By Marcelle Dorenkamp
I work at Dunn Bros., a coffee shop located in Wayzata. There are many different locations: Minnetonka, Lake St., Hennepin, St. Paul, and Wayzata. We sell baked goods, espresso drinks, Juice, coffee (of course), T-shirts, hats, and mugs. Those are just a few things we sell among many other items having to do with coffee.
Like most Americans I do not look forward to work. It’s just something that has to be done in order for me to afford the things I want and/or need. But, I would rather be working at Dunn Bros. than anywhere else at this point in my life. It’s not exactly an easy job. At first I was overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I had to learn, memorizing all the drinks and prices, not to mention all the reading material and worksheets I was required to complete. After working there for over a year I still learn something new everyday because everyday we get something new in or a price changer. It is also a good opportunity to learn how to deal with people and how to handle certain situations.
At least once a day a customer will be unsatisfied with something. Their drink is either too hot or not hot enough, there is not enough or there is too much vanilla in their Vanilla Latte, their coffee beans are not ground correctly. Handling these situations that may seem petty are actually crucial. The employees at Dunn Bros. have to be polite and courteous in order to satisfy the customer. Every so often I encounter a really “difficult” person who is simply in a bad mood, and being aware of this, I know the littlest thing could set them off. It wasn’t as easy for me to read people when I first began working there so occasionally I would have to get myself out of a sticky situation. Only once an employer of Dunn Bros. has gotten fired as a result of mistreating a customer. The customer asked for eleven pounds of coffee beans and the employee, Matt, got the entire order messed up. The customer then wrote a three page complaint of how horrible the service was at which point Matt was terminated.