Top Secrets for Restaurant Growth: Understanding the New Guest Journey

In Restaurant Growth Secrets, Adam Guild, co-founder and CEO of restaurant tech platform Owner, reveals how independent restaurants can compete with chains by cost-effectively building their online presence and telling their stories. He debunks common "lies" about social media, delivery apps, and technology budgets and offers practical tips for mastering the modern guest journey, from ranking on Google to turning a website into a sales machine.

Why write this book now?

Big restaurant chains keep getting bigger. Some people call it “the chainification of America”: chains like Domino’s are making more money, while mom-and-pop restaurants struggle and fail. According to the IFDA, the top 500 chains keep earning a bigger share of total sales in the restaurant industry. Meanwhile, independent restaurants earn less and less.

Nobody wants this.

After years of studying this trend, I’ve found out what’s going on. 20 years ago, it was enough for restaurants to just provide great food and great service. When restaurant owners did those 2 things right, they were guaranteed a huge following of loyal customers. Often they could expand to multiple locations.

But, especially in the past five years, the world has changed. Most of the guest experience is now online.

People don’t want to see their favorite local mom-and-pop spots replaced by Domino’s. People want to see local businesses succeed.

For example, guests discover your restaurant online. They check reviews and compare them to reviews of other restaurants. At least 77% of guests make their buying decisions based on your website.

Corporations like Domino’s have a head start in this new world. They employ many people who specialize in each marketing tool. They use various software programs to constantly improve the performance of every tool.

Independent owners can’t spend all day learning and executing every element of digital marketing. They have to run the restaurant. The result is that we’re moving toward this more corporate world, which nobody wants.

People don’t want to see their favorite local mom-and-pop spots replaced by Domino’s. People want to see local businesses succeed.

I’m one of those people. That’s why I’m obsessed with making sure local restaurants know the things that Domino’s knows.

What are key marketing mistakes you see independent operators make and how can taking a systemic approach help them?

The most common mistake is thinking that they need to be active on social media. It makes sense that people believe this: everyone “knows” that social media is the most powerful tool businesses can use today to grow. There’s some truth to that. But it isn’t true for restaurants.

The main problem is that social media reaches a global audience. But restaurants need to reach people locally, not globally. Most restaurant customers live within just 5 miles of the restaurant.

The most successful restaurant owners practically ignore social media.

The most successful restaurant owners practically ignore social media. What they don’t ignore is Google.

What they don’t ignore is Google. For example, I know a restaurant owner named Mo Farraj. His business, Talkin’ Tacos, started with just one location: a food truck.

Over four years, I watched him grow to 10 brick-and-mortar locations. He now has more than 20 locations and is franchising across state lines.

Mo tried the social media strategy and the Google strategy at the same time. He invested heavily in Instagram and gained more than 200,000 followers. He also made himself easier to find on Google.

With his huge following, you’d expect social media to be the top driver of Mo’s growth. Yet, we can track where his customers are coming from. And the data shows that Mo’s huge social media following accounts for less than 10 percent of his new customers. Google represents more than 90 percent.

The majority of restaurant guests in 2025 still use Google to find restaurants. And this is awesome news for restaurant owners, because you can create a system that brings people from Google to your restaurant like clockwork. But only if you can avoid getting distracted by social media marketing that isn’t a good fit for your business.

What do you hope a reader takes away from reading this?

First, I want restaurant owners to see how the online shift has changed the restaurant industry in recent years.

Second, I want them to feel confident that they can succeed in this new world. There are clear steps to success that you can follow even if you aren’t a tech whiz. My hope is that my readers will follow those steps

How can operators build the perfect online experience?

It starts with understanding what I call The New Guest Journey. The journey starts with the guest craving a dish that you offer, and searching on Google for a nearby place to get it.

If your online experience is perfect, the guest ends up buying from you that dish that they were craving.

In the book, I break down each step of the journey, along with each of the pitfalls along the way. Across all of the chapters, I describe how it’s possible to create the ideal online experience and avoid each of the pitfalls.

