Chick-Fil-A One : A crispy mobile app ordering experience

Chick-Fil-A or Popeyes or Shake Shack. The jury is still out on who serves the best chicken sandwich but I am declaring a winner on who has the best mobile app experience. And the champion is Chick-Fil-A.

Our phones are inundated with numerous apps. But you hardly come across one that enhances your experience with the product and impresses you so much that you stop for a minute and appreciate the excellent work done the team who built it. Chick-Fil-A One, the fast food restaurant chain's mobile ordering app did it for me.

Chick-Fil-A is an intriguing company. Started 75 years ago it is still a family owned business, one of the largest restaurant chains in the US, operates more than 2600 locations, generating revenue of more than $10 billion. They have the highest sale per restaurant unit easily beating giants such as McDonalds, Taco Bell and Subway. Oh and they do this while being mandatorily closed on Sundays. Quite a remarkable feat! How do they do it? The answer is a relentless focus on QUALITY. And you will know what I mean if you have been to one of their restaurants and had a delicious meal comprising of the chicken sandwich and waffle cut fries. The same focus on quality also shows in their mobile app.

I am no insider. I don't work for Chic-Fil-A and I have nothing to gain by beating their drums. But I will appreciate a product that shows excellence. Be it a sandwich or a mobile app.

What makes the mobile app delicious?

1. Clean and Intuitive design

The app lets you get to ordering with minimal amount of taps. Every information that you need to make a decision with is clearly presented in front of you. Image, price, nutrition info. Everything clearly visible for the customer.

2. Intelligent use of location data = Fresh crispy fries

Great fast food is hot, freshly made and quick. But how do you ensure all this for your guests who order pick up. Most restaurants prepare your order and leave it on the counter for you to pick up. If you are late then your fries don't go soggy. On their mobile app, you can order pick up from home but the restaurant starts preparing your order only when it detects that you are approaching the restaurant's location. So it smartly uses customer's location to make sure they get the food hot and fast.

3. Remembers user preferences

If technology can enable a business to come across as more accessible and friendly instead of mechanical and programmed then its a win. Especially in the hospitality business. It's super easy to favorite a restaurant location so you can quickly reorder from there next time. The app clearly categorizes your past orders so that you can quickly reorder them with less resistance.

4. Builds relation with your local restaurant

The app let's your local Chic-Fil-A restaurant operator to send you messages and special offers. These are not spam like and I have found them valuable. Like one time I got free delivery that I availed.

I was looking at my order history on the app and I am averaging 4 orders every month of approximately $25 each. That's $100 per month revenue to Chick-Fil-A from me. Honestly, that's too much Chick-Fil-A. But hey, I have an excuse. I was testing (tasting?) their mobile app for this blog post.

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