Chik-fil-A Tops List of USA QSR Brands for Customer Service.

Customer service in a quick-serve or fast-casual restaurant is almost as important (some say it's as important) as the food you serve customers. So it's no wonder that, like food, customer service is ranked by various agencies to tell us what brands are doing it right - and what brands are getting it horribly wrong.   

If you've ever been to the USA, you may be familiar with the Chik-fil-A brand. It's a veritable leader in customer service and it's no wonder that it placed in the top spot of a recent customer service standards rating in the 2017 version of the Temkin Experience Ratings.   

It’s the simple things that make good customer service.

But how did Chik-fil-A get to the top of these ratings and manage to stay there.    Actually, it's pretty simple. They smiled and said "please" and "thank you."  

On top of this, employees at Chik-fil-A were found to have an overall pleasant demeanor that was far ahead of any of the other contenders. And don't think this is some sort of rigged or random finding, either.

10,000 customers were surveyed and evaluated their QSR dining experience across three main areas:  

Success (Does the brand allow you some autonomy when dealing with them?)  Effort (Is the brand easy to work with?) 

Emotion (How does the brand make you feel?)  

The survey was applied to a number of industries and while Chik-fil-A was at the top of the QSR brands, it placed second overall after another popular brand in the U.S. - Publix supermarket.   

Chik-fil-A tops and impressive list of brands.

In total, 24 QSR brands were included in the survey and it was an overall improvement for the industry - up 5 percent over the previous year. In fact, 23 of the 24 brands saw improvement in their ratings. The only one that didn't see a gain was Taco Bell. They slipped 2 percent. The biggest gains were seen by KFC and Baskin-Robbins. Both were up 12 percent.   

Also among some of the top QSR brands were some that you'll likely recognize:   Subway 

Hardee's 

Dairy Queen 

Dunkin' Donuts 

Papa John's 

McDonald's  

Of course, a customer service experience can be god or bad based on a huge number of factors. Just because Chik-fil-A is #1, it doesn't mean that nobody has ever had a negative experience there.   

What brands would you put on your personal list when it comes to customer service? What's your criteria? Let us know in the comments.