Sometimes it feels like it's difficult to find good customer service. Especially when it comes to eating out or going through a fast food drive through, things seem to have gotten much slower over the years.

According to a report back from 2015, drive-through times were seen to be getting significantly slower. As more restaurants made moves to increase the variety on their menus, the broadened customization contributed to slowing things down.

They looked at hundreds of different restaurants and determined that average drive-through times in 2015 were a great deal slower than those seen back in 2013 and 2011.

Funny enough, smartphones have previously been blamed for the downfall in service, restaurants say it's because people are spending too much time staring at their phone now rather than eating and leaving. But that's hardly able to account for the downfall in drive-through speeds or customer service in general.

Not only is it getting slower but it's also getting more expensive.

If you think you're saving money by eating out every night, that probably isn't the case. Recent reports from 2018 suggest that average retail prices for fast food restaurants are rising faster than any other category. A lot of the food being served has also seemed to have been downgraded over the years. Ever pick up an old childhood snack favorite or go back to an old restaurant that you remember loving to eat at maybe 5, 10 years ago? You might have been able to see that lower quality ingredients seem to be on the menu now, that for some items it doesn't taste as good as it once did.

Not only has it gotten slower over the years, but the food has reportedly gotten worse too. Spending the time to find things to prepare for yourself at home might seem like the more lengthy route, is often going to be the decision that saves you more time, money, and is healthier for you too.

More restaurants now are embracing technology in different ways though, with things like self-serving kiosks to try and make things different, easier, funner, and to speed things up.

With the convenience of delivery apps that allow you to get even more restaurant options sent right to your door, as well as other fast food favorites, it's helped to bring more demand into the market, but there are still a lot of fees attached, long waits associated, and better alternatives that could be made.

There is still hope, as a great deal of people today report that they would rather spend their money on an experience, like going to a restaurant with friends, than buying an item from a store. Previous restaurant management statistics also suggest that people go for delicious food as a top priority, with service being a secondary concern when it comes to choosing where they want to eat.

But depending on where you go, you just might be waiting long enough to finish a doodle of Mona Lisa.

Over 70 percent of diners have reported feeling that so far technology has helped improve the restaurant experience, enabling online ordering and reservations etc. And for most people, it turns out, service might not be enough to keep them away if the business is serving delicious food that they value more than the inconvenience of waiting or the risk of having an item missing or prepared incorrectly etc.

More than 90 percent of Americans reportedly don't like to cook and they would rather eat their meals out, which costs them thousands of dollars annually. Regardless of the questionable service, the slow speeds, or the occasional mishaps, millions are still happy to visit quick-service or full-service restaurants, to utilize third-party delivery apps, on a daily or weekly basis.

Scientists have previously suggested that fast food can be addictive to some individuals in the same way that drugs can be, it's no wonder that many find themselves going back again even if they don't want to.

Nostalgia might also play a role.

Memories of what we eat have been shown to influence our next meal. The memories of what we have eaten are closely tied to the pleasure that's derived from eating the meal altogether.

"In a brain-imaging study of the Pepsi Challenge,.... participants [were first given] a blind taste test of Coca-Cola and Pepsi while in an MRI scanner. The subjects preferred Coca-Cola and Pepsi equally, and both of the sodas caused brain activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a region involved in pleasure and reward. However, when the subjects were told they were drinking Coke, they shifted their preference. Now, 75 percent preferred Coke. What's more, their brain activity changed. The hippocampus, the brain region crucial to memory formation, lit up with activity, suggesting that drinking Coca-Cola, rather than a generic soft-drink, stirs up your memories of Coca-Cola." - Dr. J Gowin

Even though it might be slow, occasionally bad service, and questionably horrible ingredients, the fast food and ordering out routine is one that is difficult to break for a variety of reasons. Quitting junk food has even been shown to prompt withdrawal symptoms, and that could be enough discomfort to drive many right back to what they want to stay away from.

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