The Regulars Revolution: How Per Diem Is Making Loyalty the Heart of Restaurant Growth
Published: 2026-09-10 | Author: VisionariesNetwork Team
In hospitality, the most valuable customer is rarely the person who visits once. It is the regular—the customer who knows the menu, returns without being prompted and gradually becomes part of the fabric of the business.
Yet creating more regulars is easier said than done. Restaurants and coffee shops compete with delivery marketplaces, crowded digital channels and increasingly high customer expectations, while trying to deliver an experience that feels personal rather than transactional.
Per Diem is taking a different approach. Its proposition is built around helping restaurants own the customer relationship through branded mobile apps, direct ordering, loyalty and personalized marketing. For that reason, the company makes a compelling case for the Best Customer Engagement Platform Award 2026.
Turning a transaction into a relationship
Per Diem's philosophy starts with a simple premise: restaurants should have a direct connection with their customers.
The company builds custom mobile apps that allow restaurants and cafés to offer branded ordering experiences rather than relying entirely on third-party marketplaces. Its apps connect with Square POS, allowing orders to flow directly into the restaurant's existing point-of-sale system.
That direct relationship is significant. Instead of the customer experience being mediated entirely by a marketplace, the restaurant has its own digital storefront, its own branded environment and a direct channel through which it can communicate with guests.
For customer engagement, ownership matters. The more control a restaurant has over the relationship, the more opportunities it has to make that relationship meaningful.
Making loyalty feel effortless
Per Diem puts loyalty directly into the ordering experience.
Its platform supports rewards, points, store credit, subscriptions and promotional features, while customers can save favorites and reorder with fewer steps. Push notifications can also provide order updates and help restaurants communicate with customers after an order has been placed.
The distinction is subtle but important: loyalty is not treated as a separate marketing program customers have to remember to use. It becomes part of the experience of ordering.
That creates a natural loop. A customer orders, earns a reward, receives relevant communication, returns to the app and orders again. Over time, convenience and recognition reinforce one another.
The intelligence behind the next visit
Per Diem's newer CRM and marketing capabilities take this philosophy further.
Its AI-first restaurant CRM uses customer and Square POS data to identify patterns such as who is becoming a regular, who may be at risk of lapsing and who is ready for another visit. Restaurants can view individual customer profiles containing information such as order history, spending, visit frequency, favorite items and loyalty activity.
This gives restaurants a more sophisticated way to think about engagement.
Rather than sending the same promotion to everyone, a business can identify different customer groups and respond to their behavior. A new customer might need encouragement to return. A loyal customer might respond to a reward. A previously active customer might need a timely win-back message.
The result is marketing that has a better chance of feeling like communication rather than interruption.
A branded experience from first tap to final bite
The strongest customer engagement platforms make the experience feel coherent across touchpoints. Per Diem's approach is designed around that principle.
Restaurants can customize their own app, menus and visual identity while providing online ordering, pickup and delivery capabilities. Customers can receive real-time order notifications, access previous orders and use Apple Pay or store credit for faster checkout.
This attention to convenience is more than a usability feature. In food service, friction can directly affect loyalty. If ordering is easy, repeat behavior becomes easier too.
Per Diem says its mobile app users spend three times more, while the platform now powers more than 500,000 orders per month. It also says more than 2,000 cafés and restaurants use its platform.
Engagement that reaches beyond the app
Per Diem is also expanding its role beyond everyday individual orders.
In January 2026, the company launched catering through its web ordering product, giving restaurants a way to manage larger group orders through their own digital channel. Customers can select catering items, choose pickup or delivery and schedule orders for future dates, while restaurants can set menus, minimums and pricing.
That development illustrates a broader ambition: customer engagement should follow the customer across different occasions.
The same relationship that begins with a morning coffee can eventually encompass lunch for an office, a family gathering or a recurring group order.
Built around the independent restaurant
Perhaps the most distinctive element of Per Diem's story is its focus on helping local restaurants and coffee shops compete with much larger brands.
The company describes its mission as helping local restaurant and coffee shop owners thrive and reach the level of industry giants. Its platform is supported by investors including Y Combinator, Two Sigma Ventures, DNX Ventures and Decent Capital, and was co-founded by Tomer Molovinsky and Doron Segal.
That ambition is reflected in the product. Per Diem combines the elements that make digital engagement powerful—first-party ordering, loyalty, customer data, personalization and direct communication—within a platform designed for restaurants rather than generic retailers.
For an award recognizing customer engagement excellence in 2026, that is a meaningful distinction.
Per Diem is not simply helping restaurants sell more meals online. It is helping them build something more valuable: a direct, ongoing relationship with the people who keep coming back.
And in a business built around regulars, that may be the most important relationship of all.
“The future of restaurant loyalty belongs to the brands that can turn a convenient order into a reason to come back.”
FAQs about Per Diem
1. What is Per Diem?
Per Diem is a technology platform that helps restaurants and cafés build branded mobile apps and digital ordering experiences. Its platform includes online ordering, loyalty, customer engagement, marketing and analytics capabilities, with integration into Square POS.
2. How does Per Diem help restaurants improve customer engagement?
Per Diem gives restaurants direct digital channels through branded apps and websites, combined with loyalty programs, personalized marketing, push notifications, SMS and email. These tools are designed to encourage repeat visits and strengthen direct customer relationships.
3. Does Per Diem offer customer loyalty features?
Yes. Restaurants can use rewards, points, store credit, subscriptions and other loyalty features. Customers can also save favorites and reorder more easily, making loyalty part of the everyday ordering experience.
4. Does Per Diem use AI for restaurant marketing?
Yes. Per Diem describes its CRM as an AI-first platform that analyzes customer and Square POS data to identify customer behavior, including regulars, lapsing customers and opportunities for repeat visits.
5. Which businesses is Per Diem designed for?
Per Diem primarily serves restaurants, cafés and other food-and-beverage businesses, with particular emphasis on helping local operators build their own branded digital ordering and loyalty experiences.
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