A new guest’s journey to your café starts on their phone: they type “coffee” or “brunch” into Google Maps, not your name. They look at three or four profiles, choose based on the number of reviews and the photos, request directions, and walk in. Whether they come back is decided by the first cup. Whether they come at all is decided by your profile.
Who is the new guest, 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 her Anna: the example is made up, the steps aren’t.
Anna started a new job in Budapest’s 8th district on Monday. On Tuesday at quarter to eight she steps out of the metro, has twenty minutes before work, and wants coffee. She doesn’t know the area, has no favourite place, and doesn’t follow a single local café on Instagram. She takes out her phone, opens Google Maps and types: “coffee”.
Anna isn’t unusual. In the Google Business Profile search data of 13 hospitality venues we manage (October 2025 – September 2026, 747,567 impressions), 86% of searches were like hers: not for the venue’s name, but for what the person wanted. Real searches include “coffee”, “kávézó” (café), “breakfast”, “brunch”, “pékség” (bakery) and the name of a nearby square or thermal bath. Hardly anyone types “near me”, because Maps already knows where the searcher is.
This is the point where your Instagram doesn’t help: Anna doesn’t follow you, and until she’s been to your café, she won’t.
What does she see on her phone?
A map with a few pins, and a list below it. The first three or four profiles get her attention; only people with time to spare scroll further. Anna doesn’t have time.
For each profile she sees the same things at a glance: name, stars, number of reviews, distance, whether it’s open, and a photo or two. Google decides who makes it into those three or four based on relevance, distance and prominence. If you’re not among them, for Anna you don’t exist.
How does she choose?
By the number of reviews and the photos. Stars rarely decide, because almost everyone is above 4.5: 90% of the 255 Hungarian cafés in our sample (autumn 2026).
| What Anna looks at | What it tells her |
|---|---|
| Number of reviews | 4.7 and 600 reviews: “lots of people have been here and liked it”. 4.8 and 12 reviews: “hard to say”. |
| Freshness | If the latest review is from last week, the place is alive. If it’s a year old, is it even still open? |
| Photos | What it’s like to sit inside and what she’ll get. A good cappuccino photo and a bright interior say more than any description. |
| Distance, opening hours | A filter: if you’re closed or far away, she doesn’t even open your profile. |
Anna opens two profiles. One has four photos, all from when it opened, two of them of the shop sign. The other has fresh photos of the counter and a flat white, and three hundred reviews, the latest from yesterday. She doesn’t think long.
What happens once she’s decided?
She taps directions, walks to the café and goes in. This is the first point you can see: a new face at the counter.
Google measures direction requests, and you can see them in your Business Profile performance stats. Every direction request is a person who tapped “take me there”. At one of our specialty café clients, 1,166 people did that over eight months of Maps ads (real data from the ad account). Not all of them become guests: some change their mind, some find it closed. But each one is a person who set off towards you.
At the counter you’re on your own turf. Now it’s not your profile that matters to Anna, but the reason you opened a café: the coffee, the barista, the feel of the place.
How does she become a regular?
By not searching tomorrow. If the first coffee was good, on Wednesday morning Anna doesn’t open Maps. She just comes.
- 1Types “coffee”
- 2Compares 3–4 profiles
- 3Requests directions
- 4Walks in
- 5Comes back
- 6Becomes a regular
This is where marketing’s job ends and yours begins. Whether there’s a second visit depends on the first. There’s no norm for this and we don’t promise a number: some guests greet the barista by name by the second week, some never come back. But every one of your regulars once took exactly this path. A new guest is a regular in the waiting room; we wrote about it in a separate article.
Where can you influence each step?
At every step, but in different ways. In the first three your profile works for you, after that it’s you.
| Step | What it decides | Your tool |
|---|---|---|
| Search | Whether you appear among the three or four | Accurate categories, description, menu; ads for more reach |
| Comparison | Whether she opens your profile | Number and freshness of reviews, photos |
| Directions | Whether she sets off | Accurate opening hours and address |
| Walking in | Whether she finds you and comes in | The entrance, the sign, the window |
| Coming back | Whether there’s a second time | The coffee, the service, the place |
To get your profile in order, here are three tips. If you want to be there at the first step beyond your current area too, that takes Maps ads; our prices are here.
What to do on Monday?
Walk Anna’s path on your own phone. Stand in front of your café (or at the nearest metro stop), type “coffee” into Maps, and see what someone who doesn’t know you sees. Are you among the three or four? If yes, how does your profile compare with the café next door’s? If not, who is there instead of you?
FAQ
What is the customer journey for a café?
The customer journey is the path someone takes from wanting a coffee to coming to you regularly. For a café 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 café?
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.
Why don’t new guests search for my café’s name?
Because they don’t know you. Someone who types your name has already been to your café, or someone recommended it to them. A new guest types what they’re looking for: “coffee”, “brunch”, a neighbourhood or a well-known place.
How long does it take for someone to become a regular?
There’s no reliable number for this, and we won’t give one. The first visit decides, and that’s your turf. What you can measure: how many new people set off towards you from Maps, and how many of them show up again at the counter.