Customer Service in the Fast Food Industry - Term Paper Example

The most important stakeholder of all businesses is the customers. The clients are the persons that purchase goods or service from stores. They are the reason a business exist are the ones that generate revenue for an enterprise. In all industries customer service is extremely important. Customer service is the activity of indentifying and satisfying the needs of the customer of a business (Thetimes100, 2007). One particular industry in which customer service is extremely important due to the nature of the product and the intense competition within the industry is the fast food restaurant industry. This industry faces competition from hundreds of different fast food establish as well as competition from different restaurant establishment and supermarkets. Customer service is extremely important in the fast food industry because there certain standards within this industry customers are accustomed too such as placing an order and getting the food served to the customers in a couple of minutes. There are many other elements associated with customer service. This paper studies customer service in the fast food industry by performing a benchmark study of four organizations. The four organizations are McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King and Subway. Business profiles Subway Subway is a unique fast food concept that revolutionized this industry by provided a product with characteristic not typical of fast food restaurants. Subway changed the perception people had of fast food being greasy unhealthy food which people purchase because of its low prices and ready to eat food by creating a food menu that is extremely healthy and could inclusively become a person’s dietary program. The company utilized a mastermind advertising campaign based on a person called Jared who used to be obese and became a lean and fit human based on a strict Subway diet. Subway has a tremendous menu and way of serving customer that makes the client feel right at home. Subway’s order taking method provides a one on one relationship between the employee and the client. The subway sandwiches are customer prepared to fit the taste of the client. The client selects the exact ingredients of their sandwiches and he sees step by step when the food is being prepared utilizing fresh meats, cheeses and salads to prepare the sub. A six inch subway sub after preparation has 6 grams of fat or less (Subway, 2007). The meal is prepared very fast and every single it takes about the same time for the food to be prepared since the physical facilities of the store has a line of ingredients which look like a buffet in which the client walks laterally selecting each ingredient. The bread for the sandwiches is cooked by the restaurant so always fresh. Subway is a company with a rich 42 year history. There are 28,406 Subway restaurant is 86 countries worldwide that employ over 150,000 people through the system (Subway). A simple division calculation of the employee per store provides a ratio of 5.28 employees per store. Despite the low number of employee per store this restaurant is run very efficiently and reality it does not need too many employees in any particular shift. Typically there are two employees in the sandwich preparation line and a separate cashier and the shift leader. Even with four employees the operation can run efficiently. An efficiently run restaurant increases the profitability of the business venture (Gecconsultants, 2007). The average yearly revenue each Subway store generates, all of whom are franchised to entrepreneurs, is $353,798 (Subway, 2007). Burger King (BK) Burger King is one of the largest fast food restaurants in the world that specialize in hamburgers and fries as its typical meal. The company has 11,200 restaurants in 70 countries around the world (Bk, 2007). Its best selling and most popular product is the Whopper hamburger, which is ranked as the number one large hamburger in the United States (Bk, 2007). In 2006 the average revenue per restaurant in the United States was $1.13 million and international stores generated $1.11 per store (Annual Report BK, 2006). The company employs nearly 37,000 persons around the world, but this total only represents the administration of the corporation and the employees working for 10% of the franchised which are company owned (1,200), the other employees working in the other 10,080 franchised owned restaurant are not considered by the company since these employees are not Burger King’s employees, they are the employee of the owner of the franchise. To create a comparative base for a future analysis in another section of this report the employee to store ratio is 30.83 employees per store. The number might be a little distorted because it includes the employee working a corporate headquarters which provide service for the entire Burger King Network. The company values its employee since the firm realizes that they are the ones that provide the food service to the customers. The Burger King menu includes a variety of items such as hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken and fish sandwishes, breakfast items, french fries, onion rings, salads, desserts, soft drinks, shakes, milk and coffee (Annual Report BK, 2006). The large selection of food items provides many alternatives for the customer. The food is prepared extremely fast, prices are very competitive and the physical facilities of the restaurants are outstanding. A typical BK restaurant has a physical