Increase Guest Count Now by Doing These Five Things

In today's challenging restaurant industry, many operators are watching revenue hold steady while their guest count quietly erodes. In this episode, restaurant business advisor Matthew Mabel breaks down why guest count is the most critical metric for independent restaurant entrepreneurs—and why menu price increases have been masking a deeper problem. Drawing from his recent presentation at the DFW Restaurant-and-Bar Conference, Matthew shares five actionable strategies restaurant owners can implement right now to reverse guest count decline, win back lapsed customers, attract new diners, and drive sustainable business growth. Whether you run a single location or a multi-unit restaurant operation, this episode delivers the entrepreneurship mindset and tactical playbook you need to thrive in a flat market.

Key Topics Covered

• Why revenue comparisons alone are misleading and how inflation has disguised guest count erosion
• The critical difference between encouraging repeat visits and winning back lapsed guests and non-users
• Five steps to make guest count the priority across your restaurant business
• How to build guest count tracking systems and lead weekly operations meetings around them
• Why hiring conversations should include guest count from day one
• The value of investing in learning and development to compete with chain restaurants
• Making guest experience a daily conversation through shift meetings, coaching, and anecdotes

Links Mentioned

• Breaking Out of the Funk of this Unusually Flat Market
• How to Take Action and Power to Boost Guest Count — link coming soon

Resources Mentioned

• Website: www.surrender.biz
• Free initial consultation available

Connect with Matthew Mabel

Matthew works with owners of successful, independent, multi-unit restaurants to improve:

• Profit growth
• Sales optimization
• Guest count increase
• Unit expansion
• Employee engagement
• Brand loyalty

How to Support the Show

• Subscribe to the Restaurant Success Podcast and Newsletter
• Rate and review the show
• Visit www.surrender.biz for additional resources

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to the Restaurant Success Podcast. I'm Matthew Mabel, veteran restaurant advisor, coach, consultant, and speaker devoted to multi-unit independent restaurant unit, profit and revenue growth, internal harmony and ownership freedom and flexibility.

This is your weekly entree of the advice, strategy and tactics that I currently provide to my best clients.

Today we're going to talk about something that I believe is the single most important topic for restaurant owners right now: increasing guest count.

Believe it or not, in this flat market, some operators are still enjoying six to eight percent comp sales. 

So, how is this done?

By figuring out how to get more people to swing the door, or open their app, and have great experiences with their restaurants. I'm going to share five things you can do right now to make that happen.

And I'll tell you, if you're hyper-committed to doing whatever it takes, you can do the same.

I actually spoke about this at last week's DFW Restaurant-and-Bar Conference, and I want to bring that conversation to you today.

So let's start with something that I think catches a lot of operators off guard. You compare revenue to prior years like someone taught you to on the first day you entered management.

But you have a problem. This calculation is past its freshness date and no longer tells the relevant story.

When you look at your guest count over the past ten years, you come away shocked because, while your revenue may be comparable, your guest count has badly eroded. And your menu price increases have kept you from noticing.

Think about that for a second. Inflation has been disguising your guest count erosion.

The numbers on your top line might look okay, but the actual number of people coming through your doors has been quietly shrinking, and price increases have been papering over the cracks.

And here's the thing. Encouraging current guests to eat in your restaurants more frequently won't do enough to increase sales significantly.

If you want a healthy sales increase, you're going to have to win back lapsed guests and win over non-users.

You have no choice. Either accept this reality and take action to increase guest count, or stay in denial, misunderstand today's market, and accept lagging performance.

Now, let's talk about taking the right action. Guest count remains your most important number, but it doesn't show up on your P&L. To increase guest count and reach more revenue and profit, I want you to take these steps now.

First, make guest count the most important topic and set an example. Work on it every day, because any day you can finish without impacting something that increases guest count is a misallocation of time.

Second, build a system to compare current guest count in each of your units to last year and explain to everyone the importance of these numbers. Start your weekly operations meetings by talking about guest count, not sales. 

Ask the question: "This year versus last year. How does that look?"

Third, start having the conversation about guest count when you hire people. Include that conversation in the interview, Front of House and Back of House.

Fourth, stretch as far as you can to echo the amazing learning-and-development efforts of your chain competition.

One of my clients established a Learning and Development position for the first time, taking that off the plate of their VP of Operations.

That's a big move, and it makes a real difference.

And fifth, talk about guest experience every day, in shift meetings, in coaching, and teaching on the shift, and measure it by asking questions and compiling anecdotes about great guest experiences.

Now, before I wrap up, I want to share something that happened to me recently. A few weeks ago, at an event with a big group of restaurateurs, one of them told me about the market's awful current conditions.

Feeling a responsibility to give them a reality check as well as hope, and to rescue them from their death spiral, I told him about some of the really successful examples I see right now.

You can still have a great restaurant business in twenty twenty-six. Don't allow yourself to think any other way.

And if you want to go deeper on some of the ideas we talked about today, I've got a couple of articles I'd recommend.

The first one is called "How to Take Action and Power to Boost Guest Count," and it lays out my four key questions that every restaurant owner should be asking themselves about their guest experience, their brand, their marketing message, and their culture. It ties directly into what we talked about today around making guest count the priority.

You can find a link to that in the show notes.

The other piece is called "Breaking Out of the Funk of this Unusually Flat Market." It's especially relevant if you're feeling stuck right now, because it walks you through how to pull your senior team together, question everything that's holding your guest count down, and take specific action on management, operations, and employee education.

That one's also linked in the show notes, and I think you'll find it really useful alongside today's episode.

Let me tell you about how we might work together. I work with owners of successful, independent, multi-unit restaurants to grow their profit, sales, guest count, and unit count. My unique approach bonds employees and guests to restaurant brands and allows owners to enjoy the freedom and flexibility they have earned.

To schedule a call with me to discuss how to achieve your biggest goals, follow the link in the show notes. The initial consultation is complimentary, and we can discuss which big moves might be right for your operation.

Thanks for listening. If you haven't already subscribed to the Restaurant Success Podcast and Newsletter podcast, please do so, and rate and review the show. Find more information in the show notes at Restaurant Success Podcast dot com.

Also find tons of information you can use in print, audio and video form at my website, www dot surrender dot biz. Thanks again and see you next time.