When I first read about this, I thought it was brilliant. Good to hear it's successful.

Ok but if I ever pull up the speaker and 'Dave' asks me what I want with a Farsi accent, then we'll know they've taken it a little too far.

I don't see how having a person taking an order in a different state would speed up the process or be more accurate than someone taking the order at the resturant.

In both situations you give your order, someone, either in a different state or at the resturant, inputs the order. The "cook" sees that inputed order and then warms up the food. And then someone puts it in a bag and gives it too you. Where or when does the speed gain or accuracy occur?!

I do see how that would save money. Which is the real reason for the switch.

If it increases accuracy, I'm all for it.

fast food + drive up = fat people.

Personally I just see the possibility of their servers crashing or what not and causing more problems,

@GMFish: Maybe by focusing on just that one task, and working in a better environment, they can work more efficiently.

They're probably sitting at a desk in a clean, quiet office building. Nobody's frying anything five feet away, and they don't have to deal with customer complaints, payment, etc.

They probably also work at a better computer, and not just a register with a limited number of buttons, so that's another opportunity to make things better for the person taking the order.

It's about outsourcing. Your orders will be taken by Indians within a couple years. Of course, the good news is, you'll probably be punching your order in via touchscreen within five, so everyone will be out of a job equally.

@Skankingmike: Yeah, because most people usually jog to McDonald's.

It would be faster because the person collecting your money is also taking the next order and possibly the one after that. If they just used call centers, the person taking your order only focuses on that order. They might not have to take the next one for that location. For all we know, it might jump around.

In some places, the person that takes your order, then your money, and gives you the food is the same person. Now try to do that by yourself for set of 20 orders that come in every 30 seconds (lunch time rush)

I'm glad to see they aren't cutting back people in the restaurants themselves.

@GMFish: I would think it would free up the onsite people to do what onsite people are for; that is, physical work. Every time you take someone off the floor to basically just talk and punch a keyboard, you lose their productivity as a cook, cashier, and so forth. Talking and punching a keyboard is something you can do anywhere... case in point, I'm providing tech support to a large multinational oil company as a telecommuter right now. Well, not RIGHT now... but you know.

@Skankingmike: The hell was that for?

I think they will only do this in states with high minimum wages. So they can outsource to states with low minimum wages. :/

While it's possible that the system uses the Internet (note capital I) as the article states, it's much more likely that they have a private network to each of these stores. I work with large companies with thousands of sites, and they typically have a T1 to each branch, which has both voice and data on it. For something like a typical McDonald's, I would think they'd have 4 voice lines and 4 data channels (giving "only" 32 KBps). However, I know that many McDonald's also have "hot spots" which would at first seem to up the desire for data bandwidth, but I would expect that to use a different, locally-supplied network connection, one which does not go over McDonald's corporate network.

@InThrees: "Hello, my name is Dave. How will you be ordering from us today? Are you liking a liter of cola as well?"

@GMFish: I think that the idea is that you (the customer) are talking to a person who takes orders. That is ALL they do. They don't have any other fast-food type issues to deal with. And they are probably sitting at a reasonably comfy desk.

It's always better to deal with a professional.

UNLESS they work for Wal-Mart. Or Best Buy. Or Circuit City. Or..............

Wendy's has been doing this for a few years. It was so "successful" that the two restaurants I used both discontinued it. One problem it had was that if you were stuck in line and weren't lined up with the speaker, the remote order taker would only ask your for your order once. By the time you got to the speaker, they assumed no one was there, so you were stuck waiting for someone to figure out the system was out of sync.

I never understand McDo's speakers, quality if often lacking. So I would prefer a touch screen anyway :)

They should have done this at the Olympia Diner

@ Erwos - between the weak dollar and the improving Indian economy (thanks to all the work we sent over), it will be too expensive to outsource to India.

@alice_bunnie:
Nice to see local governments taking jobs from their citizens

I can haz burgers?

