Cameron's Thoughts: As if it Wasn't Already Hard Enough to Order Through Drive-Thru Speakers

A common occurrence, you pull into a drive-thru, and all you hear is "mmm-nnmm mmhh." Those speakers are typically very low quality along with the rest of the system they use to communicate. So, what does McDonald's do? They are testing out a system where your orders will be placed by a call center in India.
I mean, I'm not trying to be racist, but companies should start realizing that outsourcing customer service to India is a good way to lose customers fast. Anyone who has ever tried getting support from IBM or Dell will know that it's a communications nightmare. Sure, both ends might be speaking a form of English, but it's just the regional differences such as accents and localized slang that can sometimes make a conversation feel like you are trying to translate Klingon to Vulcan. I know I would personally avoid doing business with any company that would require I had to communicate with an Indian call center. I mean, if I can go across the street and speak with a local person at Burger King, that's where I'll be going to.

Posted on September 08, 2004 at 09:25 AM