Fast-Food Excellence Comes in Many Flavors

A variety of long time favorites and new winners are included in Sandelman’s highly coveted Awards of Excellence this year.  Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out Burger, and Raising Cane’s are all repeat winners taking the top 3 places with the highest overall excellent ratings culled from 994,000 quick service restaurant occasions representing 76 U.S. media markets.  Other repeat winners include Five Guys and the Habit. The remaining chains broke into the top 10 for the first time this year showing how consumers are appreciating a variety of different chain types that range from burger and chicken to pizza and sandwich.

Top Ten Quick-Service Restaurant Chains
(Ranked by Percent Rating Their Overall Experience “Excellent”)

1 Chick-fil-A 2 In-N-Out Burger 3 Raising Cane’s 4 la Madeleine 5 Torchy’s Tacos 6 Five Guys 7 Lion’s Choice 8 P. Terry’s 9 Habit 10 Mod Pizza

64% 63% 60% 59% 58% 56% 56% 56% 56% 55%

What do these chains have in common?  Sandelman found that the top ten chains’ excellence is most correlated with taste and quality of the food and the strength of the brand.  In other words, these chains excel because they have great tasting food and they’ve built trust and nurtured a personal connection with their users.  While other factors like value, healthiness, or kid appeal can play a large role in the success of individual chains, taste and quality drive brand fanaticism.

Sandelman’s Quick-Track study monitors over 100 quick service restaurants on 19 aspects for food, service, worth, facilities, and brand appeal.  Follow Sandelman on Twitter @SandelmanInc #QSRexcellence to see the winners for attributes like value for the money, speed of service, friendliness and others.

For more information, please contact Clay Raymer at clay@sandelman.com or (888) 897-7881, ext. 2.