7 Highly Effective Ways to Boost Restaurant Customer Loyalty

6 min readJul 22, 2021

Having a loyal customer base is the best thing that could happen to any business. It has to be one of the top priorities for everyone. Most of you probably already know that. But some of you may think bringing in new customers is way more important. I agree that bringing in new customers is essential for businesses. However, building a loyal customer base cannot be ignored.

Here are a few reasons why: Acquiring new clients can be around 5 to 25 times costlier than retaining an existing client. Moreover, a 5% increase in customer retention can increase your profits by more than 25%. In addition to that, 77% of customers recommend a business to a friend after having a positive experience with that business. It means loyal customers can work as ambassadors for your business. This could be the key to attract new customers as well. I could go on about the importance of customer loyalty but I think I made my point.

How to Increase Restaurant Customer Loyalty

Now that we’ve established that customer loyalty is important for your business. Let’s see the 7 steps that ensure your customers are more loyal to your restaurant than fans of the Los Angeles Lakers are to their clubs:

Provide High-quality service
Be proactive
Show Friendly gestures
Get involved in the local community
Engage through social media
Develop a restaurant customer loyalty program
Value your staff

Follow these tips and become a part of the life of every customer that enters your restaurant.

Let’s take a look at these tips in detail.

1. Provide High-Quality Service

The first one is a no-brainer. If you want your customers to keep coming back for more, you must provide the highest quality service possible. Because who’d ever go back to a place where they had a below-par experience? People have hundreds of options to choose from nowadays. If you blow up a client once you’re not getting them back.

So you have to make sure that you get even the smallest of details right every single time. To top it off always look for opportunities to deliver beyond expectations. Take every opportunity you can get to impress your customers. It’s almost always worth it.

2. Be Visible

People love the personal touch. If your customers see you, the owner of the restaurant actively working sincerely at your restaurant they’ll like it. Try to communicate your passion for the business to your customers whenever you get the chance.

If you don’t have your plate full (figuratively) try to have small chats with your customers. Make genuine attempts to know your regular customers.

In many cases, your mere presence can leave a positive impression on your customers and convince them to return.

3. Show Friendly Gestures

Many of us take big things for granted. If we go to a restaurant and the food’s great and the service is perfect we don’t notice much. We’re paying them for all of that.

However, small and inexpensive friendly gestures can almost always go a long way in putting your restaurant’s name in the hearts of your customers.

Give free items to your customers on their birthdays, anniversaries, or any other special occasion. Consider taking an item off the bill if your customer expresses discontent about any of your dishes. Remember, an unsatisfied customer is always more expensive than revenue from a single dinner.

4. Get Involved in the Local Community

The overwhelming majority of your customers will be from the area where your restaurant is situated. When was the last time anyone you know ordered food from a different town? So the fate of your restaurant will be bound to the local community. This smaller field to play in could in fact be helpful for your business. Cause now you know who you have to satisfy to thrive as a business.

You can do many things to better connect with the local community. You can donate a part of your income to the local charity, host local events, organize meetings for different sections of the community, buy local products for your restaurant, and promote local culture.

Another thing you can pretty easily do is donate extra food or resources to a local group that may need it. You’d have to throw these things away anyway. By giving them away you’re not losing any money but gaining valuable attention. (It’ll feel good as well which is a bonus)

5. Engage Through Social Media

Social media has become a very powerful tool for restaurants. If you’re active on social media you can engage with a lot of people and stay connected with your regular diners. If done correctly social media can generate a lot of revenue. It’s not even very difficult to get right.

The best part is, it’s free! So open Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and any other social network your customers are using.

Post regularly, post pictures of your new items and combos, share news about your local community, engage with the personal posts of your regular customers, engage with any post relating to your restaurant, offer discounts to diners for posting pictures about your restaurant.

Most importantly, respond to comment and reviews. Every single one of them. Particularly the bad ones. Cause if you don’t respond to bad reviews it’s gonna leave a bad impression on everyone who sees it. So you have to neutralize the review by giving a well-organized response. But don’t get carried away. Always keep your responses respectful and professional.

6. Develop a Restaurant Customer Loyalty Program

An effective customer loyalty program can be vital in ensuring your customers’ loyalty. But there’s a catch. The reward for your loyalty program has to be something attractive and attainable.

There are many businesses that have lousy loyalty programs. After spending a whole lot of money and waiting for a zillion years you get something crappy. Nobody takes those programs seriously.

If you want to develop a genuinely effective loyalty program, make sure the reward is something the customer wants and the offer is attainable. It doesn’t have to be anything too expensive. It just has to be desirable and attainable.

To make the loyalty programs even more interesting you can organize member’s only events from time to time. These may seem expensive. But it makes the customer feel really special. The return on investment is almost always worth it.

7. Value Your Staff

This may very well be the most important advice I can give you. Treat your employees well. US companies lose $550 billion every year due to disengaged employees. You can do everything else right, but if you treat your employees poorly everything will go in vain.

On the other hand, if you just have friendly conversations with them from time to time, get to know them better, and build a relationship with them you’ll see a radically different result. They’ll treat your business like it’s their business. Your customers will also notice the extra effort your staff makes and you’ll see your revenue skyrocket.

Every step that I’ve told you is somewhat easy to implement. But the reward can be huge. They’ve worked for many restaurants. I believe they’ll work for you as well.