@SaveMeJeebus:

I was called by an Indian call center this weekend, and the representative identified himself as "Maverick."

My prediction to this is:
It will catch on and be very popular...until they outsource to nations that do not speak English well. There will also be 30 minute hold times at the drive-thru because "all their operators are currently assisting other customers."

@Erwos: I wonder how operators would feel taking orders of ground up beef. Imagine you were a call center operator taking orders for horse meat from overseas.

Burgers breed terrorism?

@speedwell: I am anti most fast food places they are unhealthy and for people who are too lazy to make their own food (yes there are times that you need a quick bite to eat I suggest a sandwich place). which usually doesn't have a drive through.

the only time drive-thru should be used is at those rest stop stations along the highways makes sense there. But suburban America? is your life that crazy you can't get out of your car?

@freshyill: Bill Clinton did ;)

@Victo: Touch screens would be great if everyone was as competent as you and I.

I wonder if they will have that forced, hyper-courteous tone that call center managers seem to think is a brilliant idea.

@Skankingmike:

Awesome, first snl reference I've read today.

freshyill "Maybe by focusing on just that one task, and working in a better environment, they can work more efficiently."

And maybe by talking to the customer face-to-face they'd be more accurate.

Nissan288 "In some places, the person that takes your order, then your money, and gives you the food is the same person. Now try to do that by yourself for set of 20 orders that come in every 30 seconds (lunch time rush)"

speedwell "I would think it would free up the onsite people to do what onsite people are for; that is, physical work."

HalOfBorg "I think that the idea is that you (the customer) are talking to a person who takes orders. That is ALL they do."

Thanks, you guys prove my point exactly. I have no doubt that hiring fewer people in the resturant saves money. But, all things being equal, which means sufficient employees at the resturant and sufficient employees at the call-center, how would this speed up the process or make the process more accurate?

I'm waiting for the AI who takes McD's orders.

I would like this in my area. A lot of McDonald's employees are Hispanic with poor English skills. It can be hard at times for me to understand them and for them to understand me. At the register I can at least point at a picture. At the drive up there is nothing to point at.

@Steaming Pile: Yeah, I look forward to repeating myself a hundred times too! I know that the IVR for most companies works flawlessly, I'm sure McDonald's would too.

I support it! Yes let's go to a McDonald's restaurant with a drive through. Talk to speaker. It responds and the order taker is in another country. Finish order. Drive to window. Order will be handed to you by server in restaurant. Brilliant!
Saves hiring another worker at minimum wages.

I suppose this is the future. It's when things go wrong with the system that people realize that it's rather complex for nothing. It reminds me of my work building. We routinely run out of paper towel rolls in the kitchen area (more than 50 people on our floor... we need them) and I have to call the maintenance contractor and open a ticket with them via a call center rep in order to get them to bring some up.. Instead of simply asking the maintenance guys who are usually in the vicinity. Kind of scares me in terms of what's to come in the next 20-30 years.

Been there, done that--our local McD's franchiser did a test of this system, but gave it up after about a year.

My experiences were mixed. Remote order-takers literally didn't know what time it is; I'd be told that "No, you can't buy a hamburger until 10:30 a.m." when I tried to place an order at 10:35. I'd have to roll up to the window, snarl the order process and talk to a local human to get my pre-workout burger.

Similarly, the order-takers weren't "up" on local franchises. I don't eat cheese on my burgers, and never have a problem when I order at the counter, but I would be routinely told that I couldn't get a "double cheeseburger no cheese".

There were also tech issues that were particularly annoying if, like me, you were hard of hearing. At the drive-up, I could hear the handshake as the phone connection negotiated, then there was the long, garbled "welcometomcdonaldstodaysspecial ..." script, and only THEN did I get to interact with a human.

Once I did? They often had trouble hearing me. Soon after the test began, little signs saying "Due to traffic noise, please speak LOUDLY and CLEARLY" appeared under the mike.

