How well do you know your customers? Do you know their dining habits, ages or income levels? If not, you’re missing out on an opportunity to boost your profits and better serve your customers. Through restaurant market research, you can get to know your customers, their dining habits, their preferences and more.
What Do Restaurant Demographics Tell You About Your Customers?
In many ways, demographics are like a customer analysis. They give you insights into your customers and their behaviors and include things like:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Income
- Dining habits
Demographics are just one segment to track if you’re trying to understand the target market for restaurants. Other segments include:
- Psychographic: Customer values, interests and motivations. For example, health-conscious diners may prefer natural or plant-based menu options.
- Behavioral: How diners interact with your brand, how often they dine out, how they respond to offers, etc.
- Geographic: Where your customers are located and how that shapes dining behavior.
Each of these segments gives you valuable data you can use to improve your marketing and customer retention strategies.
Why Restaurant Market Research Matters
Demographics and market research data play an important role in your restaurant marketing strategy. After all, if you don’t understand your customers, you can’t send the right message in your advertisements. That leads to lower profitability and wasted marketing dollars.
But your bottom line isn’t the only reason why market research matters.
It also:
Defines Your Brand
Your restaurant’s brand encompasses everything from your physical look to your tone and messaging.
When you understand your customers, you can emphasize features and aesthetics that appeal to them. For example, if your demographic is primarily families, you can advertise your kids' menu.
If your brand doesn’t resonate with your target market, you could be focusing on a customer base that isn’t suitable for your restaurant.
Helps You Better Serve Your Customers
With demographics in mind, you can better cater to your customers’ preferences. For example, you can:
- Adjust your opening hours based on when diners are more likely to visit your establishment. Stay open when your target market has the time to dine and close your doors when they’re otherwise occupied.
- Create specialized places for customers. If you have the right demographics and space, you can create spaces such as event rooms or play areas to appeal to your customers.
- Choose a prime location (if you haven’t opened your restaurant yet or plan to expand). If you cater to younger demographics, a central downtown location would naturally attract more customers.
Allows You to Optimize Your Menu
Your target market shapes your menu. If you’re focused on families, things like a larger kids’ menu or family-style meals that can be shared will be more appealing.
Makes it Easier to Choose the Right Marketing Channels
Understanding your target market and their preferences makes it easier to focus on the most effective marketing channels.
For example, if you have younger demographics, social media may be more effective than traditional direct mail or emails.
Or if you have an establishment in the city center, you can use booking platforms to attract visitors and tourists.
As you can see, demographics affect your entire business, from marketing to branding and everything in between.
The Most Important Customer Demographics to Track
You know why market research is important, but which demographics should you be paying attention to?
Some of the most important ones include:
- Income: Spending power helps you adjust your pricing and gauge the willingness of customers to spend on premium experiences.
- Familial status: Dining behaviors and habits look different for married couples, single customers and those with children.
- Age: Generational habits impact how diners find, book and enjoy restaurants.
- Location: Where are your customers located? This data can help you understand whether you’re serving locals or tourists.
- Tech adoption: Your target market’s tech savviness impacts the way they find and book with you.
All of these data points paint a clear picture of your customers, helping you adjust your marketing, service and menu to suit their preferences.
How to Collect Customer Data
For many restaurant owners, the biggest question with market research is: How do I collect data?
There’s a good chance that you’re already using tools that can provide this information. But there are also other methods you can use to get the data you need.
- POS and CRM data: These platforms automatically collect and track guest preferences, spending and visit frequency. Many CRMs integrate into POS systems to make data collection and analysis even easier.
- Surveys: Ask customers to share their demographic information and feedback in a survey. Send it to customers who have subscribed to your email list – they’re likely your most loyal customers. Consider offering an incentive, such as a discount or free menu item, in exchange.
- Observation: Pay attention to the diners at your restaurant. Observe them at different times of the day and make note of things like ages and whether they’re dining as a family, a couple or solo.
- Social media analytics: Most social platforms give you access to some audience data, such as location, gender, age, browsing habits and interests.
How to Leverage Your Customer Analysis Data
You’ve collected your demographics and analyzed your restaurant data analytics. Now what? There are many ways to leverage this data to improve your operations:
Improve Your Service
When you know your customers, you can better serve them. For example, if one of your regulars makes a reservation and you know they dine with a small child, you can anticipate their needs by having a high chair ready – without being asked.
Make Better Suggestions
Understanding a customer’s dining preferences helps your staff make better recommendations. For example, if you know that a diner prefers white wine, your staff can recommend a special bottle of chardonnay.
Market Research Helps You Deliver a More Personalized Experience
The goal of restaurant demographics and market research is to understand your customers. When you know their preferences, ages, income levels and behaviors, you can deliver a more personalized experience.
Use the tools at your disposal or adopt new technology to collect the data you need and transform that into a better dining experience.