restaurants replace employees with “call centers” located abroad

We already knew about call centers installed in foreign countries, such as in Morocco for France, or in India for the United States. Now in New York, restaurants have decided to do the same thing when taking orders.

For the moment, less than ten restaurants are affected, in New Jersey and New York. This list includes the Sansan Chicken fast-food restaurant in Queens, where a journalist from New York Times. On site, he was greeted at the entrance by a screen and on this screen, he was able to interact with a young woman connected via Zoom from her home in the Philippines!

It was from her that he took the order, detailing the menu if necessary, as an employee would have done in front of him, even if, says the journalist, understanding was not ideal because of a problem. Internet network faulty for the young woman. When there are no customers, she abandons the digital counter and takes care of orders by telephone, or checks comments posted online about the restaurant. For the rest, it is a traditional establishment, the food is made in the kitchen and distributed in person by another employee. According to the New York Posta tabloid that was also interested in the concept, staff, even those far from the city, expect the usual 15% tip in the United States.

Cashier paid three dollars an hour in the Philippines

This cashier from the Philippines is not directly employed by the restaurant. She works for a service called Happy Cashier, “happy cashier” in French. This service, tested since October, was launched by Chi Zhang, the owner of a restaurant in Brooklyn which had to close during the pandemic. Chi Zhang reflected on some of the recurring difficulties encountered by restaurateurs in the United States: the price of rent, inflation or the lack of labor.

We are in a sector with reduced margins so each economic variation has an impact. With Happy Cashier, the cashier in the Philippines is paid around three dollars an hour when the minimum wage in New York is around 16 dollars an hour. The difference is significant and the owner of Sansan Chicken is delighted. With the money saved, she is considering adding a coffee section to her establishment. Chi Zhang is optimistic and hopes to work with around 100 restaurants in New York State alone by the end of the year.

Soon an avatar animated by AI?

The customers react differently, one of them says he didn’t even pay attention to the young woman on the screen at first. He thought it was a recorded video like you find in New York taxis. Another client confided to New York Post that she didn’t enjoy the experience, because she expects minimal human interaction when she goes to a restaurant. But on the contrary, an Internet user finds the idea interesting, knowing that New Yorkers, a bit like Parisians, are not known for their warmth and the quality of their welcome.

Catering experts, however, wonder if the concept does not risk destabilizing the sector by introducing a form of job relocation, which we have seen in the automobile industry for example. And perhaps within a few months, at the spectacular rate of progress in artificial intelligence, the cashier in the Philippines, cheaper than that in Queens, will in turn be replaced by an even cheaper avatar.