UPDATE: Dylan, in comments, argues:
It's a dedicated teleoperator taking your order and electronically transmitting it to the work monitor in the store. She's sitting in a cubicle with a headset and computer, without a fryer behind her, a register on her left, the fountain drinks to her right, and a second customer in front of her while she's taking your order.
In addition to the being more focused and better trained, she's probably a little brighter than your average burger droid. And while she's focusing on your order, the register person can focus on remembering your napkins and giving you correct change.
While I understand that this is ideally how it should work. I don't think it will.
I'm sorry but I just don't see how a "trained" telephone operator who is sitting at a computer (probably looking at porn, talking to the guy next to him, checking email, or if all of those options are closed, bored out of his mind) will do a better job than someone actually at the McDonalds.
In my experience fast food restaurants usually have someone who is stationed at an order window. Their job is to take your order as soon as you pull up to the window. They have one place someone can order and one place someone can make their order. That order is then given a number and shown on a screen to the people preparing the food. I drive up to the person who took my order and give that person money. Then I pull up to the second window where someone has the job of putting the completed orders in a bag.
Now if I pull up and order at a place that outsources the person taking the order I could very well have to wait. The entire point is to save money. Let's say that a call center services 20 restaurants. They certainly won't have 20 people working. They might have 5 at the busiest hours. Less during slower hours. That's how they will make their money. This means that I could get an automated message saying "Please look over the menu while we connect you with the next available representative."
That's not what I want with *fast* food.
UPDATED UPDATE:
Err. I turned on my brain just a second ago and remembered that there is such a thing as time zones. Ok, so the positives of having a Colorado Springs centralized call center are these:
They will curb employee theft, and a call center will be better handled to deal with the lunch/evening rush, since the call center will most likely cover 4 time zones, things will most likely be smoother.