area of between 1900-4300 square feet, seating capacity between 40 to 120 seats, drive through facilities and exclusive parking area for its customers. Burger King offers other services in some of its facilities. Some of the facilities have childrens playground which can be use by families free of charge. These areas can also be rented along with food package meals for private birthday parties for children. McDonalds McDonalds is the largest fast food restaurant chain in the world. The company specializes in Burger and fries as its typical meal. The company has 31,045 restaurant stores serving over 52 million customers in a 119 different countries (McDonalds, 2007). The company has a global workforce of 465,000 employees (Yahoo, 2007). The amount of employees per store ratio is 14.51. The enterprise is very successful in 2006 it had global revenues of $21.6 billion which represents a 9% increase in comparison with 2005 (Annual Report McDonalds, 2006). The average revenue each stores generates is $695,764 per store. This enterprise values its customers and the communities it serves. The company has believes in corporate responsibility principles. An example of the types of community programs the company sponsors is it’s a children’s program in created in August 2007. This program will enable up to 300 kids from around the world to travel to 2008 Olympic Games to share their stories and experiences with their local communities and hometown news outlets (Olympic, 2007). This company as well as BK offers it some of its stores children playgrounds from of charge which are also rented for children birthday party with meal packages included. The popular beloved Ronald McDonald character is at times present in some this parties to cheer up the children. The firm provides very fast services and the food has some of the most competitive prices in the industry. The company has a $1 value menu that allows students and blue collar worker to buy a customized inexpensive full meal with the need of purchasing a combo which is typically a little more expense. The company also has monthly special combos to bring new item into the menu and provided greater variety. The combo’s the company offers are available in different sizes including the popular super size option. Along with lunch meals with a variety of sandwiches the restaurant has diversified breakfast menu and lots of different desserts. Its best selling and most popular hamburger is the Big Mac which is a very competitive price point in the combo option which included fries and a drink. Some McDonalds have newspaper for people to read while they enjoy their meals. The facilities of the store are spacious and with attractive decoration and as large or large than BK stores. Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) Kentucky Fried Chicken one the biggest fast food restaurant dedicated to selling fried chicken and other chicken products which ranked the top chicken fast food chain in the world. The company has a unique secret recipe that creates a chicken with a great flavor which customers love. The company serves nearly 8 million customer on a daily basis and these customer come to KFC to eat its original chicken recipe Colonel Sander created over a half a century ago (Kfc, 2007). The company actually belongs to composite fast food restaurant chain which includes Taco Bell, A&W, Long John Silver and Pizza Hut making it the largest composite fast restaurant system in the world with over 32,500 stores which is about 1000 extra stores in comparison with the McDonalds system (Kfc, 2007). As far as Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants there are 11,000 restaurant in 80 countries worldwide (Kfc, 2007). The company utilizes a diversified product strategy around the globe which means the chicken which sees like a homogenous product is prepared in many different ways to meet the specific taste needs of the international community following a seasoning based on the original recipe with some slight variation of the special taste of its chicken. The company has an incredible variable of products based on the customization of menus worldwide. The actual total of different products based on chicken is 300, but the menus actual menu of store is not nearly as diversified since it would be impossible to achieve efficiency offering that many products. Along with chicken the also includes corn, mash potatoes, sandwiches, famous bowls, desserts, plated meals, rice, green beans, honey biscuits among other items. The facility of the stores offer similar profiles such BK which includes 40 plus seating a 2000 plus square foot area, drive through windows and large parking spaces for customers. The KFC stores at times are hybrid stores that provide two restaurants in one such as a KFC/Long John Silver combination. The company encourages customer feedback and in its website it has a section that allows customer to send feedback about any aspect of their restaurant experiences. Overall data about amount of employee and KFC sales where readily available due to conglomerate nature of the firm but the company is doing very well considering its number one world status in the chicken segment of the fast food industry. Restaurant Comparative Analysis The four restaurants illustrated in this paper are four great businesses. Appendix A illustrates a table the compares the restaurant customer focus based on five metrics which are store facilities, quality of the food, product variety, additional services, customized personal service. As