American Customer Satisfaction Survey
Winners
• Chick-fil-A (86 on a 100-point scale), Chipotle Mexican Grill (83) and Panera Bread (80) entered the ratings for the first time and captured the top three rankings for limited-service restaurants.
• Dunkin’ Donuts is the only fast-food chain to increase its customer satisfaction in 2015, climbing 4 percent to 78.
Losers
• National pizza chains Papa John’s (78), Pizza Hut (78), Domino’s (75) and Little Caesars (74) saw their customer service scores drop from last year.
• Burger chains Wendy’s (73), Burger King (72) and McDonald’s (67) all saw their scores drop from the previous year, and all lag the industry average of 77.
Source: American Customer Satisfaction Index 2015, www.thescsi.org.
Restaurant chains that ranked high in the 2015 American Customer Satisfaction Index are actively expanding throughout the Dayton-Springfield region, as diners buoyed by a recovering economy shift their focus toward quality over price in choosing where they eat.
The ACSI report, available at www.theacsi.org, is based on 5,023 customer surveys taken in January and February 2015. The report showed that customer satisfaction at fast-food and fast-casual restaurants dropped 3.8 percent to 77 on ACSI’s 100-point scale, the lowest score in five years, while full-service restaurants held steady at 82.
The gap between fast-food and full-service restaurants is the largest since 2010, ACSI officials said.
The survey’s winners included Chick-fil-A, which scored 86, Chipotle Mexican Grill (83) and Panera Bread (80). Those three entered the ratings for the first time and captured the top three rankings for limited-service restaurants. Dunkin’ Donuts was the only fast-food chain to increase its customer satisfaction in 2015, climbing 4 percent to 78.
National pizza chains Papa John’s (78), Pizza Hut (78), Domino’s (75) and Little Caesars (74) saw their customer service scores drop. In recent years, pizza chains have increasingly competed on price, sometimes at the expense of quality ingredients, and that is beginning to have a negative impact on customer satisfaction, ACSI officials said in a news release.
Prominent fast-food burger chains Wendy’s (73), Burger King (72) and McDonald’s (67) also all saw their scores drop from the previous year, and all lag the industry average of 77.
Chick-fil-A operates six Dayton-area restaurants and has submitted plans to build a restaurant in the Cornerstone of Centerville development on Wilmington Pike and Feedwire Road near I-675. Spokeswoman Brenda Morrow said in an email this week that the Cornerstone location is projected to open in late November or December.
Another Chick-fil-A is on the drawing board in Troy, where Jim Dando, the city’s development director, said the chain is moving ahead with plans to build a new restaurant in an outlot in front of the Troy Meijer store at West Main Street (Ohio 41) and Stanfield Road.
Morrow said she could not confirm those plans, although she said the Dayton-area market “represents a tremendous opportunity … Dayton has been on our radar for several years following the strong success of other Ohio markets.”
As for the chain’s strong ACSI ratings — the 86 score is the highest level of customer satisfaction recorded by a fast-food restaurant in the ACSI survey — Morrow said Chick-fil-A is “grateful and humbled that we were selected by our customers for this honor.”
Panera Bread’s Dayton-area franchisee is overseeing construction of two new locations, both in northern Montgomery County: in front of the Meijer store at Ohio 48 and I-70 in Englewood, and on Ohio 202 in Huber Heights. Both locations will open late this year or early next year, according to Jessica Cavaliere, spokeswoman for the area Panera franchise owner.
Warren, Ohio-based Covelli Enterprises, the largest franchisee of Panera Bread restaurants with locations in five states and Canada, announced last fall that it has purchased 11 Dayton- and Springfield-area Panera locations. Covelli plans to continue the expansion in the Dayton and Springfield markets in 2016, but has not selected sites for new locations, Cavaliere said.
Dunkin’ Donuts, which is in the midst of a resurgence in the region, was the only fast food chain to improve customer satisfaction in 2015, according to the ACSI report. The company climbed to a score of 78, jumping ahead of Starbucks (74).
Pat Gilligan, owner of the Dunkin’ Donuts franchise rights in the Dayton and Cincinnati areas, has opened two locations, one in Kettering and one in Centerville, in the past 16 months, and is putting the finishing touches on a new shop at 1931 S. Limestone St. in Springfield, scheduled to open “in a few weeks,” Gilligan said this week.
A fourth new shop, on Wilmington Pike near Ohio 725 in Sugarcreek Twp., is under construction and may open by the end of August, Gilligan said.
More Dunkin’ Donuts locations are planned, but their locations have yet to be finalized, Gilligan said.
In the full-service category, three newcomers to the survey led the list: Texas Roadhouse (83), LongHorn Steakhouse (81) and Cracker Barrel (80).
Texas Roadhouse operates restaurants in Fairborn and Huber Heights. LongHorn last year opened a 240-seat, 5,400-square-foot restaurant in Vandalia, just south of the existing restaurant row on Miller Lane, and also operates restaurants in Moraine and Beavercreek.
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