The Fast Food Chain Most Likely To Screw Up Your Order in 2025

One fast food chain is starting to slack off, apparently.

©Foodbeast Taco Bell

We all have our favorite fast food joints, but is it fair to say some are better than others? Well, one company recently did an in-depth study among several popular fast food chains and the results regarding the worst order accuracy were pretty shocking!

Intouch Insight conducted its 24th Annual Drive-Thru Study, where it looked at several American fast food chains and compared them on things like order accuracy, service speed, food quality, portion sizes, and much more!

McDonald’s

The chains included in the study are as follows:

Arby’s
Burger King
Carl’s Jr. / Hardees
Chick-fil-A
Dunkin’
KFC
McDonald’s
Raising Cane’s
Taco Bell
Wendy’s

There is so much we could go over in this study, but the order accuracy results especially stood out, with a fan favorite falling bellow expectations.

©Taco Bell

Unfortunately, Taco Bell finished LAST among the field in 2024 with 85% accuracy and a slight decrease from last year’s performance. That means for every 20 orders at Taco Bell, 3 were not accurate. Both Chick-fil-A and McDonald’s topped the list with 93% accuracy.

©Taco Bell

The study takes into consideration drive-thru orders and notes that “when an inaccurate order is handed over to a customer, the chance of the error being addressed is low, as the customer is unlikely to return once leaving the drive-thru. While we have seen improvements year over year in order accuracy ratings, this year, we still see 11% of orders rated as inaccurate – in other words, 1 out of every 10 orders handed over in the drive-thru has something wrong.”

©Taco Bell

According to the study, two of the top three inaccuracy areas showed improvement:

“Requests for no ice in beverages were not fulfilled 27.7% of the time this year, down from 30% last year.”
“Incorrect ingredients in the main entrée occurred 9% of the time, compared to 13.8% in 2023.”

Who doesn’t love a Taco Bell freeze?

Communication is key. Order accuracy was 15% higher when the speaker was clear and understandable, 12% higher when the speaker volume was loud enough to hear, and 7% higher when the shopper did not have to repeat their order, per the report.

Clear communication and order displays are vital in the ordering process, and the study suggests that AI can improve order accuracy when integrated into the ordering process, highlighting its potential to enhance customer service quality. In fact, accuracy reached 95% when shoppers believed they were interacting with Voice-AI, compared to the overall study accuracy of 89%.”

We’ve seen Taco Bell move toward this model in particular, but it still might be some time before it makes up the difference.

©Taco Bell

The study notes that technological advances will ultimately create a more seamless experience, but brands will have the responsibility of ensuring accuracy while maintaining a “human touch” that leads to customer satisfaction.

Does this study’s results surprise you? Share your thoughts in the comments below and continue to follow us right here at DFB for more food updates!