In addition to expertise in toy marketing and real estate development, McDonald's is quickly developing expertise in the use of technology to enhance customer experience, speed quality and accuracy of service and enhance cost savings to boost the bottom line.

I have posted before about plans to deploy Wi-Fi in stores to enhance customer experience. Other technology systems also enhance the customer experience. Robotic kiosk systems designed to enhance speed and accuracy of order taking will certainly make customers happy. McDonald's is also experimenting with DVD rental kiosks and robotic convenience stores looking to consolidate errands into a single trip for busy customers.

Now in the latest report comes word of a franchisee in Colorado who has developed a call center operation to take drive thru orders remotely. Serving restaurants in three states, the call center uses high-speed data connections to communicate with customers and restaurant kitchens. Digital photos are taken of customers to enhance order accuracy. Restaurant staff can match orders to customer photos. The results are greater order accuracy and speed.

From the article:

In the fast-food business, time is truly money: shaving even five seconds off the processing time of an order is significant. Mr. Bigari said he had cut order time in his dual-lane drive-throughs by slightly more than 30 seconds, to about 1 minute, 5 seconds, on average. That's less than half the average of 2 minutes, 36 seconds, for all McDonald's, and among the fastest of any franchise in the country, according to QSRweb.com, which tracks such things. His drive-throughs now handle 260 cars an hour, Mr. Bigari said, 30 more than they did before he started the call center.

also,

Merely improving accuracy, which might stop customers from thoroughly checking their orders while sitting at the drive-through window, "would be a major advantage,"

What's the impact on jobs? The article states:

Within a couple of weeks, the store was filling orders 30 percent faster and making fewer mistakes. Mr. Bigari quickly decided that he should set up an operation to handle other restaurants, and he now employs 53 people in the call center, which operates 24 hours a day.

Though his operators earn, on average, 40 cents an hour more than his line employees, he has cut his overall labor costs by a percentage point, even as drive-through sales have increased. He said the call center saved enough in six months to cover the cost of setting it up, in part because he no longer had to employ as many people on the overnight shift.

Clearly there will be consolidation and a net loss of jobs over time but the quality of service will increase and boost the productivity and the ability of the business to expand.

The article also talks about the future of this technology:

Mr. Bigari is so enthusiastic about the call-center idea that he has expanded it beyond the drive-through window at his seven restaurants that use the system. While he still offers counter service at those restaurants, most customers now order through the call center, using phones with credit card readers on tables in the seating area. Play areas at the restaurants have them, too, so a parent can place an order over the phone, pay with a credit card and have the food delivered.

The next step, Mr. Bigari said, is to use his call centers to take cellphone orders, something the futurist Paul Saffo said would become commonplace in the next two years. Mr. Bigari plans to test cellphone ordering this summer.

In my opinion any technology that enhances order accuracy and speeds the process is a total winner. Interesting to see the other fast food companies sleeping through McDonald's experiments. Will they sleep too long or are they just waiting to see what works?

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