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Comment by deltarholamda | Hacker News Reader

Well, yes, but... take away from this something less grim. It's something a friend who was in marketing used to say to me all of the time: "good customer service is the best marketing, and it's often very nearly free."

Chick-fil-a figured this out years ago. Their employees are required to be nice and kind, and they can get fired for having a crappy attitude. This sounds awful, Stepford-wifeish, but in reality it improves the working environment for the employees and for the customers, and it costs practically nothing. The stores aren't wildly successful simply because their (let's be honest) sorta bland chicken sandwiches are indescribably delicious. The last interaction you have with the store is a pleasant one, and that's why you're happy to go back.

(Raising Cane's does this as well, and their chicken is better.)

Sending out thank-you notes is relatively cheap, and it has an impact.

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> (Raising Cane's does this as well, and their chicken is better.)

Hard disagree.

I've never had chicken that is rubbery/contains a tendon from CFA, it's basically guaranteed to happen every time I try Cane's, to the point where I've basically stopped eating there.

It's a sign to me that they only go "skin deep" on quality, because it's not "inedible" but while you're eating the last thing I want is a bite of it to be rubbery and fall apart in my hand because of it.

Sending out a “hand” written thank you letter long after a transaction is completed and real time customer service at the time of transaction are not comparable actions of customer service.

My dad has been ordering green tea from a particular seller for maybe 10 years now, in part because they include a lovely little handwritten note for each order. It is absolutely comparable.

Customer service at the time of sale are things like promptly taking my order, being sufficiently staffed to minimize and address possible issues, and just having a quick, consistent, friendly experience.

If seller A is offering the above but no handwritten note, and seller B is not offering the above at the level of seller A, but is offering a handwritten note, I will chose seller A every time.

This thread makes me think I should possibly assign negative value for a hand written note.

Sounds like What-Cha. Can absolutely recommend him.

It's yuu.choose[1]

[1] https://www.ebay.com/usr/yuu.choose

Well, it certainly depends. I'm not expecting McDonald's to send me a thank-you note. I was talking in generalities, not specifics.

I frequent a local store that sells boutique art supplies. Natural paints and that sort of thing. They are very customer-focused, and while hand-written thank-yous aren't something they do, if they started doing them I wouldn't be surprised. They know and appreciate their customers, and were particularly good during COVID, as the owners had health issues that made them concerned. They survived, partially due to their customer service, which included direct messaging as required to make sure people were able to shop and get their purchases easily and safely.

I don't have much evidence to support this claim, but as best I can tell Chick-fil-a has far superior food quality than Raising Cane's. Chick-fil-a holds their ingredients & preparation to the same high standard as they do their customer service, whereas Raising Cane's is much more hit-or-miss, a lot more like the McDonalds or Burger Kings out there.

One thing you can look at is the nutrition label. Total calorie counts aren't so useful IMO, but Raising Cane's reports that their foods have unhealthy trans fats, while Chick-fil-a reports 0 trans fats.

Raising Cane's makes me sick whenever I get it, whereas Chick-fil-a is extremely well digested for me.

Do you eat a lot of junk food generally in your diet? That could be one reason why maybe your gut bacteria are craving the worse quality food & causing you to not enjoy CFA as much.

>Do you eat a lot of junk food generally in your diet?

No. Though I will admit that I've had access to Chick-fil-a since the 80s, so it's kind of blase to me now. Newness has a quality of its own, I guess.

>I don't have much evidence to support this claim

No, but you're going to make the claim anyways, aren't you?

>but as best I can tell Chick-fil-a has far superior food quality than Raising Cane's. Chick-fil-a holds their ingredients & preparation to the same high standard as they do their customer service, whereas Raising Cane's is much more hit-or-miss, a lot more like the McDonalds or Burger Kings out there.

Ah, yep. I can tell you've had some bad experiences with Raising Cane's.

>Raising Cane's makes me sick whenever I get it, whereas Chick-fil-a is extremely well digested for me.

Both of them make me sick! I can't digest either.

>Do you eat a lot of junk food generally in your diet? That could be one reason why maybe your gut bacteria are craving the worse quality food & causing you to not enjoy CFA as much.

I think I have to ask you the same question! Do you eat a lot of low quality fast food? That could be one reason your gut bacteria are craving food from a fast food joint instead of something that isn't deep fried and covered in Polynesian sauce.

Why so hostile? We're just talking about fast food man, lol.

> Do you eat a lot of low quality fast food? That could be one reason your gut bacteria are craving food from a fast food joint instead of something that isn't deep fried and covered in Polynesian sauce.

No, I don't, which is why I don't crave fast food. I get Chick-fil-a once or twice a month for fun.

To me, fast food is fast food.

Your comment about your preferred deep fried bird eatery being better than another commenter's preferred deep fried bird eatery just came off as bizarre.

My poison is better than your poison.

Yup until recently, they had no real competition in the fast food chicken sandwich game. Popeyes and McDonalds have caught up some amount, but not fully. They also don’t have waffle fries. In college, the line for the Chic Fil A was impossibly long every single day because the food was great. It also somehow doesn’t give you as much of the bad feeling you usually get after eating fast food.

The midtown locations in New York are also incredibly efficient. They take orders on iPads in the line and the order is done by the time you get to the front.

> good customer service is the best marketing, and it's often very nearly free

Free may apply less to CFA. One thing they don't get enough credit for is that they a decent amount more than their competitors who pay barely above minimum wage. It's clearly an investment that's payed off, but there is definitely a cost to it.

And Popeyes would be my go-to for chicken if it weren't so far away.

> Chick-fil-a figured this out years ago.

They have fairly good customer service, not sure if it's better then McDonald though... but their food though, it isn't good.

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