The company compiled information from franchisees and guests on how to measure friendliness, resulting in the fast food chain training its AI system to recognize certain words and phrases, such as “welcome to Burger King,” “please,” and “thank you.” Managers can then ask the AI assistant how their location is performing on friendliness.
This is the worst timeline. 1984 was a warning not an instruction manual.
My SO works at a callcenter and they get dinged for the use of what they call “tragic phrases.” These include, but aren’t limited to:
- “Unfortunately”
- Words/phrases that imply uncertainty like “should”
- Words/phrases that imply non-commitment like “I can’t do that” or “that’s against policy” or “that’s not my dept”
- So-called sloppy words/phrases like “No problem” or “hold on just a sec”
Its fucking ridiculous. They pay some outside vendor for training and guidelines.
As a customer, I would feel much more comfortable talking to someone who doesn’t sound like they have a gun to their head.
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I’ve come to accept that “no problem” is just some people’s way to say “you’re welcome” but I still really dislike the sound of it right after I say thank you for something completely normal.
Cashier: “Here’s your change.”
Me: “Thank you.”
Cashier: “No problem.”
My brain: “Oh… I didn’t even think it could have been a problem to hand me my change, but I guess I’m glad to hear that it was not in fact any problem.”
You aren’t speaking the same language, apparently:
What about people who say “my pleasure” or “I just came”
I love to see that kind of intercultural reading being made. In good faith, I respect it and disagree with its internal logic. If you think help is expected of you, you will not offer any mention of whether or not it’s a problem for you, period.
“Please, go fuck yourself. Thank you.”
Forcing them to say please and thank you will not fix the issues with Burger King lol.
That is the shittiest fast food place. I loved it as a kid but it’s gone way down hill. The food is awful quality and the employees don’t care about anything because they aren’t paid a living wage. I stopped going a while ago when they gave me a drink full of moldy ice. I took my kid because he wanted to try the king of burgers. He was so disappointed lol
That is the shittiest fast food place.
Arby’s. Long John Silver’s. Subway. And Burger King isn’t run by overt bigots like Chick fil A. Not that they’re good or anything, but they’re McDonalds tier.
I took my kid because he wanted to try the king of burgers. He was so disappointed lol
Kid learned about royalty early.
Not at all dystopian. Orwell would approve!
This is so fucking stupid. I’ve worked in hospitality, saying please and thank you just comes with the territory no one needs to be checking if you do it.
In a cafe that’s the whole service (in my country at least): being friendly to people, and providing a nice place to hang out and have a coffee, the actual beverage is secondary.
Saying please and thank you is such base politeness. You can easily be rude or cold even when you do use them, and conversely, be absolutely lovely without using them at all.
People don’t go to burger king for the pleasantries, the amount of politeness you should expect is the same as anyone else walking down the street.
Policing politeness with technology is stupid. People should ask each other how they’re going genuinely. Not from a place of corporate greed.
Fuck this capitalist dystopia.
I already wasn’t eating BK. And this makes me want to even less. The fake/forced “friendliness” I personally find off-putting. It’s like Chick-fil-a they have to say “my pleasure”. Just some force creepy cult vibes (for some very mediocre food). Idk, maybe it’s me, but knowing someone is being micro-enslaved (sorry, “managed”) just rubs me the very wrong way.
Plus side, my hatred for AI and all these places forcing it on customers, I’ve spent WAY less money eating out and have been eating way better. So silver lining I suppose.
The Fallout style corporate dystopia isn’t coming in the future. It’s today. It’s right now.
The Outer Worlds is more an active corporate dystopia of our flavor.
Hope there is some kind of bonus if you do! Like 95% politeness this week, 50$ for you
94% politeness lose a shift
I don’t mind if they not or say these words often. They’re underpaid and exhausted enough to be courteous, just want to get the job done and call it a day. Fuck AI sucking corpos
Pro tip to BK: I probably wouldn’t even notice the lack of ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. I would, however, be significantly happier if you stopped making them say “You Rule”. Seems like they have to say it as both greeting and a “your order is finished”. It’s just unpleasantly cringey.
Jesus Christ. I don’t trust any syrupy cheerful, fake happy, overly polite, “I’m sooo sooorry you had the slightest inconvenience” type customer service. No, I’ve done that job. You know you don’t give a shit. I know you don’t give a shit. You know I know you don’t give a shit. We both know you can barely afford to live. The world is spiraling. Pretending otherwise is insufferable. Just be honest and give it to me jaded, bitter, and cynical like we both deserve.
“Please don’t pull up to the window until we wave you forward. We’re gaming the timers. Thank you!”
The joke my friend made is, “Elf on the Shelf in your ear”
I used to work for a consultancy that tried to bill themselves as experts in VR/AR. This is back in 2017 or so. We helped a client make a 3D tracking system with VR/AR applications, and this client let us kind of run with it.
Anyway, I was sort of head of this AR/VR thing, and we were always desperate for free advertising, so I somehow got pulled to provide my thoughts on the impact of VR/AR on the grocery store industry for an article in “The Grocer” or some other industry mag.
Leading up to the call, I was trying to think of what I’d say. My thoughts were on building out virtual grocery stores to test customer reactions before building them for real. Bring in some test subjects, see how they plan their route, how they react to different placements of goods. Track their eye movements to see if the new end-cap design is working. Time how long they spend in the store, etc. Are the aisles too narrow and claustrophobic. I got the idea from another client who was using VR to test out new detergent bottle concepts (apparently a one-off of a blow-molded bleach bottle is crazy expensive).
Well my consultancy had been purchased by a multinational conglomerate a year or so prior, so I got a phone call from some C-suite ass who wanted to brief me on what they wanted me to say to the magazine.
His idea was a service where you could have a store employee wear some kind of camera rig so the customer could sit at home in VR and pilot the employee around the store. This would essentially replace curbside pickup, but with the added benefit of “allowing the customer to pick which apple they want out of the bunch.”
I resolved to ignore that advice, but the whole magazine thing ended up falling through anyway. I quit within the year.
