Yeah, Five Guys has them beat on fries. But man, I wish we had In-N-Out here. Those are good burgers and much cheaper than my favorite local restaurant burger (which is absolutely worth it a couple times a year).
Five Guys is so good but so expensive at the same time. Easily can spend $45 on fries, shakes, and burgers for our family. We reserve it for a treat.
We have mostly quit Chik-Fil-A. Last we heard their politics/religion are not a good fit for us. If they don't approve of us then we don't approve of them. ;)
Their politics are indeed questionable. The fact that they have food service down to a perfected science, is pretty indisputable.
You'd think they'd be vulnerable to somebody else copying their customer service experience, but for some reason that escapes me I continue to get comparativley sub-par service everywhere else
(It's been 2 years since my last visit, but it's still the benchmark)
Chipotle, please take a hint
I've never eaten at chic-fil-a. I'm interested in what they do differently that has you raving abut their great food service. Mind filling me in?
Last time I went was right after DWs masters degree graduation event, so the place was swamped, line almost out the door, almost bailed, but thought "eh, this'll still be faster than walking anywhere else" so we went for it. Maybe 300 seconds in line max.
Got to the counter, "I'll have a #2 spicy no tomato and a dr pepper" (or something similar)
Dw said something similar
Drinks were handed out immediately and we found a seat
Food came out delivered to our table maybe 120-300 seconds later, the order was perfect
Asked if we wanted any condiments, and produced them from their apron on the spot
The entire time, everybody we interacted with was incredibly polite, manners 100% on point, no mumbling and easy to understand what they were saying, they always communicated what the next step in the process was clearly, and to top it off while we were eating the manager was making rounds and stopped over to check that everything was to satisfaction and we see if we needed anything
A previous visit at a drive through on a road trip, right off the interstate at lunchtime, line around the building
Before we got the the speaker box thing, someone with a headset was walking the line taking orders, so they were taking orders two at a time, and someone else then ran the order out to our car and processed payment and provided condiments and we were on our way in what was faster than some "taco bell at non-crowded hours" experiences I've had
Again, everybody 100% perfectly polite, food perfect
Not service related, but another instance we were eating in the parking lot and an employee was in the parking lot and either in the middle of moving or living in her car, flustered she was running late and she couldn't find her matching black work shoe, she went in in non-matching shoes in tears, and the manager came back out with her and helped her find her shoe
And dozens of other experiences, most of them "average", 100% of them pleasant, not a single one of them "bad"
In general, their sheer process efficiency while maintaining completely flawless customer service is enough to move an engineer to tears
I've since learned that to "own" a franchise you must have years of experience working there, and the barrier to entry is only $5,000, so essentially any employee can be eligible to be a owner/manager if they want to. Chick-fil-A then buys you a building, which you lease for an affordable rate, and when remodel time comes around every few years it is $0 out of pocket and the corporation foots the whole bill
They aren't vegan friendly unfortunately, I suppose chicken is kind of their thing