Kfc Versus Mcdonald’s

INTRODUCTION 1. 1 Background KFC According to the information, “Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a chain of fast food restaurant based in Louisville, Kentucky, United States that selling Kentucky Fried Chicken around the world. ” It had been rated at number 60 as the world most famous brand by BusinessWeek. For KFC, fried chickens was the food they primary focus to sells. “Their basic products included chicken pieces, salads, sandwiches, desserts and some roasted and grilled chicken cuisines too. ” Besides that, the beef and pork based products also offered by KFC outside the USA.

The first idea of KFC’s fried chicken actually is in 1930 but it was only founded in 1952 by Colonel Harland Sanders, who was born on September 9, 1980 in Indiana, America and he was the man who developed the secret recipe which blends of 11 herbs and spices for making Kentucky Fried Chicken and this secret recipe still used today. Nowadays, KFC has more than 15,000 outlets in 105 countries around the world. In 1973, the first KFC restaurant in Malaysia was opened at Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kuala Lumpur. In overall, KFC currently has 445 outlets in Malaysia and it had become the largest fast food chain in Malaysia.

McDonald’s According to the information, McDonald’s is the world’s largest chain of fast food restaurant based in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1955 to today that selling hamburgers around the world and it had been rated at number 9 as the world most famous brand by BusinessWeek. “For McDonald’s, foods that primarily sells by them are hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chicken, French fries, breakfast items, soft drinks, shakes and desserts. ” But nowadays, due to the changing of customers’ tastes, the restaurant menu which are included salads, smoothies and fruits have been expanded by McDonald’s company.

The founder of McDonald’s is Ray Kroc although the first concept of McDonald’s was actually introduced by sibling Dick and Mac McDonald and they built the first McDonald’s restaurant in 1940 in San Bernardino, California. In 1954, Mr. Ray Kroc acquired franchising rights from Dick and Mac McDonald and a McDonald’s franchise was opened on 15 April, 1955 and later bought out the McDonald’s share of the McDonald brothers. The McDonald’s Corporation was then founded in 1955 and it was expanded by Ray Kroc. Nowadays, McDonald’s has more than 31,000 outlets in 109 countries around the world.

In 29 April 1982, the first McDonald’s restaurant in Malaysia was opened at Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. In overall, McDonald’s currently has 200 outlets and about 20 to 25 outlets are being expanded annually. 1. 2 Problem This report has been written to compare the customer service of fast food restaurants in Malaysia: KFC versus McDonald’s. Nowadays, increasing competitive challenges have been faced by the fast food restaurants in Malaysia such as restaurants KFC and McDonald’s. In order to satisfy the customers at a fast food restaurant, excellent customer service should be provided to customers by the management and the staff.

Because beside the food quality, the standardize customer service that provided by fast food restaurants is expected by the customers. Currently, customer service is one of the factors that determine the customer satisfaction and it will directly affect the business of their fast food restaurants. However, recently the fast food restaurants are lack of customer service. The standardization in franchising business format does not ensure the standardization of customer service within the fast food restaurants due to some outlets are not able to follow up the same standards for customer service in franchise system. . 3 Purposes The purposes of this report are firstly to investigate the customer satisfaction with the customer service that is provided by KFC versus McDonald’s and secondly, to find out why students from Tar College prefer McDonald’s than KFC. Lastly, is to find out what aspects of customer service that provided by KFC and McDonald’s affect their business. 1. 4 Methods 1. 4. 1 The Sample The sample size of 30 was randomly selected, between the age of 18 to 22 from different gender. They are all students from School of Business Studies (Banking and Finance), Tar College KL Main Campus. 1. 4. 2 Data Collection ) Survey 30 sets of questionnaires were distributed as a source of primary data at Tar College KL Main Campus. These questionnaires consisted of 8 questions which focused on the customer satisfaction with the customer service that is provided by KFC versus McDonald’s, the reasons why students from Tar College prefer McDonald’s than KFC and what aspects of customer service that provided by KFC and McDonald’s affect their business. A clean copy of the questionnaire can be found in Appendix A. b) Internet Search The source of secondary data is the information obtained from the internet research.

