Find Out How the QSRs Rank in Consumer Satisfaction Poll
Market Force Intelligence survey showed strong competition for Consumer Loyalty amongst Nandos, Frankie and Benny’s, Bella Italia and Pizza Express.
In a recent report by Market Force Intelligence, where consumers rated how well each fast-service restaurant brand delivered on the critical drivers, Prêt à Manger led on three of the eight drivers, including speed of service, food quality, and healthy food options. The same study showed that Bella Italia led on friendly service and Frankie and Benny’s on providing a great atmosphere. The mix of leaders across the various critical drivers reflects the tough competition in the space and why so many brands are tied on the composite loyalty index.
The Composite Loyalty Index clearly marks hot competition between six brands in the sandwich, chicken, Italian and pizza categories. Prêt à Manger, Bella Italia, Nando’s, Pizza Express and Frankie and Benny’s are nearly tied in ability to deliver high satisfying experiences that result in high recommendation ratings.
Brands can begin to competitively differentiate by focusing on critical drivers of satisfaction. 17 per cent of consumers indicated that their last experience in a Quick Service Restaurant (QSR)/Fast Casual restaurant was disappointing. When asked to rate satisfaction with the critical drivers, consumers had relatively high ratings for service, food quality and speed of service, but felt there were opportunities to improve on value and availability of healthy food options, providing opportunity to steal wallet share. When restaurants execute on at least five of the critical drivers, 91 percent of consumers will recommend the brand, compared to 25 percent when restaurants execute on only one of the critical drivers.
The national survey has also found that on average consumers frequent a fast-service restaurant at least twice a month.
Many restaurants in the survey have invested in guest-facing technology to place orders, whether by using a mobile, a kiosk in the store, or tabletop tablets. One in three consumers had used one of these technologies to place an order within the past 90 days. Of those, one in four preferred to place their order using technology rather than place their order with a cashier or server.
Consumers also indicated whether they used the mobile apps provided by restaurants. Awareness that a restaurant offers a mobile app is surprisingly low, with Domino’s having the highest awareness at 56 percent and Frankie & Benny’s the lowest at 6 percent. Despite the awareness chart, consumers also indicated whether they had downloaded the app and even though Frankie & Benny’s had the lowest awareness rating, a high proportion of those who actually were aware of the app downloaded and used it (90 percent) compared to only 19 percent for Pizza Hut.
For the rankings, Market Force polled more than 4,500 consumers who were asked to rate their satisfaction with their last experience at a given restaurant and their likelihood of recommending it to others. The data was averaged to rate each restaurant brand on a Composite Loyalty Index. Market Force also looked at the attributes that drive these preferences, analysing factors such as service, food quality and value, as well as the latest industry trends involving social media and mobile technology.
