Effective communication at Sonic Drive-in
At Sonic Drive-in, the most important skill required of the employees is effective communication. On 20th June 2014, the Sonic Drive-in store in North Babylon, New York, was faced with a big challenge in communication. The store uses an intercom system to relay messages from the clients to the service-persons. Customers use the intercom communication channel to make orders to the servicemen, and they deliver orders through carhops. The company has specialized in fast delivery of their customer’s orders to create a distinction between Sonic Drive-in and its competitors. On a fateful day, the intercom communication system failed in the New York store, making it quite difficult for the service delivery personnel to satisfy the needs of the customers.
The management in the store faced a dilemma on whether to close down the store or attempt to accommodate the situation by allocating some human assets to take the orders manually. The management decided to pick the latter option, and twelve of the delivery men were placed in the reception room to take orders and relay the messages to the servicemen. The personnel in the store had to shift from the automated communication system in the ordering station to a manual system that threatened to slow down the delivery of foods to the clients. The efficiency in communication between the employees stationed in the ordering area and the service delivery men was quite remarkable. The most remarkable thing about the effectiveness of the communication skills portrayed by the employees was that most of the customers were not even aware that the intercom system had broken down.
Reasons for effectiveness in communication
One of the reasons that the situation portrayed effective communication is a fast response on the part of the management in the company. When the situation arose, the management of the company was quick to deliver the relevant information to the employees to shift from the automated communication system to manually executed communication. This performance level was particularly remarkable because the personnel in the company have never experienced such a situation.
While the majority of the employees were certain that the changes in the communication system would fail to deliver the required results, they went ahead to attempt the difficult task. A change in the communication system may influence failure in business operations in the company, but the employees at Sonic Drive-in executed the perfect change from an automated system to a manual ordering system (Guffey & Loewy, 2010). Their remarkable success was commendable in this case. The second reason that the communication was effective was the satisfaction portrayed by the customers. On a normal day, the automated ordering channel allows the servicemen to deliver in record time, but the manual system was bound to influence slower delivery of orders.
The company avoided delays, and the majority of the customers did not even notice any changes in the time it took to deliver their orders. The third reason that revealed the efficiency in communication is the cohesion revealed by the employees in the company. Working under a manual system in the fast food store would have been a big challenge if the employees did not have a good rapport with each other (Hrebiniak, 2013). The business day was as productive as it would have been on a normal day with the intercom communication system working properly.
References
Guffey, M. E., & Loewy, D. (2010). Business communication: Process and product. Massachusetts: Cengage Learning. Web.
Hrebiniak, L. (2013). Making strategy work: Leading effective execution and change. New Jersey: FT Press. Web.