Fast-food satisfaction
Chick-fil-A defies industry’s typically low consumer approval
Customer satisfaction is on the decline at America’s fast-food restaurants, but there is a noticeable bright spot: Chick-fil-A.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index 2015 restaurant report released in June included Chick-fil-A for the first time. The Atlanta-based chain scored 86 out of a possible 100, the highest score ever recorded for a fast-fast food restaurant.
At the other end of the scale, McDonald’s scored a 67. That reflects a lower trend in customer satisfaction as consumers, no longer pinching pennies after the Great Recession, look for better quality ingredients and service at a reasonable price, according to the report.
Smaller, more local restaurants can take heart from the report. As a group labeled “all others,” they scored an 81 for 2015. That places them in the top three, trailing Chick-fil-A, Chipotle Mexican Grill’s score of 83, and just above Panera Bread’s 80.
Scott Malone, owner-operator of the Chick-fil-A at 4916 Poplar in East Memphis, points to a “mission to be remarkable” as a key to the chain’s high customer satisfaction. It starts with great food, Malone said, and great service.
“That service comes from the selection of great team members, those team members that can meet or exceed our expectations,” he said.
Owner-operators, generally one per restaurant, are another key ingredient, he said. The franchised chain has 13 locations in Shelby and DeSoto counties and more than 1,500 in about 40 states.
“We also have great, raving fans of the brand which come in daily, come more often, pay full price for the value they receive at Chickfil-A and they’ll tell others about those remarkable experiences at Chick-fil-A,” he said.
Founder Truett Cathy’s biblical principles as well as lower-thanaverage advertising budgets and debt loads make Chick-fil-A’s business model vary from most fastfood chains, according to a University of Virginia Darden School Foundation case study.
Careful selection of owneroperators and no Sunday hours for the restaurants are other hallmarks of the privately held chain, which attracts more affluent and more educated customers than fast food, cow-based burger chains, according to the case study.
ACSI was started in 1994 by researchers at the University of Michigan, with the American Society for Quality in Milwaukee and CFI Group in Ann Arbor.
Benchmarks to gauge the customer experience in restaurants ranged from accuracy of a food order to website satisfaction, courtesy and helpfulness of staff, quality of food and beverages and speed of checkout or delivery.