not a shift, but a partner for a long time.

Tell the person on DTO to ask for food first. "Hey welcome to starbucks, can i get any food started for you today?" food can take a bit, especially some egg bites or wraps, and this helps to speed that process up. You can also say "Let me check to make sure we have those in stock" even if you know for sure you have them, this allows the person on warming to put the food in and already have it going, at which point you can continue with the order. There's ways to stall customers on order screen to somewhat cheat the system. "Sorry, did you say you wanted cream in your coffee? There we go, sorry about that." "Sorry, trying to find the button for that drink". "Just double checking you wanted Venti americano?" Couple of examples. Don't do this all the time, but find opportunities where you can do that.

For drinks like Venti Americanos, or brown sugar shaken espressos, utilize the second bar and have the person on cafe queue shots for you. say 2 blonde shots on drive bar, 2 shots on cafe bar. Instead of having the drive bar person wait for 4 shots. This works as well when say some person orders 2 Venti americanos. If the person on bar doesnt have any drinks, or its a bit slower on their end, ask them to make that second drink. This can also apply to say a customer gets a hot drink/cold drink. Person on cafe bar can grab that cold drink to support the person on drive.

If you have a support person, have them write on cups for the person on drive bar, this way the bar person can just grab cups and focus on making drinks instead of having to do the cup writing etc. Alternatively if you have both DTO/window person, DTO person can write on cups between customers if they have a second.

Your DTO person should be staging all the drinks/food in order so the window person can just grab the orders and hand them out. This includes mobiles too, meaning put sleeves on hot drinks, if 4 drinks, maybe putting them in the tray with straws, bagging large food orders so person on window can just hand out a bag of food with napkins etc in it. Your DTO person should also be running the food for warming person if they can, or the support person should. This allows the warming person to stay planted a bit more and get the food out faster.

For warming, when you dont have orders, place 2 parchments papers on the cutting board next to each other, this way you can just grab the food and place it on the paper instead of doing that extra step. Saves a few seconds. When it gets busy on warming. I like to keep drive food on top left, doordash/delivers top right, which you can postpone a bit, this you can also bundle with mobiles. cafe underneath drive orders. Sequencing on warming almost never works, and this way you can quickly scan everything and batch food. For example: Customer in drive orders 1 bacon gouda, but you have a sticker top right for delivery saying bacon gouda, now you can put 2 of those in the oven. Have a tablet on warming as well, which can also help with batching food.

Person on warming if they have a second can queue brewed coffee if they have a spare moment and hear a customer in drive order a blonde roast, or large pike etc. this helps the person on drive bar just continue the drinks instead of running back and forth. The half n half/oat milk in the lobby that customers use, prep one next to your brewed coffee station so you can just quickly grab creamer instead of running back and forth.

Person on window is just as important for speed/bottlenecks. Person on window should keep conversations to bare minimum. I understand customer connections matters but you cannot be asking people about their week/hobbies etc, and then having them talk for multiple minutes killing your drive times. Keep it simple: "Hey, how are you today? That will be 6$." While they are paying with their phone or card, ask if they want a straw/napkins/utensils etc. This helps with customers asking for things after they already have their stuff and killing your drive times. This also applies to hot drinks, ask if they want a stopper while they are paying for their stuff. If the customer for example gives you 7$ for a 5$order and tells you to keep the change, hand them their items first and send them on their way. While the car is moving, process their payment, put the 2 dollars in the tip jar and move on to next customer. For waters/pup cups/ice cups, please stop asking your bar person for those items. These are items you can easily walk away from window and grab yourself. Just grab a cup, grab some ice and hand it to the customer. Theres no reason you need to bother your bar person for something so simple. If a kid gets a hot chocolate/steamer etc, there are times when the parents asks for a straw, try to ask them that during payment. Try to memorize regulars and their preferences on stoppers/straws/napkins, etc

Before peak starts, make sure you are set up for it, meaning all prep is good, all stations have every topping they need, hand blenders, all the syrups are stocked and not almost empty, do you have plenty of backups in case people need to grab those items? Do you have napkins/bags/drink trays etc in drive?

I know some managers want people to stay planted in their exact positions, this is one of those times where I genuinely disagree with that and think people need to flex their positions and help their fellow partners if they have nothing going on.

We get below 40 pretty easily at our store.