Information was gathered on the customer service that is provided by KFC and McDonald’s from the Internet. Various websites of KFC and McDonald’s were browsed through for this research. 1. 5 Scope This report investigates the customer service that provided by KFC and McDonald’s only. Other fast food restaurants are not included in this report. It focuses on the customer satisfaction with the customer service that was provided by KFC versus McDonald’s, the reasons why students from Tar College preferred McDonald’s than KFC and what aspects of customer service that provided by KFC and McDonald’s affect their business.

The survey questions were distributed on 28 May 2012 at Tar College and collected back after the respondents finished their survey and only had 30 Tar College KL Main Campus students of School of Business Studies (Banking and Finance) were surveyed for this report. 2. FINDINGS 2. 1 Findings from Survey / Questionnaire Pie Chart 1. 1 The chart shows the frequency of TARC students go to fast food restaurant. 30 respondents were surveyed. As shown in the pie chart 1. , there is a total of 12 respondents who were going to the fast food restaurant once every two weeks, which occupied 40% of the 30 respondents. There are also 8 respondents which equal to 27% of the 30 respondents are going to the fast food restaurant once a month. Besides this, there are 6 respondents, 20% of the 30 respondents go to fast food restaurant once a week. For the remaining 4 respondents, there are 3 respondents go to fast food restaurant less than once a month and only 1 respondent go to fast food restaurant for two or three times a week.

This pie chart shows that, most of the TARC students are going to fast food restaurant once every two weeks as it occupied 40% of the 30 respondents and the least of the TARC students are going to fast food restaurant for two or three times a week as it only occupied 3% of the 30 respondents. Pie Chart 1. 2 The chart shows the fast food restaurants that TARC students prefer to go. 30 respondents are being selected for a survey of either KFC or McDonald’s they will prefer to go. As shown in the pie chart 1. 2, there are 26 respondents which occupied a large portion of 87% among the 30 respondents are prefer to go to McDonald’s.

Whereas the remaining of 4 respondents which only occupied a small portion of 13% among the 30 respondents is prefer to go to KFC. There are large portions of TARC students prefer to go to McDonald’s rather than KFC. These may be affected by the customer services, prices and the set menu provided by the McDonald’s are better than KFC. Bar Chart 1. 1 The chart shows the customer satisfaction with the customer service that is provided by KFC versus McDonald’s. 30 respondents were surveyed. As shown in the bar chart 1. 1, there is a total of 17 respondents who satisfied with the customer service that is provided by KFC.

Whereas there is a total of 13 respondents who are not satisfed with the customer that is provided by KFC. On the other hand, there is a total of 26 respondents who are satisfied with customer service that is provided by McDonald’s and the other 4 respondents are not satisfied with customer service that is provided by McDonald’s. This bar chart shows that, customer service provided by McDonald’s are more satisfied by the respondents. KFCMcDonald’s Poor AverageGoodPoorAverageGood My food order was correct and complete1161311316 Waiting time after ordering food12631209 Staff are patient when taking orders32431254

Communication skills421511910 Telephone services skills72032226 Staff are friendly and polite520531710 Sauces.. untenils.. 714931710 Table 1. 1 Bar Chart 1. 2 Bar Chart 1. 3 Bar chart 1. 2 and 1. 3 shows that, for KFC and McDonald’s, we focus on seven interesting customer services which were responded well from our 30 respondents in TAR College through the questionnaire survey which included whether the food was correct and complete, waiting time after ordering food, staffs are patient when taking food, communication skills, telephone service skills, staff are friendly and polite, and availability of sauces, tissues, and utensils.

According to the survey, the questions were focused on the customer services for both KFC and McDonald’s. From the respondents view, we found that the consumers are more satisfied with the ordering service in McDonald’s compared to KFC. Ordering service is important to maintain the business because if the food order was wrong and incomplete, this may cause consumer resentful with the service that provide by the fast food restaurant.

