WEDNESDAY WHINE: Prerecorded Fast Food Drive-Through Greetings
I drove up to the McDonald’s drive-through speaker box the other day with the intentions of quickly ordering lunch. Instead of a conversation with the employee inside, what I got was a…
Prerecorded Fast Food Drive Through Greeting
A friendly and chipper female voice coming from the drive-through speaker said, “Good evening, would you like to try one of our extra value meals?” (or something similar). At first, I was shocked that a McDonald’s employee could sound that happy and enthusiastic after taking fast food orders all day. But then it dawned on me that it was around 2 p.m. and made me wonder why I was greeted with “good evening.”
I shrugged it off and started to place my order. After ordering my first item, I paused to wait for some kind of confirmation that the employee was listening. Nothing. I waited another couple of minutes. Still nothing. Finally, a few minutes later, an unenthusiastic male voice came on the speaker and swiftly said, “Go ahead wit’ yo’ order.”
It was then that I realized that I had been duped by an automated greeting as I pulled up to the drive-through speaker. Now, I had encountered in the past what I was pretty sure was a McDonald’s call-center-equipped drive-through. The live person on the other end of the speaker was clearly not inside the restaurant but rather sitting comfortably in a cubicle somewhere, gladly taking my order. It was obvious that this was the case as when I drove up to the window to pay for my food, the employee standing there was not quite as friendly and barely spoke English.
I’m all for the idea of using call centers to ensure that the non-English-speaker standing in the window doesn’t incorrectly punch in my order. But is the automatic greeting really needed? If the real employee isn’t ready to take an order, what good is it to be greeted immediately upon pulling up to the speaker? It’s just going to make the customer repeat his/her order when the employee is finally ready to take it. Moreover, the split between the friendly prerecorded female voice and the not-so-friendly McDonald’s employee is rather jarring. Without the friendly voice, one might not notice that the employee in the restaurant isn’t happy working there, but when the two are juxtaposed, it becomes quite obvious.
I’m not at all complaining about those unfriendliness of McDonald’s employees. Some are friendly, many are not. I certainly wouldn’t be in a good mood after absorbing grease fumes all day. While I do encourage McDonald’s to use any technology available to help ensure my order is given to me correctly, I don’t think a prerecorded greeting helps in any way. Instead, it has the potential to confuse customers and even cause them to give up and drive away without ordering anything after no one responds beyond the initial fake message.
Have you encountered one of these prerecorded messages at a fast food restaurant? How about a call-center equipped drive-through? Comment on your experiences.
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While I haven’t experienced either the pre-recorded message nor the call-center drive through, I do think the pre-recorded message isn’t a bad idea, just the manner in which you describe is poorly executed.
The manner in which you describe is the drive-through restaurante equivalent of those corny answering machine messages where the person wants to make you think you are taking to a real person only to be told, after you’ve already started talking to them, that it’s just a machine.
If McDonald’s did something akin to, “Welcome to McDonald’s, a customer service agent will be here to help you shortly. While you wait, have you considered ording [fill in food item of the day]?”
That way, your presence is acknowledged, the fact that he message is pre-recorded is clear and you know that a real person will be there shortly
The White Castle in our town has a pre-recorded message, although at the end of the message it does say “Someone will be with you shortly” so that you don’t start ordering.
But even in Columbus, the closest large city, I have not come across automated greetings.
I have never heard of a call-center equipped drive thru at all…one weird thing they do here is the person at the second window (the food passer) takes the order, while the first window (money taker) just takes the money. I find that a bit strange, but it works for them.
I suspect if I ever found out that the order was not taken by anyone inside the restaurant… I would not go there anymore.
I’m still mad at myself for missing “Free Frys” yesterday. From a guy in radio, who’s current job is being replaced by a syndicated show and possible voice-tracking, I don’t really like the automated drive thru. I like to talk directly to the person who could quite possibly be the one who is putting my order in the bag. I like for them to call my order back to me (even though it shows up on a screen now at some drive thru’s), that way when they mess up my order by putting pickles and mustard on my burger when I specifically asked for no pickles and no mustard, I don’t have to blame myself.
We don’t have that down here (yet). We do have the call-center, but only for take-out. Most times, by the accent, it actually seems like the call is being forwarded to another state. As long as the food gets here, though… :)
I’ve experienced this at McDonald’s at more than one location. My favorite is when they try to sell some specific item (we’ll say “southern style chicken sandwich”). The recording says, “Welcome to McDonald’s. Would you like to try our new southern style chicken sandwich?” I usually say “no, thank you,” and tell them what I do want. One day I said, “Sure! I’ll try that.” The response came back: “you’ll try what?” The order taker doesn’t even know what the recorded greeting has just offered!
I think it is only a matter of time before they have a video touch screen with a bright and chipper greeter and a touch pad to place your order and insert your debit/credit card. It could eliminate one entire position and certainly would be easier than shouting into a speaker microphone. You could eliminate the people taking orders inside as well. Or maybe they’ll just have an app with a menu on your iTouch/iPhone and you can just place your order on iEats — it will just charge it instantly like when you make a purchase on iTunes.
I love that idea, Dr. Disney! iPhone McDonalds App = Amazing!
Well, I think the prerecorded stuff is definitely a step in the right direction.
I think the Wednesday Whine should really have focused on the times you go through the drive-thru and the speakers at the ordering station DON’T WORK!!!
BJ
Dear God. Enough is enough. The ones we have up here are a male voice. It booms at you like you’re the next biggest celebrity coming of the red carpet: “Hello! And welcome, good people, to McDonald’s!”
I just heard this yesterday. “Good People”? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??
I am confused. So what you are saying is that we as a society have gotten so lazy that not only are we relying on fast food for sustenance, but also that we have to rely on technology to do a job that any 16 year old should be able to do. Seriously? Just makes me sad…
acctully we use the same system (hungry jacks) but there is no call center it is just a recorded message and some one will enter ur order into a register
Here in Philadelphia, they have a most atrocious pre-recorded voice asking if we “would like to try an angus burger today.” It is delivered in the thickest, most stereotypical “Philadelphia” accent and what I am curious about is what the other voices, in other cities, sound like.
I live in a small town in Northern Michigan and the McDonalds here does that every single time I pull up, which is almost everyday (I’m a college student…hey I gotta eat!). And it messes up the time of day almost every single time, too. It was 10pm one night and the thing told me good afternoon! There are a lot of great comments on here. Especially Eric’s – You’re right. They don’t even know what the recording is saying, so when you take them up on their offer you have to verify with them what you want. It’s a WASTE OF MY TIME AND THEIRS. Especially in a small town like mine that isn’t even busy.
Mcdonalds has gotten by for years with giving every customer a personal greeting, why are they suddenly too busy to do that now?