Study: Chick-Fil-A drive-thru has longer wait time than other fast food businesses

[Orange cream shake]

Study: Chick-fil-A drive-thru has longer wait time than other fast food businesses

Chick-fil-A's drive-thru service is among the slowest in a new survey — here's how 10 major chains rank

by Hayley Peterson

Thursday, October 3rd 2019

If you love eating at Chick-fil-A, you may be accustomed to waiting a while for your meal.

A new study by QSR Magazine, a publication dedicated to the fast food industry, shows Chick-fil-A has the slowest drive-thru service speed.

Customers spend an average of 322.98 seconds (5.4 minutes) in the Chick-fil-A drive-thru.

Dunkin’ has the highest speed, with an average wait time of 216.75 seconds (3.6 minutes). The company’s simpler breakfast, coffee and treats menu makes it easier to keep the seconds from climbing too high, QSR Magazine reports.

"At several of our Dunkin' NextGen locations, we feature an On-the-Go drive-thru lane, which allows guests who order ahead through the Dunkin' mobile app to bypass the regular drive-thru lane to pick up their orders and get on their way even faster than before," Scott Murphy, COO for Dunkin' U.S., told QSR.

To help improve its wait time, Chick-fil-A has team members outdoors at several locations, using tablets to take orders and payment however that still doesn't make things better as it comes across pretty sloppy.

"We are embracing technology to both provide a better experience for guests and to help take tasks off restaurant team members so they can devote more time to hospitality for our customers," Khalilah Cooper, director of service and hospitality for Chick-fil-A, told QSR.

Despite the fast food industry’s effort to improve drive-thru wait times, the seconds keep climbing.

Fast food customers spent an average of 255 seconds (4.3 minutes) from speaker to order window in 2019, about 20 seconds longer than 2018.

Top Speed of service:

1. 
   
   
   • Dunkin’
   • Wendy’s
   • Burger king
   • Taco Bell
   • Carl’s Jr.
   • KFC
   • Arby’s
   • Hardee’s
   • McDonald’s
   • Chick-fil-A

Talk about socalled quick service

.

Nobody goes to Dunkin, I went there for coffee and was the only person in line. I bet top 5 has less customers than the bottom 2.

 

[Estarossa]

Wendy’s

 

[AggiePride336.]

I’m ok with it. Still the GOAT

Checkers has a long ass wait time, no matter how many ppl are in the line

 

[Pazzy]

fukk chic-fil-a. homophobic pieces of shyt

 

[daemonova]

They keep the line moving, but with heavy volume you can only do so much

If McDonalds had that much traffic them hoodrats would have you waiting 90 minutes for your food

Them hoes still be bad though, I would with A chick 16 years ago at a church's whose tatas would have put sorority girls to shame without the enhancements

But as much as people keep denying McDonald's, they still in the top 3, somebody eating there

 

[Jermaine Colington]

Unfortunately, based off statistics... it's true bruh, still doesn't take anything away tho.

That’s the thing about statistics, you can get them to say whatever you want. My question would be, did they figure out all of the relevant variables and then control those variables across each test.

Is service slower or is the wait time longer? Those two things aren’t actually the same.

If there are 15 cars in line at each place during lunch, which restaurant will get through them first? That’s a better question. The test needs to be specific to have merit.

 

[daemonova]

Most of the ones around here now have TWO lanes to order so I don’t know if that made it better or worse

Two lanes, one drive thru, ppl be about to get into an accident, my mom got into an accident at a McDonald's a little while ago

 

[Booker T Garvey]

Sometimes you come across "studies" that are complete bullshyt and this is one of them

 

[Hater Eraser]

No shyt .. . That line been hella long since forever


@Burger King

 

[Jermaine Colington]

Still that's not acceptable even if the food is good...no drive-thru should have 40 cars reaching down the block on average, even with workers outside that's kinda sloppy because who's gonna take care of the sit in customers, if you're too busy taking care of outside.

How is that not acceptable?

There’s a point where a longer wait time is unavoidable. You can’t expect humans to perform beyond human limitations just because you don’t “feel” like you shouldn’t have to wait 5 minutes. Not to mention you can often expect to wait the same amount of time with less cars in front of you at other restaurants.

It’s the same reason popular upscale restaurants often have wait times over an hour. It’s the reality of having quality food and service and customers wanting to experience it.

Note: Just realized I quoted the same person twice. Didn’t notice that at first, but whatever

 

[Antwon Mitchell]

How is that not acceptable?

Having 40+ cars reaching down the block is unacceptable, maybe Chick-fil-A's should hire more workers plus make an extra (or two) drive-thru to make things easier and less sloppy.

You can't compare restaurants against fast food because the quality of food is completely different so it's understandable, fast food is supposed to be fast. If each customer is waiting 5+mins for their food that makes the other customers wait time even longer.

 

[Antwon Mitchell]

Nobody goes to Dunkin, I went there for coffee and was the only person in line. I bet top 5 has less customers than the bottom 2.

Four of the top 5 are big named fast food businesses, no way they have little to no customers on average...

 

[Just like bruddas]

fukk a drive through, I go inside and chill until my food comes through by this big booty chocolate diva

 

[BrehWyatt]

Chickfila wait time 5 minutes because they got 40 car in front of you. What do they want from these people ?

This. Closest CFA to me has double drive-thru lane and around this time (or any other, frankly, i.e. peak breakfast, evening rush hour, etc), those lines are WRAPPED around the building.

I personally don't really fukk with drive-thrus in general unless I'm with somebody who isn't trying to go in. I'd much rather park, go inside and get my shyt to go. And at CFA, there have been NUMEROUS occasions where they've handed me my order BEFORE the debit machine says I can remove my card.

 

[Jermaine Colington]

Having 40+ cars reaching down the block is unacceptable, maybe Chick-fil-A's should hire more workers plus make an extra (or two) drive-thru to make things easier and less sloppy.

You can't compare restaurants against fast food because the quality of food is completely different so it's understandable, fast food is supposed to be fast. If each customer is waiting 5+mins for their food that makes the other customers wait time even longer.

I’m comparing the concept, which is applicable across the service industry. Fast Food and Formal Dining are just close cousins I used to make it more easily understood.

Once again, there will always be a point where it that is unavoidable. Adding more workers doesn’t always equal productivity. In fact, there is a point where it decreases productivity.

This is why they have people outside taking orders and delivering food to the cars. So even if there are 40 cars, the customer still doesn’t have to wait too long. The fact that there are 40 cars is irrelevant if the time it takes to move a single customer through the line is relatively short. And that is the reason you would even see 40 cars in line in the first place... because customers realize the wait will still be relatively short. The only time you’ll see lines that long at other restaurants is when it’s the only option. And that’s because that wait would be 10+ minutes at most other fast food restaurants.

And I don’t think it’s sloppy at all. That’s yours and article writer’s opinion. I’ve never once got an incorrect order or even called the wrong name when going through their drive thru. Not once. Seems like they’ve got it figured out to me