Dive Brief:
- Restaurant Brands International boosted customer satisfaction at Tim Horton and Burger King thanks to a focus on the fundamentals of service and convenience, executives said on a Q2 2025 earnings call Thursday.
- Satisfaction for lunch and dinner rose 4 points year over year at Burger King, reaching the highest levels since 2022, according to Restaurant Brands International CEO Joshua Kobza. The improvement was driven by investments in customer friendliness, food quality, order accuracy and speed of service.
- Tim Hortons likewise experienced a 4 point increase in customer satisfaction, reaching the highest level since Restaurant Brands International began tracking the metric in 2018, according to Kobza, who credited the brand’s focus on better speed of service.
Dive Insight:
Restaurant Brands International is focusing on the basics to improve its customer experience, but AI investments may be on the horizon.
“While the consumer environment remains dynamic, we've seen encouraging signs of improvement across many of our largest businesses that's given us added confidence as we continue focusing on the fundamentals that matter the most: quality service and convenience,” Kobza said during the call.
Systemwide comparable sales were up 2.4% year over year for the second quarter of 2025, according to a company earnings report. Comparable sales were up 1.3% year over year at Burger King and 3.4% year over year at Tim Hortons.
Faster speed of service has been a point of emphasis across Restaurant Brands International’s restaurant chains; Burger King expanded the expansion of a kiosk pilot and Popeyes improved kitchen layouts to get orders into customers hands faster.
However, Restaurant Brands International has been quiet on AI even as its fast food competitors emphasize how they’re using it as a customer experience driver. Examples include Taco Bell tapping AI to aggregate third-party reviews and Wendy’s using drive-thru AI to let workers focus on CX tasks.
While Restaurant Brands International hasn’t announced any AI-focused investments, the company is working on “some things that we're doing that not everybody else has figured out yet,” Kobza said in response to an investor question.
The company is aware of the opportunities AI has to improve its business, but Kobza noted the technology is very different from what he worked with during his earlier years at Restaurant Brands International.
“What I will tell you is we are very focused on what can happen with AI in our restaurants, how that can improve the customer experience, how that can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of operations,” Kobza said.
