(ACSI: Ann Arbor, MI) -- Customer satisfaction with full-service restaurants is down 3.7 percent to a score of 78 (100-point scale) in a new report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). This is the lowest score in more than 10 years and the first time that full-service restaurants have been beaten by the fast food category.

“Lower customer satisfaction is a major threat to the restaurant business,” says Claes Fornell, ACSI chairman and founder. “Full-service restaurants cannot lose to fast food on quality and customer satisfaction because they can’t compete on price. If a lower-price competitor has higher customer satisfaction than a rival that competes on quality, the latter is obviously in serious trouble. Low price alone rarely leads to high levels of satisfaction, but high quality usually does.”

Menu prices are on the rise, but consumers don’t think full-service restaurant quality is currently good enough to justify higher prices. Same-store restaurant sales are down, and foot traffic is shrinking. Independent restaurants and smaller chains, which make up the majority of the industry, are down 4 percent to an aggregate score of 78.

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