January 16, 2005

• 1. What's the audio clarity with this added signal path? It's bad enough conversing into those cheap speakers. 2. The call center peon has little motive to take the order with any accuracy. 3. So when will India and Bangladesh call centers start taking orders?
• roly - as soon as the scripts are written.
• I'll have a large fries & a pepsimax please.
• "take an electronic snapshot of them" uh oh
• I don't quite understand why eliminating the location's order-taker results in such improved accuracy. Why is the call center order-taker so much more adept than the location's order-taker? Are McDonald's franchises really just hiring truly inept order-takers? And how can this system improve accuracy on location at the bagging stage? Or speed? I've read the articles which detail the amazing increase in speed and accuracy ... but I don't get why.
• Man, I hope McDonalds doesn't outsource it to India. "Hello welcome to Mcdonalds this is Hajii. You're not going to eat that cow are you?"
• The true answer to improving things at McDonalds is outsourcing the FOOD, not the call center. The sad thing here is that this will result in fewer jobs for young people...
• I imagine it is faster because they are more professional about the whole deal. I've waited five to ten minutes for food, when I still ate there, just because the attendent is bullshitting with a co-worker. Not a terrible wait, but I was in a rush. The call-center is probably just a room full of people, each segregated into their own cubicle, waiting for the orders. Call-centers strive to keep work-place socialization nonexistant.
• And when the network is down?... "Your order in 30 minutes or it's on us...."
• Yeah, I can just see that happening. Big line at McDonalds. Employee comes outside and tells each car that the network is down and they're "not serving right now". They're not sure when the network will be back up. Well, either way I don't care... I don't trust the commercial beef supply and their chicken is overprocessed. If anything I'll be over at Jack-In-The-Box having a Pannido.
• Central to the system's success, Bigari said, is the way it pairs customers' photos with their orders; by increasing accuracy, the system cuts down on the number of complaints and therefore makes the service faster. I wonder if this means that most of the errors at drive-throughs involve giving one person another's order. I can't recall that happening to me, but I do recall errors like not getting one of a few different items I ordered. And the photo aspect is kind of funny considering that sometimes people use drive-throughs instead of parking and going inside to avoid being seen in their pantless and/or ungroomed state.
• It's all a steaming pile of bollocks. McD's wants to shave a few cents off its labor costs, so it dresses this BS in the guise of "customer service" and the business press is willing to take them at their word. Appalling! No wonder WorldCom happened..
• That's EWRTGJq#dasgjaert ertRET#Q and a side of fries, right?
• Best innovation I've ever seen at a drive-through: a frickin' screen that showed you what you'd ordered, so you could catch mistakes before you got to the window. Brilliant, and you didn't need a call center or pictures or anything.
• The sad thing here is that this will result in fewer jobs for young people... I worked for McD's when I was young and desperate. From the ill fitting polyester uniform to the you-are-a-cog treatment, it was the single most dehumanizing thing I have ever participated in. Young people are far better off missing out on such a stellar 'opportunities' as the 5 cents an hour salary increase for trainers. I don't quite understand why eliminating the location's order-taker results in such improved accuracy. Why is the call center order-taker so much more adept than the location's order-taker Maybe because they are in a location that is conductive to concentrating on taking orders. When I worked drive thru and it was busy, I was often trying to take the order while sharing a closet sized space with 2 other people - cashier and runner. One or both might have been talking, sometimes to me. There were about 8 buzzers and beepers going off in the background. In slower times, you had to partially fill both positions so you might be gathering food for one order while you took the order for another or waited on special orders to be available. I gotta stop now. I'm having a PTSD flashback that is so vivid and painful that I can smell the grease traps.
• Does this win an award for disturbing news of the day?
• why not a touch screen where you just choose what you want yourself?? Could it possibly cost more than all this long distance technology?
• MickeyD's and WallyWorld--the primary reasons 'Merika is going to hell.
• mmmuttly... I'll agree that working for mcD's is a sucky job.... my comment was aimed more at some of the kids from really low income families for whom these jobs are the absolutly ONLY way to make some bucks other than selling drugs!.... those kids won't have any options at all once these positions are gone...
• Someone, somewhere is thinking this: "You now, it would be really effective if we could link those pictures they take to the local, state and federal and international criminal databases. In fact, we should make it law that any such camera HAS run through said databases."
• HuronBob The choice between being a drug lookout/dealer and working at McD's is not really much of a choice. Being a lookout likely pays better and the dealers don't make you wear a stupid paper hat either. Listening to some pinhead hound you about "time to lean, time to clean" for minimum wage erodes your self respect, your respect for authority and your professional motivation way faster.
• further evidence of the coming apocalypse
• Fuck McDonald's.