Students agree that eating on campus comes more as a convenience than a nice dining experience.
Trojan dining — Moe’s and Boars Head, among the other restaurants in the food court of the Trojan Center — isn’t impressing students with the quality of customer service.
While waiting in line at Chick-fil-A Express, Olivia Parton said she waits in line because it’s more convenient to wait than to leave campus for food, but the service is not up to par.
“Pretty much the only reason why I eat in the Trojan Center is because it is convenient,” Parton said. “Sometimes it’s hard to get service. If you ask for something, the workers just stare at you.”
“A lot of students were extremely impatient when it came to how long it took to get their orders out,” said Abby Burch, a senior social science education major from Tallassee and a previous employee of Boars Head. “All of our sandwiches are made to order and if their are multiple tickets on the line, it takes a while to get them out.”
“Customers also liked to group all employees together as one even though we all gave extremely different levels of service,” Burch said. “Boars Head has had some great employees who work very hard to ensure customer satisfaction, but then we did have some employees who did not set the bar very high.”
Andrexia McBride, a junior multimedia journalism major from Elba, has witnessed negative attitudes from students and employees, but says she feels the dining experience would go over a lot smoother if places like Chick-fil-A were better prepared during crucial serving hours.
“I think the attitude problem is more serious at Chick-fil-A, mainly because so many people choose to eat there,” McBride said. “They never have food ready during lunchtime or when students are coming between classes, but they have an attitude when students ask for waffle fries or chicken sandwiches.”
Robert Gause, a senior nursing major from Marianna, Florida, said his dining criticisms stem from the lack of motivation for change among the restaurants.
“My overall concern would be the lack of competition between the restaurants,” he said. “There is no reason for prices to drop lower than what they are, and ultimately it costs us students far more for the product than in the restaurant itself.”
Students wonder why there is a disconnect between employees and students.
“I don’t understand why the employees have attitudes with us,” said Taylor Yates, a senior psychology major from Hoover. “Most of the student employees take pride in their jobs, but the nonstudent employees are rude. There are plenty of students who need jobs, so if you don’t want to work, there are other people who will fill the job.”
Peak dining hours and specialty days come under the most fire when it comes to food quality and customer service.
Joey Carter, a Campus Outreach employee and recent graduate of Troy, said he has always had a satisfactory dining experience in Trojan Dining and the food court.
“I think we are limited with our on-campus options,” Carter said. “From my experience while I was a student and even now, I eat on campus all the time. It just gets really busy sometimes, and it’s easy to get agitated.
“When it’s times like fried chicken Wednesday in the café and there’s a ton of people, it’s really hard to have real quick and quality service. Overall, I’ve never had a problem with the employees being rude.”
Troydining.com and Troy Dining social media handles are powered by Sodexo, and they have opportunities for students to provide feedback. The website has a survey encouraging patrons to get involved and to contact a manager.
“I am sure that I can speak for all of us who work with Sodexo that a little more patience and manners would go a long way,” Burch said. “I always tried to be extremely helpful, calm, and respectful. My high expectations for customers were shot down a lot during the time I worked at Boars Head, but I enjoyed my time there none the less.”
Sodexo, which is over the Trojan Dining hall and the restaurants within the Trojan Center, could not be reached for comment.
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