Welcome to McDonald’s, may WE take your order?

[Itsme]

I had heard about this test that McDonalds was running...finally found an article on it.

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Welcome to McDonald’s, may WE take your order?

Steven Bigari, a McDonald’s franchisee, has dramatically increased the efficiency of his 12 McDonald's by reducing its drive-through order time by 30 seconds to a little more than one-minute per transaction. (That’s well below the McDonald’s drive-through average order time of two-minutes thirty-six seconds.)

Plus, this McDonald’s franchisee has increased the number of cars his drive-throughs handle by 15% from 226 cars per hour to 260 cars.

“This transforms my business. It’s bigger than drive-through,” contends Bigari.

What in the name of the Hamburgler is going on here? How can a McDonald’s record such startling order-taking efficiency?

To achieve such efficiency, Mr. Bigari has done the seemingly radical … he has outsourced his drive-through order taking function to a call center in Colorado Springs.

Yes, he has outsourced order-taking at his McDonald’s to a call center.

“Cheap, quick and reliable telecommunications lines let the order takers in Colorado Springs converse with customers in Missouri, take an electronic snapshot of them, display their order on a screen to make sure it is right, then forward the order and the photo to the restaurant kitchen. People picking up their burgers never know that their order traverses two states and bounces back before they can even start driving to the pickup window.”

What has been the reaction at McDonald’s Corporate offices? McDonald’s is intrigued and has started a small drive-through call center test with three locations near its Oak Brook, IL headquarters. However, McDonald’s is focusing its resources more on other customer service improvement areas such as installing wi-fi access in its restaurants and introducing credit card/debit card payment options.

Pleased with the results of his order-taking outsourcing system, Mr. Bigari now offers customers the option of ordering from their table using a phone, and parents watching over their kids in the playground areas can phone-in orders and have their food delivered.

Hmm … whattaya think about this? How do you think this would impact your “experience” at McDonald’s? As long as you get your order faster and more accurate, do you care if a “call center” takes your order?

I know one thing, out-sourcing the drive-through order taking function will make the “drive-through incoherent garble” a thing of the past … which is a good thing.

[DarkFury]

As long as they don't outsource it to India and I have to talk to "Habib" with the thick accent... I could care less... as long as they get the order correct.

Cause you know... they ALWAYS f@%& you in the drive thru. :hmm: :2far:

[ialsohaveadream]

Is that a real article? Where's the link?

If it's true, what is really stumping me is whether doing that would help him make more money. On the one hand, he saves money by having less employees (although it's not like more employees cost much...one value meal and you just paid for that employee for an hour). On the other, he has to maintain constant telecom networking, and probably had to install pricier, higher-maintenance electronics to make this happen.

[PrObLy]

I go to Oak Brook every so often when I'm back at home, but usually end up eating at a nicer restaurant (Oak Brook is quite upper class, yuppie type mall area) but next time I'm over there I might have to check out the local Mc Donalds to see how fast they can get my order through.

Speaking of Micky D's, I just got back from the 24 hour drive thru here in Iowa City. By the time I drove up to the window, my food was ready. Albeit, it is nearly one in the morning and all I got was a double cheeseburger and a Fruit and Walnut salad (premade I suppose), but the burger seems pretty fresh. BTW: this Fruit and Walnut salad thing is pretty good, but a bit overpriced (2.99).

[tupacboy]

so they're saying it takes 30 secs more for someone who is actually there to enter ur order....?

[cadetevon]

Nah, it'll be LESS by ~30 seconds.


by reducing its drive-through order time by 30 seconds to a little more than one-minute per transaction. (That’s well below the McDonald’s drive-through average order time of two-minutes thirty-six seconds.)

[Markel]

As long as they don't outsource it to India and I have to talk to "Habib" with the thick accent...
"I'm sorry, sir. I cannot enter your order for a hamburger, as it violates my religious convictions against eating cows. Would you like me to substitute a salad instead?"

[DarkFury]

"I'm sorry, sir. I cannot enter your order for a hamburger, as it violates my religious convictions against eating cows. Would you like me to substitute a salad instead?"
:heh:

Please gimme your cousin with bacon and cheese fries and a shake.

[Grimm]

By using a call center it reduces cost in several ways.

1) Less employees. Especialy at night, one or people can probably handle all 12 restraunts.
2) Lower insurance costs. It probably costs a lot less to insure 2 to 6 people sitting at a desk than a dozen running around on a slippery floor around boiling oil and hot stoves.
3) Higher order accuracy. The order takers have less distractions and no other responsabilities. No beeping fry machines or yelling about the broken shake machine or running for more soda cups to interefere with order taking.

[Thesifer]

I don't know.. Im not one to be too worried about "privacy" issues.. but .. Takes my picture and sends it to a call center in some other state? .. What's the point in that? Wouldn't they just be the "Next order in line" as im sure its still done in like just like the drive thru typically is??

[molecularfire]

Hmmm... I hadn't actually thought of that. I just kinda assumed that they took a picture of the car. The ones I've seen have a video feed over the order box so that they know which order goes with which car.

