Get Customers to Order Again This Week
A guy picked up two tacos last Saturday, said he'd be back next week. He ordered once, then disappeared. Nobody followed up. He ended up at the place down the street that texted him a coupon a day later.
The whole job this week is to get customers to order again. Not ten times. Just twice. The second order is a different sale, and almost no one treats it that way.
The second order is a different sale
The first order is a guess. Someone saw you on Instagram, or a friend told them, or they Googled tacos near me. They took a chance. The second order is not a chance. It's a choice. They have to remember you, decide it's worth the effort, and actually pull out their phone.
Each of those steps is a place you can lose them. Most owners only focus on the food. The food has to be good, sure. But food is the price of admission. What brings them back is everything around it.
What to do this week
Pick a number from last week. Say 40 new pickup orders. Half of them will not order again unless you make it easy. Here is what to try, starting Monday.
- Write a short note on the bag for every new customer. Sharpie, two seconds. Something like "Thanks for trying us, see you next time." A real human mark, not a printed insert.
- Send a one-line text the next day, if you have their number. "How was the pastrami? We'd love to see you again." No coupon, no push, just a check-in.
- Put a small card in the bag with a direct way back to your pickup page. Not a menu PDF. Not a QR code that sends them to your Instagram. A direct path to skip ahead to ordering.
- Make the second order a little easier. If they ordered at 6:30, send a note at 4 the next Friday: "Tacos at 6:30 again?" Predictability is a feature.
The point is not to be clever. The point is to be remembered. A new customer has ten tabs in their head about where to eat next week. You have to land in one of them, or the first order is just a one-time gift to your kitchen.
The strongest pickup shops I see treat a new customer like a guest at their house. They say thank you. They offer the coffee. They make it easy to come back through the door.