The Chick-fil-A Success Secrets: What Every Franchise Owner Should Know (Part 1)

Everyone in the franchise, retail, and personal service industries wants to know the secrets behind Chick-fil-A's success. In this two-part blog post, I’m going to share one of them based on a recent personal experience, but also from an insider, my daughter, who worked there while she was in high school.

Listening to her experience as a team member at this renowned franchise brand gave me a sneak peek into the company. 

Combined with my 30+ years in the franchise industry and my operator’s mindset and focus on systems, processes, and procedures, I was able to figure out what makes Chick-fil-A so successful, special, and popular.

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A Jaguar and a Secret Sauce

To reveal the first secret of Chick-fil-A's success, first, I need to share a story with you. Not long ago, I had to visit the salon to get my hair done. I knew I would be there for hours, so I decided to go to the Chick-fil-A drive-thru and grab some food before my appointment. 

I entered the drive-thru, and a guy with a tablet approached me to get my order. I placed my order, and when we finished, he said, “Wow! You have a really cool car”. I was taken aback because I didn’t expect that from him. He was probably younger than the car, and yet, he found it attractive.

By the way, I was driving my 21-year-old Jaguar. It has a classic look, with a jaguar in the front. Even though I don’t use it very often, I really love my car. And that particular day, I decided to take it for a ride. 

When this young man complimented my car, I’m not gonna lie, it felt pretty good. So, I drove to the window to get my food feeling all cheery, and then a different guy working there said, “Wow! That's a really cool car. I like it!” 

That made me even happier because I hadn’t received any comments on my car for a long time, and in just a few minutes, two men thought that my car still had “it.” There was also a personal connection with them: we all agreed we liked my car. I left the site with a big smile, feeling glad I still had my Jaguar.

While I was at the salon, getting my hair treatment and still thinking about this experience, it hit me. That was one of the secret sauces of Chick-fil-A! And I had just seen it in action! It was so smart!

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The #1 Secret of Success for Chick-fil-A

One of the very consistent and strong standards Chick-fil-A has is that any employee who faces the customers must follow “the Core Four”. These are the behaviors that they must portray all the time. 

One of them is: a personal, genuine connection. They need to observe the customer and find something to personally connect with them, whether it is talking about the weather, something they're wearing, or maybe a cute child they have. 

In my case, both of these guys, without realizing it, chose to comment on my car. It makes sense: guys usually like cars, and mine stands out from the rest, so it was easy for them to connect with me that way. 

And even though I realized they were just following the brand standards and the “Core Four,” at the same time, the connection felt genuine. If they hadn’t truly meant that, then the comment would have sounded fake, and you could tell. So, I was still pleased about it, and it made my customer experience better.

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Execution and Consistency: What Makes All the Difference

As a business or a franchise brand, what are your secret sauces? What are you asking your team members to do to set your business apart? How are you making sure that those expectations are achieved?

You need to understand that Chick-fil-A not only sets these standards and trains their people on them. They also have a system to ensure that their brand policies are carried out daily and that their employees actually follow through, like these two guys did. Otherwise, it's pointless.

• A lot of companies have all kinds of secret sauces, but they don't become a success because the execution is not there. 

This is another secret of success from Chick-fil-A: they have systems in place to ensure that these “Core Four” are being executed consistently. I know this because my daughter became one of those processes.

As Team Leader, part of her job was to be with the front-line employees, overseeing and supporting the cashiers and those handing out the food. However, her primary responsibility was to observe everyone who had contact with the customers to ensure that these “Core Four” standards were being executed every single time. 

If a team member was not following the rules, she had to address and correct them. If they failed to correct their behavior, they were given a break. If, after the break, they continued to ignore the “Core Four,” they were sent home. Upon returning, if they still did not adhere to the rules, they were ultimately asked not to work for them anymore. 

• That level of consistent and relentless execution is what makes the difference. 

You can have all these amazing standards, but if they're not executed with a high level of excellence, then they're useless.

Do you want to know what the other “Core Four” are? Don’t miss part 2 of this blog post soon!

If you want to create these systems, processes, and procedures in your organization and have your people be a differentiator in the industry and your community, I invite you to explore what we do here at the American Franchise Academy. 

We are the elite education academy in the franchise world, and we partner with franchisees to help them create systems and processes to scale their multi-unit organization with success. 

We also have a one-of-a-kind training program for District Managers overseeing multiple units, and an amazing training program for Unit Managers who manage those units and lead a team to execute the business and the brand systems every day. 

To learn more about these programs, visit AmericanFranchiseAcademy.com/Programs or register for our free information sessions below. We have one each quarter, so be sure to join us in the next one! 

Reflections:

• What are your brand differentiators?
• Do you have well-defined customer experience processes, policies, and procedures?
• Are these well documented so you can easily share them with your leaders and employees?
• What are your team members doing every day to make your business stand out from the competition?

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