[Thesifer]

Maybe.. I just read " customers in Missouri, take an electronic snapshot of them" and assume that means the person

[ialsohaveadream]

By using a call center it reduces cost in several ways.

1) Less employees. Especialy at night, one or people can probably handle all 12 restraunts.
2) Lower insurance costs. It probably costs a lot less to insure 2 to 6 people sitting at a desk than a dozen running around on a slippery floor around boiling oil and hot stoves.
3) Higher order accuracy. The order takers have less distractions and no other responsabilities. No beeping fry machines or yelling about the broken shake machine or running for more soda cups to interefere with order taking.
1) That works if you own multiple franchises, but the article (and hey, where's the source/link for it? Still waiting) doesn't say that he owns several stores, does it? Also, even if there's less employees, a McDonald's employee will earn minimum wage, whereas the call center employee might earn slightly more than that, PLUS overhead and profit for the call center company. I can't imagine it's cheaper per hour.
2) Liability insurance might be cheaper, but health insurance wouldn't be an issue, because Mickey D's ain't givin no health insurance. :)
3) True, and thus less wasted food, since they usually throw away orders that get done wrong.

Also, I'll add
4) Much harder for those high school employees to "hook up" their friends coming through the drive thru.

[krayzie1]

Wow that is a really good idea! How long till someone tries out a touch screen ordering based system? That would be kind of cool. Similar to the ones they have at Sheetz, where you choose what you want then it will say like what dont you want on it and list all the ingredients.

[bbrian]

Also, even if there's less employees, a McDonald's employee will earn minimum wage, whereas the call center employee might earn slightly more than that, PLUS overhead and profit for the call center company. I can't imagine it's cheaper per hour.

There are call centers that do this type of stuff for numerous companies at the same time. Because of this they usually just charge a 'per incident' fee.. the number of employees the call center has and what they pay the employees has little impact on the McD's store owner. The call centers try to maximize the number of calls their employees take and they will do so by trying to sign on as many companies as possible to bring in more money. If the per incident fee is low enough, it is entirely possible that the call center is considerably cheaper since McD's isn't paying anything if there is nobody coming throught the drive-through.

[Grimm]

1) That works if you own multiple franchises, but the article (and hey, where's the source/link for it? Still waiting) doesn't say that he owns several stores, does it?
Actualy the article states that he ownes 12 franchises, in the first line... you might want to read it again.

[riskykougra]

If its already fast food how much more in a hurry do people have to be. I dont think 30 more seconds waiting in line is gonna make anyone so late for an appointment that the new system would be any better. If your in that much of a hurry to get somewhere...eat after or leave earlier. :shrug:

[PrObLy]

If its already fast food how much more in a hurry do people have to be. I dont think 30 more seconds waiting in line is gonna make anyone so late for an appointment that the new system would be any better. If your in that much of a hurry to get somewhere...eat after or leave earlier. :shrug:


It's about profit, primarily. He stated that he was able to service 15% more drive-thru customers per day using the new technique. If this method is reasonably cheap and is as error-free as they insist, then that 15% per day will probably increase as customers will be happier when their order isn't messed up (like DF said, they have a tendency of ALWAYS messing up drive-thru orders), and when it is busy customers will be more likely to stay in the drive thru lane if it's consistently moving instead of skipping out and heading home or to a competitor's restaurant.

[ialsohaveadream]

Actualy the article states that he ownes 12 franchises, in the first line... you might want to read it again.
Grrr. I read that line and totally skipped over the 12. They should've written out "twelve". Those of us who are grammar nerds would've appreciated a "twelve".

[chrissy]

But the number is over ten. I thought it was grammatically correct to have the option of 12 or twelve after ten?

[ialsohaveadream]

Option, yes. But truly devoted grammar nerds don't switch to numbers until the numbers hit the triple digits. ;)

[YanksFanRy]

The rules of journalism state above nine the number should be written as a number (10, 12, 43, 98, etc.)

[ialsohaveadream]

Uhhh, no they don't.

[Nija]

I saw something on the local news about this at least 2 (two ;) ) months ago. They were doing it for a Carl's Jr in the midwest somewhere, and they (the news) was saying they actually take orders for a group of geographically different franchises.

I don't really care about the order taker. However, the jerkhole who gives me my food better hope they are right.

(NO MAYO, UNCLE FUKKA! NOT EXTRA!)

[Grimm]

But the number is over ten. I thought it was grammatically correct to have the option of 12 or twelve after ten?
You are correct Chrissy. As a general rule, single digit numbers should be spelled out and numbers with multipel digits should be represented with actual numbers. This is not a hard and fast rule however.

[djsusm]

I had heard about this test that McDonalds was running...finally found an article on it.
...
What has been the reaction at McDonald’s Corporate offices? McDonald’s is intrigued and has started a small drive-through call center test with three locations near its Oak Brook, IL headquarters.
...

Oooh.. I live in Oak Brook. I will investigate and report back (even if it means eating at a McDonalds!) Maybe now that I've read this, I will notice a difference when I go through the drivethru.

[BigJon]

Now that's just interesting.