Food & Beverage

Chick-fil-A earns 7th annual customer satisfaction win as Subway slips down the rankings

At a Chick-fil-A drive-thru in Tulsa. Photo: iStock.

June 29, 2021

The annual American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Restaurant Study again — for the seventh straight year — crowned Chick-fil-A with the award for tops in happy customers, though there is some evidence the diner-pleasing QSR might have some brands nipping its heels in this category. Additionally, for QSR brands, there was some encouraging news that even with all the pitfalls the pandemic threw their way, customer satisfaction for the sector has held steady, according to the data and a news release around it.

The ACSI has been a national economic indicator for 25 years since it measures and analyzes customer satisfaction with more than 400 companies in 46 industries and 10 economic sectors, based on data from interviews with roughly 500,000 customers annually. In the study of the accommodation and food services sector overall, satisfaction dipped just 0.4% to a score of 77.6 on the ACSI's 0-100 scale. Since the previous year showed a decline of some significance a year ago at this time, that was seen as a much-needed stabilization for the sector.

"People are slowly starting to enjoy sitting down at restaurants again, but don't discount the value of convenience," David VanAmburg, ACSI managing director, said in the release. "During the pandemic, folks got a taste for what it's like to have food from their favorite restaurants delivered right to their door. And now that they've gotten used to this service, there's no going back. Restaurants need to continue to give customers all the options they've become accustomed to over the last year and a half. If not, they might grab a bite somewhere else."

Still, even though full-service restaurants are based on a business model that essentially fails to thrive when takeout and delivery become paramount, these more labor-intensive restaurants were shown in the data to be the one customers are most likely to be gravitating toward now. In fact, smaller full-service restaurants lead in this respect, while larger full-service chains, like LongHorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, and Texas Roadhouse hold three-way tie for second. Overall, after slipping the previous year, customer satisfaction with full-service restaurants climbed 1.3% to an ACSI score of 80.

But in fast food, Chick-fil-A still wears the crown (scored 83 out of 100) while the QSR sector as a whole held steady in customer satisfaction year-to-year at 78 out of that 100-point scale. But the really big story in this sector might be Subway, which comparatively plummeted, losing 5% from last year to this year and falling to 75. Other QSR results included:

80 Smaller fast food chains and Domino's (up 1% year-to-year).
79 KFC and Starbucks (up 1%).
78 Pizza Hut, Five Guys and Panera.
77 Arby's and Dunkin' (down 3%), Chipotle (down 4%) and Papa John's (down 1%)
76 Burger King, Little Caesars and Panda Express.
75 Subway (down 5%)
74 Dairy Queen and Taco Bell.
72 Jack in the Box, Popeyes (down 1%), Sonic (down 1%) and Wendy's (down 4%)
70 McDonald's.

Preference for full-service

In terms of the customer experience, full-service restaurants overall outperformed the limited-service category across nearly all customer experience benchmarks measured by the ACSI. Customers said these "sit-down" chains beat out fast food for restaurant layout and cleanliness (86 to 82), food quality (86 to 82), food variety (84 to 79) and staff courtesy and helpfulness (85 to 82).

Additionally, orders are more accurate (88 to 84) at full-service restaurants. These establishments offer a wider variety of beverages (82 to 78) and superior beverage quality (84 to 81). Additionally and possibly surprisingly, full-service restaurants were seen to have better mobile app quality (85 to 83). But, in terms of reliability, however, fast-food apps mirror full-service apps (both at 82).