Next, the waiting time after service play an important role in the fast food restaurant and this is the reason why consumers like to have their meal in fast food restaurant because usually most of them are students or workers who are in the hurry so they need to get their meal in the shortest time. Based on the respondent view, the waiting time after ordering food in McDonald’s is faster and shorter than KFC, this show that respondents are more preferred to have their meal in McDonald’s.

Moreover, the attitude of the staff when taking order from the consumer will affect the reputation of the restaurant. Due to the survey, staff from McDonald’s are more patient when taking order than staff from KFC. In addition, Malaysia was a multi-racial country, so the communication skills are important when communicate with their customer. The respondents from survey feel that communication skills of McDonald’s are better than KFC since the McDonald’s can speaks in multiple languages. Nowadays, apart from drive hrough and having meal in restaurant, most of the fast food restaurants are provided telephone service for consumer to ordering food. For the staff who responsible to the telephone service, they need to answering the phone with the polite attitude and the speed of the staff speaking was important to ensure that the customer can listen clearly and understand. According the result of survey, respondents are more likely to use the telephone service of McDonald’s compared to KFC. Furthermore, friendly and polite staffs are according to the staffs who work in a fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s and KFC.

This refers to their respond on how to serve their customer, a staff should be able to respond well such as the way they welcome their customers, taking order and answer customer question. When a staff from a particular fast food restaurant such as McDonald’s and KFC performs nicely and in a courteous behavior, this leads to frequent visit of the customers to the particular fast food restaurant. As a result from survey, we found that respondents are more preffered to McDonald’s customer service compared to KFC.

Lastly, the avaibility of sauces, tissue and utensils also act an important role in a fast food restaurants because some of the customer would like to have some sauces to favor their food and they may need some tissue after taking meal. Refer to the survey, most of the respondents are more satisfied with the facilities of the McDonald’s compared to KFC. In short, the customer services of the McDonalds are more prefered by customers if compared to KFC. Bar Chart 1. 4 The chart shows the methods that are suitable for KFC and McDonald’s to improve their customer services. 0 respondents were based on their opinion and preferences to respond how to improve the customer services for KFC and McDonald’s. Based on the survey, 17 out of 30 respondents had been choose to train the staff to be polite always for KFC and 8 respondents for McDonald’s. On the other hand, 15 of respondents had responded to train their staff to use language to promote a good customer services and 16 respondents had choose it for McDonald’s. 9 respondents had responded to train their staff to deal with customers complaints for KFC and 8 respondents for McDonald’s.

There are 20 respondents had choose to increase the speed of services for both KFC and McDonald’s. 8 respondents responded that communicate more with customer are suitable in to improve customer services for KFC and 9 respondents for McDonalds. KFC and McDonald’s both have 11 respondents respond on upgrade the staff appearance and image. Upgrade of delivery services for KFC have 12 respondents and for McDonald’s have 13 respondents. 8 respondents had responded that KFC need to upgrade their telephone services and 15 respondents responded that McDonald’s need to do so to improve their customer services.

It is highly likely most of the respondents responded that the KFC and McDonald’s need to increase the speed of services because it was probably due to the staff served the staff slowly and the waiting time is long. For KFC, there are very least respondents unsatisfied with the telephone services skills and for McDonald’s there are only 8 respondents unsatisfied with the staff manners and attitude. As a conclusion, KFC and McDonald’s and should focus more on the speed of their services and the staff appearance and image so that it can help to improve their services. . 2 Findings from the internet From our secondary research, we found that the customer service provided by McDonald’s is better than KFC. Due to the good customer service provided by McDonald’s, many customers prefer McDonald’s to KFC. For KFC, we found that there is a declining service standards. A lots of complaint about KFC. Our research shows that, many customers end up with disappointed with the customer service provided by KFC after they visit it. Many customers complainted that the staff are impatient when taking their orders and poor manners.

