The Partnership
Southern Classic Chicken & Tattle
Southern Classic Chicken is a QSR brand built on one simple promise: exceptional chicken, delivered with genuine hospitality. The brand has made guest feedback a cornerstone of how they operate, measure success, and grow.
One of the team's core values is courage: courage to listen to feedback, even when it stings, and use it to improve the business.
- Integrations: Olo, Paytronix
- Locations: 22
- Survey Completion Rate: 94.5%
The Challenge
Review Ratings Weren't Telling the Full Story
Before Tattle, Southern Classic Chicken relied on Yelp and Google reviews to understand the guest experience. Those channels were fragmented and didn't deliver the specific, actionable intelligence leadership needed to improve operations.
At the same time, the brand was focused on strengthening authentic hospitality at scale. In a drive-thru QSR environment, fast human connection is hard to deliver consistently, which made higher-volume, credible feedback essential.
"I was impressed with the amount of feedback Tattle seemed to get, and most of all I was impressed by how easy the survey is."
Tom GerdesVP of Brand Operations, Southern Classic Chicken
The Solution
Fast, Honest Feedback Built for Operators
Southern Classic Chicken implemented Tattle to remove friction from the feedback experience. Instead of a one-to-ten rating format, guests complete a simple thumbs-up, neutral, or thumbs-down survey in under a minute.
The simpler flow drove participation and produced stronger data quality at much higher volume. Over the last three months, the brand collected 45,540 data points and increased feedback volume by 12X+.
Tattle also streamlined guest recovery. When a guest reports a poor experience, regional leaders follow up directly, typically within one day, while GMs remain focused on in-store execution.
The brand also consolidated public social reviews into Tattle, giving marketing and operations one shared view of private survey feedback and public sentiment.
How They Use It
A Weekly Operating Rhythm Built Around Guest Data
Leadership reviews Tattle weekly using a rolling 12-week view across hospitality, accuracy, speed, packaging, and additional operational categories.
Performance is reviewed at the restaurant, division, and brand levels. Over time, the team prioritized top-box performance as a leading indicator of future traffic and sales momentum.
Tattle surfaced clear trends in hospitality and accuracy, helping leadership reinforce that small guest interactions, such as greeting, eye contact, and genuine thanks, are operational levers that materially influence outcomes.
"Top box score in Tattle is as close as we have to a crystal ball in predicting sales outcomes."
Tom GerdesVP of Brand Operations, Southern Classic Chicken
The Results
An All-in-One Tool for Guest Experience
Across Southern Classic Chicken's system, Tattle transformed guest feedback from passive reporting into an active management system.
Operational categories once managed by intuition are now reviewed with precision every week. The team increased top-box score by 36% and uses those trends to inform both operations and marketing investments.
With social reviews and private survey data in one place, the brand now has a clearer signal for where to focus coaching, where to invest, and how to scale hospitality across every location.
Key Benefits With Tattle
- Replaced fragmented review sources with a unified, high-volume feedback platform
- Established a weekly data review rhythm at restaurant, division, and brand levels
- Identified and addressed hospitality and accuracy gaps across locations
- Used top-box tracking as a leading indicator of future performance
- Scaled guest recovery while keeping GMs focused on in-store execution
- Consolidated social and private feedback for smarter marketing decisions
