Burger King wants customers to believe they rule the restaurant, but the Miami-based chain says that message only works if it’s genuine, not mandated.
“We’re certainly encouraging our restaurants to bring that conversation to the forefront,” Joel Yashinsky, Burger King’s chief marketing officer, told Fox News Digital. “We really want to make that real.”
The company is working with franchise operators to communicate clearly to guests that they do rule, Yashinsky said. But he was blunt that the interaction can’t be scripted or forced onto workers.
“It has to be authentic,” he said. “We can’t force it, but we are trying to, obviously, encourage that type of engagement to take place because we are truly trying to live it and mean it.”
The push builds on Burger King’s “You Rule” slogan, introduced in 2022, and its newer tagline, “There’s a New King and It’s You,” rolled out earlier this year. Burger King leadership has been talking with general managers about turning the philosophy into what Yashinsky called a “natural engagement” with customers rather than a corporate mandate.
“The guest does rule,” he said, “and we need to make sure that we acknowledge that.”
Burger King isn’t alone among fast-food chains in building a signature customer interaction into its hospitality model. Chick-fil-A has long been known for employees answering “my pleasure” instead of “you’re welcome.”
At Burger King, the effort starts in training. Employees must complete “Burger King University,” a program that once operated out of a physical campus at the company’s Miami headquarters but is now entirely online, according to the Miami Herald.
“If we can give an authentic greeting and a welcome and a smile, it goes a long way,” Yashinsky said.
Even so, there are limits to the rule-your-own-order philosophy. Employees can’t deviate from corporate-approved menu rules, including the cutoff for breakfast items like the Croissan’wich and hash browns. One person claiming to be a Burger King employee explained on Reddit why ham can’t be added to lunch or dinner items: “We technically are not allowed to serve anything in any capacity that is not brand approved.”
Breakfast hours vary by location, but the fast-food industry standard cutoff for the switch to lunch is 10:30 a.m., according to USA Today.
