Chicken Wars: KFC Gearing Up To Compete Against A Restaurant Half Its Size That’s Raking In Three Times Its Sales

Long time popular fast food chicken restaurant Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) has made the decision to go up against mega-successful Chick-fil-A in an effort to compete with them for sales. Chick-fil-A generates roughly three times in sales per restaurant as KFC, and KFC is making changes in the way that it does business to try to correct that. The company is now promoting the “Re-Colonelization” process, an all-out effort that focuses on, among other things, nationwide employee re-training and a renewed commitment to increasing customer service.

Why Chick-fil-A is beating KFC – Business Insider… (https://t.co/lNc7cbCAkP)

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The Business Insider spoke with KFC CMO Kevin Hochman in regards to his thoughts as to why his chicken empire was being outpaced by a restaurant only half its size, and he was frank in his assessment.

“Operations, quite frankly, has been broken for a long time.”

He also explained in great detail how he plans to shore operations back up in each individual restaurant in order to become more competition worthy. Restaurants are being remodeled and include blackboards inside that identify the cook of the day and also tell customers which regional farm that location’s chicken came from. Approximately 70 percent of the chain’s restaurants will be redesigned over the next three years. All of its employees are being retrained, along with rallies being held that include general managers. Pressure fryers are being recalibrated. He says that taste scores have even already improved across the country, as the campaign has not only strived to increase customer interest but also to boost customer satisfaction.

What can KFC and Popeyes learn from Chick-fil-A? https://t.co/iaOcFybydC

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The company is also utilizing technology to motivate employees with applications specifically customized to assist them in restocking, shift scheduling, and charting their distance from work to improve punctuality. The technological implementations are apparently a huge part of the company’s plan to decrease employee turnover, encourage new employee applications, and boost employee performance.

KFC’s chief information officer, Chris Caldwell, spoke on the technological developments that he was most passionate about.

“We’ve got an initiative right now where I’m trying to make it easier for our employees. Working in our restaurants isn’t the easiest — you have to freshly prepare food, you don’t have a whole lot of time for administrative tasks.”

But will they actually able to stand toe to toe with Chick-fil-A, a company who by industry standards has consistently over the years achieved excellent feedback from customers in terms of both customer service and food quality?

The Chicago Tribune writes that KFC’s sales have been falling steadily for the past five years, and in 2012 they completely lost the battle with Chick-fil-A in the areas of popularity and sales.

KFC is funneling over $185 million dollars into its new “Re-Colonelization” with funds being directed towards blitzes of TV ads in addition to the re-training, remodeling, and implementations of new technology. They also are reviving the character of Colonel Sanders, making his personality a focal point of their rebranding.

Hochman spoke about bringing the Colonel back to life.

“Young people all have this idea that everyone can be a star on social media. Well, the Colonel was the consummate American showman. People see him as an old person, because we haven’t talked about him in a while. But he was the person with bling before bling was even a word.”

KFC executives feel confident that with the backing of their owner, Yum Brands, the $40 billion dollar giant that also owns Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, that they will regain the public’s favor, especially since they’ve had a long-term relationship with them in terms of name, history, and nostalgia.

Other plans to regain their customer base include changing employee uniforms and expanding the chain’s menu to include popular Southern dishes such as barbecue baked beans and slow-pulled chicken.

With all of these plans in place one thing is for sure: the chicken wars are about to get very interesting as the deep fryers begin to heat up.

[Image via Twitter]