At 12:10 an office worker looking for lunch takes out their phone and types “lunch” or “daily menu” into Google Maps. They look at three or four places nearby, choose based on the number of reviews and the food photos, request directions, and walk in. If they get their first lunch on time and at a fair price, next week they don’t search: they come to you.
Who are they, and what do they search for?
Someone who doesn’t know you, and so doesn’t search for your name. Let’s follow one. Let’s call him Bence: the example is made up, the steps aren’t.
Bence works in an office building in Budapest’s 13th district and changed jobs three months ago. On Tuesday at 12:10 he gets up from his desk. He has forty-five minutes: ten for walking, thirty for eating, five for waiting. He’s bored of his usual place. He takes out his phone, opens Google Maps and types: “ebéd” (lunch).
Bence isn’t unusual. In the Google Business Profile search data of the 13 hospitality venues we manage (October 2025 – September 2026, 747,567 impressions), 86% of searches were like his: not for a venue’s name, but for food, a category, a neighbourhood or a well-known chain.
Bence doesn’t see your Facebook page, because he doesn’t follow you. Not your Instagram either. But he does see Maps.
What does he see on his phone?
A map with a few pins nearby, and a list below it. He looks at the first three or four places and doesn’t scroll further, because he has no time.
For each place he sees the same things at a glance: name, stars, number of reviews, distance, whether it’s open, a photo or two. Google decides who makes it into those three or four based on relevance, distance and prominence. If your profile doesn’t make it clear that people can have lunch at your place, you’re not in that list.
How does he choose?
By the reviews and the food photos. If two places are both on 4.6, it’s not the stars that decide, but how many people reviewed them, and when.
| What Bence looks at | What it tells him |
|---|---|
| Number of reviews | 4.6 and 800 reviews: “lots of people have lunch here, can’t be bad”. 4.9 and 15: “a gamble”. |
| Fresh reviews | A review from last week: the place is alive, the kitchen is good right now. |
| Food photos | How big the portion is, what the plate looks like. That’s what he’s hungry for, not the shop sign. |
| Menu and price | Whether it fits his budget. If he sees the menu price on the profile, he doesn’t have to guess. |
| Distance, opening hours | A filter: if it’s a 15-minute walk or only just opening, he doesn’t even open it. |
Bence opens two places. One has three photos, all of the façade, and no menu. The other has today’s menu in a post, a photo of the fried chicken next to it, and six hundred reviews, the latest from yesterday. He doesn’t think for even half a minute.
What happens once he’s decided?
He taps directions, walks over and goes in. From here on it’s not your profile working, but the kitchen and the counter.
Google measures direction requests, and you can see them in your Business Profile performance stats. Among the 8 restaurants whose Google Ads we manage, where we measure them, ads brought between 31 and 338 direction requests a month (Google Ads data up to 8 August 2026). Each one is a person who set off towards you. Not every one becomes a guest, but every one is a Bence.
At lunchtime, three things decide at the counter: whether he’s served on time, whether it cost what he expected, and whether he’s full. Bence has 45 minutes. If he waits twenty minutes for his soup, he won’t remember how the soup tasted.
How does he become a regular?
Fast, or never. This is what we see at places that live from lunch: once a place has worked for someone, the next week they don’t search, they just come. Lunch is a routine, and office workers don’t want to decide all over again every day.
- 112:10, types “lunch”
- 2Compares 3–4 places
- 3Requests directions
- 4Walks in, eats on time
- 5Next week comes without searching
- 6A weekly regular
The flip side is that the first lunch carries a lot of weight. Someone who has a bad experience at lunchtime doesn’t give a second chance: there are five more places nearby, and tomorrow they’ll try those. That’s why we say marketing’s job is the first visit, and yours is every one after that.
Where can you influence each step?
At every step, but in different ways. In the first three your profile does the work, after that it’s the kitchen and the counter.
| Step | What it decides | Your tool |
|---|---|---|
| Search | Whether you’re among the 3–4 | An accurate category (daily menu, lunch), ads for more reach |
| Comparison | Whether he opens your profile | Number of reviews, food photos, today’s menu on the profile |
| Directions | Whether he sets off | Accurate opening hours, address, an entrance that’s easy to find |
| Walking in | Whether it fits into 45 minutes | Fast service at lunchtime |
| Coming back | Whether there’s a next week | The first lunch: time, price, portion |
To get your profile in order, here are three tips, and here we explain why setting it up once isn’t enough.
When don’t you need to work on this?
If you’re full at lunchtime anyway. Then more new guests mean a queue, not revenue, and a guest with 45 minutes won’t forgive the queue. In that case the goal isn’t lunch, but the quiet hours: the afternoon and weekday evenings. That quiet slot is what we usually fill too.
What to do on Monday?
Walk Bence’s path. On Monday at 12:10, stand at the entrance of the nearest office building, type “lunch” into Maps, and see what someone who doesn’t know you sees. Are you among the 3–4? If yes, is today’s menu on your profile, with a fresh food photo? If not, who is there instead of you, and why?
If you want people in office buildings further away to see you too, that takes ads; our prices are here.
FAQ
What is the customer journey for a restaurant?
The customer journey is the path someone takes from being hungry to coming to you regularly. For a restaurant today it typically starts on the phone: a search on Maps, a comparison, a direction request, a visit, a return.
How do I know how many people requested directions to my restaurant?
In your Google Business Profile performance stats, month by month, together with calls and website clicks. If you also run ads, the ad account shows separately how many direction requests came from the ads.
Is it worth advertising at lunchtime if we’re already full?
No. If you’re full at lunchtime, ads should be timed for the quiet slots: the afternoon and weekday evenings. That’s where there’s room for new guests.
How long does it take for someone to become a regular?
We don’t give an exact number, because there’s no reliable data for it. At lunch we see it’s decided fast: if the first visit worked, they come back next week without searching; if it didn’t, they don’t give a second chance.