Chick-fil-A is Americans' favorite fast-food chain, a new survey finds - and McDonald's ranked last

• The American Customer Satisfaction Index released a list of the best chain restaurants.
• Chick-fil-A once again topped the fast-food list, while McDonald's ranked at the bottom.
• Full-service restaurants beat fast-food chains in this year's rankings.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index released its yearly ranking of the best chain restaurants, showing full-service restaurants outperforming fast-food chains and Chick-fil-A topping the fast-food rankings, with McDonald's at the bottom.

The report, which involved interviewing almost 20,000 customers, asked participants to rank chain restaurants on a scale from one to 100 in 11 categories, including food quality and taste, the quality of the mobile app, and helpfulness of workers.

Chick-fil-A came in first place with a score of 83, marking the seventh consecutive year in which Chick-fil-A topped the rankings list among fast-food chains. During the coronavirus pandemic, Chick-fil-A benefited from strong customer loyalty and a heavy focus on drive-thru, mobile-ordering, and contactless payments. Chick-fil-A was five points ahead of its nearest competitor, Domino's, and 13 points ahead of McDonald's, which ranked last with a score of 70.

Customers' satisfaction with sit-down restaurants increased by 1.3 points from 2020, indicating that customers enjoyed sitting down for a meal even during the pandemic, when delivery and takeout became the preferred methods of ordering, according to Yahoo News.

The top-ranked restaurant in the full-service category was "all others," a term encapsulating all smaller restaurants not big enough to be included on the ranking. Following that, LongHorn Steakhouse continued to rank near the top of the list, while Olive Garden and Red Robin also made gains. Red Lobster saw the biggest decline, ranking two points lower this year than last, and TGI Fridays and Cracker Barrel also saw decreases.

On the fast-food list, Wendy's and Arby's saw the biggest declines in customer satisfaction, with the chains losing three and two points respectively. Chains including Domino's, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks saw incremental gains.