Despite recent indications that McDonald’s is on the upswing, just 14 percent of the QSR’s franchisees think its turnaround efforts are working, according to an internal survey obtained by Bloomberg News.
Strained communications between owner-operators and corporate managers were also indicated by the annual survey, which included responses from 1,468 franchisees and was completed in October and November, Bloomberg says.
Looking long term, only 35 percent of respondents said they feel confident in the chain’s future success, falling 11 percentage points from last year.
McDonald’s spokeswoman Lisa McComb told Bloomberg the survey doesn’t account for the positive strides the chain has made more recently.
“These results are hardly surprising, given the survey was conducted before McDonald’s ended the year with momentum,” she says. “By refreshing old favorites, like our Egg McMuffin, introducing all-day breakfast and making other changes, we are beginning 2016 in a better place than where we were 12 months ago.”
Though low franchisee optimism was reported during the all-day breakfast rollout, things looked rosier as the chain’s sales began to resurge late last year.
In spite of their pessimism, more than half of the survey respondents said their restaurant operations have improved over the last year.
Read the full story via Bloomberg.
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