How market research helped this comfort food restaurant reach its target audience

Yo’ Mama’s, a comfort food restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama, serves a diverse crowd of gluten-free diners, office workers, tourists, and locals. Owner Crystal Peterson has done extensive research to make each guest feel at home.

“I actually [ate] at every single restaurant I could think of that could be comparable to [mine] and [looked] at what was missing,” Crystal said. “Was it the customer service aspect? Was it the portion size? Was it the flavor? Researching my area… helped us create the recipes that matter for us.”

Market research not only informed Yo’ Mama’s recipes but also its business model: Crystal’s findings inspired her to pivot from table service to counter service in order to provide the best experience for her customer base. Over her nine years in business, her strategic decisions have helped the restaurant obtain nearly 400 5-star reviews on Yelp.

Discover how Crystal satisfies three key customer segments.

1. Attracting gluten-free diners

Having a niche like being allergen-free can make your business a huge attraction for groups with needs that they can’t fulfill just anywhere, and aligning your business with the right categories on Yelp helps your target audience find your business.

At Yo’ Mama’s, all items are either gluten free or have a gluten-free option—including its famous chicken and waffles. Crystal decided early on that gluten-free diners would be a key pillar of her customer base, due to the popularity of her mom’s gluten-free recipes, which she developed for a family friend with celiac disease.

“My mom would change the recipes when she was coming into town just so she would feel included… and nobody ever knew that it was gluten free,” Crystal said. “That’s when we realized we can really have a restaurant like this because if we market that we’re gluten free, it [might drive] people away. But if we put ourselves on every platform that [has an option] regarding gluten free, as in ‘find me gluten-free [restaurants],’ they will come.”

That’s why you’ll see “gluten free” marked on Yo’ Mama’s menu and Yelp Page, but the servers don’t go out of their way to mention it. Aligning your business with the right categories on Yelp helps your target audience find you.

“I’ve literally had customers that have come in and cried because their kid has never been able to eat in a restaurant because they are gluten intolerant,” Crystal said. “And [others] say this is the best chicken I’ve ever had in my life, regardless if it was gluten free or not.”

Pro tip: Make it easy for users to find you by choosing the most specific categories for your business—in Crystal’s case, “gluten-free,” “breakfast & brunch,” and “American.” A business owner can choose up to three categories, and it’s easy to update your categories in your Yelp for Business account.

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2. Catering to the office lunch crowd

One of the biggest takeaways from Crystal’s research? The office lunch crowd loves Yo’ Mamas. Even more than tourists and regulars, the brunch spot saw an influx of office workers looking to liven up their days with a midday meal.

“What we try to do in our space is give you a midday getaway where you don’t really think about being at work. You don’t really think about being at home. You don’t really think about going back to work. You just, in that moment, live in that moment and live in that plate,” Crystal said.

Part of providing a “midday getaway” is excellent customer service, which Crystal ensures by always being present at the restaurant. “What I’ve known is that workers work better when the owner’s in the building,” she said. “You get a better product, so the customer is more satisfied.”

Office workers are also on a short timeline, so Crystal came up with a creative solution to ensure both her customers and her staff were getting what they needed: She pivoted to counter service, taking orders right when customers walked in. “In my research, [I saw] most people would waste 30 minutes trying to pick out their menu items. The easiest way for me to turn my tables was to get rid of those 30 minutes,” she said. “I took away all the angst that I [had] as an owner to then provide the [best] customer service I can.”

Yo’ Mama’s counter service also satisfies customers with more time on their hands, like Yelp Elite Delia S. “You’re immediately greeted by the vivacious and energetic employees, and you walk up to the counter and you order,” she said. “What I liked about this was… it really feels like this space where your mamas would be. It really lives up to its name.”

3. Balancing tourists’ needs with locals

Visitors from out of town make up another large segment of Yo’ Mama’s audience. Thanks to its central location, Yo’ Mamas attracts customers coming from downtown, the airport, or the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

Yo’ Mamas also has many devoted regulars who are Birmingham locals. While Crystal provides them with excellent customer service, she directs her marketing dollars toward tourists, who often have more expendable income and easily find Yo’ Mama’s while searching for top brunch spots online. “As a business owner, you have to navigate and know who is your actual customer that you’re trying to obtain, and who is the customer that just clearly walks through the door from word of mouth,” she said.

Luckily, Crystal’s research showed tourists are an easy group to please: “You automatically love something even more simply because you’re on vacation. You already have a different, positive attitude about what you’re going into,” she said.

Knowing her customer also helps Crystal set her prices. At about $15 for a plate of chicken and waffles, the restaurant bridges the gap between a reasonably priced meal and an elevated brunch experience. “I understand that everybody doesn’t have the disposable income to come to me, and I’m okay with that because that’s not my customer base,” she said.

Crystal sums up her approach to pricing like this: “You set a standard, you provide a [quality] product, and you stick to it.”

These lessons come from an episode of Behind the Review, Yelp & Entrepreneur Media’s weekly podcast. Listen below to hear from Crystal, or visit the episode page to read more, subscribe to the show, and explore other episodes.