Here's the method Chick-fil-A workers use to keep their cool with angry customers

Fast-food work has become increasingly difficult. Here's how Chick-fil-A handles angry customers using the HEARD model and the company's Core 4.

• Fast-food work has become increasingly difficult as dissatisfaction with restaurants grows. 
• At Chick-fil-A, a doc says employees are trained to show compassion to "recover unsatisfied guests."
• Chick-fil-A's workers are also trained on the brand's core values, like saying "my pleasure."

For many, fast-food work has grown more difficult over the past few years as dissatisfied consumers lash out at frontline workers making and serving their meals.

"Workers are regularly assaulted, robbed, spit on, yelled at, sworn at and told to go back to 'their country,'" said a December 2021 California fast-food-worker survey commissioned by Fight for $15 union advocates. 

At Chick-fil-A, which consistently ranks as having the best customer service among fast-food restaurants, workers are trained on how to handle unsatisfied customers by listening and apologizing to them, according to training documents obtained by Insider. Workers are told to focus on de-escalating tough situations using the HEARD model. The model is frequently credited to the Walt Disney Company and is used by other large companies. Chick-fil-A's workers are also trained on the brand's core values, like its commitment to saying "my pleasure," according to the training documents.

The HEARD model can help Chick-fil-A workers turn "a negative experience into a positive moment" as workers try to "recover unsatisfied guests," the document says, adding: "We all wish we could serve our guests perfectly every time, but unfortunately, things happen. We are all human and will make mistakes, and our guests may be unsatisfied with their experience for reasons outside of our control."

HEARD is an acronym for:

• Hear to understand.
• Empathize to feel their concern.
• Apologize with, "I'm sorry."
• Resolve the issue.
• Delight the guest.

The HEARD model is not the chain's only customer-service training method. Chick-fil-A employees are also instructed to follow the chain's "Core 4" values: Create eye contact, share a smile, speak with a friendly tone, and always say, "My pleasure."

Arthur Greeno, one of the few multiunit Chick-fil-A franchisees in the US, wrote a LinkedIn article about the HEARD model in 2021.

He said applying these principles showed customers that you're compassionately addressing their concerns.

"Sometimes we miss the mark," he wrote. "When that happens, we need to respond quickly and act compassionately. At our store, we use the acronym H.E.A.R.D. to win hearts by delivering genuine hospitality."

Chick-fil-A told Insider it didn't share details about its training models. 

A chain spokesperson said: "Our goal is to deliver an authentic Chick-fil-A experience to each of our guests: delicious food prepared with high-quality ingredients, served with our signature hospitality."

Are you a Chick-fil-A insider with insight to share? Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at nluna@insider.com.