Hey McDonalds, Don't Go Too Far with Technology

When it comes to integrating technology into your brand, don't take things too far—you might eliminate the human part of business altogether.

By Nick Powills1851 Franchise Publisher

SPONSOREDUpdated 2:14PM • 03/24/16

Watch the world around you. Technology is quickly replacing human beings. Kiosks at McDonald’s, for instance, can now take your order instead of a human. There are kiosks at airports that provide you with everything you need to fly. Cell phones can personally train you through fitness. And computers have the power to correct your spelling and grammar (thank you for that one).

But be careful—technology cannot and will not be the ultimate solution to everything.

Brands are focused on finding this happy technological balance with Millennials. Yes, this demographic desires more simplicity—a path of least resistance—but I would imagine that when all the definitions of Millennials are defined, they will still want some form of human contact.

When building 1851, we didn’t want to simply create a technology solution that eliminated humans from the communication process. We wanted to integrate both forms of client management together—this meant maintaining a regular call and regular strategy rather than allowing our solution to manage the entire solution.

While not perfect in their execution of people-meets-technology, a company like GrubHub seems to get the importance of striking the right balance. You place your order through your phone and a person arrives with a bag of hot food and a smile. Their customer service is a live person who is quite willing to give you free grub when necessary to keep you as a client (unless, of course, your food takes three hours to receive like it did for me—like I said, it’s not always perfect).

Brands are trying, in my opinion, too hard to have technology take over. I don’t know if it has to go that far. Brands should use technology to ease the uncomfortable parts of the interaction and to simplify and provide ultimate data to the customer. Don’t swing too far in the technology direction—you might eliminate the human part of business altogether.

Brands don’t see brands—people do.