The Chick-fil-A store in Gloucester was top ranked in the national chain for operational excellence through the first six months of 2012. Shown inside the store are, front, customer Katie Highfill, and, rear from left, cashier Joelle Castle, store owner/operator John Gordon, cashier Lee Siegle, and customer John Highfill. Photo by Bill Nachman

The Chick-fil-A restaurant at Fox Mill Center, Gloucester, recorded the highest Operational Excellence score in the entire chain for the first six months of 2012.

Owner/operator John Gordon thanked the community for its support of his restaurant, both in dining in, taking out and using its catering services—as well as for giving repeatedly high performance marks on randomly generated surveys that appear on some store receipts.

Although Gordon said he doesn’t know which customers get the surveys, or when, he said corporate officials show more than 200 surveys for his store are received each month—with almost three-fourths of them ranking the store as a "5"—its highest level—for serving fresh, hot food; employing attentive, courteous staff; maintaining a very clean restaurant, and providing fast service.

Gordon thanked general manager Christina Griffith and a staff of almost 50 employees for helping the Gloucester store earn such a high performance for the period January-June 2012. But the store is in tight competition with a number of other stores throughout the chain, Gordon said, and—like the Olympics—tenths of a point separate Gloucester from several other top-ranking stores.

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