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.
Companies have been doing this for decades, maybe centuries. They would hire a ‘secret shopper’ to come in, order something, and fill out a checklist for corporate. It was done in department stores and fast food chains, any place that was a franchise where theire name was on the line. Some places hired companies to check up on people, some places just hired individuals. The fast-food chain I used to work at hired a neighbor paid them in free food.
Managers make people say it, and reports check to make sure managers are doing their jobs.
The really cool part about how we used to do it was we didn’t waste fuckloads of electricity/water to make sure managers were doing their jobs.
They have been and while I’m fine with the secret shopper basically covertly checking the quality of the products and services, I’m not okay with this because I don’t really need please and thank you from a service worker. I want quality services. Please and thank you sounds like lip service. You can be cordial without the BS niceties.
The world runs on lip service. I don’t love it either, but we’re here
For now. Social norms are changing whether we like it or not.
Yet here you are defending it for some reason