Essay Sample on McDonald's Outsources Drive-Thru Orders: A New Strategy For Increased Sales?

The next time you order food from a McDonald's outlet, you might not realize that the person taking the order is miles away. McDonald introduced a system where it outsources the people that take your order in a drive-thru. The person taking the order may be hundreds of miles away from the outlet the customer is ordering from. This is a strategy that is believed to massively save on time and lead to increased sales. It is a technology that comes to an unexpected place. This is mostly because the already existing system was working quite well and did not have any considerable problems. The system is entirely meant for strategic reasons to help growth.

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A customer pulls up to a McDonald's drive-thru and is connected to a call center. This is where the people taking your order operate from. The customer then places his/her order, and the order is sent to the respective McDonald's outlet via the internet. As the customer pulls away from the menu, the operator could be taking an order from another customer in another McDonald's as he/she waits for the next customer to pull up to the current McDonald's. At the time of writing of the article, this system was still under testing, and so far, it had been successful and very efficient though there had been some cases of customer confusion and order mix-ups. It was being tested in California, and if it were to be successful, it would be implemented in all the brand's outlets across the country.

According to Jon Anton, a founder of Bronco, the outsourcing company, the goal of this new strategy is to save seconds to make millions (Richtell, 2006). The objective is that these few seconds saved will translate to a lot of extra sales hence more profits. The strategy they plan on implementing is if the trial phase of the system is successful, then it will be implemented in all outlets across the country. The main factor that gives them a competitive advantage (core competencies) over all other brands is the use of technology. This new technology they are testing out is meant to give them a very big edge over their competitors whom if the system is successful are most likely to implement similar technology. By the time of writing of the article, Hardee's and Carl's Jr., CKE Restaurants, were already planning on implementing a similar system later on in the year. And even though the system looked very promising, not everyone was sold on the idea. Denny Lynch, who at the time, was a spokesman for Wendy's Restaurant, believed that it had not yet proved to be cost-effective (Richtell, 2006).

This new system, if successful, would have meant a lot of benefits/advantages to the company. The major one was that it saved a lot of time in the long run. These few seconds saved on each order accumulated into minutes and even hours. This meant more sales for McDonald's. More sales then meant more profits for them. And even though this new system costs money, over time, the profits made from it will surpass its cost, making it a very profitable investment in the long run. The system also reduced the cost of labor, and the cost of the operator calls, which were previously being used. This also led to increased profits for the company.

Another advantage is improved efficiency. As compared to the previous system, this new system has proved to improve efficiency greatly. The previous system was characterized by cases of order mix-ups, confusion of the customer, and even the staff, and many other problems. This had already led to a bad review of the brand. They were losing customers simply because of that. Most of the order mix-ups led to wastage of food as there are some orders once prepared cannot be undone. This meant losses for the company. The new system showed to be almost two times effective. Although there have still been similar cases with the new system, they have greatly reduced, and it is believed with continued use of the system, the problem can be completely solved. The new system has a way to test whether the workers were alert, and this was believed to be the major factor that contributed do reduced problems. The system also sent out each worker's performance report.

The major disadvantage of the system is that it was still its testing phase. That meant that there was still the possibility of failure. If by any chance, it failed, that would have meant thousands lost as McDonald's had already invested quite a lot of money in testing the system with the hope that it would be successful. Though it was already showing positive results, there was still that chance of failure. This is a factor that they simply could not ignore, and they were doing everything possible to make it successful. Another disadvantage is that some people did not believe it was necessary. An Example is Denny Lynch, who was a spokesman for Wendy's restaurants. There was also Sherri Daye Scott, who was quoted saying, "This is a case of 'if it is not broken, don't fix it." (Richtell, 2006). Then there was the problem that there was still confusion among the workers and customers. This is a problem that they had hoped to eradicate with the new system.

With the growth of technology, fast food restaurants are introducing many alternatives to faster ordering. This is mostly to keep up with the technology, increase sales, and reduce the cost of operations. Perhaps the most common nowadays is mobile ordering applications. This enables customers to order food from the comfort of their homes and have it delivered to them either for a small extra fee or for free. For many restaurants, this has greatly improved sales as it makes it easier for the customers to order food without any much effort, all one needs is a smartphone with an internet connection. There are even some restaurants where you just call to make your order. This just requires a person to have a phone. A restaurant can take limitless orders at a time and have them all delivered to their customers.

Another way fast-food restaurants are speeding up the process of food ordering in drive-thrus is by having multiple lanes. Some huge restaurants have up to five lanes to facilitate multiple customers ordering at a time. If a customer takes an average of thirty seconds to order, then within five minutes, the restaurant will have served fifty customers. Another advantage of this system is that it reduces the long queues. Most people will avoid long lines and may fail to enter a restaurant simply because of that hence losing customers. Having multiple lanes enables the lines to be divided hence making them seem shorter. This is a system that is being greatly utilized by McDonald's.

Some restaurants are also introducing a system where workers go out with tablets or other devices connected to the restaurant's system. The workers take other orders from the vehicles in the line as the others are served by the operator in the drive-through. This enables the restaurant to take multiple orders at a time, thus greatly reducing the service times. It helps in faster moving of the lines and faster processing of the orders. The system is still being tested, and so far, it is proving to be quite successful. Despite its improving speed, there have been several order mix-ups, but the issue is being addressed, and if it is corrected completely, this system can be a game-changer.

In my own opinion, the remote ordering system is an opportunity that can be and should be expanded across the McDonald's USA network. It is a system that fully utilizes the uses of modern technology, and if done correctly, can be very successful. McDonald's can hire remote workers to work from anywhere to receive the orders provided they give them the appropriate software and training. It has proved to be more efficient, faster, and less costly. It saves the company on the cost of labor as the company will require fewer workers. McDonald's is also able to monitor the workers' performance through the software, and this allows them to know where and who to correct. It also enables them to focus on appealing human interaction and ensure customer satisfaction. This is because the workers taking the orders will only focus on that they have and no other responsibilities. These are just but a few reasons why this system should be expanded across all outlets around the country.

References

Anderson, N. (2020). Outsourcing the drive-through. Retrieved 5 April 2020, from https://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2006/04/6574-2/

Menachof, D. (2020). Operations management. Presentation, Florida Atlantic University.

Richtell, M. (2006). The Long-Distance Journey of a Fast-Food Order. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/11/technology/the-longdistance-journey-of-a-fastfood-order.html

Williams, C. (2000). Management. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western College Pub.