Bojangles Has Made A Big Mistake With Their Drive-Thrus

Bojangles is without a doubt an absolute southern classic. For a lot of southern households, Bojangles is even the preferred choice to Chick-fil-A in areas that both exist, and its beloved, iconic nature simply cannot be understated. From the sweet tea to the Bo-Berry Biscuits, the food at Bojangles is critical to understanding southern pop culture.

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And you would think that with how iconic Bojangles is that they are infallable to a certain degree. But, just recently fans have been speaking up about how Bojangles has crossed a line that they cannot overlook. A couple of months ago, Bojangles went ahead and integrated a full AI ordering system called Bo-Linda into their drive-thrus. To say that Bo-Linda isn’t liked by Bojangles customers is laughably understated. Let’s get into why fans are so upset.

Know Your Customers

Alright, let’s start with the simple facts of the situation. For starters, Bojangles is an exclusively southern chain. Outside of the southeastern United States, Bojangles simply does not exist. So, you can reasonably assume that the majority of people who will be eating at Bojangles locations will have some degree of a southern accent. And, when you consider the fact that the majority of people who want to eat at Bojangles are people who take pride in classic southern foods, like biscuits, then it’s even more likely for the consumers to be southern through and through.

That said, there is a critical flaw in this AI system that they have integrated in the drive-thrus, beyond the fact that it simply doesn’t run smoothly. Bo-Linda does not have a southern accent, making her feel like a distinctly foreign entity. Before, when you went to a Bojangles location, you were almost guaranteed the person who would be taking your order would have a shared characteristic, even if it was just something as simple as the accent you share.

But beyond it not having a southern accent and being non-human entity, it cannot even understand the southern accents that are speaking back to it. And, while this is a broader issue shared amongst abundant Bojangles customers, I myself of have even experienced this when my accent isn’t even that strong. For most of my life I have lived in Central Florida, which is not known for having a distinct southern accent. Anything lingering from when I was two years old living in Virginia is certainly not prominent enough to have triggered an error in an AI ordering system. But even my voice was so confusing to the bot that after four or five rounds of increasingly frustrating back-and-forth between the bot and myself, the Bojangles employee had to hop on the intercom anyways to ultimately take my order.

Don’t take my word for it, though. Instead, believe the Bojangles regulars that are even considering swearing off the restaurant after years of loyalty, simply due to this new AI integration. Redditors have noted that, “The Bojangles one is comically bad compared to the other [AI ordering systems]. I had a similar issue to OP where it wouldn’t let me finish my order.” And after another user was cut off by the AI system, they said “[My location] did have a person come over and ask if I was done, but I was annoyed by the AI thing so I just said forget it and left.”

At the end of the day, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that Bojangles is going to have to make a change in order to make its new system work for the customers who are so devoted to the food itself. And whether or not they go through the trial and error process of a different program or just go back to the old tried-and-true true method is still yet to be seen.