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Repeat local

How cafes and restaurants get clients: a 90-day plan

How your buyer buys: Modest price, bought again and again. Retention is the whole economics.

Nobody searches for your restaurant by name until they have eaten there. They search for lunch near them, Sunday roast in your town, or somewhere that takes a table of ten with a dog. The map result with recent reviews, a menu with prices and a booking link gets the table. The decision takes about a minute and is made on a phone outside.

A guest who books through an app belongs to the app, and you pay for each visit. A guest who booked on your own site, left an email at the table and got a reason to come back on a Tuesday belongs to you. The group bookers, the office manager with a Christmas party and the hotel sending its guests somewhere for dinner, want set menus, a per-head price and a reply the same day.

So the booking widget on your own site, the 48-hour reminder with a held card for peak slots, and the Google profile with the menu come first. Then the review QR code on the bill card, the typed menu page with a price on every dish, and the same-day private hire reply. Then the guest list, the six dishes shot by a window, and the hotels and offices that send groups.

Step zero

The free checklist, before the plan.

The checklist repairs what you already have: the phone, the profile, the booking path. This page is the plan for new work on top of it, and the two are different jobs.

The Cafe & Restaurant DIY Growth Checklist

The free checklist for cafes and restaurants: every repair to the phone, the profile and the booking path, as step-by-step actions. Sent by email.

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Where they look

Where your customers actually look.

  • Google Business Profile(opens in a new tab)

    Where the table is decided. The most specific true category, such as Italian restaurant or Coffee shop, the menu link and your own booking link. Set special hours for every bank holiday before someone turns up to a locked door.

  • Tripadvisor(opens in a new tab)

    Visitors and out-of-town group bookers still start here. Claim the listing, match the details to Google, and reply to every review within the week, including the unfair one-star.

  • OpenTable(opens in a new tab)

    A booking channel with a diner base of its own, and a fee per cover. Worth it for the tables you would not otherwise fill, as long as your own site's widget is where regulars and Google send people.

  • TheFork

    The other booking app diners browse by town and cuisine, often for the discounted midweek slots. Use it for the quiet nights you want to fill, and keep the Friday and Saturday tables on your own booking.

  • Instagram(opens in a new tab)

    Where a birthday organiser looks at the room and the plates before booking. The six dishes by the window, the room laid for a party, and the booking link in the bio.

  • Deliveroo and Just Eat

    A paid channel, not a listing. The commission is high and the customer belongs to the app. Use them for the covers the kitchen can take at quiet hours, and put your own menu page and booking link on every bag.

Your year

When the phone rings, and when to start.

Christmas parties fill November and December, then January and February are thin; summer depends on your location.

  1. Jan: quiet
  2. Feb: quiet
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug, start the visibility work
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov: peak
  12. Dec: peak

Amber months are the peak, grey months are quiet, and "start" marks the month the visibility work has to begin in.

  • November to December peak: start by August, because local search takes about three months to move.

The year peaks in November and December, when office parties and family meals fill every evening, and then January and February go thin. Christmas parties are organised early, and the search work that puts your festive set menu in front of an office manager takes a quarter, so the push for December starts in August. In September, send the festive set menu to last year's group bookers before anyone else sees it. Summer depends on where you are: a seaside cafe fills in August and a town centre restaurant empties. January and February are for the guest list emails with a named midweek night and the reshoot of the new menu. Visit the hotels and the theatre that send groups all year in the same weeks.

The 90-day plan

Four phases, in the order that pays back fastest.

Each step names its channel, its cost band from the technique register, the effort it takes, and how long until the first enquiry or booking.

Week 0

  1. Online booking

    Embed the booking widget on your own site, and point Google, Instagram and Facebook at it

    • Cost: ££
    • Low effort
    • First result in 0 to 2 weeks
    In the bundle

  2. Reminders, deposits, cancellation policy

    Send a reminder 48 hours before with a cancel link, and hold a card for peak slots and tables of six or more

    • Cost: £
    • Low effort
    • First result in 0 to 2 weeks
    In the kit and the bundle

  3. Google Business Profile, complete

    Choose the most specific true category, add your menu and booking links, and set special hours for every bank holiday

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 4 to 12 weeks

Month 1

  1. Ask every client for a review

    Put a review QR code on the bill card, and reply to every Google and TripAdvisor review within the week

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • About 30 minutes a week
    • First result in 4 to 12 weeks
    In the kit and the bundle

  2. Published prices or bands

    Publish the menu as a typed web page with a price on every dish, and per-head prices for groups and private hire

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 1 to 4 weeks
    In the bundle

  3. Reply inside five minutes

    Answer private hire enquiries the same day with the set menu and a deposit link

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 0 to 2 weeks
    In the kit

Months 2 to 3

  1. An email list, emailed each season

    Build a guest list at booking, and email a reason to book: a named midweek night or the new seasonal menu

    • Cost: £
    • Low effort
    • First result in 2 to 8 weeks
    In the kit and the bundle

