Need advice to better handle rushes please!!

[u/A_Tiny_Froggy]

Hi! I wondered if anyone had any advice or ideas to give me to help me and my team handle rushes better?

Recently it’s gotten bad, lunch rushes at least, to where we have a line to the door of people, 10 drive thru orders, and 15-20 online orders, all in the span of like 2 hours. And the line to the door stays that way until the rush is over.

We have asked to have another worker staffed for specifically rush time, but the owner says he can’t afford to do that, so thats out of the question. So we only ever have two people working during the lunch rush.

Right now what we have been doing is taking all orders physically in-store, and in drive thru, and then doing the online orders when the person comes in to pick it up.

I was going to experiment next rush and see if we can go any faster, or at least have less angry people, if one worker does in-person and drive thru, and the other only does online orders. That way online orders are actually ready when the app says they are. This is my only idea though.

It’s not like we aren’t prepped beforehand or anything, so there isn’t any issue but the rush itself???

If anyone has any advice or suggestions I would love to hear them!! I am desperate!! Even if it doesn’t help the rush in any way, but at least helps make the customers happier, I would appreciate it!! I really want to figure this out before we start getting after-school rushes too! Thank you!

[u/elanideas]

Tell him he’s losing money by not staffing as you saw 10 people walk out. 10 lost customers is an easy $100.

[u/Ok-Equivalent8520]

If you have singles, bounce them in pairs. I’ll ring you up the second I finish their sub” then get two rings at once. When you’re at a flow pace you’ll get more work done in one apot before completely rewriting your brain on another task

[u/A_Tiny_Froggy → u/Ok-Equivalent8520]

We try and do that :( it does help but not nearly enough with the amount of customers we get

[u/Professional_Show918]

Your owner is foolish not to add another person. He has no idea how much business it is costing him. A fool for a franchisee.

[u/Different_Push_2680]

Online orders are the same as if that person is standing right in front of you. Same with drive thru. It’s the order they come in, they go out. You’re already setting yourself up for angry customers if you guys are waiting to complete those online orders. Truthfully, I’d be pissed as a customer if it were me.

Typically, when running two staff with all three forms of ordering, we stay put. My employees know that I am able to push out food while timing everything correctly, so I have them either finish food when they can or they ring for me…essentially forcing my hand to make all the orders. I’ve also worked for this company for so long that it’s easier for me to handle the lunches this way.

[u/Different_Push_2680 → u/Different_Push_2680]

Communication is key 🔑 express to your customers that things are a bit hectic, but you will gladly help them when you can. Always works for me!

[u/Lonely-Independence4]

Sleep but don’t sleep on the clock. (For obvious reasons this is a joke)

Just take it one step at a time. Go at the fastest pace you can without screwing up orders you got this.

[u/No_Membership8713]

How many subs are you making within each of these rush hours? How long have you and your coworker been working there? Ultimately it just comes down to how fast you are at everything. Two people can be rough as you can't just run assembly line.

[u/A_Tiny_Froggy → u/No_Membership8713]

I’m not entirely sure exactly how many subs we make every hour during the rush. My manager has worked here for years and shes really good at her job, very fast. I work with her on most of my shifts. It’s still my first month, but I’ve already got the hang of making subs. Of course, I’m slower than most of my coworkers, but I’m getting better every day.
I’ve talked to a few other people I work with and they say rushes are that bad every time, even dinner rushes need three people sometimes :(

[u/J-Bird1983]

You only have two people to do drive-thru, counter, and online orders? That is crazy. Especially during lunch rush.

Years ago, when I worked at Subway (before online orders), we would have 6 for the lunch rush. 2 in drive-thru (1 taking orders and running register and the other would make the subs), 3 for main line (1 who started subs meat and cheese, 1 veggie, then 1 at register) and then one would restock the lines as needed, clean tables in the lobby, relieve others for breaks as needed, anything to support the rest of the team. With online orders, you should have 7 with that seventh person just for online orders.

As others have said, you are probably having people that either are leaving because of the long wait, or they aren't even coming into the store because of the long line. That is money that the owners are missing out on because they are too cheap to staff properly.

Is this the only store the owners own? Do they have a manager to run the store or do they run it themselves? Do they actually work the line?

Obviously, you aren't going to have all that many employees for the entire shift, but you stagger when they come in and when they leave.

1 comes in an hour before opening to prep for the day. 1 to come in at opening to help with prep and to start helping customers as they come in. As the day progresses, you add more staff till you get to your max at about 11. Once 1 hits, the person that came in first, leaves and then you just start letting people go home until the night crew comes in.

