WeatherCue™ from WeatherGuidance® · Restaurants and food service
The first hot day of the season is a cue. So is rain at dinner.
Heat sells cold drinks; you know that. What you don't know, store by store, is what last year's first 90-degree day did to Tuesday's sales — or that next Tuesday is that day again. WeatherCue matches your sales, traffic and labor to the weather that moved them, then watches our forecasts for the setup coming back, and hands you the cue: who to message, how to staff, what to buy, whether the patio is open.
Prepared by live meteorologists dedicated to your account. Fourteen years of customized forecasting for clients in all 50 states.
Four things restaurants use WeatherCue for
Pick one to start. Most groups begin with the push or the schedule, then add the others once the first cue pays for itself.
Suggestive push and SMS alerts
Time the offer to the weather that makes people want it — the first hot day, the first cold snap, rain at dinner, the patio weekend — by market, to guests within a store's radius. The message is yours; the moment is the cue.
Staffing
Forecast covers and labor off the weather by daypart, a week or two out. A cue that says Saturday's patio day is confirmed is a cue to add servers; a cue that says a washout is likely is a cue to trim the schedule before the shift, not after.
Food buying and prep
Ice, produce, proteins for the grill, soup base: buy and prep for the demand the weather is about to create, market by market, instead of running out on the first hot Saturday or writing off the week that rained.
Reservations, indoor vs. outdoor
Open patio reservations when the patio weekend is confirmed; move outdoor bookings inside — and message the guests — when a storm is going to arrive during dinner. Fewer no-shows, fewer surprised guests, fewer comped meals.
What a typical restaurant program looks like
Built with your marketing and operations leads. Here is a common starting point for a regional group; larger chains repeat it by market.
- Correlate: two years of sales, traffic and labor by store and daypart, matched to the weather — usually two to five conditions turn out to matter for your menu and your markets.
- Cues by market: the conditions you choose — first day above a temperature this season, rain during a daypart, a patio weekend, a cold snap — with a threshold, a radius and an owner for each.
- Lead time: two to five days for staffing and buying cues; the morning of, confirmed, for push and SMS timing.
- Delivery: email and text to marketing and regional managers; API into your push platform, SMS tool or scheduling system where you'd rather the cue land directly.
- Review: a monthly look at what fired, what you did, and what the numbers did — so the next season's cues are sharper.
Take the one-page overview with you
Everything on this page on a single sheet — push and SMS timing, staffing, buying and prep, indoor vs. outdoor reservations, and how a program starts. Made to forward to your marketing, operations or franchise leadership.
Start with a free trial conversation
Not a demo. A meteorologist and an analyst sit down with your business — your markets, your seasons, the number that moves when the weather does — and come back with the first cues we'd build for you. If it's useful, we scope a program. If not, you've lost an hour.
- Your markets and your weather-sensitive numbers, reviewed by a meteorologist
- The first two to five cues we'd propose, with the reasoning
- How we'd deliver them into the tools your team already uses
- No obligation
Pricing is built around the program, not a rate card: we will work with you to formulate an action plan that meets your needs and respects your budget.
Prefer to talk first? Call (512) 504-3151 or email weathercue@weatherguidance.com during business hours.
If the weather hits the bottom line, you don't need another forecast. You need the cue.
Questions restaurant operators ask
Do you send the push or the text to our guests?
No. You do, through the platform you already use. WeatherCue tells you which markets, which stores' radius, and when — and a meteorologist confirms the weather before the cue goes out, so you're not promoting cold drinks into a cool front that arrived early.
We don't have clean sales data by store. Can we still start?
Yes. We can start with weather-only cues — first hot day, rain at dinner, patio weekends — for your markets, and add the correlation to your numbers as a second phase when the data is ready.
How far ahead will we know?
Staffing and buying cues come two to five days out with our confidence stated; push and SMS cues are confirmed the morning of, since that's when the weather is certain enough to spend a message on. Forecasts run out to 14 days for planning.
Can this cover both indoor and outdoor operations?
Yes. Patio and rooftop cues — open reservations, add servers, move bookings inside ahead of a storm — are one of the most common uses, and they run alongside the push and staffing cues for the whole store.
What does it cost?
It depends on the number of markets and cues and how the cues are delivered. There is no rate card; we will work with you to formulate an action plan that meets your needs and respects your budget, starting from a free trial conversation.
Delivery-only operation, or a marketplace? See WeatherCue for food delivery and couriers. WeatherCue also serves mass retail and home improvement and insurance claims mitigation. See how WeatherCue works.