The Fast Food Chain With The Slowest Drive-Thru Also Has The Best Customer Service

When it comes to fast food, speed is the name of the game. After all, the entire genre of restaurants is literally named for how little time you can expect to wait before your food is finished. And yet, the fast food chain with the slowest drive-thru also has the best-rated customer service. You may have guessed by now, but we're talking about Chick-fil-A.

Industry analysts have been keeping track of these types of data for years now and Chick-fil-A regularly winds up in last place in terms of speed. It's not a huge difference, mind you. If you take all the major fast food chains and average them together, the consumer usually spends about 5 ½ minutes in line. Compare that to Chick-fil-A, where customers are spending 7 to 8 minutes in line (Some years are faster than others).

Honestly, the main thing working against Chick-fil-A isn't its lack of hustle; There are actually just way more cars waiting to grab a bite relative to the competition. In fact, Chick-fil-A had almost double the number of cars in line on average compared to the second-most popular spot, McDonald's. It's a bit of a chicken or the egg scenario, here. On the one hand, the fact that Chick-fil-A is slower means the line is bound to get longer. On the other hand, a longer line means customers are spending more time in line to get through. Which is to say, even if Chick-fil-A was moving at the same speed as Taco Bell (which was the fastest drive-thru last year), if more customers are coming through it's simply going to take longer.

We often associate speed in the restaurant industry with low quality. There's no small argument to be made that fast food itself has played a role in that sentiment. Personally, I think Chick-fil-A serves some of the highest quality food in the industry, but does that really have anything to do with its speed? Maybe, maybe not. It's honestly hard to say with so many factors to consider.

At other fast food chains, a slow order would be a death sentence in terms of reputation. Not at Chick-fil-A, though. The chicken chain is famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) for its politeness. Employees are forbidden from saying 'you're welcome,' for example. Instead, you'll only ever hear them say, 'my pleasure.' Chick-fil-A was one of my first jobs in high school. It's not as oppressive as it sounds. From the customer's perspective, the slight shift in attitude really does seem to pay off.

Right now, there are plenty of Chick-fil-A fans ready to try the 2025 spring menu who are filling up the drive-thru and that high demand is bound to slow things down. Good customer service is a good way to counteract whatever negative feelings consumers may have about waiting. Also, at this point people sort of expect it to take longer there than other restaurants. For a minute, it seemed like AI was about to revolutionize the drive-thru, but people are falling out of love with it, fast. Maybe five years from now robots serving chicken won't sound so bad.