Chick Fil A – Now Has Butler Bells

To help bolster the guest experience, Chick-fil-A is testing out an electronic butler bell dubbed the Kallpod. With the device, customers can call for a staff member who will receive an alert on his or her smartwatch to help them with a question, place a second order or find a manager, CNBC reported.

The device comes to the chain after Joseph DeCola, a Houston franchise owner, spotted one while on vacation in Hawaii. He brought the device to his store and Devin Deshotel, who is an area manager, installed it in two Texas locations. With the devices, Deshotel saw improvements in survey hospitality scores as well as sales.

“It’s all about the experience of the guest,” Deshotel told CNBC. “Of course, greater financial returns are great, but that wasn’t the thought process when getting [Kallpod]. It was always about continuing to provide a remarkable experience.”

The news comes as Factual looked a bit more deeply into the second-favorite fast food chain in each state, and discovered that Chick-fil-A deserved some applause for its regional dominance, garnering the title of No. 2 QSR in every state in the Southeast between Maryland and Alabama. Florida was the unique regional exception — by the numbers, that state is solidly Burger King country.

While Chick-fil-A’s status in the rankings of fast food chains is (perhaps) up for grabs, a fairly solid mathematical case can be made that, despite its small size (relative to competitors like McDonald’s or Burger King), it is one of the vertical’s more pronounced and unusual success stories.

The company generates more revenue per restaurant than any other fast food chain in the U.S. – and that’s despite being closed one day a week. Chick-fil-A’s average sales per restaurant in 2016 were $4.4 million. Compare that to fried chicken competitor KFC, which sold $1.1 million per restaurant that year. The No. 2 slot — filled by Whataburger — only raked in $2.7 million in per-restaurant sales, followed by Panera.