DQ® Drive-Thru Dilemma

Posted by Lisa Y under A Smile and a Story®,Dairy Queen,Eats & Treats,In the Community on

I received a customer letter at the corporate offices that made me chuckle. It seems a girl and her friend decided to go to their local DQ® restaurant’s drive-thru after a basketball game. Not surprisingly, they needed to peruse the drive-thru menu board for a few seconds before ordering. What was surprising though was that once they placed their order, the employee kept saying “excuse me?” as if she couldn’t hear the order.

The girl and her friend repeated their order a few times, but still the employee couldn’t hear them. Finally, the customer heard a much larger male voice loudly say, “Ma’am, you are speaking into the bird house. Could you please pull ahead 10 feet and repeat your order into the intercom?”

The girls says she and her friend were so embarrassed and laughing so hard, they just pulled out of the drive-thru lane and drove away. Have you ever had an embarrassing DQ moment?

Comments

Please explain why butterscotch for malt is not available. Butterscotch is a favorite of Minnesota why remove it. Please send it back.

As someone from the other side of the drive-thru, I have had a few embarrassing moments. I’ve told customers “bye” like I was on the phone instead of asking them to pull around, I’ve answered Hi welcome to DQ can I have your money. This one just happened to be a police officer–we were busy and I was telling another employee to get the money from the first car while I took this order. I’ve also answered it Hi Welcome to Ruth may I take your order.
One of the funniest things though is when there was a car at the speaker, we couldn’t hear them at all and they wouldn’t pull around. So I sent one of my workers out to see what was wrong. The lady forgot to roll her window down.

I agree with Ronald Halvorson’s comment. Why have you taken away butterscotch?? I used to always enjoy ordering a Butter Pecan Malt or Blizzard, and now the local DQ tells me they cant make it anymore. :(

I’m so sorry Ron! I completely understand your disappointment. Butterscotch was my favorite as well. We do keep track of the comments we receive regarding our current and past products, and will ensure your comments are documented and forwarded to our product development team for their future consideration.

I completely understand your disappointment Tracy. Butterscotch treats were my favorite. We do keep track of the comments we receive regarding our current and past products, and will ensure your comments are documented and forwarded to our product development team for their future consideration.

There is nothing worse than eating a cookie blizzard with a Whole Cookie or Half of cookie…I thought they were supposed to be chopped up into bite-size pieces or less. Also, you’re eating a blizzard…you hit the half way mark in the cup…then there’s nothing but vanilla ice cream left…why??

I work at my local DQ and when I first began working drive-thru after a long time on front line I still had it in mind to say, “thank you for stopping at DQ is this for here or to go?”, Obviously if your coming around in your car it’s to go! But there have been numerous embarrassing moments and its what makes things fun!

Celeste–Who ever made your blizzard didn’t do it the right way. It should never be like that. Maybe a new trainee??? As for the chunks we try to get them all mixed up, that too was a mistake.
Everyone needs to work at a Dairy Queen once in their life. I always thought about putting it on the “Worlds most dirty jobs”. We get covered with ice cream, chocolate, and oh yeah when the side of a cup breaks while mixing a blizzard it goes everywhere.One time the cap broke off our 5 gallon milk bag when we were putting in, nothing like a shower in milk. It’s all fun though, you just go with the flow and do the best you can.

OK so, I love my dairy queen brazier. I visit it at least once a week for lunch or dinner. I occasionally get a sundae after eating. Butterscotch with pecans is the best. I also come in just for a banana split….although i dont care for the flavors you normally use so i get, hot fudge, pineapple, and butterscotch. I sometimes get the blizzard that has pecans and chocolate and yep you guessed it….butterscotch. Many, many, many times when i order a peanut buster parfait i get mine made with pecans and butterscotch instead of peanuts and hot fudge. My point being that when i went to DQ yesterday for my lunch imagine my surprise and dismay when i couldnt get a freaking turtle bowl with butterscotch….they said it was caramel…YUCKORAMA!!!!!!! I really dont understand why it always seems like when a business has a good thing they decide to change it. I had the utmost faith that you would have butterscotch until the day i die and you let me down huge. I also want to tell you how awful your artic rushes are. My drink of choice was a red or green or fresh lemon mr. misty….those were the good old days! Then you went and replaced the good stuff with that crappy, way to sweet, and not so good artic rush garbage. MAN!!!!! Im truly crushed over the butterscotch thing….

Bolinea- I have full faith that Dairy Queen does listen to our comments about flavors. I know it is only March, but I am crossing my fingers for a Peppermint (not mint) blizzard this winter! :-) December was so very disappointing.

Whipped cream and cherries on the milkshakes MUST go!!!!
Bring back the basic, PLAIN shakes.
DQ shakes are the absolute BEST and need no embellishments. Two adages apply: “Less is more” and “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

When will whirla-whips come out in Texas? I loves them so. Win they come I would like to be the first to know.

