NEW YORK TIMES Reminders hang on the wall of a cubicle at a call center in Santa Maria, Calif., where workers take orders remotely from 40 McDonald's outlets around the country.

3 local McDonald's go the distance

The restaurants are participating in an experiment that uses a call center in Calif., to handle drive-through orders

THREE Hawaii McDonald's restaurants are participating in a national McDonald's experiment that uses the services of a call center in Santa Maria, Calif., to handle drive-through meal orders.

The three Hawaii restaurants participating have been added in the past month or so, according to Melanie Okazaki, marketing manager for McDonald's Restaurants of Hawaii.

The three are a combination of company-owned and franchised stores. She declined to identify them.

"The call center test represents a very small number of restaurants and is just one tool McDonald's USA is evaluating to improve our customers' restaurant experience," said Bill Whitman, media relations director for McDonald's USA.

"The dedicated ordering function isolates the critical task of taking the customer's order to improve accuracy and allows in-restaurant crew employees to focus on customer satisfaction and hospitality."

Results have been positive so far but a final decision on adding call centers or restaurants has not been made, he said.

Okazaki said no local restaurant employees have lost jobs because of the experiment.

"Normally the person who does take the orders is the cashier. The cashier is still there, so now with the order-taking function (being handled elsewhere), it gives us better opportunities for improving the customer experience at the restaurants," she said.

The New York Times reported that customers' voices often are faint, and it was particularly hard to hear orders during the recent rainstorms in Hawaii.

Douglas King, chief executive of Bronco Communications, which operates the call center, said the voice-volume issue happened because the reporter "was listening when a downpour was occurring -- and people aren't hanging out their windows" to place orders at such times.