~ Joel Spolsky, August 2008 Inc. magazine, pg. 67, referring to the person in the headset taking orders from customers waiting in line (via jnunemaker)For example, I learned from the website that the woman I had seen in the headset taking orders was officially called an expediter—but the job title is something of a red herring, according to the collective wisdom of the Starbucks staff members chatting on the site.
Expediters are not really there to see to it that a customer’s order is filled more quickly, they believe. Rather, expediters exist solely to prevent people in line from giving up and wandering off, maybe to go to the Dunkin’ Donuts around the corner. Once a customer places an order, the logic goes, he or she feels an ethical obligation to wait for it to be filled, no matter how long the process takes. Expediters are there to lock in that order as soon as possible.