I completely understand your frustration, butterscotch was my favorite as well. We do ensure that all comments regarding products are routed to our product development team for their information and future consideration. I’m holding out hope that it will return someday!

I worked at DQ when I was a teenager and now, 15 years later I feel like I would love to get a part time job there for a few hours a week just to make the swirl again! Oh, and to eat yummy treats at a discount would be great too! My kids think I am crazy and would probably be embarrassed if I got a job there.
I remember a very very busy day at the drive through window that’s seemed to have no end of cars in sight but I was sooooo relived when the beep beep beep stopped. To my surprise a man started knocking on my drive thru window who said he’d been waiting for 15 minutes! I had put him on hold to get the other orders through and had forgotten about him!! There was a line up backed up into the street that I didn’t know about, so needless to say, I enjoyed those 15 minutes of peace, but had to hustle by butt to get the orders through extra fast! Ah, the DQ memories.

Diane- where do you get your shakes?? At my DQ, none of that goes on. But my moments at DQ are always funny. I remember I was getting a blizzard from the inside of DQ. I was crushing on a boy that worked there and I wanted to make a good impression. I ordered my blizzard and decided to sit in so he would notice me. They started to get busy so I decided to leave. Well I did not finish my blizzard so im walking out with it and all of a sudden a little kid bumped into me and I had ice cream everywhere. The boy I liked had to clean up my mess.. and my hair and clothes were covered in blizzard! Another is when I asked for a flame thrower but I kept saying flame blower. Another that my DQ does not know is that one day, I came at around 9:58 and they were closing. The lights were still lit so I assumed they were closing at 11. I went through the drive thru and I stayed there for like 10 minutes but no one said anything. I went to the front and saw that big CLOSED sign. :D

My DQ doesn’t have a drive-thru, as an employee I’ve seen some interesting things happen. Never a dull moment @ the Q

2 weeks ago we went to Dairy Queen here in Las Vegas on a Tuesday & saw on the door it was buy one banana split get one for 99 cents so we got them and they were delicious and it only cost about $6. Well last week we went through the drive thru at the same Dairy Queen & ordered the same thing since it was still on the glass at the entrance. We brought $7 when we get to the window we waited patiently for the woman to get our payment from us but she waited until she made the banana splits then she tells me the total is $9 something and I say “I thought they were buy 1 get 1 99 cents” she says “oh we don’t do that anymore we are under new management so we don’t do it” I say “why does it still say you do on the window?” she tells me they haven’t gotten around to doing it yet. So needless to say we couldn’t get our splits because we didn’t have enough money. I am going back today to take picture because it is STILL on the window and it has been a week since she told me that!

I am still laughing at the comment that the woman didn’t roll her window down. I always feel that everyone should have to work restaurant/retail/customer service in some form early in adulthood. You learn so much about people, and how to be patient and understanding as a customer!

THE WHIP CREAM AND CHERRIES ON SHAKES MUST GO. and bring on the new Peanut butter snickers for a flavor in the Blizzards

I guess I am getting old (57). Your new commercials get on my nerves. If I didn’t already LOVE DQ, the commercials would not be an incentive to visit.

Hi Kathy,
I’m truly sorry that our commercials have upset you. The point of the commercials is to show that DQ food and treats are better than good, they are riDQulous. Your concerns have been documented and forwarded to all appropriate ADQ personnel for their review. We are taking your comments seriously and will take them into consideration as we review our advertising plans for the remainder of this year. Thanks for contacting us!

Please bring back butterscotch! What was the reason it was eliminated?

Also, has your hot fudge recipe changed?

Emil, I completely understand your frustration over the discontinuation of butterscotch. It was my favorite as well. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t selling well enough. In regard to the hot fudge recipe, it has not changed. If you would like to leave a comment for a particular store you visited, you can do so here: http://www.dairyqueen.com/us-en/talk-to-dq/ Thank you for contacting us!

Ronald: Hey, I live in Minnesota, too. We also have the same last time. Ironic.

I work at Dairy Queen, and when someone asks for a butterscotch shake, I was informed to just put butterscotch cone dipping in with the milk and icecream. Next time, just ask for the butterscotch cone dipping. Apparently, it still tastes the same.:)

OK, it has been over 2 years bolinea, with a comment almost 1 year ago… Can you please tell me the status of Butterscotch for a Butterscotch Milkshake? I’ve been back in the states for almost 2 years, and it is painful to switch to Caramel. Can we start a blog purely on this? How do we truly get this turned around? Dilly Bars aren’t enough. :-)

Hi Scott,
Thanks for your post. Unfortunately Butterscotch topping is no longer a required menu item, so whether or not a store carries it is entirely up to the independent franchise owners of our stores. Feel free to speak with your local store’s franchise owner and ask him or her to start carrying the butterscotch topping.

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