  2. Photograph every job

    Shoot six dishes by a window, the room, the shopfront and the team, and reshoot when the menu changes

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 4 to 12 weeks

  3. Local Facebook groups

    When the town group asks where to eat for a birthday or with a dog, reply with what they need to know and the menu link

    • Cost: Free
    • Low effort
    • First result in 1 to 6 weeks

Month 3 onward

  1. Gatekeeper partnerships

    Give hotels without a restaurant, office managers and the nearest theatre your set menus and a direct line for groups

    • Cost: Free
    • Medium effort
    • First result in 8 to 16 weeks

  2. Van livery, site boards, noticeboards

    Put today's menu with prices in the window and one dish with its price on the pavement board

    • Cost: £
    • Low effort
    • First result in 1 to 4 weeks

  3. Meta ads, tight local radius

    Advertise one named offer within a few miles, such as Sunday lunch or Christmas parties, with your own dish photos

    • Cost: £££
    • Medium effort
    • About 1 hour a week
    • First result in 1 to 4 weeks
The cost of waiting

What doing nothing costs cafes and restaurants.

The leaks below are the ones the cafes and restaurants page already names. Put a figure on each, see what the fix gets back a month, and how many weeks the kit or the bundle takes to pay for itself.

Industry estimates, not client results

Industry-typical ranges for an independent restaurant: a booking for two spending in the tens of pounds, nearly every booking request seated, and a regular returning around six times a year.

Every number below is prefilled from that estimate and editable. Put your own figures in and the leaks, gains and payback recalculate as you type.

Your numbers

Further purchases per won customer in a year

Baseline revenue on these figures: £25,200 a month, counting this month's new customers and a twelfth of their repeat business, plus a month of spend from the regulars below.

Your regular clients

Around three hundred regulars visiting every couple of months, with roughly three in a hundred stopping coming in a typical month.

Leaking now
£270 a month
Gain from the fix
£81 a month
The fix
Waiting list and email engine (about £700 one-off)
Pays back in
37.4 weeks

Each regular kept counts for one month of their spend.

Where it leaks

  • Drains close rate

    No-shows on Friday and Saturday leave tables you cannot resell

    Leaking now
    £1,800 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £1,080 a month
    The fix
    Booking system with deposits (about £750 one-off)
    Pays back in
    3.0 weeks

  • Drains repeat purchases

    Midweek is quiet and there is nobody to tell about it

    Leaking now
    £1,350 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £405 a month
    The fix
    Waiting list and email engine (about £700 one-off)
    Pays back in
    7.5 weeks

  • Drains enquiries

    Group and private hire enquiries arrive mid-service and go cold

    Leaking now
    £1,800 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £900 a month
    The fix
    A website that converts (about £1,750 one-off)
    Pays back in
    8.4 weeks

  • Drains enquiries

    The menu is a PDF that is slow on a phone and out of date

    Leaking now
    £1,800 a month
    Gain from the fix
    £720 a month
    The fix
    A website that converts (about £1,750 one-off)
    Pays back in
    10.5 weeks

On these figures

£7,020 a month leaking

Fixing every leak above gets back about £3,186 a month, with each leak counted on its own against the same baseline, regulars kept included.

The Full-Tables System (£1,995)
Pays back in 2.7 weeks
The Cafe & Restaurant Growth Kit (£49)
Pays back in under a week

Inside the 90-day window on these figures. Change any field above to test it against your own numbers for cafes and restaurants.

What matters most

The levers that carry the most weight here.

Four steps do most of the work for a cafe or restaurant. The Google profile, with the most specific true category, the menu and your own booking link, because the table is decided on the map. The reminder 48 hours before with a held card for Friday, Saturday and tables of six or more, because a no-show on a Saturday is a table you cannot resell. The guest list built at booking and emailed a reason to come on a quiet night, which is the one channel that fills a Tuesday. And six dishes photographed by a window, reshot when the menu changes, because food is chosen on sight. The set menus in the hands of hotels without a restaurant and office managers follow from month three.

See every lever for cafes and restaurants in the register

Reading for cafes and restaurants

All insights
  • Read How independent restaurants win direct bookings and own their guest list
    Marketing

    How independent restaurants win direct bookings and own their guest list

    Booking apps and delivery platforms introduce you to strangers, and many keep charging when those strangers become regulars. Here is how a cafe or restaurant takes bookings directly, cuts no-shows, and builds an email list that fills quiet nights.

    18 September 20269 min readRead
  • Read The order to do things in: a client acquisition sequence for small UK businesses
    Marketing

    The order to do things in: a client acquisition sequence for small UK businesses

    Most small businesses try marketing in the order they hear about it. The order that pays back fastest is fixed: plug the leaks, sharpen the offer, get found, get known, go and ask, get referred. Here is what each step involves and how to tell which one you are on.

    10 October 20268 min readRead

If you would rather we did this for you

The same plan, built and run for cafes and restaurants: the phone, the profile, the pages and the follow-up, priced up front.

See what we build for cafes and restaurants

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