What Restaurant Customers Really Want

752 customers told 12 restaurants exactly what they wanted. Nobody counted.

Every restaurant owner reads their reviews. Almost nobody counts them. This book counted 752 of them, across 12 restaurants in 12 states, and the result contradicts most of what owners spend money on.

83 customers raised the parking, the price, or a plate that arrived cold.

Not one of them said a word about coming back. Zero. And they recommended the restaurant slightly more often than everybody else did. That is the whole problem in one number. The things that cost you a referral and the things that cost you a regular are not the same things, and most owners are fixing the wrong half.

• The line is not your problem. 1 in 5 customers mentions waiting. 2 complained.
• A loud room costs you nothing. Customers treated it as character almost 3 times as often as a fault.
• Amazing is a referral. Tender is a return. The words customers reach for predict which one you get.
• The birthday table recommends you at half the normal rate.
• Price does not cost you the referral. It costs you the second visit.
• Across 752 reviews, 0 customers described being recognised at a restaurant they had visited before.

18 findings. Each one ends with a Steal This list you can run on your next shift. Chapter 20 puts all 18 fixes on a single page you can photograph. Chapter 21 turns them into a 30 day plan that starts by making you find out what your repeat rate actually is.

Every figure states the number of reviews behind it and what it does not prove. Where the evidence was thin, the book says so. Where 2 findings turned out to be counting errors, they were cut, and the back of the book explains why.

Study your competition. Learn their strategies. Steal their customers.