Restaurant Archives

Most restaurants market for a first visit. The good ones should be marketing for the third. There is a number that almost nobody in the restaurant business talks about, and it explains why so many places with excellent food and beautiful rooms still struggle to fill seats on a Tuesday. The number is 40%. That is the statistical likelihood that a first-time guest who has a flawless experience will come back a second time. Not 70. Not 60. Forty percent. Which means more than half the people who love your restaurant will never walk through your door again. Not because the food was bad. Not because the server forgot something. Because your restaurant is not part of their life pattern yet. The second visit barely moves the needle. A guest who has two perfect experiences still only has ...

Walk into almost any local restaurant, gym, or salon and you'll hear a version of the same frustration: "We can't compete with the chains. They're everywhere." It sounds like a budget problem. It isn't. Chains don't win because they're better. They win because they're already familiar when the decision gets made. And by the time a new resident is looking for a place to become a regular, that decision is closer to finished than most local business owners realize. The Game Is Habit, Not Discovery Most local businesses think customers find them when they need them. Search for a coffee shop, pick one, maybe come back. That's not how it works. Oxford University and WPP Media's research across 1.2 million consumer purchase journeys found that 84% of purchase decisions are driven b...

Tag: Restaurant

The Three-Visit Problem No One Talks About

Why the Best Restaurant in the Neighborhood Is Often Not the Busiest One