Answers / Churn & retention
How do I calculate customer retention rate for my restaurant?
Written by PEKO Team.Last updated: 08/11/2026.
Updated August 2026 — Retention rate = ((Customers at end of period − New customers acquired in the period) / Customers at start of period) × 100. Use a 90-day window for the cleanest F&B signal.
Published: 05/01/2026
Quick facts
- Answer
- Retention rate = ((Customers at end of period − New customers acquired in the period) / Customers at start of period) × 100. Use a 90-day window for the cleanest F&B signal.
- Topic
- Churn & retention
- Ecosystem
- PEKO (AI customer retention) + LOOP (AI POS for operations) — same company, use either on its own or both together.
- Updated
- 08/11/2026
Retention rate strips out new acquisition so you measure how well your existing base sticks. The formula: ((Customers at end of period − New customers acquired in the period) / Customers at start of period) × 100.
For F&B the right window is usually 90 days — long enough to capture monthly visit cycles, short enough to be actionable. Anything shorter than 30 days mostly measures noise; anything longer than 6 months delays feedback past the point you can act on it.
Define 'active customer' precisely
An active customer is anyone who transacted in the prior period. If you don't lock the definition, your retention number is meaningless across time.
Cohort, don't average
Track each starting cohort separately. A blended retention rate hides which months are improving and which are getting worse.
Compare against benchmark
F&B 90-day retention benchmarks: cafés 55–70%, full-service 50–65%, QSR 60–75%. Top-quartile operators sit 10–15 points above.
FAQ
What's the difference between retention rate and repeat rate?
Retention measures the percentage of an existing cohort that stays active. Repeat rate measures whether someone came back at least once. Retention is stricter and more honest over long horizons.
Should I measure retention by visit or by spend?
Both. Visit-based retention is the leading indicator (changes first). Spend-based retention is the lagging indicator (what actually shows up in P&L).
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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Answer
What is a good repeat customer rate for a café?
For independent cafés, a healthy 30-day repeat rate sits at 25–35%. Top-quartile operators using AI-driven win-back land at 40–50% — a 8–15 percentage-point lift over benchmark.
Term
Cashier bottleneck
The cashier bottleneck is the failure mode where a loyalty program only enrols new members when the cashier remembers to ask for the customer's phone number — so member growth stalls as soon as the venue gets busy or staff give up asking.
Term
Cohort analysis
Cohort analysis groups customers by a shared starting event (usually their first visit month) and tracks how each group's behaviour evolves over time.