If people were paid more, but most of all Respected at their jobs, the quality of service would go up. At McD’s I knew I was just a cog in the Patty Machine, but I learned a valuable lesson in How To Treat People, with kindness and respect. You get what you give. :O) Ophelia

This is not a failure on DQs part at anything. Amusing, sure. Well-told, somewhat. But this does not represent a failure by Dairy Queen.

1. The manager handled the situation supremely well.

2. What sort of defect rate do you think TWO (2) burgers in the lifetime of an average DQ management career represents? Thousands of one (1) percent at best — .000001 maybe? That would surpass the most stringent of manufacturing QA standards, including almost all milspec.

I was a pretty hopeless employee in my 6-week stint (as a 16-year-old) at McDonald’s back in the early 1990s, but even I managed to never forget putting the burger in the bun.

Any my recollection is that there weren’t too many of forming the assembly process.

Colin — Thank you for keeping a critical eye on things here. Sometimes the attempt at illustrating a point works and sometimes it doesn’t. The underlying reason for the post was to remind businesses to not forget to listen to their internal audiences about potential issues that might hinder their performance. Perhaps you’re correct in assessing I didn’t accomplish that well and I thank you for the assertion.

However, I’m going to disagree with you on the rate of error issue on products. Messing up my order happens. (Despite this incident, I like DQ and will continue to go back there, even if they hit the onion rings right only about 50 percent of the time.) Your point is certainly valid in terms of condiments, drink specifications and the like. But I don’t care if you’re a teenager working for minimum wage … you don’t serve someone a burger without the burger. One time is too many.

Perhaps this is a streak of customer service anal retentiveness coming out of me, but your core product (not DQs but the core of this particular order) is why people pay you money. Dress it up wrong, okay. Forget the product altogether … not so.

Minus the product testing possible on non-consumables, this would be like Ford churning out F-150s and one of them didn’t have an engine.

Yes, the assembly of a DQ burger relies heavily upon people and human error happens. But if your people can’t recognize a burger without the burger, I can find 1,000 capable, minimum wage teenagers ready to replace them.

This manager has seen two beefless burgers out of how many? 10,000? 50,000? We’d all be lucky if the rate of error for most products was this low.

And I really don’t see how this experience relates in any way to the point of your blog. Seriously, writing about your wife’s hamburger? Where’s the beef in this post?