What should a restaurant do with their Toast data after a busy holiday weekend?
Father's Day was the test. Your Toast account kept the score.
If you ran a busy service this past weekend, your Guestbook added new profiles, your loyalty enrollment ticked up, and your kitchen ran hard. That is the easy part. The operators who actually build on a busy night are the ones who open their Toast dashboard on Monday morning and do something deliberate with what the weekend left behind.
Here is the seven-day checklist. It takes less than two hours across the week. The payoff is a longer guest list, a better loyalty segment, and a re-engagement email that reaches people while the visit is still fresh.
7% of guests drive up to 50% of order volume. Source: The Regulars Report 2026, Toast + Resy. Your Father's Day regulars are in that 7%. Here's how to find them. |
Step 1: Pull your new Guestbook profiles from the weekend
Open your Toast dashboard and go to Guestbook. Filter by visit date: June 21-22. Every guest who visited over Father's Day weekend and had their profile created or updated is in that list.
What you are looking for:
New profiles created during the weekend. These are guests who were captured for the first time.
Returning profiles with a new visit logged. These are people who came back for a special occasion.
Party size three or more. Father's Day tables trend larger. A table of five who dined well is a relationship worth nurturing.
Save this as a Guestbook segment. Name it: Father's Day 2026. You will use it again in Step 5.
Step 2: Check your Toast Loyalty enrollment numbers from the night
Go to Toast Loyalty and look at enrollment activity from the weekend. You want to know two things: how many new members enrolled, and how many existing members visited.
Why this matters: The Regulars Report 2026 found that regular guests, defined as those who return at least quarterly, visit 4x more often and spend significantly more per visit than one-time guests. Every person who joined your loyalty program on Father's Day is a candidate for that pattern. They showed up once for a special occasion. The question is whether you bring them back before the next occasion.
Regular guests book in advance at 83%. Non-regulars book at 48%. Source: The Regulars Report 2026, Toast + Resy. Loyalty members are significantly more likely to plan ahead, which means they fill your floor before the night starts. |
If your loyalty enrollment was lower than expected on Father's Day, that is a configuration issue, not a traffic issue. Toast Loyalty should be visible at checkout and prompted by your servers. Adjust the prompt before the next occasion.
Step 3: Send one re-engagement email within 7 days
This is the step most operators skip. Father's Day ends, the week starts, and the email never goes out. By day ten the visit is stale and the open rate drops.
Go to Toast Email Marketing. Build a campaign targeting the Guestbook segment you created in Step 1: guests who visited on Father's Day weekend. The message does not need to be elaborate.
A straightforward structure:
Subject line: Thanks for celebrating with us on Father's Day
Body: A brief, genuine thank-you. One specific detail tied to the occasion.
Offer: Something worth coming back for. A weeknight special, a loyalty double-points window, or early access to your next event.
CTA: A direct link to your Toast Online Ordering page or a reservation booking link.
Send it within seven days. That window is not arbitrary. It is the point at which the experience is still in memory and your name in an inbox is a reminder, not a cold contact.
43% of guests leave a restaurant relationship because of slow fade, not a bad experience. Source: The Regulars Report 2026, Toast + Resy. No complaint. No incident. They just never heard from you again. |
Step 4: Build a Guestbook segment for Father's Day 2027
This is the step that separates operators who run great single nights from operators who build great seasons.
In your Guestbook, create a saved segment with these parameters:
Visit date: June 2026 (Father's Day weekend)
Party size: 2 or more
Tag: Father's Day 2026
Save it and leave it. In April 2027, that segment becomes your first Father's Day campaign audience. These are guests who have already demonstrated that they celebrate this occasion at a restaurant. You do not need to find them again. You just need to reach them before your competitors do.
Toast Guestbook holds guest history indefinitely. The segment you build today is an asset that compounds every year you run it.
Step 5: Run your numbers before you close the week
Before Friday, look at three numbers in your Toast dashboard:
Average check size on Father's Day vs. your average weekend Saturday. Did the occasion pull higher spend per table? Which items drove it?
New guest capture rate. How many guests from the weekend were first-time profiles? That is your acquisition number for the night.
Loyalty enrollment rate. Of the guests who visited, what percentage enrolled or were already members? If it is below 30%, your checkout prompt needs attention.
These three numbers tell you whether Father's Day was a profitable night or just a busy one. There is a difference, and it lives in your Toast data.
The operators who fill their books on occasions like this didn't start planning in May.
They started with last year's Father's Day data. They knew which guests came back. They knew which items moved margin. They had a loyalty segment ready to email in April.
The seven days after a busy holiday are not downtime. They are the setup for the next one. Your Toast account has everything you need. The question is whether you open it.
Book Your Free 30-Minute Toast Marketing Audit We review your Guestbook, loyalty setup, and email marketing inside your actual Toast account. You leave with a clear action plan for the next 30 days. No pitch. No obligation. Book here: tidycal.com/pam-pormentilla-monteith/restaurant-growth-session |
Not ready to book? Start here. Download the free Toast Marketing Activation Checklist: the 10 features your restaurant should have switched on right now, and the three that move the needle fastest. greatworkonline.com/toast-activation-checklist |
FAQ: Post-Holiday Restaurant Marketing on Toast POS
What should I do with my Toast Guestbook after a busy holiday weekend?
Filter your Guestbook by the holiday visit date and export or save a segment of all new and returning guests. Tag the segment by occasion. Use it within seven days to send a re-engagement email, then save it for next year's pre-holiday campaign. Guest history in Toast Guestbook does not expire.
How soon should I send a follow-up email after a busy service?
Within seven days. The Regulars Report 2026 found that 43% of guests who leave a restaurant relationship do so through slow fade, not a specific complaint. An email sent inside one week keeps your restaurant in memory while the experience is still recent. After ten days, open rates decline and the connection weakens.
How do I check Toast Loyalty enrollment from a specific night?
Go to Toast Loyalty in your dashboard and filter enrollment activity by date range. You can see new member signups and returning member visits for any specific day or weekend. If you are not seeing the enrollment numbers you expect, check whether the loyalty prompt is active at checkout and whether your team is prompting guests during payment.
What is the 50/7 rule in restaurant marketing?
The 50/7 rule refers to a finding from The Regulars Report 2026 by Toast and Resy: 7% of a restaurant's guests can account for up to 50% of total order volume. This means a small group of high-frequency, high-value regulars drives an outsized share of revenue. Identifying and retaining these guests through Toast Loyalty and Guestbook campaigns is one of the highest-return activities available to independent operators.
Can I use Toast to build a campaign audience for next year's Father's Day?
Yes. Save a Guestbook segment tagged with the occasion and visit year, for example Father's Day 2026. In the months before Father's Day 2027, that segment becomes your first email campaign audience. These guests have already demonstrated intent: they celebrate this occasion at a restaurant and they chose yours. Reaching them before the holiday is more effective than acquiring new guests from scratch.
Great Work Online · Toast POS Marketing Specialists for Canadian and US Restaurants · greatworkonline.com
In partnership with Accountific · accountific.co