Situation
12:45pm: only a little amount of time to get lunch between meetings. Solution? McDonalds around the corner. Drive Thru makes it easy.
Two entrances to the drive thru causing both lines of cars to merge. Left Lane. Right Lane. Left Lane. My turn…. brakes. Full Stop. Was I just cut off in the drive thru line? Yes. That just happened.
I can understand your hangry, but damn. The name of your business is on the side of the van.
It must have been a bad day for this guy. He cuts off someone in the drive thru line. Just made eye contact and kept on cruising. I know that feeling when you start to get angry and selfish because of your hunger. Being hungry and angry( hangry) while driving is a poor choice.
Little did he know that I would notice what was on the side of his van. The name of his company. Being in marketing, I see this looks like the branding of a small business. Being a former employee of a telecom company, I know the business number listed is probably his cell phone.
Yes, it crossed my mind to call the guy and say, “hey I’m the guy sitting behind you in the drive thru line,” and just wait for his reaction.
Better Off Blank. If you can’t make a good impression…
Instead, I thought this would make a much better blog post about how much your reputation can help or hurt when you’re least thinking about it. You never know who is observing.
This guy put the time and money into doing a good job of vehicle branding (which creates a great rolling billboard and puts your customers at ease when you drive up), yet he’s counter acting this by being a dick in the drive thru line.
It feels while writing this that I might be blowing this out of proportion, but its with good intentions. Small business relies on reputation and referrals more than any other type of business, particularly those small businesses with less than 5 employees. Having a blunder can hit harder than a large company. Working with small businesses on their marketing strategies, I know that most of these business owners count each customer as valuable and want each dollar to matter. Don’t flush that away because you need to be one car ahead in the drive thru at McDonalds.