I Spent A Week Chatting With TacoBot, Siri’s Dumbass, Taco-Ordering Little Brother
If you use Slack as your primary source of communication at work, you’re probably checking it more than your Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media. You’re probably logged on right now, checking messages while trying to read this article.
That’s just how Slack works.
My Slack app is always open while I’m at the Foodbeast office, so it makes sense that Taco Bell would try to take advantage and make their food ordering accessible on the application we spend most of our workday on.
Taco Bell let us try out their new “TacoBot,” which essentially jumps onto your Slack team and tries to become part of the gang.
You can talk to the TacoBot as you would a coworker, share dirty jokes with it and, oh yeah, he’ll let you order food from a specialized Taco Bell menu, meant to help you get right back to work without skipping a beat. What it actually is, though, is a headache that made me appreciate their mobile ordering app even more.
__________
The Setup
The setup was pretty basic. You name him, give him a profile pic and welcome him to your Slack team. The hardest part was probably choosing a proper name. After several great suggestions from the Foodbeast fam, like, “Del TacoBot” and “Kieth,” we all had a pretty good feeling about “TacoJesusDotBiz” and ran with it.
__________
He can hold a conversation with you. Kind of.
They programmed the Taco Bot to respond to your questions, a lot of times in a smart-ass tone, and it’s kind of cute for about 5 minutes. After you’ve run through all of his pre-programmed responses, you just want to order.
Oh, yeah, there was the time he just ignored me for two days straight. I felt like I was talking to a really pretty girl who wouldn’t give me the time of day, but he did eventually get back to me, as do the pretty girls.
__________
The ordering process.
It took us some time to get the ordering right, because it is still in Beta. It took him a little while to figure out that I was trying to order something, but he eventually got it. Also, Tacojesusdotbuz apparently had no idea what a chicken quesadilla was, and was flabbergasted at the thought of ordering drinks along with our food, but it was eventually fixed.
The Taco Bot has some key words to get the menu to pop up. You type in “what’s on the menu” and he’ll respond with a list of menu items ranging from their new Quesalupa, to their Doritos Locos Tacos. You can choose from 30 of their menu items, all which are pretty much standard items in each store.
You type out what you want to order, along with how many and add it to the cart.
When checking out, it’ll take you to their Taco Bell page, where you set up a payment plan and your nearest Taco Bell location for pick up. Yup, pickup. You still have to get up and go to Taco Bell, which was a little annoying since TacoBot was meant to not disrupt my workflow.
__________
Compared to the Taco Bell mobile app.
The regular Taco Bell mobile app is 100 percent easier to use than this TacoBot concept. I get the Slack aspect. People are always on Slack and TacoBot is a cute way to add to your Slack experience, but on the regular mobile app, I can place an order on my walk to the car faster than I can type out orders on Slack.
The TacoBot also has a limited menu, is a lot less user friendly, and makes you want to punch it in its taco face when it doesn’t know what you’re trying to tell it.
__________
It can, and probably will get better.
They’re going to have to add delivery eventually, right? The ease of Slack’s use kind of goes out the window when we still have to go pick up our order.
Taco Bell’s the first to try this kind of technology, and are leading the way for undoubtedly more fast food companies to incorporate food ordering through Slack, so the excitement is in the future and what it might look like by this time next year. As of now, I think I’ll just stick with Taco Bell’s regular mobile app.
