Burger King Says These Changes Are Helping Improve Customer Satisfaction

Burger King is making strides in improving its customer satisfaction, the chain's parent company Restaurant Brands International (RBI) reported during this week's earnings call. Thanks to a number of changes to its menu and marketing strategy, the chain has been on the up and up in the eyes of consumers, even though its sales have dropped slightly in Q1 of this year.

"I wouldn't consider it a victory lap or a big celebration other than confirmation that we're on the right track," said RBI CEO José Cil of the self-reported fact that customer satisfaction at Burger King has increased consistently for the past three quarters. "And we're putting resources and efforts behind the right things, which is all about guest experience and guest satisfaction. That's where we think we have a tremendous opportunity with BK in the U.S."

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The streamlining of Burger King's menu has been key in improving this metric, according to Cil. The burger chain has made a number of important moves on that front in the past year, including the removal of the Whopper from the discount menu, the rollout of a new 2 for $5 deal, and the retirement of several slow-selling items (including salad).

The Home of the Whopper also scored a hit with its new Whopper Melt line, which debuted in March.

"We launched with three delicious flavors and added the product to our flame grilled selection for a limited time," said Cil. "Results demonstrate that the offering had strong messaging with high quality ads [which] performed well on our digital platforms and proved to be incremental to a burger platform at a healthy price point."

The chain is turning over a new leaf in its advertising and marketing, too. It announced last week that it would be replacing its current media agency, David, with a new company, OKRP. The Chicago-based company is known for its work with Chili's, and will be helping Burger King to "modernize and reposition [the] brand."

BK's customer satisfaction win couldn't have come at a better time. In the past couple of years, the brand has suffered a number of PR setbacks, including being ranked as America's "least favorite fast-food chain" in 2020 and then losing its second-largest burger chain spot in 2021 to Wendy's.

But with the multi-year turnaround plan already showing results, Burger King is back on track with giving customers what they want.