NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Fast-food companies are experimenting with call center technology in an order to increase speed and sales volume, according to a report published Tuesday.

Companies like McDonald's (Research) are testing technology that connects customers pulling up to a drive-through menu with remote call-center employees using Internet calling technology, The New York Times said.

The centers not only allow fast-food chains to cut labor costs, but to focus more on customer service by creating specially trained centralized staffs to take drive-through orders, the newspaper said.

"It's really centralizing the function of not only taking the order but advising the customer on getting more out of the product, which can sell more -- at least in theory," Joseph Fleischer, chief technical editor for Call Center Magazine, told the Times.

About 50 McDonald's franchises have been testing remote order-taking technology, but a spokesman for the company told the newspaper McDonald's had not decided whether to expand the use of the call centers.

CKE Restaurants (Research), which owns Hardee's and Carl's Jr., plans to deploy a call center system in California this year, the report said.

Not all fast-food chains are ready to jump on board, however. Wendy's Restaurants, for instance, said it wants more concrete evidence that call centers work, the newspaper said.

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