Barbecue Chain Leverages Data to Brighten Customer Experiences

The Main Course is talking barbecue and big data today. Host
Barbara Castiglia chatted with Joe Tenczar, Chief Strategy
Officer at Sonny’s BBQ. Tenczar is a tech and visionary expert
helping the brand to evolve with technology. Sonny’s BBQ,
founded in 1968, is a slow-smoked barbecue fast-casual chain with
over 100 stores, mainly in the southeast. Tenczar started with
the company in 2014 as the Chief Information Officer, then led
various other groups before moving into his current position.


Tenczar explained that pre-COVID, the business went through a
rebrand and had some foundational technology in place that helped
them pivot. “We shut our dining rooms down before the mandate,
then focused on off-premises with online ordering enhancements
and introducing curbside.”


Tenczar also realizes that customer behavior changed, but the
company is following that trend. “We’re an information company.
We want to understand how people enjoy our products and their
preferences.”


They use transactional and objective data to build the outline
and insert more subjective information from surveys and guest
interactions.


“Data analytics play a huge role in decision-making. They use Olo
for online ordering, which allowed them to open up new channels
and integrate with third-party delivery. The stores also adopted
Wisely, a table management system, to safely manage dine-in
activity. Both of these systems contribute to their big data
picture.


They are using what they learn to set the course for Sonny’s in
the next 50 years, with the customer voice influencing the road
ahead.