On the other hand, the call center our local guy used was in Minnesota, and the order-takers had American Standard accents. Much easier for the hard-of-hearing to understand than the Latin accents common in our agricultural community.

On the whole, I didn't see that the process saved any time for the consumer; don't know if it was cost-effective for the franchisee .... but he did abandon remote ordering after about a year.

This reminds me of how In n' Out Burger handles their orders on busy days. They'll have a guy standing outside the restaurant, beside the cars, taking the orders.

They always got the order right!

so instead of paying one person to take your order, your money, and put it all into a little computer... they pay two people, one to take the order and put it in the computer, the other to take the money.

and what happens when something gets mixed up and the money taker asks for 8.50 when allyou ordered was a 1$ cheeseburger.

It probably helps because they do not have to have a person dedicated to each restaurant. So, since I would assume that all drive through lines are never being used, they can have less operators than normal. Also, they probably just have a queue system like anywhere else. A specific operator is probably not attached to a specific restaurant.

I have gone to a McDonalds that has this, and it works pretty well. My order was correct the first time I said it and they were courteous and polite. I have nothing but good things to say about it.

Unfortunately, the lady giving the food / taking my money was pretty angry about the whole thing, and that was the only negative I have about it, which isn't the systems fault.

The idea sounds great and all because you don't have an over-worked fast food employee taking your order (I was one in high school and I still remember all of it) so they may be in a better temperament. But what happens when they end up like some CSR's and they are just bitter and angry? I would hate to argue with somebody that I can't face about me not wanting cheese on a double cheeseburger (I don't eat McD's so this is the only example I can think of).

@RBecho:

Hmm...you had the opposite problem from my question. What happens if both people are angry?

When I got my first job at McDs in high school, our location was trying out face to face ordering. It was brilliant. But the person at the back window taking the orders was only taking orders, not taking money or anything else, and I'm sure it cost more money.

This was featured in the book "The World Is Flat" which was written 5-6 years ago. Its been going on in the midwest since at least 2001.

It's faster, more efficient (at least for the restaurant) in that as Kurt mentioned above, the customers are queued. It's not one call center operator that is connected to one restaurant. It's hundreds of operators connected to hundreds of restaurants and the operator will get the next customer in the queue regardless of restaurant.

To my knowledge I've not been to a joint that does this so have no personal experience. They spoke of it very positively in the book however.

Kinda sad. Eliminates the personal touch, but that's how American consumerism works I guess.

@ThunderRoad: It seems kinda sad to me that we've already sunk to a level that talking to a person you can't see via a crappy intercom speaker who's 100 feet away qualifies as more of a "personal touch" than talking to a different disembodied voice that may be coming from 100 miles away.

There's no personal touch about ordering from a speaker in a drive-through.

@ThunderRoad: boo-hoo sniffle sniffle

Yeah, they were doing this at Wendy's. They installed three drive through speakers as some kind of gimmick I guess. One guy asks for your order, if you need a minute, by the time you're ready it's a new person. It didn't work very well though. They are back to the old way, and the fancy triple drive through is abandoned.

It also helps with cutting employee theft. If Employee A takes your order, relays it to the cook, then collects your money (when it's cash), it's easier to steal by not entering the order into the system and just pocketing the cash. That's why a lot of smaller places have the little sign that says "If you don't receive a receipt for your purchase, notify the manager and your meal is free." That forces the cashier to ring it in so the sale gets recorded.

You can have a situation where two or three people, doing different jobs, are colluding to steal money. If the order taker doesn't ring in the order, but tells the cook what to make, and knows the total after tax (you get to know common totals after working there for a short period of time), the cashier collects the amount from you, then divvies up the cash to the colluders.

By having the order taker not in the store, there's virtually no chance of collusion between the order taker/cook/cashier...if the order taker doesn't ring in the order, your order doesn't get made.

I'm just glad they're outsourcing it to Texas, and not India. Can you imagine the hell you'd go through to get a burger then?