What do restaurant websites need to be successful and drive dine-in and online ordering and meet guests where they are? Why should they have dedicated pages for top menu items?

I used to think restaurant websites just needed to look nice. But the most successful restaurant owners use their website to serve a purpose: driving sales.

They think of an effective website as a conversion machine.

The conversion machine leads people from Google to your website, and then converts them into playing customers. This is why every corporate chain, including Domino’s and Sweetgreen, has invested millions into optimizing every last detail of their website.

As it turns out, there are 10 elements that you can build into your website that will help you convert more customers.

In the book, I tell the story of Antoinette Belvedere, the owner of Ottavio’s in Lakeside, California. Antoinette decided to revamp her website with a focus on those 10 “must-haves” that make a restaurant website into a conversion machine. She went from making less than $1,000 per month through her website (via online ordering) to over $25,000 per month.

Her website is now a superpower that drives tons of sales.

The first of the 10 “must-haves” is a unique page for each popular menu item, like Pepperoni Calzone and Shrimp Alfredo.

This might sound ridiculous. But it’s true.Let me explain.

For every popular dish, dozens of people are craving that dish in every city in the United States. Craving it, and searching for it on Google.

For every popular dish, dozens of people are craving that dish in every city in the United States. Craving it, and searching for it on Google.

For example, let’s say I want great angel hair pasta and I’m in Lakeside. I’m likely to search on Google for “best angel hair pasta in Lakeside, California.” You’ll notice that Ottavio’s Italian Restaurant comes up twice in the top results for that phrase: once in the map result and once in the search results.

This is because it’s the only Italian restaurant in the area that has a dedicated page for angel hair pasta in Lakeside, California. The page has a description of the dish, relevant reviews of the dish, and (of course) pictures.

Ottavio’s gets 45 new customers every month from Google, like clockwork. The reason is that they have pages for each of their most popular menu items. These pages appear in search results when people in the area search for the menu items online.

The best part is that getting those customers is free. All Ottavio’s had to do was set up the pages once. No need to pay Google for every click. People come in like clockwork every month, without any cost.

That’s why you want to have dedicated pages for popular menu items.

How can restaurants appeal to the value-seeking customer in their messaging?

Restaurants can offer more value by building a gamified loyalty system into their ordering experience.

Chick-fil-A, for example, has a loyalty system that has helped them build the most loyal customer base on planet Earth. Owner.com has modeled ours after theirs. For every dollar customers spend at a restaurant, they get points. Those points can unlock different food rewards.

You might think food rewards will drive up food costs and wipe out profit margins. But Chick-fil-A created a loyalty system that doesn’t allow customers to unlock the entire menu. It allows customers to unlock free rewards only on menu items with very low food cost: appetizers, drinks, and desserts. The food cost on these items is always less than 10%.

The most successful restaurant owners take advantage of a hack of restaurant economics: they intentionally use the items with the lowest food cost as free giveaways.

For example, while a restaurant might sell cheese fries for $7, the food cost for the cheese fries is 35 cents. The restaurant can give customers cheese fries every order to thank them for being loyal. Customers see that they’re getting a $7 value, but it costs the restaurant just 35 cents.

This is the most powerful way to drive customer loyalty. It creates a perception of generosity.

What should operators understand about the concept of social proof?

Most people check online reviews before deciding where to eat. Some sources think it’s as many as 98 percent of people. Those customers are looking for social proof. They want to make sure your food is good. That’s why reviews, especially those that mention specific foods, are gold.

The best experience happens when Daniel searches for a pepperoni calzone on Google, sees a great review of your pepperoni calzone, and then orders it.

If Daniel likes the calzone, you’re likely to keep seeing him as a regular. That social proof is so important for that initial conversion.

More generally, reviews make an enormous difference in people’s perception of the value of your food. Do they see you as a 3.5-star restaurant, a 4-star restaurant, or a 4.7 star restaurant?

Finally, social proof also matters to Google, and affects your Google rankings. Google says that businesses with at least 4 stars are ranked higher than others, and businesses with more reviews rank above those with fewer.

