Sonny’s BBQ
Overview
Fans of Sonny’s BBQ—also known as the ’Q Crew—regularly flock to its 90 locations throughout the Southeast to savor its signature, slow-smoked ribs, pork, and brisket. To enhance the guest experience, the brand implemented Olo Ordering, Rails, and Dispatch in 2018, followed by Host, Marketing, and GDP in 2020. With data flowing seamlessly across its tech stack, Sonny’s has streamlined restaurant operations, improved marketing ROI with personalization, unlocked critical insights like guest lifetime value, and made strategic business decisions based on guest behavior.
LINKS
growth in marketing subscribers
increase in engaged contacts
of sales are driven by the top 15% of guests
BACKGROUND
Before implementing Olo’s solutions, Sonny’s BBQ didn’t have an easy way to determine who was coming into the restaurant, how often, or why—let alone act on that intel. The brand recognized incremental growth would be contingent on eliminating data silos, getting a comprehensive view of guest behavior, and leveraging that intel across departments.
Since adding Olo’s Engage product suite to its tech stack, Sonny’s BBQ has gained a deeper understanding of its guest base and adopted a guest-centered, data-driven approach to its business.
By ingesting data from multiple sources across Sonny’s tech stack, Olo’s Guest Data Platform (GDP) has surfaced essential insights like guest lifetime value—the revenue generated from each guest throughout their relationship with the brand—order frequency, average spend, preferred daypart, ordering method, marketing channel, and more. The brand uses this newly unified guest data and insights to fuel its marketing campaigns, menu development, and business intelligence.
For example, with support from its partner agency Vert Digital, Sonny’s BBQ has largely moved away from mass-blast emails to hyper-targeted marketing automations. Olo’s GDP and Marketing solutions have enabled them to build advanced guest segments, launch dozens of behavior-based SMS and email automations, and target guests by behavior through different media channels.
Results with Olo
Increased marketing ROI
Sonny’s BBQ can now personalize and automate marketing campaigns based on guest behavior and preferences. Since implementing this data-driven approach, the brand has grown its subscriber base by 50% and seen a 32% lift in engaged contacts. Additionally, Sonny’s can more efficiently measure the ROI of its marketing efforts.
Access to critical insights like guest lifetime value
Olo’s GDP has surfaced invaluable insights for Sonny’s BBQ, including guest lifetime value. For example, the brand discovered 50% of its sales are generated by the top 15% of guests—and those guests visit 5+ times per year. Sonny’s and Vert Digital formed a marketing campaign around this intel called “Drive to 5” to nurture guests from their first visit to their fifth and foster long-term loyalty. They’ve seen a 20% increase in guests with 5-10 visits over a 6-month period.
Ability to make data-driven business decisions
By eliminating data silos and surfacing actionable insights, Olo has helped Sonny’s BBQ streamline operations and drive profitable guest acquisition, retention, and growth. The brand can easily identify the characteristics of guests that generate the most revenue—items ordered, preferred sales channel, daypart, etc.—and use that intel to optimize everything from the menu to promotions to guest journey automations.
By unifying our data, Olo has helped us personalize the guest experience through marketing communications, streamline our operations, and make business decisions based on guest behavior. Unlocking our guest lifetime value has been eye-opening. It’s driven home the value of first-party data and building intelligence around our guests. GDP has given us a better picture of how valuable each of our guests is and how we can increase that value over time.
More customer success
What are you waiting for?
Transform your guest experience today.
