Restaurant business intelligence: all your data, matched to each guest
What the answer looks like
Illustrative output on sample data
Illustrative example: how Lexi answers this for a burger chain with 40 locations. It brings POS, reservations, the ordering app and loyalty together and matches records to one guest by email, phone and loyalty number.
- 2.9 million records across four systems
- 1.1 million unique guests after matching
- 38% of guests appear in two or more systems
What the data shows
Guests who order through the app and also dine in spend 2.4 times as much a year as dine-in-only guests. Neither system could show that alone.
What it means
Reports built from one source undercount your best guests and overcount one-off visitors.
What to do
Use the matched guest view as the base for loyalty and marketing reports, and retire the separate app and POS guest counts.
Every figure shows the sources and matching rules behind it. Want me to show how many guests matched by each identifier?
Why it matters
Most restaurant groups keep sales in the POS, bookings in the reservation system and orders in a separate app. Reporting each one alone counts the same guest three times and hides how people really use your venues, which makes every question about guests slower to answer.
Frequently asked questions
What is restaurant business intelligence?
Restaurant business intelligence brings together data from your POS, reservations, online ordering, loyalty and marketing tools to report on sales, guests and venues in one place. The most useful setups match records to each guest as well as to each transaction.
Why match restaurant data to individual guests?
The same guest books online, orders through an app and pays in person. Without matching, they appear as three people, so visit frequency, retention and guest value all look worse than they are, and your best guests are hard to find.
Which data sources should restaurants connect first?
Start with the point of sale (POS), since it holds every transaction, then add reservations, online ordering and loyalty, which carry the guest details. Email and SMS platforms come next, so campaign results can be tied to visits and spend.