Chick-Fil-A at Dogwood Mall here in Flowood has got to be the most efficient fast-food restaurant I’ve ever seen. Daily, lunchtime lines at the drive-through wrap double around the building. Even so, the wait is only a few minutes. The restaurant posts workers in the parking lot with touch-pads who work the line, take your order, and run your credit card before you even get to the ordering kiosk. Rarely does one ever see that line standing still. What’s more, the service is friendly. At other fast-food restaurants, it’s generally a surprise to even be acknowledged, let alone treated with respect.

So why does this particular Chick-fil-a go the extra mile? Others don’t. Certainly, this is not a trend with fast-food establishments in general…at least, not in the state of Mississippi. So why is this restaurant going to all the trouble?

I don’t have an inside track on the goings-on at the place, but my guess is that the manager understands that dining out is about more than just the transaction. It’s about the total experience. My experience- and therefore my relationship- with the restaurant begins when I turn my car into the parking lot and ends when I exit it. If I have to sit and wait for 20 minutes only to be met with dull, insincere service, then it really doesn’t matter how good the food is. I will have had a lousy experience, and I will think twice about returning.

In an earlier entry here on this blog, I addressed some characteristics of a shallow brand. First on this list was that the “focus is on the transaction, not the experience.”

Kudos to the manager for understanding the value of the total experience, and for going to extra mile to make sure that the experience is positive. Whoever this guy or gal might be, he/she is a true ambassador for the Chick-fil-a brand.