Chick-fil-A has once again trumped all of its competition, proving that it really is the most popular fast-food chain in the U.S., according to a new report that measures consumer satisfaction.
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The American Customer Satisfaction Index not only found that Chick-fil-A is the highest-rated restaurant, but that, overall, Americans are now more satisfied with fast-food experiences than they are full-service, sit-down restaurants, Fox News reported.
The 2017 report is the third year in a row that Chick-fil-A has captured the top spot, scoring 87 out of a possible score of 100. In second place was Papa John’s and Panera Bread, which both came in at 82, with Arby’s and Subway coming in at 80 and 81.
While the restaurant ratings are noteworthy, the more concerning issue for full-service restaurants is that their score is the lowest it has been in a decade — and fast-food restaurants beat them out for the first time ever.
According to a press release announcing the results, customers simply don’t feel that the quality of food in these restaurants is worth ever-rising menu costs.
“Lower customer satisfaction is a major threat to the restaurant business,” Claes Fornell, chairman of the American Customer Satisfaction Index, said in a statement. “Full-service restaurants cannot lose to fast food on quality and customer satisfaction because they can’t compete on price. If a lower-price competitor has higher customer satisfaction than a rival that competes on quality, the latter is obviously in serious trouble.”
He continued, “Low price alone rarely leads to high levels of satisfaction, but high quality usually does.”
The results of the 2017 report are based on 5,557 customer surveys that were collected between June 2016 and May 2017. Find out more about the report here.