Why is it so important for restaurants to keep putting their story out there? What makes a good story?

Restaurant owners tell me great stories. They say things like, “My dad came to the United States from Japan with nothing but eighty-five dollars and a ramen recipe, and my brother and I are still making ramen.”

That’s an awesome story. Guests want to hear that. We continually find that restaurant owners who tell their stories have more repeat guests, higher average check sizes, and higher conversion rates.

So I recommend having a section on your homepage with a few sentences about your story. It’s even better if you link to a separate page where guests can learn more.

Videos are ideal for storytelling because they make connecting to you easier, but text and pictures work great too.

The last chapter of the book gets into the nuances of how your story helps you build an enduring brand that inspires guests to keep returning.

What is the significance of operators cultivating the data they collect?

We’ve all had this experience as guests of other people’s restaurants: we love a restaurant; it’s our favorite food. We order it at least once a week. We go there in person and enjoy the dining room, too.

Then one day we leave that restaurant, and life happens.

Something interrupts our pattern. Maybe we go out of town or some event causes us to break our habit of going to the restaurant.

The restaurant didn’t do anything wrong. We don’t suddenly hate their food. Still, over the next few weeks, we just forget about that restaurant. The restaurant doesn’t remind us to come back or order, so we don’t remember to come back.

Unless restaurants are loud enough in their messaging and consistent enough in how frequently they communicate, people forget or lose track of them.

Then months, even years, pass, and eventually we remember, “Oh my gosh, Bill’s Pizzeria was the best, what happened to that place? We should order from them again.”

And we do.

But in that period, Bill's Pizzeria lost out on all that potential business. In some cases, customers might never return.

In this very noisy world, restaurants get forgotten. It isn’t because people suddenly start to hate their food. It’s because there’s just so much noise.

Unless restaurants are loud enough in their messaging and consistent enough in how frequently they communicate, people forget or lose track of them.

The solution to this problem is ensuring that once a customer has either dined at your restaurant physically or ordered digitally, you don’t lose touch with them. You send them messages reminding them of what they loved about the experience. You tell them more about your story, events, or specials to keep them engaged. But you can only do this if you have data.

That’s why it’s important to build your guest list.

Why should restaurants create an emotional connection with their guests?

An emotional connection makes your restaurant more memorable. People are more likely to return if they love the way your restaurant makes them feel. 

I recommend that every restaurant owner go through a branding exercise in which you ask yourself: “Who are my customers, and how do I want them to feel when they think about my restaurant?”

Then you can think about how to encourage that emotional association.

For example, maybe your customers are family-oriented. You can appeal to families with your menu (by having shareable, family-sized portions). You can appeal to them with your decor (with warm colors and heirlooms or other family-oriented objects in the dining room). You can appeal to families with your branding (like having a logo that proudly shows you’re a family business).

All those elements come together into an emotional experience that makes your guests think of your restaurant next time they want to do something special as a family.

How can an operator uncover their ideal customer?

I recommend getting inspired by the founder of Domino’s: Tom Monaghan. He was 23 years old when he started the company. He enjoyed playing the game of dominoes, which was popular among his peers at the time.

Once you define your ideal customer, you can use that to inform your business decisions.

Tom Monaghan is now 88 years old. To this day, the data shows that typical Domino’s customers are young men, ages 20-30, who are low-income (as Tom once was, when he started the business).

That isn’t by accident. Tom was the person he was trying to serve. And he knew many other people who were like him. So, he was able to predict their tastes.

Every decision ever since made by Domino’s has been designed to appeal to that same customer group. When they open new locations, they decide based on which neighborhoods have the most young men.

Once you define your ideal customer, you can use that to inform your business decisions. That includes your menu, design, locations, pricing, marketing taglines, and more. So the first step is deciding who you want to build your reputation with. Because that’s what a brand is: it’s the reputation of your restaurant.

You don’t have to resemble your customer like Tom did. But you do have to know them, and build a reputation with them.