KFC is no chicken when it comes to transforming its customer experience
It has always been the only quick service restaurant brand whose best-known marketing slogan managed to sum up its customer experience.
While McDonald’s fans might enthuse about how they’re “lovin’ it,” and Red Lobster attracted everyone’s inner seafood lover, those coming to Kentucky Fried Chicken know they can expect food that is“finger lickin’ good.”
In an age where many of us are still regularly rubbing our hands with Purell, however, getting them covered with KFC’s eleven herbs and spices seems less appealing.
I’m not the only one who has described eating KFC as a guilty pleasure, and I can’t imagine a single person who has ever walked into one of its locations and thought, “What a lovely place to hang out!”
This week the brand has acknowledged it needs to evolve, and is doing so on all fronts. Its strategy includes some fundamental changes in how you’ll eat its chicken, what else you might choose and where you’ll enjoy it.
Would you like tenders with that?
For example, the traditional KFC experience involved mowing down on a leg or a breast and then throwing out boxes filled with ugly bones. Now the brand is offering boneless tenders, suggesting they can be treated more as snacks when customers aren’t looking for a full meal.
Next, perhaps recognizing that a fundamental part of the Swiss Chalet customer experience involves dipping chicken pieces into its signature sauce, KFC is rolling out nine new sauces of its own.
This, the company said in announcing its plans, means “giving fans more freedom to mix, match and personalize meals around their cravings, moods and moments.”
Beyond watered-down soda, KFC is also rolling out beverages that will be dubbed KWENCH that range from iced coffees to “Boba refreshers.”
Lastly, it is redesigning its restaurants, starting with an open-concept design in Texas and a two-storey location in Dubai it simply said will be “immersive.”
If it works, KFC will evolve from a cheap fast food option you get when you can’t resist the nearby smell to an experience defined by greater choice of more elevated products in an environment you’ll want to dwell rather than avoid.
It’s rare to see a brand trying to accomplish this kind of transformation all at once. There’s something refreshing about the fact that so little of it focuses on technology, such as launching a new mobile app or bragging about deploying AI at the drive-thru.
A drop in the bucket?
My only nit-pick is that KFC may be overlooking an aspect of its traditional experience that has been truly customer-led. I’m thinking of the many picnics that have been anchored in ordering one of its 27-piece buckets.
Although KFC’s strategy will involve a bunch of new branding elements intended to make its bucket more visually appealing, this is one area where some innovation would have been welcome.
Imagine if they’d somehow redesigned the bucket’s interior to sort and organize pieces so those who love tenders could easily grab them.
What about creating a compartment in the bottom of the bucket to keep sauces and drinks cool? We’d all talk about it.
Maybe it’s just the arrival of warmer weather, but part of me feels like the hallmark of the KFC experience is getting food you’ll want to enjoy in the most open concept, immersive environment of them all: the great outdoors. You know, the kind of space where it almost feels okay to be seen licking your fingers.
