By Matt Plapp
Last week here on PMQ.com, I gave you the macro view of the ABR Restaurant Marketing Funnel and told you to pick one pillar to plug. Today, I’m zooming all the way in—to the spot where most of you are bleeding the most, and you don’t even know it. It’s the one spot you have full control over and almost zero excuses for getting wrong: inside your four walls.
Let me start with a number that should make you uncomfortable. Eight out of 10 people walking through your front door right now are not in your customer database. That’s right—they’re not on your email list. Not on your text list. Not part of your loyalty program.
These are people who already drove past three Chipotles to get to you. They already made a conscious decision to choose you. They walked through your doors, handed you their money, and they’re sitting at one of your tables eating your food right now.
And you are letting them walk back out without ever capturing who they are. That’s not a marketing problem. That’s a marketing crime.
The Question Every Restaurant Asks That Nobody Cares About
My wife, Christy, and I eat out most days. I walk into restaurants two to three times a day across this country. And I get asked the same question every single time: “How are you doing?”
Let’s face it: You don’t care how I’m doing. I don’t care how you’re doing. Stop asking.
A couple months ago, I walked into the new Dave’s Hot Chicken here in Florence, Kentucky. The GM, a guy named Mario, opened the door, saw me in my orange puffy jacket, and before I could say a word, he said, “Matt, I’m not going to ask you how you’re doing, because you don’t give a s—. Welcome to Dave’s. Let’s get you some food.”
I lost it. Best welcome I’ve gotten in a year! Turns out his crew had been watching my content. He took the lesson and ran with it. That’s the exact mindset every owner needs. Your front door is the highest-value square footage of attention in your entire business. Quit wasting it on a script that nobody actually wants the answer to.
Why This Lives in the Attract Pillar
This concept fits under the category of attracting attention, in-store. The customer is already there. The hardest part is done. Unfortunately, there are three places you’re failing inside your four walls. I want to fix each one, and here’s how:
1. The Language
Your team needs a script. Period. Not “How are you doing?” That’s lazy, and it doesn’t sell anything. Try this instead: “Have you been here before?”
If they say yes, your team goes assumptive: “Awesome, you’re already in our VIP program, right? What’s your phone number, let me pull you up.” When they say no, you say, “Oh, man, before we go any further, let me get you in. We’ve got a $100 monthly cash giveaway, and you’ll get a free pizza on your next visit.”
If they say no, they’ve never been there before, your team goes in the other direction: “Welcome in. Let me get you signed up real quick so you can get a free dessert tonight and a free pizza next time. What’s your phone number?”
That’s a system. That’s not magic. And before you tell me your team can’t be trained on this, let me remind you of something. In June 2019, not a single one of your employees was wearing a mask. By June 2020, every single one of them was—every shift, no exceptions. Anything can be trained when you decide it’s mandatory.
Your marketing capture script is mandatory. Treat it that way.
2. The Call to Action
Your team isn’t always going to bring the energy. Your 16-year-old hostess on a Wednesday night is not Matt Plapp. So you need calls to action working when she isn’t.
Here are some ideas: Cardboard standees. Window clings. Table toppers. Check presenters. QR codes everywhere a customer is already looking. The other day, I was walking down a hallway to a restroom, looking at my phone, and saw QR codes on the floor! I scanned the thing—of course I did. I was already looking down. Genius.
But here’s the rule when you send someone somewhere with a QR code: Give them one choice. Not a menu of five things they can do. Not “Scan to see our menu, our hours, our loyalty program, our catering page and our gift cards.” If you want them in your loyalty program, the QR code goes to one place: the loyalty program signup page. People don’t choose; people bounce.
I learned that one the hard way at Hofbräuhaus Newport years ago. We made our QR contest so complicated I had to include a link to download the QR reader app, because back then phones didn’t have them built in. People still did it, because the offer was great. But that taught me: The easier the path, the more wins you get.
3. The Graphics
I walked into Quaker Steak & Lube years ago, and the owner Jim was showing me around. He was frustrated. “Matt, my customers don’t know we’ve got these promotions running. Look, the signs are right there in the windows.”
I said, “Jim, you see them. Your customers stopped seeing them in 2019. It’s wallpaper now.”
That’s the trap with in-store graphics. You see them every day, so you assume they’re being seen. They’re not. They’ve become background noise. The same sign in the same window for five years isn’t marketing. It’s wallpaper with Scotch tape on the corners.
Refresh your in-store graphics every 90 days, minimum. Match your brand. Make them clean and professional. And make them say one thing.
Here’s a useful hack: Your beer distributor will print this stuff for you for free. Most of the big Budweiser distributors have in-house printing, and if you give them a couple weeks of lead time and your artwork, they’ll knock it out at no cost. Stop ignoring the people who already pay to be in your restaurant.
The In-Store Contest That Stacks
One of my favorite hacks for inside the four walls: Put a clear jar on the host stand or the bar with coins, candy hearts, jellybeans, whatever the season calls for. Add a sign: “Guess how many [items] are in this jar.”
The QR code on the jar doesn’t take them to a landing page; it takes them to a Facebook post. They comment their guess on the post. Now you’ve got their attention in-store, plus social media engagement outside of the store, a Messenger conversation you can hit them up with later, and a database opt-in. Look at this simple one by Fine Folk Pizza, which put some chocolate chips in a pizza box for everyone to see. They got more than 280 comments on one post!
That contest can change every month. Use it to celebrate Mother’s Day in May. Father’s Day in June. The USA in July. Back to school in August. Halloween in October. You get the point.
Inside your four walls is where Attract becomes Build (the second pillar of ABR Marketing). Without a system to capture, your in-store traffic is just charity work for chains that will out-system you next quarter.
One Thing to Do This Week
Pick a script. Just one. Train your team on it tomorrow morning. Have them practice it on each other before the doors open. Make it mandatory. Then add one in-store call to action with one QR code that goes to one place.
That’s it. Don’t overhaul the whole restaurant this week. Get the language fixed and one CTA up.
If you want to see exactly where you’re leaking attention across all three pillars, take our free WIN Audit. Answer 12 questions, and you’ll know your real score. The industry average is 28 out of 100, but we can typically add 40 points in a few months.
And, if you want to go deeper, join our free ABR Skool community, where we help owners and their teams dominate all nine strategies under the ABR pillars. We go live every Monday at 3 p.m. Eastern. Bring your questions.
Remember: Eight out of 10 customers walked in your doors today and walked back out without you ever knowing their name. Tomorrow, that number had better be a whole lot smaller. Now let’s go win this week!
I’m Matt Plapp, the CEO of America’s Best Restaurants, and we exist to help independent restaurant owners win. Not survive—win. We help them win through their marketing and by leveraging our three pillars: Attract Attention, Build a Database and Retain Your Customers. The goal is to win new customers, win back lost customers, win more frequent visits, win higher check averages, win your community’s attention, and win against the chains. That last one is the one keeping you up at night. And it should be.
