I had a summer job in college as a waiter at a barbecue restaurant owned by a guy from Arkansas. The entire wait staff was instructed to learn the first name of all their customers and use these first names in all interactions while serving. This was strictly enforced.
I remembered this job recently because I came upon another chain restaurant that was employing this tactic. The nice young shift lead asked me my name, in an otherwise empty quick-service restaurant, which I found strange, but I assumed it was just part of their sandwich building process. I was wrong, it was a customer service tactic. I was referred to by multiple staff members by my first name four different times while paying, and waiting for, my sandwiches. I know this was a strategy that emigrated from the South because the shift lead also said “y’all” 3 times in one sentence.
I did not find this level of intimacy to enhance my experience. I found it off-putting, and awkward. This is exactly how I perceived my customers to feel back at the barbecue restaurant; they would recoil in suspicious confusion when I asked their first name along with their order.
Open letter to southern people: I don’t think this first name basis thing works in the Pacific Northwest. I put up with all the “my pleasures” at Chick-Fil-A because the food is amazing and the service is efficient and consistent. The warm fuzzies just seem a bit inauthentic.
The feeling I get when a service worker I’ve never met before calls me by my first name reminds me of when a vaguely familiar looking person at my wife’s friends wedding calls me by my first name. “Oh shit, am I supposed to know you? Why do you know me?”
If you disagree, leave a comment. I think these chains should abide by our cultural norms and get rid of the buddy-buddy bullshit.