• Bloomberg, Friday, November 6, 2009 12:15 PM

Courtney Dentch visits McDonald's test kitchen in an unmarked Illinois warehouse 20 miles southwest of McDonald's Oak Brook headquarters and finds that speed is increasingly the focus as the company strives to improve customer satisfaction ratings and, concomitantly it hopes, market share. They're testing everything from new handheld devices to redesigned assembly areas.

The new McCafe coffees, larger burgers and $1 chicken sandwiches have attracted customers recently and customer satisfaction ratings are on the upswing. McDonald's was last among the top 10 fast-food chains on the American Customer Satisfaction Index a decade ago; it's now ranked eighth, ahead of Burger King and KFC.

"It's improved more than any other fast-food company we cover," says Claes Fornell, who founded the index. "McDonald's primary selling point is convenience, price and consistency, and it's doing that better now than it has in the past decade."

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