far as facilities the top ranked among the four restaurants is McDonalds. The company is the biggest since fast food chain the world. This enterprise finds the best location to increase traffic to the store. This company is a marketing machine that attracts lots of customer to its stores. Burger King has very good facilities as well. The KFC restaurant facilities are fine, but when the company creates the 2 in 1 concept stores it does increase the size of the restaurant, thus in reality the facility in these type of concepts are standard size. They should be bigger when this scenario occurs. Subway has very small facilities which limits the amount customer than can be present an a particular point in time. Subway has best quality product since it has the healthier food. The personalized service the company offers to its customer in the sandwich preparation is superior to the other three stores. A glaring weakness of Subway for its customer is that they have the most expensive product out of the four stores studied. The food menu is one of the most important things in a fast food. The company with the biggest variety of menu is McDonalds which is also the restaurant with the best prices. KFC was actually rank number one in appendix A, but this ranking was due to its global diversity in its menu. The restaurant with the most limited menu choice is Subway. The enterprise a lot of different subs, but in reality the are offering a similar product with different types of meats. Burger King was ranked #2 in quality because they have the best tasting large inexpensive hamburger in the fast food industry, the Whopper. The prices of BK are very competitive. KFC prices are little higher than BK and McDonalds but they are competitive as well. As far as additional services McDonalds was ranked number one. This metric takes into consideration all the community service the company performs. All these companies provide great customer service and prepared the meals very fast. Conclusion / Recommendations The fast food industry is all about customer service. The philosophy of all successful restaurant business is implementing a total quality approach that utilizes customer focus through out all aspects of the firm including processes, strategies and the most their most important stakeholder the customers. The four firms studied in this report are Subway, KFC, BK and Mcdonalds. Subway has a lot of good qualities towards customer service especially the way food is prepared. This company could improve the variety of its menu by offering other such as different types of healthy desserts, premium coffees and new types of sandwiches of different sizes instead of the 6’’ and 12” options. The company has to find a way to offer other types of cheaper products to attract new clientele. The expansion of this firm has been rapid and it should decelerate the amount of store sold in order to have the potential for store growth in the long-term. KFC is a great restaurant that has been successful by having a special recipe chicken. The entire menu in other countries was not covered in this report, but in the US the company could include a different type of chicken option such as full oven chicken. The menu is not a great issue with this company. The firm could lower its prices a few percentage points or offer combos that provide higher value by including extra side complements. McDonalds is the world largest restaurant. Currently it was probably the best prices in the industry; it may be beneficial to increases prices a bit to keep profitability up. The quality of the food as far as fat content was a big issue a few years back, but the company introducing some healthier products to offset the bad media coverage such as the movie Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock created in 2004 (Imdb, 2007). BK has the best branded burger the Whopper. The company has always been in price war with McDonalds and other giants in the burger world such as Wendy’s. This firm has further potential for store expansion which should be utilized to increase the size of the firm. The company has a great identity, but in order for great worldwide acceptance the firm might benefit from different types of campaigns such as more community service and greater focus on corporate responsibility. BJ is not doing that bad in this category, but there is room for improvement. The fast food industry has become very competitive and company must to the changes in the marketplace in order to stay ahead of the competition. References Annual Report: Burger King (2006). Available from [Accessed 29 October 2007]. Annual Report: McDonalds (2006). Available from [Accessed 28 October 2007]. Bk.com (2007. Available [Accessed 28 October 2007]. Gecconsultans.com (2007). Efficient Management. GEC Consultants. Available from [Accessed 28 October 2007]. Imdb.com (2007). Super Size Me. Available from [Accessed 29 October 2007]. Kfc.com (2007). Available from [Accessed 28 October 2007]. Mcdonalds.com (2007). Available from [Accessed 27 October 2007]. Olympic.org (2007). McDonalds to Sponsor “Champion” Children. Available from [Accessed 28 October 2007]. Subway.com (2007). Available from [Accessed 28 October 2007]. Thetimes100.uk. (2007). The importance of customer service. Available from [Accessed 28 October 2007]. Appendix A: Restaurant Comparison Chart Menu variety Quality Food Prices Additional services Physical facilities Customized personal service Subway 4 1 4 4 4 1 KFC 1 3 3 3 3 4 Burger King 3 2 2 2 2 3 Mcdonalds 2 4 1 1 1 2 Read More