The Long-Distance Journey of a Fast-Food Order

I think that the new technology being used to take fast-food orders is incredible and ridiculous at the same time. It is incredible that new levels of technology allow for these call centers for taking orders that can be many miles from the actual restaurant, yet ridiculous that minor issues such as cutting milliseconds off order time is what we're aiming to improve. As we discussed in class, how far will we go in our technological advances? What else can be done to maximize profit?
That is not to say I disagree with the idea, though. The article talks about various McDonald's restaurants making use of call centers to take orders. The purpose of this is to save time and perhaps increase profit through efficiency and increased focus of the workers on their task of taking orders. The article does not say thus far that the stations have made much of a difference in profit-making. Rather, the article only suggests about the money that could be gained from this if the call centers persist. I think that there is no harm in using these call stations and that if we have the technology to do it, why not use it? The only downfall mentioned in the article is trouble hearing orders occasionally and minor mix-ups because of customer confusion. These negatives seem very minimal when compared to the good that could come of this. Also mentioned as driving factors of remote order-taking are improvement in customer service and the lowering of barriers in language and communication, by being able to hire people solely for the job of taking orders who speak clear and distinct English. I think that these call centers are an interesting innovation and I am curious to see what will come of them.