What are the most loved fast food restaurants (a.k.a. quick-service restaurants) in the U.S.? According to Chatmeter, Chick-fil-A takes the top prize, followed by Carl’s Jr./Hardees, and Arby’s. The firm released its 2024 QSR Reputation Ranking report this week, tracking the largest QSRs in the U.S..
To do this, Chatmeter used AI to analyze Google reviews of 100 randomly-selected locations of each of the top 25 biggest QSRs in revenue in the U.S. from August 2023 to August 2024. It applied its Signals software to analyze sentiment around top attributes like food, customer service, pricing, etc.
So what were the top success factors? And what else did the study reveal? Customer service and pricing seemed to be the biggest customer sticking points. The former was evident in several online reviews and the latter continues to loom over everything, given macro-economic factors like inflation.
For example, the number of reviews that mention customer service grew 19 percent year-over-year. Other customer-service-related factors were prevalent, such as wait times (mentioned in 8.5 percent of reviews). The average review per location was 3.7 stars, up slightly from 3.6 stars in 2022’s report.
Data Dive
Back to the top-scoring QSRs, they held the best overall scores across categories and locations. Success factors included brand loyalty due to food quality (which is the case with Chick-fil-A) but also performance metrics such as customer service. The latter comes down to training and culture.
Other findings from the report include:
Customer Service Chaos: Reviews mentioning mistakes were up 6.9 percent, while references to staff attitudes were up 21.8 percent. Mentions of managers increased 14.6 percent YoY. Customers regularly report inattentive staff, unprofessional communication, incorrect orders, and rude managers.
Wait Time Woes: Wait time-related reviews increased 8.5 percent. Among those reviews, mentions that orders took a “long time” increased 35.7 percent–with many customers reporting it took as long as 30 minutes to an hour to get their food. Mobile orders emerge as a potential threat to QSRs, with reviews mentioning mobile orders growing by 52 percent, and skewing negative. Consumers complain that mobile orders are not ready when promised, or deprioritized over walk-in orders.
Price Sensitivity Persists: While customer service-related issues dominate reviews, pricing remains a problem. The portion of pricing-related reviews describing restaurants as “overpriced” increased by 43.2 percent. Customers complain about discrepancies between menu prices and checkout prices, while others compare prices unfavorably to sit-down restaurants.
The Speed of Mobile
Stepping back, what are strategic takeaways? For one, Chatmeter says QSRs should listen to customers in real time to address issues faster. That’s simply because reviews are being generated at the speed of mobile, with customers tapping reviews while they’re in a restaurant, or waiting in the drive-through line.
QSR responsiveness needs to match that speed. Review responsiveness is a key metric that can help any business stay on top of its reputation management. Though the fate of reviews is in the hands of restaurants’ performance, the marketing work they do around review responses can mitigate damage.
We should also acknowledge that QSRs are inherently challenged in managing this torrent of customer feedback. That’s simply due to the frequency of QSR patronage. You may go to the dentist a few times per year… but visiting QSRs is more of a semi-weekly affair. Reviews are correspondingly fast & furious.
Making matters more challenging is the geographic dispersion, which makes it difficult to enforce standards and consistent quality across several far-flung locations. That makes SaaS and the art of reputation management particularly important for the QSRs of the world. The best ones gear up.
