Is McDonalds viciously outsourcing jobs to save $2/hr? Or are they trying to give good service?
A story has been making the rounds for about a month regarding McDonalds fast food restaurants in Oregon which are apparently outsourcing their order taking to North Dakota for some reason. The idea being that when you drive in and place an order at the microphone in Oregon, you're actually talking to someone in North Dakota who takes your order and then sends the info to the pickup window by computer. There are currently only 14 McDonalds involved and the plan is to initially limit participation to 50 selected stores. This means that even if you're in Oregon your chances of visiting the drive-through of one of the stores testing this system are relatively low. If the system succeeds it will presumably be expanded.…
Article comments
26 - DrPat
Fred, there's room for blame on both sides of the microphone. And people who don't want pickles (or onions) really don't want them - they don't want to have to pick them out, and shouldn't have to throw out food.
And not to pick on the golden arches, Carl's Jr has a similar spotty order completion - I have learned never to drive on without checking my Western Star to see if they did leave out the onion rings.
When they build this burger, they drop the sauce on top of the ring, and most of it gets absorbed into the batter crust - it just doesn't taste the same if you simply "pull out and toss" the onion ring!
It's one reason I go to Burger King by preference. If I ask them to leave out the onions, they do.
27 - Victor Plenty
I wondered who threw all those pickles on the road!
Give a hoot. Don't pickle-lute.
28 - Jaime
Ilive in North Dakota where this company is and a girl I work with left her job making $10 per hour to work for this company to make "more money." I didn't ask how much.
29 - Bridger Anderson
I think the idea behind this is time managment, and that 1 call center person could do the jobs of 4 people at 4 different restaurants.
How is that you ask? Well you don't have to make the person making food while stopping to do orders.
To the people that complain of how they constantly have misplaced orders:
Question: What different does it make to you if a McDonalds employee at the restaurant screws up your order as opposed to a call center employee screwing up your order?
30 - Dave Nalle
Since they're call-center workers I imagine they make about $15-$16 an hour. A good investment if as the last commentor suggested they can handle 4 times the volume. My guess is it's 2-3 times the volume with higher accuracy, but that still makes it worthwhile.
The side benefits are even greater than you may realize. Moving the order takers out of the building creates more work and storage space, reducing overhead, for example.
Dave
31 - Wayne Allen Ginnis
first off I had a really good friend that used to work for mcdonalds and they refused to give her, her check. If they treat their employes like crap how do you think that they treat their customers? Most of us work and eat at the word wide known place called Mickey D's and our children eat their as well. I went to a mickey d's and they were using profanity behined the counter, it is supposed to be family oreianted and my 3 year old daughter has to hear that crap. I don't think so! So how do we manover around and boycot a place that our kids love so much? Do we take their abuse because they are overworked and underpaid?
not our fault! How can this corporation be so big and yet treat their customers and their employees like dirt. We need to do something about this corporation. I may not be the perfect aspect of a person, but I refuse to have my children and my friends eat at a resturant that treats employees and customers like they are the worst of all things to happen in their lives. You decide if this corporation needs to do something or if you want them to continue this abuse! The choice is ours...
32 - marshall
I agree.
33 - ronald mcd
Stop having a go at me and my burgers.I`m just a clown that makes burgers.
34 - mr wimpy- burger
The call centre workers who take the calls are also making the burgers, they then send them by u.p.s to the drivethru window at the relevant restaurant, it`s a seamless operation and mcdonald burgerworld are to be applauded for this innovation in fast service.god bless krusty.ban the new world order. David Icke was right the world IS run by Lizard people, they want us to feast on chicken nuggets to fatten us up for when they use us for food. wake up America this is happening now.
35 - canadianlaughs
First off: All of you need to stop your bitching. Just because your the customer doesn't make you better than me, the worker. (And I do know what I'm talking about. My boss is Lee Adams, along with his brother Scott, who together own 14, soon to be 16 McDonalds in SE Washington and NE Oregon.) I love the Call Center. They make our job so much easier. When you guys come through the Drive-Thru and yell at us, we get pissed off. (BTW, we can hear you just fine.) Call Center doesnt seem to have a problem with it, mainly cause they dont have to sit there and wait for you to pay for your Double Quarter Pounder Meal Large with a Diet Coke (WTF?!) in nickels and dimes. Secondly, everyone is freaking out that this Call Center losses jobs. That is farthest from the truth. I work at the second busiest store in the company, and we still need the same amount of employees regardless. Just want a little respect from all of you. Besides, for all you know, we could be putting the "special sauce" in your burgers. And you dont even know the difference. HA!
36 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Nice to see someone with the sense to tell the customer to stop bitching. The customer is NOT always right!
I used to work the drive-thru at Burger King dealing with the same kind of scum who come to the mike gabbing on the cell phone, wasting time telling some idiot about the hot chick they picked up at the bar, totally forgetting and not giving a damn about the people working at the drive-thru or the people waiting behind them in line.
Finally, the idiots would wake up and holler their order. Thinking about it, outsourcing the orders is a great idea. Drive-thru workers don't have to deal with the stupid absent-mindedness of fools who don't know what they want, can't make themselves understood, etc., etc.
37 - Meh.
I work for a McDonals. I'm a manager in fact. I'll admit that our crew make mistakes but you have to think about certain things. Fast food restaurants typically have a pretty high turnover rate. This means a lot of new employees a lot of the time. Also customers do make up a lot of the problem. We have the screen at our speaker that says your order, we confirm the order to a "yeah yeah" response only to later get a complaint from this person that they wanted something that wasn't on their receipt.
Customers that can barely speak English come through the drive thru. I don't care if you speak English or not, but have the decency to come inside and speak to us face-to-face so we can better figure out what you are saying.
Also there are a lot of different people with a lot of different jobs. A simple slip in communication can really throw off even an entire line. While this is of course our fault, it is often a really simple mistake to make.
Customers complain that we are rude to them and never bother to consider how they and other customers are treating us. It's really easy to blame all of your life's problems on McDonalds employees but really if you weren't so lazy and accustomed to some bizzare level of pampering.. if you could take the time to check your order.. if you could take a 30 second break from your phone call to properly take an order.... if your reaction to a missing small french fry wasn't cursing, swearing, and a near nervous breakdown...... you might find your mcdonald's experience a little better.
38 - Ruvy
Meli,
If the greasy concoctions served at Mac & Don's didn't cause so many cases of diarrhea and stomach upset, Americans, and others, might find their McDonald's experiences a bit more enjoyable - see comment #9 on the food....
Other than that, Meli, you and I agree on the nature of the pigs rushing to the trough in the drive-thru (the advantage of being a former Burger King manager is that I can afford to be brutally honest in my characterization of those who once paid my salary - the customers), and how they don't understand that they are placing an order that is taken seriously by the managers of the restaurant.
Folks don't take fast food seriously (how many times have you heard "get a mclife!"?) and they should. The stuff costs money, and it is a business, not a joke.