I Love In-N-Out Burger

Cheeseburger (double double) and fries from In-N-Out Burger

This isn’t the unofficial In-N-Out Burger blog. However, the second most popular post on this blog, after the one I wrote on the purpose of Twitter, is this one on In-N-Out Burger coming to Irving, Texas. I also wrote another blog post on In-N-Out Burger and its popularity. But really, this isn’t the In-N-Out Burger blog, officially or unofficially.

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Customer Service Matters

Some may wonder why In-N-Out Burger is so popular. Everyone knows their food is amazing, but what else do they get right? I’ll tell you what they get right, MY ORDER! They get my order right everysingletimeIplaceanorder. In these terrible economic times, the businesses that thrive or just stay alive are the ones who place a high importance in pleasing the customer.

In all of the In-N-Out Burger hype I heard before the In-Out-Burger opened down the street from me, none of it had to do with great customer service. All I heard was, “In-N-Out Burger has the best food ever!”

I am impressed with their food, but more impressed that they’ve never messed up my order. A big thanks goes out to Gil for managing the workers in a way that inspires perfection. A big thanks also goes out to the In-N-Out crew who opened the store and trained the new workers.

Good customer service stops identity theft

I also eat a lot at Wendy’s. Oh my, could I tell you stories about Wendy’s and their customer service. They’ve never been rude to me, but sometimes great customer service just means GETTING MY ORDER RIGHT. In-N-Out Burger has never messed up my order in what I believe is fifteen visits. Wendy’s has sometimes messed up my order twice on the same visit. That’s happened more than once. That’s also happened at Burger King and at McDonalds. The McDonalds experience was over 30 years ago. They got my order wrong twice and my Uncle was very mad at me for insisting McDonalds give me what I ordered. I’ve disliked McDonalds ever since. I’ve passed this onto my son and he will probably pass it onto his son too. We visit on occasion, but it isn’t our family favorite.

Great Customer Service Creates Return Customers Even When…

In-N-Out Burger sells fries I am not very fond of and that’s putting it kindly. I wanted my money back the first time I tasted them. The second time I tasted them. And the third time too. But I forgive them. For Jesus’ sake, In-N-Out Burger can’t be heaven on earth or there would be no reason for Jesus to have died. So even with fries I don’t like, I return time after time to In-N-Out Burger.

In-N-Out Burger is not a place where one goes In-N-Out very quickly. It is most likely due to their extreme popularity. So I forgive them for this too. My trips to the In-N-Out Burger drive thru lane make me want to rename the place, “In-N-Idle So Long You Put Another Hole in the Ozone Then Out,” but as I said, I forgive them and I will continue to visit.

In-N-Out Burger has pictures of burgers with what I swear is leaf lettuce even though they don’t use leaf lettuce on their burgers. That’s just a little bit of confusion for me and not too troubling. But my first few trips there I ordered a burger and asked for ice berg lettuce, some cashiers didn’t even know what that was. Finally, someone told me they don’t use leaf lettuce. That’s great, cause I hate it.

Even with those three strikes against In-N-Out Burger, I will return time and time again, because Gil and the training crew have done a great job of inspiring their workers to be as perfect as they possibly can. They get my order right! How about yours? I’d love to know your experiences.

Resources

If you want to know more about providing great customer service or read about other great examples of companies doing right by their customers, check out the following blog posts:

21 Customer Service Tips from Real Life Examples

10 Examples of Shockingly-Excellent Customer Service

Here’s a post on how to give great customer service:
The Ten Commandments of Great Customer Service

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A Great Place to Work

As awesome as In-N-Out Burger treats their employees, probably one of the reasons their employess rock, I’d love to work for them too. My ultimate In-N-Out Job, to be a workplace chaplain. Hey, they already have some Bible verses on their cups.

As for customer service, I know you agree that it is very important. Please leave some of your wonderful customer service experiences below. And of course, you can leave bad examples too.