The nation’s love for fast food reached new heights this year, according to a report released by the National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK). For the first time, customer satisfaction with limited-service restaurants equals that of full-service restaurants.
Customer satisfaction with limited-service restaurants is up 2.6% to an NCSI score of 78 on a 0-100 scale. This marks the fourth consecutive year of steady improvement for fast food. Full-service restaurants, on the other hand, are down 2.5% to 78.
“This is bad news for full-service restaurants,” says Claes Fornell, ACSI founder and chairman. “If fast food provides the same level of diner satisfaction, what can full-service restaurants compete on? Certainly not price. But they will be forced to.”
Casual dining chains
Among casual-dining chains, Nando’s consistently ranks at the top, scoring 75 for the second year in a row. Tragus (Café Rouge, Strada, Bella Italia) is the only large full-service restaurant group to improve, edging up 1% to tie Nando’s. Whitbread is stable at 74, followed by Gondola Holdings (-3% to 73) and The Restaurant Group (-1% to 71).
Burgers, sandwiches and coffee
The UK burger craze shows no sign of abating and both big burger chains gain in customer satisfaction this year: McDonalds by 7% to a score of 74 and Burger King by 1% to 72, its highest customer satisfaction score to date.
Greggs regains the lead among the large sandwich chains, rising 5% to an NCSI score of 80. Subway inches up to 79, matching the average of all other, smaller quick-service and sandwich shops. Costa advances 3% to match coffee rival Starbucks (+1%) at 76.
About NCSI-UK
The National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI-UK) is a national economic indicator of customer evaluations of the quality of products and services available to household consumers in the United Kingdom, and is produced by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Results are based on survey data from more than 6,000 customers collected via online panel during Q2 of 2013.
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