Because I Can

McDonalds, according to the New York Times (hat tip: Drudge), has started putting drive through orders through call centers. We're not kidding.
Like many American teenagers, Julissa Vargas, 17, has a minimum-wage job in the fast-food industry — but hers has an unusual geographic reach.

"Would you like your Coke and orange juice medium or large?" Ms. Vargas said into her headset to an unseen woman who was ordering breakfast from a drive-through line. She did not neglect the small details —"You Must Ask for Condiments," a sign next to her computer terminal instructs — and wished the woman a wonderful day.

What made the $12.08 transaction remarkable was that the customer was not just outside Ms. Vargas's workplace here on California's central coast. She was at a McDonald's in Honolulu. And within a two-minute span Ms. Vargas had also taken orders from drive-through windows in Gulfport, Miss., and Gillette, Wyo.

Now, some people are complaining about this. I can see how call centers for de-localizing operations, like for the car dealer for my parents getting their oil changed, can be annoying. Relaying enough information can be frustrating. When I suggested to my mom that instead of getting an appointment that she get her oil changed at Jiffy Lube, she rejected the thought, because apparently the dealer does other stuff. I think she didn't want to admit that I had a point. The reason people take their cars to the dealer, though, is that it's a few bucks cheaper.

Do I expect that McDonalds will drop its price as a result of this? No. Do I expect their employees to make more? No. Do I expect the quality of service to increase? Yes, actually.

Anyone who has ever ordered at a fast food drive through has no doubt seen the marvelous pieces of junk that make for the drive-through intercom. Imagine talking on the phone with someone whose voice is muffled. That someone is mumbling. That someone is your dog. That's about what drive through speak is like. The idea that they are sending this out to a call-center suggests that they have actually care about the communications infrastructure of the drive-thru, which will mean better service. As it stands now, the order is just put on a screen for the restaraunt workers to put the order together, so that merits no change. A clearer connection, and someone who was hired because they speak clearly would be a step up. From a labor point of view, it makes individual restaraunt employees more valuable, and the drive-thru workers have a better work environments in a casual office setting.

Now, if they're going to do this, they can also have language specialists, so that customers who want to order in Japanese, Spanish, German, Russian, French, or some other language, they could press the buttons to place their order with someone in a particular language.

But what they should really do is just have a button system for each customer's order. You could even play 20 questions or something to get an order for a customer who doesn't know what they want. You could make the readouts next to the sceen.

Ways this could go wrong:

1) More centralized control over restaraunts so wrong orders cannot be corrected. (doubtful)
2) Call center workers strike. (slightly less doubtful)
3) Call center workers have minimal language proficiency. (slightly more likely)
4) Call center workers are rude to customers and nothing can be done about it. (more likely)
5) Machines are not upkept, and then someone 200 miles away says "mrhmmmh mhrrhmmf mrrhmffmrhmhfr Big Mac mmrfhmhrfm." (most likely)

My reaction:
I always go into the restaraunt. First of all, it's a quality control thing; if it looks dirty or smells dirty, run away, because fast food places just work like that. If they screw up my order, I can say so. I can get condiments and not worry about messing up my car. I don't like to eat and drive. I can get a free refill when I'm done.

Labels: Economic Stuff