News

QSR customer experience? Chipotle and Chick-fil-A win, while McDonald's and Taco Bell flounder

March 27, 2017

In the customer experience game, a survey of 10,000 U.S. diners concerning 24 top fast food brands, found that Chick-fil-A rules the coop at 83 percent, with Chipotle Mexican Grill and Hardees coming in second at 82 percent, in the Temkin Experience Ratings 2017 survey. A total of 24 fast food brands were rated in this year's poll for that restaurant category. A total of 331 companies were rated in all business categories included in the poll, covering 20 different industries.

In fact, this year's survey put Chick-fil-A at the No. 2 spot out of all companies in all categories for consumers' overall impression of the brand, while Chipotle and Hardees were fourth overall among the 331 companies, according to a news release. 

On the flip side, at the bottom of the list, the almighty McDonald's mega-brand came in 23rd, while Taco Bell took the bottom spot in QSR customer experience ratings this year at 71 percent. To determine the customer experience rating for a brand, Temkin Group asked consumers if a brand allowed them to "do what you want to do," as well as how easy it is to work with the restaurant in question and how consumers felt about interactions with a particular restaurant. And because we know everyone reading has already skipped to the list, here's the final finish of all 24 brands: 

Chick-fil-A: 83%
Chipotle Mexican Grill: 82%
Hardees: 82%
Subway: 81%
Arby's: 80%
KFC: 80%
Baskin Robbins: 79%
Dairy Queen: 79%
Starbucks: 79%
Dunkin' Donuts: 78%
Papa John's: 78%
IHOP: 77%
Little Caesar's: 77%
Panera Bread: 77%
Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen: 75%
Sonic Drive-In: 75%
Burger King: 74%
Panda Express: 74%
Wendy's: 74%
Pizza Hut: 73%
Domino's: 72%
Jack in the Box: 72%
McDonald's: 71%
Taco Bell: 71%

The really good news for the whole QSR category is that it appears all the work going on related to this critical measure across the industry is making an impression. For instance, in this rating list scores of 70 percent or more are good, while 80 percent or more are excellent. None of the brands polled in the under 60 percent range, which is poor on this ratings scale. 

In fact, Temkin Group Managing Partner Bruce Temkin said the whole QSR category moved up a very promising five percentage points overall between last year and this year in the poll. So, the QSR category overall, came in second for customer experience of 20 industries measured this year with its average rating of 76 percent. That number is a significant increase from 2016's 71.1 percent. 

"It's impressive that every single fast food company we looked at delivers a customer experience that's either 'good' or 'excellent,'" Temkin said in a news release. 

The award this year for "most improved" goes to Baskin-Robbins and KFC, which both gained 12 points in the ratings over the last year. In fact, ratings for all fast food restaurants increased between 2016 and 2017, except for Taco Bell which saw its customer experience ranking drop two percentage points.