Fast food restaurants begin outsourcing drive-through order taking

[jynxxxedangel]

Borrowed from this source: TheSeahawk.org

CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ That crackling voice taking your order at a fast food drive-through may come from a lot farther away than the restaurant: Try Texas, or even overseas.

San Diego-based Jack in the Box has tested outsourced drive-through order-taking since mid-2008 at seven of its 30 Charlotte, N.C.-area restaurants. Spokeswoman Kathleen Anthony declined to specify the locations, though workers at the Cotswold restaurant in Charlotte recently said it uses the system.

The technology is intended to improve speed, accuracy and service, freeing up restaurant employees to process orders, accept payment and address other needs, Anthony said. The chain has not reduced staffing as a result of the remote order-taking, and the restaurants can turn the system on and off as they wish, she said.

Still, it's piqued curiosity among local customers who have encountered heavy accents with order-takers, then rounded the bend to find different people handing them food.

"I had noticed it (several months ago), but I just thought the person taking the order was somewhere else in the store where we couldn't see them," said Elizabeth Banks, a Charlotte teacher and mother of three who takes her 15-year-old daughter and her daughter's friends to Jack in the Box for Oreo milkshakes most Friday afternoons.

At one point the girls asked the order-taker, "Where are you?" There was a pause, Banks recalled. Then, the person on the other end said, "Texas."

The Jack in the Box test orders are routed to a Texas call center operated by Bronco Communications, a company specializing in fast food order-taking, Anthony said. Some may be routed outside the U.S., she said, but she wouldn't specify where.

Companies began trying remote ordering in 2005. As with outsourcing in other industries, technological advances (namely high-speed Internet) made it possible. When customers pull up to the menu, a call center worker takes the order on a computer. The order pops up on a screen inside the restaurant.

A greater number of restaurants, including McDonald's and Wendy's franchisees, have tried centralized order-takers within the United States. None has introduced the technology nationally, in part because they've found it difficult to prove it saves money, Scott said. The parent company of Hardee's has conducted a limited test, too.

The technology has the potential to eliminate language barriers between Spanish-speaking employees and English-speaking customers, said Kate Mosteller, marketing director of Massachusetts-based Exit 41, which focuses on off-site order taking. Yet time zones and regional dialects can also present hurdles.

"You want someone who's friendly and articulate and who can understand ... different nuances," Mosteller said. "(Otherwise) you're going to know you're (being routed) somewhere else, and that's exactly what you don't want to do."

Jack in the Box's Anthony declined to discuss the results of the Charlotte trial, noting that the company doesn't speak in depth about its tests. "It is something we're testing, not something we're necessarily committed to at this point," she said.

Though the local run is wrapping up soon, Jack in the Box will continue to try the approach in other markets "here and there," Anthony said.

--article by Jen Aronoff, 1/29/09, (with all respects to the author)

I find this to be HIGHLY OUTRAGEOUS!!! A friend, who just recently encountered this phenomenon, brought it to my attention.

[Slogo]

IS THERE ANYTHING THAT CAN'T BE FUCKING OUTSOURCED?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

I don't blame the people taking the outsourced job (It's a decent wage for a lot of them so I understand their perspective) but I can get really pissed at the companies that do this. These jobs are a lot of peoples first jobs and they're being eliminated

[Simon Bar Sinister]

Joke In The Box is still around?

[prick]

Wow even a fast fod job isnt safe!

[TheGimp]

*in quickie mart voice*

Hello my name is Abu, please go ahead with your order when you are ready my friend,

oh you want a big mac my my my those are sacred over here in india are you sure who want big mac how bout a nice mc chicken....

no ok my freind one big mac it is please pull around

thank you come agian

[the eternal]

And here I thought it was bad that my McDonald's has a pre-recorded,

sickeningly over-excited canned introduction:

"HI, WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY A NEW ICED MOCHA!!!!!!"

No, STFU, and let me get my ice cream cone.