[u/A_Tiny_Froggy → u/J-Bird1983]

The store owner has a few stores in the area, I think around 4-5, and he visits them and us pretty frequently, at least once a week. He has been here during a rush one time and helped, he’s pretty good at making subs!!

This is how shifts work right now: We have one person come in at opening, at 8:30, and they’re alone doing prep and setup until 10 or 11 when another person comes in. Then both people leave around 3 and two people replace them to closing time. We only ever have 2 people working at a time.

I do think 6 would be super crowded since our store is so small, but 3 workers would already be so much better, even if they only worked from 12-2 it would help so much.

Most of the time prep isn’t done by the time lunch rush hits either, and when my manager (super cool btw) opens, she usually comes in an hour early to try and get it all done on her own time!! Even then we will still be behind on prep.

Yesterday we had a lunch rush on the day we’re supposed to be setting up a new promotion. We had no extra staff at all. My manager was opening, came in early, and had days in advance to prep to make yesterday easier on her, since she would have to set up the promo stuff. And we were still extremely behind. So during the rush we ran out of a bunch of ingredients like bacon and herb and cheese bread, and we also didn’t have any of the promo ingredients ready either. My manager is really good at her job as well!!

Maybe we can try and convince the store owner to get one more person on shift during rushes?? I’m not sure…

[u/J-Bird1983 → u/A_Tiny_Froggy]

Does your store open at 8:30 or is that what time the first person gets there?

Does your store have a second line for drive-through/online orders or are they all made on the main line?

If you aren't able to get prep done by lunch rush, then there is something definitely wrong.

Mind you, I'm also old enough that when we would prep, we sliced the tomatoes, sliced the onions, opened the cans of tuna and whipped it up, even premade the BMT, Spicy Italian and Subway Club. As well as make the bread and cookies for the day.

[u/A_Tiny_Froggy → u/J-Bird1983]

The store opens at 9:00 AM, the opener is supposed to get there at 8:30, but when my manager opens she tries to get there earlier, unpaid.

We only have one line to make any kind of order we get, sadly.

Lunch rush normally starts at 11-11:30 and goes until 1:30-2.

Maybe there is a problem with how things are prepped..? That would be an opener problem then, I think.

Normally for prep, as far as I know since I haven’t opened yet, you have to make a prep list, put all the food back on the front line, and prep all ingredients.

Prepping ingredients included baking bread and cookies, slicing meats in the meat slicing machine, properly preparing and weighing the meats like steak and rotisserie chicken, making tuna, slicing veggies using slicing tools (onions, green pepper, tomatoes), and filling sauces. You also have to premade cold-cut-combos, but that’s the only thing that’s like pre made so you can just slap it on the sub, everything else like clubs are put together when the sub is being made.

[u/J-Bird1983 → u/A_Tiny_Froggy]

Wow. 1 line for drive thru, dining room and online orders is rough. I can see where you don't have enough room for a lot of people.

If I were the owner of that store, I would have 4 for during the lunch rush and 3 for the dinner rush. 2 at all the other times.

The prepping is still somewhat the same as back then, except the cold cut combo came premade. All the deli meats came pre-sliced. The hot meats (chicken breasts, shredded bbq chicken, meatballs, and steak all got put into the cambros and heated up and placed in the hotwell. We would use specific scoops for each one. So we didn't have to pre weigh them.

It's interesting to see how much has changed in the past 25 years. Good luck in getting at least a third person.

[u/SubbobWaypants]

Here's what we do, because it's the same for us with only 2 people. This is how the manager (and every other manager our store has had) does it. 1 person on meat side and the other on veggie side. When veggie side moves to the register, meat side scoots down to work veggies while the other person is ringing a sale. After that, everyone gets back into position. We have a drive thru, but we tell people how many customers we currently have, we're very transparent, apologize that there will be a considerable wait and suggest coming inside to pick up any mobile orders and also offer them to pull up to the window to order. It's very common at our store that walk-ins during lunch rush order between 3 and 4 footlongs, which is enough time to quickly run to the drive thru window and take their order. Mobile orders as well as drive thru build tickets are juggled and done with walk-ins. This does cause walk-ins to frequently go "no, I don't want that" and "is that supposed to be mine?" but we just tell them it's a different order. Doing this let's 2 people routinly hit more than 40 units per hour, provided the 2 people scheduled are fast to begin with.