save a child from choking while in the drive-thru lane (via CNN).