McDonald's has a new trick to make sure it doesn't botch orders

McDonald's is trying to improve order accuracy at its drive-thrus with a new measure called "ask, ask, tell."

The measure requires employees to verbally repeat food orders to customers three times in order to ensure they recorded it correctly, McDonald's spokesman Jeff Mochal told Business Insider. Bloomberg was the first to report on the new method.

Accuracy at the drive-thru, where 70% of customers purchase food from McDonald's, is vital.

The new measure could slow things down - especially with more complicated orders - but McDonald's is making a bet that accuracy is even more important than customer wait times, Bloomberg notes.

It could be a risky bet. The company's average drive-thru wait in 2013 was 3 minutes, 9.5 seconds, which was the longest average wait time in at least 15 years, according to a study by QSR Magazine.

The company started adding extra drive-thru windows at restaurants across the country two years ago to speed up service.

The new "ask, ask, tell" method isn't being implemented at all McDonald's restaurants. It's optional for franchisees, who own about 90% of the company's more than 14,000 US restaurants.

The method requires employees to repeat orders back to customers at the kiosk where the order, and then again at the window where they pay. The final repetition comes when the employee hands the customer their food.

Since it's optional, McDonald's doesn't have any specific numbers on how many restaurants have implemented the method or how it has affected drive-thru accuracy and speed.