Free checklist

Drive-Thru Training Checklist

Drive-thru is the hardest front-of-house station to learn because the guest is a voice in a headset and the clock is public. The person has to confirm an order they cannot see the guest react to, take payment, and hand off, all while the timer runs on the car behind.

The checklist (5 items)

Written as observable actions, so two trainers scoring the same shift land in the same place. In CrewSharp this is the Drive-Thru / Window station in the Restaurant / QSR starter set, filed under Front of House, and every item here is editable.

  1. 1Used a clear, friendly headset greeting
  2. 2Confirmed the full order before the totalMust pass
  3. 3Kept the line moving at target speed
  4. 4Handed off the correct order with a check-back
  5. 5Counted back change and secured the drawer

Print it, score it on a clipboard, or open it in Sheets. No email required.

What usually goes wrong

Confirming the full order before the total is the item everything else depends on. Skip it and the mistake is only discovered at the window, where fixing it costs the whole lane rather than five seconds.

When to sign someone off

A workable bar for this station: no critical items missed, a score above a line you set for Drive-Thru / Window specifically rather than one number for the whole building, and observed on more than one shift with at least one of them busy. Then date it, so it can expire.

That last part is the one people skip. A sign-off with no date cannot be re-checked, which means a year later you have a record that says somebody was ready once.

Stations that pair with this one

These are the stations someone on this one most often covers alongside it, which makes them the sensible second checklist to train.

Common questions

Should new hires start on drive-thru?

Usually not. The headset adds a layer that makes an already unfamiliar POS harder, and the timer punishes hesitation. Most operators get someone solid on front counter first, then move them out to the window once the order entry is automatic.

What should be on a drive-thru checklist?

The 5 items above cover it: used a clear, friendly headset greeting, confirmed the full order before the total, kept the line moving at target speed, and the rest of the list. Keep it in that range. Fewer and a pass proves very little; many more and trainers stop finishing it during a real shift.

Does this station need critical items?

Not every station has one. Where nothing on the list carries a safety or legal consequence, a passing score plus observation across more than one shift is a reasonable bar on its own. Marking items critical when they are not just makes the flag mean less everywhere else.

Scoring it is the part that lasts

Run this Drive-Thru / Window checklist on a tablet between rushes and CrewSharp keeps the rest: who is signed off, when it was last checked, and which item your crew misses most.

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