03 Oct How Did The Media Mislead Millions with the Data on Chick-fil-A’s Drive-Thru Times?
The media is all over the 2019 Drive-Thru Performance Study, which reports findings of Chick-fil-A having the slowest drive-thru in fast food. Of course, because Chick-fil-A is such a successful fast-food restaurant across the United States, the media is having a field day playing with the data, which ultimately misled millions of Americans.
I reviewed the data for myself and discovered a few interesting things. The study is only utilizing two measures of the drive-thru service:
The first measure point starts from the time the order is taken and confirmed. The second measure point is the time that the customer receives their order in the drive-thru. If news stories want to report that Chick-fil-A is the slowest drive-thru using these measures, it would be accurate, but an incomplete statement. It’s inaccurate to state that Chick-fil-A has the slowest drive-thru in fast food without considering a third measure point of the number of customers in the drive-thru.
It’s MORE accurate to state that Chick-fil-A has the “busiest” drive-thru in the fast-food restaurants studied. Here’s why….
There are a few key measures that happen in the drive-thru. The first is the customer’s order taken and confirmed. In Chick-fil-A’s case, data will have to be broken down further. Why? Because in most drive-thrus, the customers give their order to an immobile speaker system (which means, it’s stuck in the foundation of the ground and will not move no matter how many customers are in line). Chick-fil-A not only has an immobile speaker system, but during their peak times, they have employees outside with remote technology to walk up to vehicles and take the customer’s order. With their technology, the Chick-fil-A employees are able to walk several cars ahead of where the immobile speaker system is setup. So if a Chick-fil-A employee is taking orders by 7 cars ahead of the immobile speaker system, the data measure would start with at least 7 cars already in line. This alone will increase the wait time to receive the order at the pick-up window.
With the friendly reputation that Chick-fil-A has, they are NOT throwing bags and sodas at their customers to increase the speed. They are making sure their customers’ experience is top-notch by ensuring efficient and accurate orders, every time.
According to the data analytics, the top three fast-food restaurants with the fastest drive-thru are:
1. Dunkin’ Doughnuts
2. Wendy’s
3. Burger King
I don’t know what you’re thinking after reading that, so let me ask…are any of these three restaurants in the same ballpark as Chick-fil-A with providing a great customer experience?
If we could look at a different dataset, I am sure that we’ll discover from the time the customer completes their order, until the time their order is actually bagged and ready for pick-up, Chick-fil-A wins hands-down with the shortest time a customer’s order is ready and let me one-up this and say…Ready AND Accurate. So there you have it. With the data collected, Chick-fil-A can get more cars per hour through in the drive-thru than any fast food restaurant involved in the study. When I read the article on the data, it actually states that “Chick-fil-A once again reigns in drive-thru popularity, with more than three-quarters of its drive-thrus boasting three or more cars at the time of this study’s audits, and more than a third having six or more cars.” Really?! Looking at the data, it actually shows that Chick-fil-A and Burger King have increased as the busiest fast-food restaurants!
Given all the information I’ve shared with you, let’s go ahead and re-word the title of these news stories, from Chick-fil-A has the slowest drive-thru in fast food and market it to say that Chick-fil-A has the busiest drive-thru in fast food. Oh and let’s not forget, “Theeeee Friendlist!” So given all the data, the news stories are ONLY TRUE if a customer is waiting in a Chick-fil-A drive-thru on Sundays!
On to the Good News and Great Dr. Thais Speaks Advice, Dunkin’ Doughnuts — this is YOUR opportunity to capitalize on marketing your #1 spot here! And Chick-fil-A go ahead and market the number of customers you serve in your drive-thrus at peak times!
Alethea Houston-Thompson
Posted at 01:11h, 06 OctoberI think this article is spot on and I agree with the your viewpoint on the media not performing due diligence in reporting an accurate but critical assessment of performance. An accurate measure of performance usually involves collecting data from several activities and the related KPIs. In this case, it’s really unfair to compare Chick-fil-A to Burger King, for example. They’re never as busy as Chick-fil-A even during their peak time.
Before I’d even consider reporting on these analytics, my question as an analyst would be were these measures performed during the exact same time periods with the same volume of customer intake?