(Kearney, NE) Customers have grown to expect a certain kind of service from their local Pizza Huts: crappy service. Severely unattended tables and abandoned patrons are the norm at most of the national chain's establishments. Naive patrons unaccustomed to Pizza Hut protocol stand waiting, furtively trying to make eye contact with the "maitre d" who constantly prioritizes phone calls over actual human beings. Experienced clientele arrive with board games and thick novels.

  However, in Kearney, Nebraska, one franchisee is breaking with the status quo. "We've found that new customers generally respond better when they are attended to by waitstaff," says general manager Kyla Swanson. Swanson first got the idea for improving service after dining at a competitor's pizza par- lor. "They seemed to have hired employees proportional to the amount of work." The observation blew Swanson away, and she immediately hired an extra server, freeing up the current server/food prep engineer/maitre d/custodian to focus on food prep engineering, maitre d-ing, and custodial duties. "But it can be tough transition,” Swanson said. “At first a lot of our regular customers were kind of alarmed and uncomfortable when a waitress came right out."

 Local food-eater Eric Johnson had grown quite accustomed 30 minute waits for breadsticks and beverages. "I just assumed they were making the breadsticks from scratch," Johnson said. "ALL the way from scratch." Since the changeover, Johnson has now been served breadsticks in as little as 5 minutes after placing his order, causing him to question his previous assumptions.

 A long-time Pizza Huttian, Marvin Plaus, grew angry, apparently suffering from cognitive dissonance, and began cursing at the wait-staff. Plaus became convinced that he was on "some new reality show.” "I kept asking 'Where are the cameras? WHERE ARE THE $%^ing CAMERAS!?!" Plaus said. Other customers' ire was provoked when Doreen Smith, a new hire, accidentally interrupted a travel-size game of Monopoly by serving two large pizzas a full hour and a half earlier than expected. "At first I was excited when I saw their tip of a $500 bill," Smith recalled. "But as I was laughing my way to the bank, I got mugged." Despite these incidents, Swanson is confident that her regulars will adapt and keep coming back. “Our bathrooms are still gross,” she said, smiling. Swanson doesn't know how Corporate will react to the radical shift in business strategy, but her revenue has already shot up to almost break-even.