One of the examples is “on 6 February, 2012 an serious incident was happened at KFC i-city, Shah Alam Malaysia. The KFC’s staff was fighting and hitting their customer. ” Customers are paid to eat at KFC, no one deserve to be treated like that. Besides that, the food that customers orders was not correct. For example, “a customer ordered a bucket meal: 5 grilled and 5 original but when he opened the bucket, his half-grilled half-original recipe order was replaced by an all-grilled bucket. ” These all indicated the bad customer service from KFC so customers less prefers go to KFC than McDonald’s.

In contrast, McDonald’s less likely to have these kinds of problems. McDonald’s always provide good service based on standardization in franchising business format to their customers. So customers will prefers go to McDonald’s than KFC. 3. CONCLUSION In conclusion, most of the respondents are prefer McDonald’s instead of KFC. As mentioned above, the reasons that respondents prefer McDonald’s from a brief view are the customer services provided such as staff attitude, communication skills, telephone service skills, availability of utensils is better than KFC as McDonald’s is compare with KFC.

Based on our research, it is shown that both McDonald’s and KFC have their own customer services such as Drive-Thru services, delivery services, telephone services, staff attitude and others which can attracting customers. Both fast food restaurants are always maintained and improve their quality and services provided which can make sure their services are preferred and satisfied by everyone. This can maintain their old customers and also attracted some new customers. Most of the TARC students are prefer to go McDonald’s by referring the questionnaires.

According to our research, KFC should improve their customer services until they can achieve the similar popularity level just like McDonald’s, so that they could be the preferable fast food restaurant. Furthermore, customers can always give some opinion, suggestions or comments on their homepage or through the comment box to make sure that both McDonald’s and KFC understand the needs of the customers. Both McDonald’s and KFC also can improve their quality of products and customer services so that customers can satisfy with the services provided. 4. RECOMMENDATIONS

According to the conclusion, we are recommend that the customer services for both fast food restaurants, McDonald’s and KFC which were not satisfied by customers should be improved to achieve a higher level or more preferable and satisfied by customers. For McDonald’s, we are recommend that the communication skill of the staff should improve by training their staff to use language that promotes good customer services based on the respondents view. The McDonald’s staff should not talk too fast or too slow to the customers so that the customers can hear clearly what they talking about.

Moreover, McDonald’s should communicate more with their customers such as distribute a survey and request a feedback. Through this method, McDonald’s can know the needs and the satisfaction of their customers about their products and services so that they can improve their products and services. Furthermore, McDonald’s can upgrade their delivery services such as delivery within 15minutes and maintain the food freshness. The delivery staff must drive carefully to avoid accident so that the customers can trust on them.

Lastly, McDonald’s also can upgrade their telephone service skills. When the customers call for the delivery, the staff must explain clearly to the customers about their menu and double confirm with the menu order by the customers. McDonald’s also can provide more type of language for the customers so that they can choose the language they know. Besides that, for KFC, the respondents have gives some opinions and comments which the KFC’s staff needs to increase the speed of services to ensure that the customers no need to wait and queue for a long time to get the food.

The KFC’s staff also needs to be polite when serving their customers. The KFC can conduct a programme which the main objective is to train their staff to be polite when serving customers to avoid their staff argue with the customers. This can decrease the complaints from the customers. When they receive complaint from customers, they need to know how to deal with the customers promptly. So, KFC may give the empowerment to their staff and give training to their staff how to make decision when dealing the complaint from customers.

Lastly, KFC need to upgrade their staff’s appearance and image. For example, KFC can set up guidelines for their staff how to improve their image and appearance. If the staff looks tidy and clean, customers will be more confident to buy their products. On the other hand, the customers will never buy their products if their staff looks messy and dirty. Therefore, we suggest that the recommendations mentioned above might be encouraged more customers to buy their products and be more satisfy when buying their products as well as both McDonald’s and KFC improved their customer services.