Having been in the fast food business, I can tell you that there’s more than meets the eye in this move to automate.
Do you ever get a less-than-welcome feeling from those behind the counter when you order your burger combo? From an overwhelming majority of fast food emporia? Aren’t some of them downright hostile? The ‘burbs are almost as bad as inner-city establishments.
Wendy’s (and others) have been surveying customers for some time now. They know what their achilles heel is. They are gambling that you’d rather have near-zero human contact to acquire your food, than the status quo, which the fast food business just hasn’t been able to fix.
It’s more than just the labor cost. The sad, sad, thing is that the purchase experience may very well be enhanced by removing the human element.
Extremely good point. Other than Chick-fil-A, I get the “what the phuck do you want” look, by and large.
Agreed. Times have changed. Even more frustrating when the person taking your order can’t speak English very well.
The person at the counter is the company front line and their job is partly marketing and sales and party service.
The fly in that ointment will be the number of fast food customers who are too illiterate to use the kiosk.
My prediction is that food costs soar, due to waste generated by a spike in customers placing incorrect orders.
Calling some of these "workers" human, may be a stretch.
Sacks of protoplasm with bad attitudes would be better.
“Do you ever get a less-than-welcome feeling from those behind the counter when you order your burger combo?”
That happens at lots of eaterys. I have to point out NEVER has happened (yet) at an In-N-Out. They must have every one of those kids on happy pills.
The human contact is the worst part of most retail experiences, not just restaurants. To many retail employees, the customer is an inconvenience to be endured if they cannot ignore completely.
Absolutely Agree, but I wonder about something. Look at Chic-Fil-A ... the customer experience there is one of the positive driving forces, where Wendy’s and MacD are finding it is a negative driving force. Somehow it is “who” you hire, I think.
But who’s going to spit in my food if it’s made by robots?
Yes! The surly attitudes of those behind the counter, and the fear of what would happen to your food if you call them out on it, prevents me from going too often. I do like Subway, because you can watch them make your food.
I’m all for removing a lot of the human element, especially when it comes to ordering. I have a hearing problem which makes it extremely difficult to separate a conversation out from competing background noise, and there is so much background noise in today’s restaurants. Add to that the endless choices of ordering (white, or whole-wheat, large, medium or small, what dressings, toppings, etc, etc). It’s become impossible to simply tell a waitperson or microphone a simple item, no, there must be endless variation based on the waitperson’s spiel. If I could simply push a button indicating my choices, I would be much happier. Don’t even get me started about ubiquitous music and television blaring in the restaurants. Unless I order online for takeout, dining out has become a miserable experience for me.