McDonald's Southern-Style Chicken

[Boodleboy322]

I live in Texas and thought this article was interesting.


Many Hawaii McDonald's Drive-Throughs Use Workers In Texas
Company Says 'Remote Order-Takers' Allow Workers To Focus On Other Jobs

HONOLULU -- More than half of the McDonald's restaurants in Hawaii with drive-throughs are now using what are called "remote order takers" -- people taking your order from a call center in El Paso, Texas.

The operation requires special training for the call-takers so they can understand Hawaii customers.

McDonald's Restaurants of Hawaii started testing remote order takers in 2006. It then began expanding the program statewide in 2007.

"We want to make sure that our customers get their orders right and they get them in the most convenient way possible," said Melanie Okazaki of McDonald's Restaurants of Hawaii.

McDonald's actually trains the Texas order-takers to understand local phrases and accents.

"Sometimes people throw in a little bit of pidgin here and there and so we want our order-takers to become accustomed and comfortable with that," Okazaki said.

So McDonald's does some role-playing with the order-takers from the mainland and gives them a few Hawaiian words to use such as aloha and mahalo.

"It takes a little getting used to on the order-taker's side, but I think with practice, they become more and more comfortable working with our local clientele," Okazaki said.

McDonald's said the new system is delivering more accurate orders and speeding up service, but there is no cost savings.

"We haven't pared back on our labor force at all. In fact, we've been able to have our crew members concentrate more on their particular position," Okazaki said.

So food workers can concentrate on the food without worrying about taking orders as well.

If the system goes down, restaurant staff can still handle drive-through orders in house.

Thirty one out of 50 Hawaii McDonald's restaurants are using the new technology. The other 19 have chosen to keep things as-is.

http://www.kitv.com/money/16607424/detail.html

[RU OX Alum]

^^that's nuts

[epchick]

Originally Posted by Boodleboy322

I live in Texas and thought this article was interesting.


Many Hawaii McDonald's Drive-Throughs Use Workers In Texas
Company Says 'Remote Order-Takers' Allow Workers To Focus On Other Jobs

HONOLULU -- More than half of the McDonald's restaurants in Hawaii with drive-throughs are now using what are called "remote order takers" -- people taking your order from a call center in El Paso, Texas.

They must keep this on the DL here because I've never heard that. In fact many of the big call centers we have are shutting down, so I wonder where they are taking these orders. Maybe that is why the McDonald's we have here can never get orders done quickly or get them down right.

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by epchick

When I was around 13 I was diagnosed with a corn allergy. So i couldn't eat anything with corn syrup, corn meal, etc. You don't know how many things have corn syrup or corn meal until you can't eat them! lol

Try being allergic to tomatoes & onions! ACK!!!

Originally Posted by Boodleboy322

I live in Texas and thought this article was interesting.


Many Hawaii McDonald's Drive-Throughs Use Workers In Texas
Company Says 'Remote Order-Takers' Allow Workers To Focus On Other Jobs

HONOLULU -- More than half of the McDonald's restaurants in Hawaii with drive-throughs are now using what are called "remote order takers" -- people taking your order from a call center in El Paso, Texas.

The operation requires special training for the call-takers so they can understand Hawaii customers.

McDonald's Restaurants of Hawaii started testing remote order takers in 2006. It then began expanding the program statewide in 2007.



http://www.kitv.com/money/16607424/detail.html

Oh, what I'd give to sit in those training sessions.

Us Hawai'i folks have a 'unique' dialect called Pidgin English that most people have a hard time understanding. When Keoki Kerr did that KITV4 news piece, he interviewed the order taker in El Paso WHILE IN THE DRIVE-THROUGH LINE. It was hilarious.

I was at McDs one morning where the Manager had to call the national number to complain at the huge number of wrong orders. She explained that it's tough to get a hold of someone when things go wrong, and they really don't have the option to switch over to an in-store order taker when that happens because their system's already routed to the people in El Paso.

Personally, I've never had any problems with them. The McDs nearest to my house was one of the first restaurants in the Islands to use this service and I didn't know that until recently. I'll admit, it's neat to hear a bright and cheery "ALOHA!" when I get my coffee in the morning. I just wish the people taking my money at the first window could look and sound the same.