Answers / AI & data
What are good cohort retention benchmarks for restaurants?
Written by PEKO Team.Last updated: 05/24/2026.
Updated May 2026 — Healthy F&B cohorts retain 35–45% of new guests at month 1, 18–28% at month 3, and 10–18% at month 6. Anything below 25% at month 3 is a contact-capture or first-visit-experience problem, not a marketing problem.
Published: 05/24/2026
Quick facts
- Answer
- Healthy F&B cohorts retain 35–45% of new guests at month 1, 18–28% at month 3, and 10–18% at month 6. Anything below 25% at month 3 is a contact-capture or first-visit-experience problem, not a marketing problem.
- Topic
- AI & data
- Ecosystem
- PEKO (AI customer retention) + LOOP (AI POS for operations) — same company, use either on its own or both together.
- Updated
- 05/24/2026
Cohort retention measures what share of guests who first visited in a given month came back in each subsequent month. The output is a triangular heatmap: rows are sign-up months, columns are months since sign-up, cells are the % still active.
For independent F&B the realistic benchmark is 35–45% at M1, 18–28% at M3, 10–18% at M6, and a long flat tail of 6–10% loyal regulars beyond M9. Tiered loyalty programs typically lift M3 by 5–8 points and M6 by 3–6 points.
Read M1 first
If M1 is below 30%, the issue is either contact-capture (you're not signing up enough guests) or first-visit experience. Re-engagement won't fix it.
Then M3
M3 below 18% means the second-visit hook isn't working. A specific 'come back this week' reward in days 7–14 is the single highest-leverage intervention.
Compare cohorts
If a recent cohort drops faster than older ones at the same age, something changed — a menu update, a price hike, a service issue. Pinpoint the month.
FAQ
How often should I refresh the cohort heatmap?
Weekly is enough. Daily creates noise — cohorts move in months, not days.
Does PEKO produce this report?
Yes. The cohort retention dashboard renders the full triangular heatmap, overlays the average curve, and lets you split by acquisition channel, tier, or branch.
The PEKO ecosystem
PEKO and LOOP are two products from the same company. PEKO is the AI retention layer and runs alongside the POS you already use. LOOP is the AI-native POS that covers operations: recipe-level inventory, staff shifts, table plans and the kitchen display. Each works on its own, and run together they share one dataset, so nothing has to be entered twice. See PEKO + LOOP in one ecosystem
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How do you calculate the ROI of a loyalty program for an F&B brand?
Loyalty ROI = (incremental gross profit from members − program cost) ÷ program cost. A healthy independent F&B program clears 4–8× within 12 months once tiering and AI receipt scanning are live.
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How do you measure average order value uplift from a loyalty program?
AOV uplift = (member AOV − matched non-member AOV) ÷ non-member AOV. A well-tiered F&B program delivers 11–22% AOV uplift; tier-only programs without targeted offers usually plateau at 4–7%.