Turn first-time guests into high-lifetime-value regulars—without discounting yourself to death.
Engineer a progressive guest journey that makes the second, third, and tenth visit inevitable. We build the retention engine that lifts every other marketing channel you already run.
Typical return rate without a system
60%
of first-time guests never come back
Revenue regulars drive
70%
of profitable sales come from repeat guests
Strategy session cost
$0
custom retention map designed for your restaurant
Optional implementation
$279
we build everything with you or for you
Built after 8+ years of retention experiments across independent restaurants, premium casual concepts, and multi-unit hospitality groups.
The Retention Gap
Your biggest growth lever is bleeding out: 60%+ of first-time guests never return.
Not because your food, service, or vibe misses the mark—because nothing in your system is intentionally built to win the second visit. Without that second visit, there is no lifetime value, no predictable catering pipeline, and no referrals.
Empty seats, not labour, are killing margins
Your team is in place, your menu is dialled, yet tables sit open because first-time guests drift away before becoming regulars.
Marketing feels random and hard to measure
Social, ads, and email campaigns operate in silos with no shared objective or retention metric to improve over time.
No system guiding the guest journey
From the moment a guest pays their first bill, there's no structured path back—just hope they remember you next time they're hungry.
You don't need more reach—you need a repeatable system that guides strangers into “this is our spot.”
The Ski Slope Retention System choreographs guest experiences so every new diner follows a story: first visit → second visit → “we come here all the time” → “this is where we host our events.”
Once that system exists, your social content has a job, your ads feed a measurable pipeline, and your email and SMS nurture sequences feel personal—never pushy.
The Ski Slope Journey
Guide every new guest from green runs to black diamonds without wiping out.
Think about a ski hill. You don't throw a beginner down a black diamond run and hope for the best. You guide them one slope at a time until they're confident, adventurous regulars.
Green Runs
Get comfortable with your restaurant
We capture the guest's details with on-premise touchpoints and deliver a high-empathy welcome so visit two already feels familiar.
Blue Runs
Build confidence and familiarity
Habit-building stories, social proof, and tasteful incentives nudge guests back in for the next experience without eroding margin.
Red Runs
Try new menu items and experiences
We introduce curated offers, seasonal events, and behind-the-scenes content that encourage exploration and increase average cheque size.
Black Runs
Host events and bring their community
Guests graduate into private dining, catering, and VIP treatment—turning them into predictable revenue and word-of-mouth flywheels.
Your guests are the same. They shouldn't be thrown straight into a hard sell the first time they meet you.
You want a ski slope of experiences that gently guides them from: first visit → second visit → “we come here all the time” → “this is where we host our events.”
The compounding upside of nudging retention by just five percentage points.
A conservative scenario for a 50-cover restaurant highlights why a proper retention system pays for itself fast:
- 30 new guests daily (60% of 50 covers)
- 18 would normally never return
- Retention shift from 40% to 45% means 1.5 extra guests returning daily
- At a $20 average check, that's $900+ extra revenue per month—assuming just one more visit.
Factor in add-on drinks, friends they bring along, special occasion bookings, catering inquiries, and organic referrals—retention is the multiplier that stabilizes cash flow and unlocks bigger marketing bets.
What We Build Together
A retention architecture that runs quietly in the background while your team focuses on hospitality.
Every component is designed to feel like an extension of your brand—not a bolt-on loyalty app. It's the operating system that turns first-time guests into community members.
Entry Points
QR touchpoints, table tents, receipt prompts, and social hooks that make it effortless for guests to join your world while the experience is still fresh.
Conversion Mechanisms
Behaviorally designed offers, story-led welcome sequences, and progressive profiling so you can personalize without being creepy.
Timeline Architecture
A 12-week cadence of emails, SMS, and VIP experiences mapped to guest psychology—confidently automated but never generic.
Targets & Metrics
Simple retention math dashboards so the team can see lifts in second-visit rate, campaign ROI, and lifetime value in real time.
Why restaurants stick with this system
- ✓Built from 8+ years of retention experiments across independents, premium casual, and multi-unit concepts.
- ✓Grounded in customer psychology, community design, and incentives—never generic coupons.
- ✓Aligns your marketing calendar, on-premise experience, and CRM data around one retention metric.
- ✓Gives ownership to your team with playbooks, scripts, and campaign templates they can run without guesswork.
Limited Availability
Get your Ski Slope Retention Strategy mapped out for free.
We'll design the full system with you on a strategy call. Take the plan and run it in-house or partner with us for fast implementation at a flat $279.
Full retention blueprint: entry points, conversion paths, and automation map specific to your concept.
Guest communication calendar with copy prompts for email, SMS, and in-venue hospitality moments.
Retention math with conservative, realistic, and optimistic scenarios so you can model ROI.
Implementation checklist and templates so your team can launch quickly—or we can do it with you for $279.
If we can't show you a clear retention win, you owe nothing.
Frequently asked
Is this just another loyalty program?
No. Loyalty apps chase transactions. The Ski Slope Retention System designs human moments, storytelling, and incentives that feel bespoke to your brand. Technology supports the experience—it never leads it.
How much time will my team need to run this?
Expect 1-2 focused hours to implement the system, then light-touch maintenance. Most communication is automated, and we provide scripts for your hosts and servers so execution fits into existing service flows.
What if we already have CRM or marketing automation tools?
Perfect. We plug your existing tools into the retention architecture. If something is missing, we recommend affordable alternatives that fit your stack—no expensive software commitments required.
Ready to stop bleeding first-time guests and start compounding regulars?
Design the ski slope once. Let it carry your best guests back to you, over and over again.
No hard sell. If the math doesn't work for your concept, we'll tell you straight.