According to a new national poll from Roy Morgan Research, Australia’s takeaway satisfaction levels vary considerably depending on the franchise. One chain in-particular was consistently rated far ahead of the pack. Can you guess which one?
McDonald’s picture from Shutterstock
The latest data from Roy Morgan Single Source indicates that Subway is Australia’s favourite fast food restaurant when it comes to overall satisfaction levels; a place it has held for the past five years.
In the year ending March 2013, 86 percent of Subway customers aged 14 and over were either ‘Very Satisfied’ or ‘Fairly Satisfied’ with their most recent purchase.
This was a significantly better result than the second-placed Hungry Jack’s, which only managed a satisfaction rating of 72 percent.
McDonald’s and KFC fared even worse, with an average of just 67 percent and 66 percent, respectively. Despite placing third, Red Rooster experienced the biggest drop, with satisfaction levels falling from 74 percent to 70 percent during the past year.
Check out the below chart to see how each franchise’s rating has shifted over the past five years:
“While fast-food restaurants are working hard to provide alternatives to consumers with healthier options on their menus, along with transparency in kilojoules per meal, it appears to be having little impact on their customers’ overall satisfaction,” Warren Reid, group account manager for Roy Morgan Research said.
“The gap between Subway and its main competitors is significant, and has remained unchanged over the last five years. This indicates that Subway’s point of difference is still giving them a powerful edge over their competitors.”
We’re not sure why no pizza restaurants featured in the survey. Likewise, it would have been interesting to see where smaller competitors would have placed. (Oporto’s and Nando’s have both enjoyed boosts in popularity in recent years, for example.)
Just for fun, we decided to tally up the average scores of each franchise from our Takeaway Truth series, which compares the appearance of fast food to the advertised images used to sell them. In this context, Red Rooster was the clear winner with a score of 7/10. Subway scored 4.6/10, KFC scored 4.6/10, McDonald’s scored 3.8/10 and Hungry Jack’s scored a pitiful 2/10.
Which fast food restaurant do you find to be the most consistent and satisfying? Let us know in the comments section below.
Comments
14 responses to “Which Fast Food Chain Does Australia Find The Most Delicious?”
I’m quite surprised by this. I find Subway to be quite crap to be honest. The bread somehow usually tastes stale despite being “cooked” in-store that day, and the ingredients aren’t all that good either. I’m almost always disappointed with how it tastes compared to a regular sandwich shop..
Red Rooster surprises me too. I’ll take a regular chicken shop over RR any day. I’d place both Maccas & Hungry Jacks above KFC.
I am also surprised.
Subway is ok, but it’s a lower quality sandwich than I can make at home.
I wonder if there’s a big part of expectation that comes into someones satisfaction.
I know what to expect from subway and it generally always is just that. Also the fact you dictate what goes into it, also means any displeasure you have can be shifted to your choices, not the fast food outlet.
KFC to me is the most dissatisfying. Unless it’s their chips. Everything else is never as good as I hope it to be.
Red Rooster I have never enjoyed and so haven’t had it for 10 + years.
I think Hungry Jacks hits the mark more than Maccas for satisfaction and getting what I want. I’m more likely pleased with what I get from there. I think with Maccas though, I am more likely to try a few other things on their menu and I am often always disapointed and it’s not as good as I hoped if I get an Angus instead of a Chicken.
The question wasn’t which of these do you prefer over something at home or a normal store or lunchbar. Compared to McDs, HJs, RR and KFC Subway rated higher… but when the bar is pretty low to begin with, it doesn’t really mean that the victor is that fantastic. Much like Aussie politics.
subways are franchises so it depends heavily on which location you go to. much like the major supermarkets the bread dough comes in frozen and is then baked in their ovens so not entirely fresh.
Exactly. I have had Subway that was great, but in one store the manager took over from the sub-maker and started removing fillings. Not the expensive ones (ie meat), but all the cheaper salad stuff. I wrote to Subway head office saying this was pretty poor and got a boilerplate “we’re sorry you didn’t enjoy it” brush off. I never buy from that store any more, I’d rather go hungry.
Interesting – I wonder how Lord of the Fries would have faired in this survey.
Nando’s, Grill’d … several superior fast-food restaurants would rate higher in my guesstimation.
A lot more expensive too.
Yet Maccas out sells all the above combined! 🙂
‘were you satisfied’ and ‘which fast food chain do you find the most delicious’ are not the same question.
An interesting article overall though.
I was just thinking that. In terms of pure deliciousness, I’d take a Whopper Jr over a 6-inch Subway Club any day of the week.
I give all of them a miss, except McDonald’s for breakfast, give me a sausage and egg muffin, a hash brown and drink and I’m a happy camper. Haven’t been to HJ’s for years, tried KFC again about a month ago, decided that should do me for another 2 years before I visit again, don’t have Red Rooter here in Tassie (never liked it much when I lived in Cairns) and Subway is over priced rubbish, the bread is full of sugar and salt, the meatballs are plastic, yuck!
i think it might have something to do with Australian being accustomed to the taste of MacDonalds… i bet it tastes great it you have it once a month as a treat. i would personally go for a GYG burrito
but seriously 6 inch sub VS a whopper …. nnaahhh
I do like subway, but it’s pretty ridiculously priced. $10 for a sandwich is crazy, especially considering it’s hardly ‘fresh’ like they would market it.. Except their bread.