2004 Consumers' Choice in Chains
Consumers rate the chains with a critical eye and high standards
By The Editors -- Restaurants & Institutions, 9/1/2004
2004 Consumers’ Choice in Chains
Consumers rate the chains with a critical eye and high standards.
Elections are held daily in the world of chain restaurants as diners select from an increasing number of choices for breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack. Favorites often are revisited and new options occasionally are given the opportunity to impress.
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As the results of R&I’s 2004 Consumers’ Choice in Chains survey show, guest loyalty is a hard-won prize. Restaurants are evaluated as a sum of attributes, each of which is scrutinized. The food may win raves and the price/value equation may be favorable, but inadequate service still will be noticed and deficiencies in cleanliness noted.
No chain received a perfect score, of course. But the 13 category winners are those that pay attention to every facet of the dining experience and work hard to understand and satisfy their customers’ desires.
Three chains—Chipotle, Jamba Juice and Sweet Tomatoes—are first-time winners. The 10 others know what it takes to repeat as consumer favorites. It is worth noting that Red Lobster has earned top marks for 16 consecutive years and Cracker Barrel Old Country Store for 14. Both Olive Garden and Chick-fil-A have 10 wins each (although not in consecutive years).
About the Survey
Consumers’ Choice in Chains is conducted annually for Restaurants & Institutions by Reed Research Group.
The Consumers’ Choice in Chains sample is a representative sample of consumers weighted to match the population by gender, household income, race, region, and age. In all, 2,625 consumers provided data about their awareness and patronage of 200 of the largest chains in America. Chains were selected for inclusion in the study based on rakings in R&I’s Top 400 Chains list. The margin of error for this data is +/- 2%.
To gauge guest loyalty, respondents who have patronized a chain in the past year are asked whether they would go back. In addition, guest satisfaction is measured via customers’ ratings of each chain for eight attributes. To derive the overall score, performances on the attributes are weighted according to the chain’s segment. This is done using ratings that consumers provide to indicate how important each attribute is in selecting a restaurant at which to dine in a given segment. The weighted overall score may therefore be used to compare chain performance across segments.
In order for a chain to be considered for Consumers’ Choice in Chains awards (and for R&I to report loyalty data and attribute scores in this report), at least 100 respondents must have patronized the chain during the past 12 months (prior to sample weighting). As a result, scores for 77 chains that were included in the survey but that fell below the 100-patron threshold are not included in this report.
The methodology for Consumers’ Choice in Chains is designed to create data for competitive benchmarking, demographic analysis, and strategic planning.
Click here to purchase the full report or segment reports. Custom analysis services also are available. Contact Peter Cholewinski, R&I research director, at 630.288.8202.
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