WABAN, Mass., March 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Based on a study of 10,000 U.S. consumers, Chick-fil-A, Dunkin' Donuts, Sonic Drive-In, and Little Caesar's earned the top spots in the fast food sector of the 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings. At the other end of the spectrum, KFC and McDonalds were the lowest-rated fast food restaurants. The fast food industry earned the second highest average rating out of 19 industries, falling only behind the grocery sector.
"In an industry with consistently high customer experience ratings, Chick-fil-A stands out on top," states Bruce Temkin, managing partner of Temkin Group.
The Temkin Experience Ratings evaluates three areas of customer experience: functional (can customers do what they want to do), accessible (how easy it is to work with the company), and emotional (how consumers feel about their interactions).
The 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings includes 18 fast food chains: Arby's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, Dairy Queen, Domino's, Dunkin' Donuts, Hardees, Jack in the Box, KFC, Little Caesar's, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Quiznos, Sonic Drive-In, Starbucks, Subway, Taco Bell, and Wendy's.
Here are some additional findings from the research:
The average rating for the fast food industry increased from 74.0% in 2012 to 76.3% in 2013. Anything above 70% is considered a "good" rating.
Chick-fil-A is the top-scoring fast food chain for the second straight year, with a rating of 82%. That score puts the fast food chain at #3 across all industries. It also earned the top marks for functional and emotional components in fast foods.
Three other fast food chains are in the top 10 in the overall ratings; Dunkin' Donuts, Little Caesar's, and Sonic Drive-In are all tied at #7.
Arby's earned the top rating for the accessible component.
KFC is the lowest-ranked fast food chain with a rating of 67%. That's four points below the next lowest-rated fast food chain, McDonalds.
Hardees showed the largest improvement between 2012 and 2013, gaining 10 percentage points. Next on the list, Jack in the Box increased nine percentage points and Domino's increased eight percentage points.
While no firm declined by very much, three fast food chains dropped three percentage points between 2012 and 2013: Starbucks, Taco Bell, and KFC.
The 2013 Temkin Experience Ratings along with other ratings can be accessed at the Temkin Ratings website, www.TemkinRatings.com.
The report "2013 Temkin Experience Ratings" can be downloaded for free from the Customer Experience Matters® blog, at ExperienceMatters.wordpress.com as well as from the Temkin Group website, www.TemkinGroup.com
About Temkin Group: Temkin Group is widely recognized as a leading customer experience research and consulting firm. Many of the world's largest brands rely on its insights and advice to steer their transformational journeys. Temkin Group combines customer experience thought leadership with a deep understanding of the dynamics of organizations to help accelerate results. Rather than layering on cosmetic changes, Temkin Group helps companies embed practices within their culture by building four critical competencies: Purposeful Leadership, Employee Engagement, Compelling Brand Values, and Customer Connectedness. The firm's ongoing research identifies leading and emerging best practices across a wide range of activities for engaging the hearts and minds of customers, employees, and partners. For more information, contact Bruce Temkin at 617-916-2075 or send an Email.
About Bruce Temkin: Bruce Temkin is widely recognized as a customer experience thought leader and is Customer Experience Transformist and Managing Partner of Temkin Group. He is also the author of a very popular blog, Customer Experience Matters® (ExperienceMatters.wordpress.com). Prior to forming Temkin Group, he was a VP at Forrester Research for 12 years. Bruce is a highly demanded speaker who consistently receives high marks for his content-rich, entertaining keynote addresses. He is also the co-founder and Chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA.org), a global non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of customer experience management.
Customer experience matters is a registered trademark of Temkin Group.