McDonald’s adds in-app reviews as U.S. comparable sales fall 0.2%

By Marcus Bennett

McDonald’s will roll out in-app customer reviews across the United States at the end of 2026, changing how the chain collects and interprets customer feedback.

CEO Chris Kempczinski announced the change during a Q3 2026 earnings call held the prior week. Customers will review their experience inside the McDonald’s app.

He said the changes would bring significant enhancements to feedback accuracy and visibility: “All of that is going to give us much better insight into how the customer is actually perceiving the experience that they’re getting in the restaurant.”

What changes, and what remains undisclosed?

McDonald’s did not identify the customer-survey process being replaced, the app vendor, or the program cost. It also gave no company-operated versus franchised breakdown for the U.S. rollout or say who would absorb the cost. Without those disclosures, operators cannot assess development, training or maintenance costs, changes in labor demand, or the effect on unit margins.

How does Make It Golden fit the growth plan?

Make It Golden is a multiyear customer-experience commitment launched in October. It sits inside McDonald’s > Next, the company’s long-term growth strategy. The program links the food and hospitality customers receive with easier restaurant operations and greater efficiency. Its commercial aim is to strengthen value perception, elevate the experience and become the first choice for more customers more often.

McDonald’s completed training for leaders and experts during the program’s first month. Those trained leaders and experts will bring Make It Golden to more than 18,000 restaurants in Q1 2027.

The announcement does not state which markets that count covers. Nor does it provide a program budget, expected sales lift, labor savings, check average, food-cost change or franchisee-level return. A broad rollout shows organizational reach. It does not prove operating savings.

What do the loyalty offers show?

EVP and CFO Ian Borden said McDonald’s has begun restoring a wider range of regional and national offers. The goal is to increase visit frequency among active loyalty members while attracting new and lapsed members.

Borden said the initial response exceeded internal expectations for traffic and sales and helped reverse declines in the second quarter and early third quarter of 2026.

McDonald’s supplied no retention rate, offer cost or margin data to test that claim. Its Q3 results show a split outcome:

• Global comparable sales rose 1.5% year over year.
• U.S. comparable sales fell 0.2%.
• Global systemwide sales rose 4% year over year to more than $38 billion for the quarter.
• Sales to loyalty members exceeded $11 billion, roughly 29% of global systemwide sales.

What does ArchIQ replace, and who pays?

McDonald’s plans to expand its ArchIQ test across most U.S. restaurants by the end of 2027. The AI-powered operations platform includes Archy, a drive-thru ordering system designed to let employees spend more time helping customers. The company frames the wider deployment as an efficiency and growth program.

McDonald’s did not name a legacy ordering system that ArchIQ or Archy replaces. It disclosed no license fee, implementation charge, franchise-fee structure or cost allocation. It also did not say whether corporate McDonald’s or franchisees would bear the platform costs, leaving the split between company-operated and franchised restaurants undefined.

That omission leaves the margin case uncertain. Kempczinski said: “This is NEXT in action, strengthening how we operate today while building the growth platforms and capabilities that will position McDonald’s to lead for the long term.”

The 2027 test is concrete. App reviews must produce better operational insight, loyalty offers must lift repeat traffic, and ArchIQ must prove savings after implementation. McDonald’s set those objectives, but the 0.2% U.S. comparable-sales decline shows that global growth has not yet translated into domestic momentum.