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Rudy’s BBQ Gets It! Using Social Media to Improve the Customer Experience

Rudy’s Gets It! Great Food, Great Service and Social Media

Rudy’s Country Store and Texas Bar-B-Q is legendary in these parts. They do an unbelievable business. People line up out the door at all of their locations for breakfast, lunch and dinner. (Yes, breakfast… they have the my absolute favorite breakfast taco’s!, and they sell them by the bushel load!).

Why is it that other restaurants and businesses struggle so much, while every Rudy’s is busting at the seams?

I can only speak for myself, but what I’ll tell you is very simple:

Rudy’s Gets It!!!

The food is very good (but there are lot’s of excellent BBQ places here). But Rudy’s sets themselves apart with outstanding customer service. Those lines move quickly. There is a manager greeting people and making sure they are happy.

And now I’ve come to find that Rudy’s uses Social Media to take that customer experience to a new level.

A couple of days ago, I stopped into Rudy’s for a breakfast taco and to do some quick computer work. I checked in using Foursquare. Later, I had a pleasant Twitter direct message from Rudy’s thanking me for coming in.

I replied: “Are you a bot or a person?”

Quick Response: “No bots here… thank you for being a fan, couldn’t do it without y’all”

Wow! How cool is that?

So, I checked their @Rudysbbq twitter stream, and found dozens of such examples. I even found Rudy’s helping somebody figure out a recipe for hamburgers using their special Rudy’s Sauce!

The owners of the local Rudy’s are now applying their success formula to the new Mighty Fine Burger chain. They have boomed from 1 to 3 locations and are even busier than the Rudy’s stores.

My advice to business owners trying to get their arms around how to use Social Media to improve their business:

Watch Rudy’s. They Get It!