In one category, Burger King shot up in the rankings from 2019 to 2020: customer service. The number two burger brand, under the Restaurant Brands International umbrella, rose from number nine in customer service in 2019 to third this year. It did, however, drop three rankings in accuracy, from the number one spot in 2019 to number four in 2020. The brand has been middle of the pack for both taste and speed over the past couple of years, though in 2017 and 2018, Burger King led the category in speed of service.

While most brands surveyed in this study either pick speed/convenience or quality of service to tackle as their drive-thru strategy, Burger King has not leaned one way or another.

“Burger King is consistently in the top five for all categories, and they put a fairly equal concentration of focus in all of those four categories,” Lisa van Kesteren, CEO of SeeLevel HX, said in an interview with Nation’s Restaurant News. “They’re not trying to be strong in one, they’re trying to be all things to all people. They are okay with not being the best in any single category, and they’re willing to not be number one to stay close to the top in all categories.”

Carl’s Jr. has definitely slipped in almost all categories of drive-thru performance over the past few years. Since 2018, the burger chain dropped from number four to last in the taste category, and from number five to eight in customer service. Although the brand seems to have switched its strategy from performance quality to speed, the brand dropped from the number two spot in 2019 to number four in 2020. Accuracy of order has stayed pretty consistently in the bottom third of the pack, at number eight in 2018 and number seven in 2019 and 2020.

At the beginning of the pandemic, CKE Restaurants — the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s — laid off 30% of its headquarters staff. However, despite initial struggles, the brand has been releasing new menu items, including two A1 steakhouse burgers in August.

Chick-fil-A is a perfect example of the tradeoff between quality and speed/convenience. Since 2018, the chicken brand has consistently hit the number one spot in every single category except speed, where it has come in last in 2018, 2019, and 2020.

“They deliver friendly experience every time, and have a cult following,” van Kesteren said. “Customers are willing to wait in line for much longer [for their food].”

For Chick-fil-A, their strategy of quality over anything else appears to be a worthy tradeoff for customers that might wait in line a little longer for their chicken sandwich. Throughout the pandemic when other brands were cutting menu items, the chicken brand focused on food, releasing and testing new items in the summer and fall like new coffee drinks and a “melty” version of its original chicken sandwich.

“You don’t have to be all things to all people; figure out what you’re good at and don’t compromise,” van Kesteren said. “Focus on what you’re good at. Chick-fil-A did that and so for example, the average cars in line [for all of the brands] was 3.2 cars, but Chick-fil-A it was 8.6.”

Over the past few years, Dunkin’ has been moving up steadily in the accuracy, customer service, and taste categories. In accuracy, Dunkin’ moved up from the sixth spot in 2019 to the fifth spot in 2020, and in customer service, they were bumped up from fifth in 2019 to fourth in 2020.

The taste category saw the biggest jump over the years, all the way from the number 15 spot in 2017, to number eight in 2018 and 2019, and number five in 2020. Dunkin’ has put more emphasis on their food menu over the past few years, adding new breakfast sandwiches and all-day offerings. This year, on the beverage side, Dunkin’ introduced new drinks like boba tea, shandies, sparkling tea during the pandemic to keep customers interested as many restaurant brands struggled.

As Dunkin’ climbed up the ranks in the first three categories, it slipped significantly in the speed ranking, dropping from number one in 2019 to number seven in 2020. This is the first time in four years that Dunkin’ did not rank in the top five on speed of service for the study.

Hardee’s improved in every single category this year, moving up in accuracy from the ninth spot to sixth, customer service improved from the ninth spot to fifth from 2019 to 2020, and speed moved up from fifth to third.

Taste is the only category that Hardee’s consistently struggles with, although the brand got the eighth spot this year instead of coming in last like they did in 2018 and 2019. Owen Klein, head of menu development for Hardee’s parent CKE Restaurants, did tell Nation’s Restaurant News in a recent interview that they are testing items through the drive-thru and will also drop surveys into bags of food for drive-thru customers.

KFC’s drive-thru performance has consistently fallen flat in multiple categories over the years, particularly in accuracy, where the chain ranked last (10^th) over the past three years, and in customer service, where they ranked last the past two years. In the taste category, KFC has consistently stayed in the middle of the pack, and came in at number six in 2020’s survey results.

The fried chicken chain’s strategy is to be the best at speed of service, which they succeeded at, coming in at number one in the 2020 survey. Van Kesteren was surprised that KFC passed all of their competitors with timing, since generally fried chicken takes longer to cook than many items on the Taco Bell menu, for example. She also suggested that their strategy of bundling items and limiting their menu during the pandemic may have led to speedier service in the drive-thru.

With the 2020 drive-thru survey, McDonald’s moved up the ranks in every single category. In customer service, they improved from the last spot in customer service to number six, and in taste they moved up from six to three, while speed improved from the ninth spot to number six. The biggest change was accuracy, where they took the number one spot of all 10 surveyed chains, up from fifth in 2019.

In 2018, Taco Bell was in the top five for both customer service and taste and in the bottom third for speed of service. But by the time 2020 rolled around, Taco Bell had clearly switched strategies, with customer service and taste dropping to numbers eight and nine, respectively, and speed moving up to two. Taco Bell also dropped from number six in accuracy to number eight.

In Taco Bell’s move from the fourth spot in 2019 to the ninth spot in 2020 for the taste category, van Kesteren said that she was surprised by the drop in performance since much of Taco Bell’s brand is centered on craveability. But she said that for many chains, it was probably difficult to keep their usual level of quality with layoffs and other pandemic-related challenges.

“I think that some of the drops had to do with the fact that most restaurants lost so many people and time after time we heard that their biggest challenge is bringing people bac and training them,” she said. “You hire all new people, they’re wearing masks so they can’t smile, [….] maybe they did not do as well as other brands did [in this regard].”

Wendy’s saw one of the biggest year-over-year changes in drive-thru performance, according to the 2020 survey. Accuracy dropped from the third spot in 2019 to the ninth spot this year, customer service and taste both fell from three to seven, and speed dropped from six to eight.

Although SeeLevel was not sure exactly what might have cause the significant drop in drive-thru performance for Wendy’s, Van Kesteren thinks it could have to do with Wendy’s supply chain issues in May and June, particularly with fresh beef shortages, since the brand commits to never using frozen beef.