Outsourcing at the drive-thru

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

How hard are they going to work making themselves understandable?

As long as people give feedback regarding their service, and if the bosses pay attention to satisfaction, they'll work hard to make themselves heard clearly.

Originally Posted by lashbear

This is the reason I will be avoiding call centres when I look for work after the trip (Emphasis mine, of course, my comments in brackets):

It's all out of Snow Crash. If this kind of stuff continues to escalate we'll have a second rise of unions, much as the industrial revolution brought on unions 100 years ago. Too bad this isn't the case in most other places in the world and will just make us even weaker in the world marketplace, as other countries continue to exploit their workforces.

Originally Posted by MouseWife

Another thing that I don't appreciate? The threat of being replaced by outsourcing/machines. I am a cashier and they've threatened to put in self service registers. It is insulting {compare it to saying a monkey could do your job}.

Ya know, once these people are gone, who will be next? The managers income will come down because they aren't handling as many employees. The business itself won't have as many employees, how safe does that make the business? Will they only accept debit/credit so they don't have cash?

{sorry...just had a really good cup of coffee.... }

But yeah, a sore spot. I love the technology but then I don't, too.

As someone who works with self-checkout technology, I don't see this as an insult to my station. It would be an insult to everyone's intelligence if these jobs that have been rendered so simple anyone can do them still required salaried people to do them.

I've probably posted this before. I love it when I get a patron who comes to the desk and says "I came to you because I want you to keep your job." I smile, scan their card with one hand and pull their stack of books onto the pad with the other. After 2 seconds, I push the books back. "Due in 3 weeks." They blink and sputter, saying, "is that it?" Yes, yes it is.

It's easy for me to say, since there are still plenty of tasks at the library that require my help. But while I hate it when anyone loses their job, I'd also not want to pay for salaries when the jobs really aren't necessary.

I came up with a silly analogy for this. Let's say that there was no paper technology. All information had to carved onto tablets or written on slates or simply remembered. If you wanted to remember lots of things you'd have to hire people to remember them for you. A string of rememberers would follow you all day long. If someone invented paper, it would mean joblessness for all those employees, but it would be really stupid to ignore such an innovation.

[MouseWife]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

As someone who works with self-checkout technology, I don't see this as an insult to my station. It would be an insult to everyone's intelligence if these jobs that have been rendered so simple anyone can do them still required salaried people to do them.

I've probably posted this before. I love it when I get a patron who comes to the desk and says "I came to you because I want you to keep your job." I smile, scan their card with one hand and pull their stack of books onto the pad with the other. After 2 seconds, I push the books back. "Due in 3 weeks." They blink and sputter, saying, "is that it?" Yes, yes it is.

It's easy for me to say, since there are still plenty of tasks at the library that require my help. But while I hate it when anyone loses their job, I'd also not want to pay for salaries when the jobs really aren't necessary.

I understand the self-checkout technology, and I also use it. I guess I should have said I feel insulted when my lead talks about replacing the cashiers. As a threat.

I also have had the guests who say they would not like the self-check out as they want to see people like me there, have a nice word and a smile. With the cut back of staff, people have come up to me quite upset saying they had no one to help them find something and they wouldn't be back. I guess I like old fashioned customer service myself. I love visiting the small towns and enjoy the rapport.

iSm~I hear you on the fact that regular people can ring themselves up. I'm not a cashier by 'trade', I came by it mostly as a dare. I feel I can be a bit objective as I am more of a shopper, or, even, looking at it from the customers point of view and how to best serve and please them. I really don't see it as a plus to get rid of the front line of service. While people can do it, I come across a lot of people who would rather not. It amazes me, sometimes, but, some people barely know how to shop, let alone pay.

I wouldn't call cashiers expensive labor....and, of late, they've cut the amount quite a lot, very little time to do the other tasks they have for us.

But yes, that it what I meant~they won't realize that they need to pay people to have people shop. I actually sometimes wonder how stores exist, what with on line shopping.

We have one of those two lane McDonalds~I've experienced mix ups. Aw man, a bummer when the line is so long at In & Out that they have someone in the parking lot taking orders!!!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by MouseWife

I understand the self-checkout technology, and I also use it. I guess I should have said I feel insulted when my lead talks about replacing the cashiers. As a threat.

What a dick!

Originally Posted by MouseWife

I also have had the guests who say they would not like the self-check out as they want to see people like me there, have a nice word and a smile. With the cut back of staff, people have come up to me quite upset saying they had no one to help them find something and they wouldn't be back. I guess I like old fashioned customer service myself. I love visiting the small towns and enjoy the rapport.

I love being behind the counter to help people, and I'm nearly always cheery on desk, ready to help with anything I can. It's a rare day that I'm not able to hold it together, mostly because I love interacting with everyone that comes in. In that way I'm very much an old-fashioned, customer service-oriented person.

The funny part is that when I am a customer somewhere, I would rather not deal with anyone. I want the stuff that I came for, I want it fast, and I want to get out without learning anyone's life story. When I do interact with checkers or staff I'm always friendly, but if every store had a self-checkout, I'd use it as often as possible. This may be because my standards for service are high, and if they seem annoyed at their job it makes me annoyed at them for forcing me to interact with their annoyance.

[innerSpaceman]

I like using the self-checkout when it's available, but only because most people don't --- and so the lines are so much shorter.


Don't get me wrong. I was a cashier at a few of my early jobs. But the truth is, "civilians" can do it. I can't see employers footing the bill for expensive labor when a machine will do the trick. I don't like that, but it's an economic fact.


The companies will only notice the problem caused by eliminating so many jobs when there aren't enough employed people left to be their customers.

But that's going to take a while. Till then, more misery everywhere.

[Alex]

On the one hand I would never work in a call center because for the most part unless you are in executive customer service it is most certainly soul sucking dehumanizing work.

On the other hand I understand the urge to drive every inefficiency out of call center operations. A department I work with (no involvement by me really) recently rewrote a simple script so that it is four seconds shorter. It is expected that this will save $300,000 over the course of a year.

I know it sucks but it is just like working an assembly line (which I have done).

As for McDonald's doing this for drive-thru, so long as it works I don't really care but it won't impact me much anyway. Regardless of quality of the drive-thru order taker I don't trust them to put my order together correctly anyway so unless that's all that is open I go inside and order so I can watch it come together.

[€uroMeinke]

I wonder if you'll be able to order Mango Lassi's or Channa Masala..

[Alex]

Hawai'i McDonald's sell saimin so that would make Lani happy.

Don't get the roquefort chicken sandwich that they sell in Italy. Lani said that was gross. But Japan's filet o' shrimp wasn't bad.

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Alex

Hawai'i McDonald's sell saimin so that would make Lani happy.

Don't get the roquefort chicken sandwich that they sell in Italy. Lani said that was gross. But Japan's filet o' shrimp wasn't bad.

McDonald's in Nova Scotia sell McLobster sandwiches. They were interesting.

[Not Afraid]

I'm not sure outsourcing to India would provide speakers that are any less clear than what the drive-thru already presents. In fact, it might be an improvement!

[Alex]

Now that I think about it my last McDonald's drive-thru experience was something like:

Speaker: Can I take your order?
Me: <gives order ending with "that's all">
Order has been displaying on monitor while I talk.
Speaker: That'll be $X at the second window.

A little bit of recorded audio and some voice recognition software and it may have passed the Turing Test for all I know.