Early this summer, Chick-fil-A launched a different menu design that introduced several new breakfast items. With this new design, they stopped serving some old favorites, and began to serve items like cinnamon swirls and maple waffles.

The goal of the new menu design is to make it easier for customers to find what they want in the stores and in the drive-thru. The chain also wanted to offer healthier menu items while growing their breakfast selection. Executives spoke to the managers of the restaurants to see what format would best suit the company and its customers.

Lauren Udell, Manager of Hospitality & Service Design Menu Communications at Chick-fil-A, worked on this redesign for two and a half years.

“Our goal was to simplify the presentation, make it easier to find what you want to eat and make it more relevant to our customers,”Udell said. “As an innovation project, we talked to lots of customers. We asked them how they used the menu board, what they wanted from a menu board, and how we could help make it easier.”

Suggestions from customers included  wanting to know what the specials were, what was new altogether, and what was there only for a limited time..

According to Udell, the company tested three prototype menu boards in two restaurants, then tested two final versions in about 100 restaurants. The tests showed positive results and the favorites were debuted in July.

Chik-fil-A had to make a value call on some of the older, less profitable items, including the Spicy Chicken Biscuit. The biscuits take too long to make, and the kitchens aim to focus on the most popular menu items.

“There has been a lot of positive feedback on the new grilled breakfast items, and on the new condensed menu,” said sophomore Avery Alford, who works at Chick-fil-A. “It has opened up healthier selections and a wider range for our customers to choose from.”

In certain restaurants, new breakfast items like Cinnamon Swirls, Maple Waffles, the Chicken & Waffle, the Egg White Chicken Grill, the Greek Yogurt Parfait, and the Multigrain Oatmeal with Fresh Fruit were introduced. The Egg White Chicken Grill is available in most chains across the Atlanta area, but the others are still unavailable in most of Atlanta .

As for the future, this does not mark the end of Chik-fil-A menu changes.

“Chick-fil-A will keep innovating,” Udell said. There will be new product additions, limited time flavors for things like Milkshakes, Salads, etc. and there will be deletions of the items that don’t sell as much.”