[Rev.Reverence]

*laughter*turns to sobbing*turns to laughter*

*turns to sobbing*turns to laughter*turns to sobbing*

*turns to laughter*turns to sobbing*turns to laughter*

*turns to sobbing*turns to laughter*turns to sobbing*

*turns to laughter*turns to sobbing*turns to laughter*

*turns to sobbing*turns to laughter*turns to sobbing*

*turns to laughter*turns to sobbing*turns to laughter*

*turns to sobbing*turns to laughter*turns to sobbing*

*turns to sobbing*turns to laughter*turns to sobbing*

*turns to laughter*turns to sobbing*turns to laughter*

*dies*

*is resurrected*

SHIT! I'M STILL HERE!

[n0Mad]

And when the satellite uplink dies, everyone at the restaurant will freak 'cuz they won't know how to take orders.

[torn asunder]

The technology is intended to improve speed, accuracy and service, freeing up restaurant employees to process orders, accept payment and address other needs, Anthony said.

for god's sake, whatever you do, *don't* give anyone a piece of gum - the whole restaurant infrastructure will collapse!!

[Rev.Reverence]

for god's sake, whatever you do, *don't* give anyone a piece of gum - the whole restaurant infrastructure will collapse!!

[Destroit]

*in quickie mart voice*

Hello my name is Abu, please go ahead with your order when you are ready my friend,

oh you want a big mac my my my those are sacred over here in india are you sure who want big mac how bout a nice mc chicken....

no ok my freind one big mac it is please pull around

thank you come agian

They can't eat chicken either, ya know .

[TitsMcGee]

*in quickie mart voice*

Hello my name is Abu, please go ahead with your order when you are ready my friend,

oh you want a big mac my my my those are sacred over here in india are you sure who want big mac how bout a nice mc chicken....

no ok my freind one big mac it is please pull around

thank you come agian

And here I thought it was bad that my McDonald's has a pre-recorded,

sickeningly over-excited canned introduction:

"HI, WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY A NEW ICED MOCHA!!!!!!"

No, STFU, and let me get my ice cream cone.

Sadly, that isn't pre-recorded. At least not around here it isn't.

As someone who worked fast food for a good while, I can see where it would be easier to not have to handle the drive thru ordering, especially during a rush. But with that said I think this is a horrible idea, especially if the outsorced order taker screws up an order, so you would still have to go into the computer and change it anyway.

[Der Nister]

Is there any chance Americans are gonna start standing up for our rights anytime soon?

The longer we let this happen the worse it's gonna get. What happend to protesting?

This should be evidence enough to prove that corporate greed needs to be stopped.

[Onyx]

Wow. Unbelievable.

I thought this was a joke, from The Onion or something.

[pomba gira]

And here I thought it was bad that my McDonald's has a pre-recorded,

sickeningly over-excited canned introduction:

"HI, WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY A NEW ICED MOCHA!!!!!!"

No, STFU, and let me get my ice cream cone.

Oh god that's so annoying... the only time I go to McD's is for breakfast and it's really disconcerting that early in the morning, to hear a young black guy voice and then have it suddenly replaced by an older white lady voice... it's like, what- did she just clock him in the head and grab the headset?

[ttogreh]

With voice recognition technology progressing as it is, and automation technology becoming less expensive, we can expect even out-sourced jobs to disappear. In ten years we could expect to see only one or two people per fast food restaurant. They would mop the floors, take orders inside the restaurant, and fill the food dispensers.

In short, low-skill jobs are disappearing. We need to make education accessible to all people, and create tax incentives to build knowledge based jobs.

The call centers in India are being down-sized in this economy. It is likely that call centers themselves could be eliminated in time as voice recognition becomes more sophisticated...

[Tacohitts]

Give it time there will be no jobs left in this joke of a nation,just tax payer internment labor/death camps.

[Simon Bar Sinister]

Give it time there will be no jobs left in this joke of a nation,just tax payer internment labor/death camps.

Ever read Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano?

[TheOsakaKoneko]

I find it kinda funny, but I can't see how this could possibly save any money. I've seen some people who work in those places who are just amazing - they can do everything at once...take down a perfect order, give the correct total off the top of their head without using the registers, hand off food and give change to another customer, while helping to grab the fries and managing the other employees.

(When I saw this girl, I gained new respect for everyone who works in fast food.)

She was perfectly capable of doing all this at once. They definitely didn't need to outsource for someone else to take the orders! How could that possibly save any money...?? hahaha