KFC partners with Zendesk and Firstsource to enhance CX

KFC worked with Zendesk and partner Firstsource to improve customer satisfaction, resolve issues faster, and create more efficient digital and operational customer journeys.

"We’ve already seen a lot of improvement coming out from our use of Zendesk, and we’re only just getting started! As they say, watch this space.”

Aida Mutapcic

Guest Recovery Manager at KFC UK

Founded

1952

Branches in the UK

900+

Agents

20%

reduction in agent-handled contacts

40%

reduction in restaurant effort

4.3

tickets closed per hour

92%

email resolution within 48 hours

95.7%

Auto-QA score through Aquila

Kentucky Fried Chicken

‘It’s Finger Lickin’ Good!

When we hear ‘It’s Finger Lickin’ Good!’ most of us immediately know the brand associated with it.

Kentucky Fried Chicken has been a fast-food institution in the US since Colonel Harland Sanders founded the brand in 1952. His secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices made it over to the UK in 1965 when the first UK KFC restaurant was opened in Preston.

Today there are KFC restaurants up and down the UK, with options to dine in or take away. It is the role of KFC’s Restaurant Excellence Team to ensure operations and processes run smoothly within these establishments and to deliver the best possible customer experience.

Supporting customers when they need help is a key focus for KFC’s Guest Team. To help resolve customer complaints and improve inbound communications, KFC has partnered with Firstsource, an independent customer management provider, using Zendesk as the customer engagement and workflow platform.

Smooth operation

Before the implementation of the Zendesk platform, one of the key challenges was the lack of connection between the various KFC restaurants. There was a distinct loss of communication between restaurants, particularly when information needed to be shared back with a specific restaurant.

For instance, if a customer had a complaint about a member of staff or an inadequate portion size, this required a conversation with the restaurant involved to resolve the issue. Previously, this was largely handled via a separate email chain with no connection to the customer ticket.

When building out the Zendesk platform for KFC, Firstsource helped resolve this through the use of linked tickets, enabling advisors to have two separate conversations around the same issue: one with the customer and one with the restaurant.

Product and restaurant data is also integrated into Zendesk, giving advisors access to relevant information in one place. With all the information logged and updated, another advisor can immediately see the customer information and linked conversations without manually searching across multiple emails.

This connected approach has reduced manual work and contributed to a 40% reduction in restaurant effort.

Guiding hand

The webform is the channel with the highest volume of tickets. While KFC already had a webform in place, there was an opportunity to make the journey clearer and guide customers more effectively towards the right resolution.

For example, when customers contacted KFC about an order placed through a third-party delivery provider, they were not always immediately directed to the team best placed to help.

Now, with an optimised webform, customers are guided towards the right destination from the outset. By capturing more relevant information at the beginning of the journey, advisors can understand each issue more quickly and provide a more tailored response.

Combined with enhanced self-service and more connected digital journeys, these improvements have contributed to a 20% reduction in agent-handled contacts.

Zendesk also gives the support team greater visibility into the reasons customers get in touch. This insight helps KFC identify recurring issues, address potential pain points, and continue improving the customer experience.

More automated, less manual

Automation has helped simplify a number of previously manual processes, including the distribution of customer vouchers. Previously, an advisor would record the customer’s information in a spreadsheet, create a paper voucher, and arrange for it to be posted.

Now the process is integrated directly into Zendesk. Once the advisor updates the status on the ticket, an automatic email is sent directly to the customer with their digital voucher attached. This has reduced handling time and enabled customers to receive vouchers much more quickly. Across the wider support operation, advisors now close 4.3 tickets per hour, exceeding the target of 4.0.

Building on these improvements, KFC and Firstsource have continued to expand automation across digital guest recovery, reporting, data capture, and advisor support. Quality management and continuous improvement are also built into the programme. Through Aquila, the partnership has achieved a 95.7% Auto-QA score, while 92% of emails are resolved within 48 hours, helping customers receive faster responses and clearer outcomes.

A collaborative partnership

Over the years, what began as a focus on customer support has grown into a broader effort to make the KFC guest experience simpler, faster, and more connected. KFC, Zendesk, and Firstsource have worked closely together to understand the needs of customers, advisors, and restaurant teams, turning those insights into practical improvements that make a real difference day to day.

Firstsource has played an important role in bringing these ideas to life, combining its customer experience expertise with a detailed understanding of KFC’s operations. By working alongside KFC and using Zendesk to connect customer interactions, data, and workflows, the teams have been able to improve existing processes while continuing to explore new ways of working.

This collaborative approach has supported the development of more effective digital journeys, automation, fraud prevention, guest recovery, and quality programmes—helping KFC deliver better experiences for its customers while reducing effort for advisors and restaurants. Over time, the collaboration has also expanded to include webform redesign and customer journey optimisation, product and restaurant data integration, Agent Assist and AI-led productivity initiatives, digital guest recovery, process automation, and quality management.

A key measure of success at KFC is one touch or first contact resolution, it’s something Mutapcic and her team are focussed on achieving, having already seen some improvement with altering the acknowledgement email customers receive once they’ve submitted a webform. Now, with this email including any additional relevant questions for the customer to submit online or via the app, agents are able to glean even more insight to help them resolve the issue quickly. “For our first contact resolution, our aim is to resolve 40% and at the moment it’s 56% of all contacts resolved. Second contact resolution is 79%,” she says.

Innovation and business impact

Beyond traditional customer service metrics, the partnership has delivered value beyond traditional customer service measures, using the Zendesk platform to address wider operational and commercial priorities.

One example is KFC’s fraud-prevention capability, which brings together the Identification App, Ravelin, and Zendesk. By helping teams identify and manage potentially fraudulent activity as part of the customer journey, the solution has prevented 3,165 fraud attempts and generated approximately £245K in annualised savings.

The Identification App has also helped simplify the way restaurant-related issues are managed, reducing restaurant effort by 40%. At the same time, improved self-service and upfront data capture have helped customers provide the right information earlier in the journey, contributing approximately £100K in operational savings.

Together, these initiatives show how the partnership is using technology and operational insight to protect value, reduce avoidable effort, and create better experiences for customers, advisors, and restaurants.

Watch this space

The KFC, Zendesk, and Firstsource teams continue to identify new ways to improve the guest experience, support advisors, and reduce operational effort.

By combining customer insight, operational expertise, and the Zendesk platform, the partnership is creating a smarter customer experience ecosystem that delivers measurable value for guests, advisors, restaurants, and the wider KFC business. The strength and longevity of the partnership have also been recognised through awards including KFC Supplier of the Year, KFC Partner of the Year, and Best BPO Partnership.