More Accurate and Faster Fast Food

I love technology, but not as much as you, you see.

In the ongoing Cold War among fast food chains burgeoning technology is making things better for you and me the consumers as detailed in this article.

One thing that really surprised me is that McDonalds is “outsourcing” its order-taking.

…[O]utsourcing is expanding at McDonald's Corp., where some stores are using central call centers rather than cashiers in the restaurant to take orders from drive-thru customers.

The whole thing kind of confused me.  How does it improve orders to have someone take the orders offsite?  I guess with computers these days these folks take the orders and transmit the orders to a computer on-site at the McDonalds.  This would allow all the on-site employees to work making the food and serving the customers directly.  So is one person at this central call center assigned to each restaurant?  Or do they do multiple restaurants?  It would be interesting to learn more about this technology.

Still I would rather communicate over the intercom from Bob than order a hamburger long distance from Arjun in Madras.  Just kidding.  It’s not that kind of out-sourcing.  

Some of the good things that I have noticed are the digital confirmation screens that show what you order as you order it.  I’ve seen this at McDonald’s and Wendy’s.  Most Taco Bells I’ve been to have a digital read out of how much you owe in case you didn’t hear clearly.  Everyone is including more pictures and less words on their menus.  Some have credit card readers that you drive up to.

Who is the fastest? Wendy’s.
Wendy's, with 9,800 restaurants and $3.2 billion in annual sales, has led the QSR studies for speediest service nearly every year since they started in 1997.

Checkers however is on their heels.
Checkers trimmed that lead to just three-tenths of a second last year with debit and credit payment systems and touch-screen computers for order-takers.

At any rate I’ll have a number 3 with a Coke.