Cracker Barrel: Over Five Decades of Creating a Welcoming Customer Experience

Send us Fan MailDan Evins founded Cracker Barrel Old Country Store® in 1969 in Lebanon, Tennessee. Over the next 50 years, Cracker Barrel evolved into a restaurant with a popular retail store and has taken the brand into the digital space with its online store. Within the brand’s “old general store,” customers can purchase everything from apparel to candles to vintage candy to music. Around the holidays, the store is decorated with trees, and a Christmas theme fills the aisles, from stocking stuffers to thoughtful gifts. The welcoming atmosphere extends into the restaurant. Guests dining at Cracker Barrel find familiar Southern favorites on the menu. The fireplace is likely to be lit, a checkerboard awaits, and families can enjoy the brand’s famous Peg game — a triangle block is located on every table. Cracker Barrel endeavors to offer a unique customer experience from the moment guests cross the front porch and enter the building.  Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, spoke with Amy Barnett, Vice President of Marketing, Loyalty, and Digital Experience at Cracker Barrel, about collecting valuable input from employees and field operations, rolling out the new Cracker Barrel Rewards program, and partnering with an American music legend.