Service Untitled

I saw a post about Chick-fil-A at CustomersAreAlways. There is a Chick-fil-A near me and I have to agree with Maria – their customer service is far better than their competitors’. In fact, I’d even classify it as pretty good when it comes to inexpensive restaurant customer service, much less fast food customer service. McDonald’s and Burger King almost always have terrible customer service, but Chick-fil-A is not like that.

Even more interesting is that the average transaction I’ve had at Chick-fil-A takes far less time than at McDonald’s, even though I’m ordering essentially the same things. I never hear managers yelling at employees at Chick-fila-A (they yell quite often at the McDonald’s I go to), the prices are roughly the same (from what I can tell), and best of all – the food and service is always consistent at the Chick-fil-A near me, as well as the other ones I have been to. This is very tough to achieve for any franchise.

Here is what Chick-fil-A seems to do right:

• They hire right. Chick-fil-A’s employees are normally very friendly and seem intelligent. They seem to actually mean it when they say “Thank you” or “You’re welcome.” I have no idea if Chick-fil-A pays more than the average fast food employee or what, but they seem to find the right people. The managers seem equally dedicated and conscientious and are always quick to respond to and resolve problems.
• They allow franchise owners to do individual improvements. The second article I linked to below talks about how one franchise owner creates some competition and encourages employees to try and make the process as fast as possible (while still preserving a pleasant customer service experience).
• They aren’t lazy. A huge problem in the fast food industry seems to be that employees (regular employees, managers, franchise owners) are lazy. There can be 3 people standing behind the counter at McDonald’s and only 1 working the register (when there are a lot of people standing in line). This doesn’t seem to happen at Chick-fil-A.
• They are involved with the community. When Chick-fil-A is about to open a new location, they try and find people who like the restaurant to promote it. Chick-fil-A also partners with local schools and they will donate a portion of sales where customers used the school’s special coupon to buy things. It’s a win-win-win (customer gets a discount, school gets money, Chick-fil-A gets customers and money).
• Their management cares about customer service. See the article linked to below.

This is an interesting article about how Chick-fil-A’s management influences their customer service. This article talks about what Chick-fil-A does that makes a difference. On a somewhat related note, I also found this article today that contains 21 tips for retail customer service. The page has a great set of guidelines.

Note: The experiences I’ve mentioned at McDonald’s (and Chick-fil-A) are based off of my own personal experiences as well as what I have heard/read. They don’t necessarily represent service at all of the company’s locations (which is true for pretty much everything I write about – some people may be better than others, some people may be worse).