Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Jack-in-the-Box Thinks Inside the Box


So, this is lame. I recently took my wife and daughter to the Jack-in-the-Box near my house (that’s not the lame part).

The poor fidelity of the drive-thru speaker, the voice-response delay and the heavy, rich Indian accent made it nearly impossible for me to understand what the person at the other end of the order-taking line was saying.

Again, that’s not the lame part. I deal with folks with Indian accents all the time.

But this Jack-in-the-Box, and many like it, has outsourced its order-taking.

That, friends, is the lame part.

I chatted up the person at the window fulfilling the order. Odd that you’d outsource order-taking at a fast-food joint. She rolled her eyes, said everyone's complaining, and added that the company taking the orders is based in Texas and the decision to outsource the role of “you want fries with that?” came from corporate.

I complained on the company’s Web site that outsourcing this duty is irresponsible, given soaring domestic unemployment and the woeful state of the economy.

Jack-in-the-Box called me back. A guy named Bradley says corporate made the decision to outsource order-taking at some restaurants as a “labor savings and to streamline order taking.”

Bradley says the outsourcer is a Texas company called Bronco and all its employees are based in the U.S.

I suspect Bradley isn’t telling the truth or that Bronco isn’t being fully upfront with Jack. My wife and daughter say every time they’ve ordered drive thru at this Jack-in-the-Box, they’ve confronted someone with a sweet, sing-song Indian accent. Is it possible that all of Bronco’s employees are of Indian decent and live in Texas?

Bradley offered me a free meal.

I declined.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Mike,
Unfortunately there’s no stopping this trend, every since the internet was born and connected the dots from American business owners to lower wage paying workers in other countries.

Keep in mind Business owners are in business to make the most profit they can at any cost.

I also feel that 2009 will be the year that the unions dissolve (RIP) and workers would be paid what their actually worth. This is the only way America can compete in the new age of world restructuring.

I enjoy reading your post, Keep up the good work.

MilkyWhite said...

Have these companies never heard of touchscreen technology? People are already attuned to the idea of it with iPhones. How much of a leap would it be to order your food from a touchscreen menu?

Chic... who cares what the rest of the world thinks/does? Leaders aren't leaders because they follow trends. They're leaders because they create them. This country started going down hill when it started making decisions based off what the rest of the world thought it should do.