Chick-Fil-A Excellence in Customer Service

Chick-Fil-A Excellence In Customer Service        

Khristy Parham

Southern Wesleyan University

MGMT 3303

Kathryn Burriss

May 6, 2014

Chick-Fil-A Excellence In Customer Service

        In 1946 two brothers, Ben and Truett Cathy, opened a diner in Atlanta Georgia called the Dwarf House Grill. The Dwarf House served a variety of typical grill food that included everything from burgers to hot dogs. All of that changed in 1961 when a poultry supplier stopped buy and sold Mr. Cathy chicken breast that were too large for the trays that they typically cooked the chicken on. Truett Cathy decided that he did not want to throw out the chicken so he breaded the chicken and put it in the pressure fryer. He realized that he could cook the chicken in the same amount of time that it took to cook a hamburger and it tasted great. He had hamburger buns and pickles in the restaurant already and this is how the first chicken sandwich was made. In 1967 the first Chick-Fil-A store was opened in Atlanta’s Greenbrier Shopping Center and in 1986 the first freestanding franchise was opened. Today there are more than one thousand seven hundred Chick-Fil-A restaurants in thirty nine states. One of the ways that Chick-Fil-A has been able to make their company a success is through their unique approach to customer service. They are able to provide excellent customer service by turning individuals into team players. Teams can be seen in the hiring process, community involvement, national sponsorship, knowing what customers want, and cooperate culture. All of these different teams lead to excellence in customer service.

Hiring Process

     According to Chick-Fil-A’s website the process to own a franchise is lengthy and rigorous. Chick-fil-A: Franchise Application Information. (n.d.) “At Chick-fil-A, we believe that our success in a community is tied directly to the caliber of the individual franchised Operator who operates the local Chick-fil-A Restaurant. Therefore, we are extremely careful about choosing Operators. We are looking for a good fit—and we know our franchisees are, too.” Chick-Fil-A receives approximately twenty thousand franchise applications request each year. Out of those they accept seventy five to eighty per year. Chick-Fil-A picks where the new locations will be and they are very picky about where they will be located and who they choose to run those locations. The process begins with questions that must be submitted with an interest form. If Chick-Fil-A feels that you meet the qualifications for a franchise owner then they will invite you complete a Chick-Fil-A operator’s application in about three weeks. If approved the franchisee will need to make a financial commitment of only five thousand dollars. At that time they will be given the rights to operate a Chick-Fil-A. According to the website operators must complete a multi-week training program before they are to begin operation. The turnover rate is 5% a year and as Schmall explained (Schmall, E. (n.d.) according to Truett Cathy, “We tell applicants, ‘If you don’t intend to be here for life, you needn’t apply. Operators are asked to disclose marital status, number of dependents and involvement in community, civic, social, church and/or professional organizations. All of this is requested because according to Cathy, If a man can’t manage his own life, he can’t manage a business.” The process for getting hired in a Chick-Fil-A location can be just as lengthy. Applicants must submit an application then come in for an interview. Applicants are expected to have the same values and beliefs as those who own a franchise. Together the franchise and employees work together to form a work team that generates positive synergy by working together in all that they do. This spills out into the community and is the basis for the excellent customer service that Chick-Fil-A provides.