Chick-fil-A Expands ‘Mom’s Valet’ Service
No need to chicken out on taking a bunch of young, tough-to-wrangle kids to eat at a restaurant. Chick-fil-A’s “Mom’s Valet” program — allowing parents to order at the drive-through window, then go eat inside, where staff will have set up a table for the family with their food — has officially expanded to 100 franchises, with another 125 interested in rolling out the service as well.
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“It is an immediate success with moms,” Scott Brickhouse, owner of two Chick-fil-As in Lakewood, Fla., told Today on Wednesday. (The father of four dreamed up the idea for the service and began offering it four years ago.)
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Photo: Alamy
And no wonder. All parents have to do is request the “Mom’s Valet” when they order at a drive-through location offering the service, then park and stroll inside with the kids to greet a hostess, who shows them all to their seats. Eatery staffers prepare the table — putting out the required number of highchairs, pouring drinks, arranging placemats and utensils, and then setting out the food — before the family members walk though the door.
Photo: YouTube/ChickfilaSBC’s Channel
“We know it can be a struggle sometimes to get all the kids out of the car, into the restaurant, place an order, find a table, and gather any condiments you might need for the meal,” reads the introduction to a YouTube video about the “Mom’s Valet” from one location that launched the service in 2011. “We want to simplify this process.”
Photo: YouTube/ChickfilaSBC’s Channel
David Farmer, Chick-fil-A’s vice president of menu strategy and development, told Business Insider the service is all about “taking the stress out” of dining out with a family.
Photo: YouTube/ChickfilaSBC’s Channel
And the fast food chain is hoping to make things even more convenient for customers going forward. A spokesperson for the nearly 2,000-location chain told Fortune: “Our hope is that with ongoing improvements to our mobile ordering app, all customers will have access to this level of convenience at their fingertips in all locations in the future.”
Top photo: YouTube/ChickfilaSBC’s Channel
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