Half of All Diners Choose Restaurants Based on Recommendations

When consumers are trying out new restaurants, friends and acquaintances’ first-hand reports are key.

For the latest edition of PYMNTS’ Restaurant Digital Divide study, “The 2022 Restaurant Digital Divide: Turning First-Time Diners Into Loyal Customers,” we surveyed a census-balanced panel of 2,256 U.S. consumers in October about the factors that would drive them to try out a restaurant. What we found reveals that consumers expand their horizons based on the advice of the people in their life far more than on any other reason.

Specifically, 50% of diners cited someone else’s recommendation as one important reason they might purchase from a new restaurant, and 29% cited it as the single most important reason, a far greater share than said the same of any other factor. The next-most common reason — consumers looking for diversity — trailed well behind at 30% and 15%, respectively.

As far as restaurant features encouraging trial, meanwhile, eateries’ reputation or appearance was most cited as the single greatest reason a consumer might try a new place, whereas offers of deals and discounts were the most popular factor to be included among the considerations important to a given consumer.

Remembering their most recent time trying a new place, other factors came to mind.

“When consumers look back on their meals, they focus [most] on whether they liked the food,” the report noted.

Indeed, 32% of the diners surveyed cited the taste of the food as their top reason for choosing a given restaurant the most recent time they tried out a new place, a far greater share than said the same of any other factor. In contrast, the next-most common reason, familiarity with the restaurant, was cited by only 13% of those surveyed, and the third-most common, physical location of the restaurant, by 12%.