Building Customer Loyalty

Chick-fil-A is an example of an excellent company with an “okay” product. Its stores sell chicken sandwiches . . . where can you not get a chicken sandwich? Yet, they attract a customer type that keeps coming back to them.

I mentioned that one of the interesting aspects of Chick-fil-A is its restriction on the number of stores that franchisees may own. They are required to spend time in the store and with their customers! Walk into a Chick-fil-A, and you will probably bump into the owner of the restaurant. Have you ever gone into one of the big-name fast-food restaurants and met the owner of the franchise? You probably haven’t, since they tend to own lots of them and let others run the stores.

I was also made aware of a franchise owners’ meeting recently at which nothing was discussed other than customer service. Nothing. The owners were instructed to come up with anything they could think of to improve customer service, regardless of how small it might seem. They then were instructed to agree on the “best” of those suggestions and implement them in their stores.

I learned that Chick-fil-A began a tradition of offering the first 100 customers who showed up at the grand opening of a new store a free combo meal each week for a year. I watched as a new store opened in Memphis, and literally dozens of people camped out overnight to claim this prize. I further learned that this happens in every city where Chick-fil-A opens and that one of the campers is usually Dan Cathy, Truett’s son and the company president. “I might as well be out there with them,” he says.