I’m rather torn on this whole automation aspect of customer service.
It really shouldn’t be that hard…you know take an order, treat the customer with a bit of respect (have the customer treat you with a bit of respect). Even at a young age I realized that a lot of people aren’t that bright. I’m not saying that to be mean, more just an observation of reality. I don’t go into a Burger King and customize the hell out of my order, especially if I’m telling it to an employee. Sure no onions seems reasonable, but multiple changes and you are just asking to have a jacked up order.
I set that dealing with the public bar really low a long long time ago.
Taco Bell and McDonalds have the kiosk in the store now and practically everyone has an app. This just seems like the next natural step.
Oh, and the AI better give you the proper response if you order a MILKSHAKE.
(This is a true account of a Wendy’s drive thru experience I had roughly 25 years ago).
-Me: Can I get three 5 pieces nuggets and a chocolate milk shake.
-Drive Thru: We don’t have milkshakes…we have frosties.
-Me: What’s the difference? (In a slightly sarcastic yet amused way.)
-Drive Thru: You drink a milkshake with a straw, you eat a frosty with a spoon. (their voice dripped with contempt)
-Me: Ok,… then a small chocolate frosty.
They only gave me a spoon - and I actually got 15 nuggets in a bag. I swear, don’t be trying to order 20 nuggets at a place that does 5 for $1. Those wheels will fall right off the track and roll out their ear. It’s, can I get four of the 5 piece nuggets.
Customer: I was, uh, sitting in the public library on Thurmon Street just now, skimming through Rogue Herries by Hugh Walpole, and I suddenly came over all peckish.
I wonder who Wendy’s is going to believe if a customer complains that a chatbot order is wrong? I can see imbecilic pranksters and techno-anarchists wanting to fuck with drive-thru chatbots.
The busiest Wendy’s in Columbus is across the street from OSU. How often will students have to prank the chatbot before it explodes in flames?
eta: Wayne’s World ordering at a drive-thru
It seems like a touch screen or similar is the best way to ensure order accuracy. Eliminating the entire unnecessary middle step of needing your order heard (be it by a human or an AI) would go a long way towards fixing things… well, maybe not a LONG way, but a way. The last three times I went to a drive-through, they presumably got my order right… and then gave it to someone else, while I got ripped off with a random meal somebody else ordered that was 90% french fries and didn’t realize until I’d gotten home. All different restaurants, too. I always trusted them to have some basic level of competence and didn’t check my bag at the window- never again. I can’t even give them the sympathy of “well, they’re making almost no money flipping burgers, of course they don’t care”- post-COVID and the staffing shortages, fast food wages (at least around here) went WAY up and they’re making more money than I am.
Hopefully it’s better than the pre-recorded blurb at McDonalds drive-through before real person shows up that I speak back to and makes me look like an idiot, but I doubt it.
Not exactly a reputable news source, and their citation is a broken link.
I tried to find the study they’re referring to, and the closest I got were some secondary sources referring to an NHTSA stat that eating while driving increases your chances of having an accident by 80%. That’s very very different from “80% of all accidents are caused by eating”.
The sketchy article also mentions distracted driving in general in one of the quotes, which is probably actually what the study was about. Distracting driving causing 80% of accidents is entirely plausible because “distracted driving” is a very broad category.
The closest Wendy’s to me had their dining room closed because of COVID–as did other fast food places–and kept it that way, well, I don’t go there that often, but well into 2021. This is anecdotal but most people I saw at the nearby grocery store also kept wearing masks during that time. In that case I don’t think it was a matter of preference so much as a matter of either necessity or respect for the safety of others, including the people flipping burgers.
This is also anecdotal but one morning not too long ago I went to a McDonald’s, because I didn’t have a vehicle and it was the only place in walking distance, and decided on a whim to order their most egregious frozen coffee beverage. The woman behind the counter apologized for the fact that their ice cream machine was broken (surprise!) so they couldn’t make it. But she put together a custom coffee drink with what was on hand. It wasn’t what I ordered but it was exactly what I wanted.
That kind of service actually makes me want to go back there, and, when traveling, when I see a McD’s, it’s going to make me think, hey, I got great service at one, I might take a chance on another.
If I know a place uses bots that can only follow prewritten instructions, though, I’m going to skip it entirely. The people behind the counter aren’t as easily replaced as the CEOs presume.
I am pretty concerned with how far reaching displacement due to AI and automation could be. If I lived in a society that valued people this technology wouldn’t be a problem, but in the US, we don’t have much of a safety net at all. I expect off the shelf software solutions to replace a wide variety of workers will be a huge business in the next few years. I know not all jobs are going to go away, but it does seem like companies will use this technology to suppress wages and eke by employing fewer people.
My opinion is: You’ve been trained better than me!
I still leave the store in a near homicidal rage if I’m self checking out with full cart. Small numbers of items are fine. (Actually, we need a word for murdering a machine, homicidal is not actually how I’m feeling at that time).
I guess this sums it up:
Same for automated phone systems.
