B
Evidence Grade B
Graded
accuracy verified by the review judge
Safe to Cite
Current
17.3%
17.3% -- average spending per person increase for restaurant customers addressed by name (2026-04)
When restaurant customers were addressed by their name, average spending per person increased by 17.3% (from $28.67 to $33.64).
- The effect reverses if the name is used in an embarrassing situation or too frequently.
- Study was conducted across US, UK, and Australia and did not differentiate between first name or formal title.
Attribution:
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Lighthouse Research Team
Last verified:
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Source verified
Evidence graded
Value
17.3%
Unit
Percentage
Data Vintage
2026-04
Entity
Sample Size
127
Evidence Quality
B
Strong, reliable evidence
Sourced from a well-regarded research firm or industry leader with transparent methodology and a reasonably large sample.
Single source - not yet corroborated
Score breakdown
Extraction
95
Source Trust
60
Citation Chain
20
Independence
30
Methodology
45
Freshness
95
Source
Journal of Retailing
Primary
Tier A
https://app.sciencesays.com/p/when-and-how-to-call-customers-by-name ↗
Source Article
When and how to call customers by name
Original Research
Journal of Retailing
· Original study ↗
Methodology
Field experiment at 127 tables of a suburban Australian restaurant plus 3 online experiments
Methodology documented
Segmentation
Industrymarketing
Cite this stat
Plain Text
restaurant customers addressed by name: 17.3% average spending per person increase. Source: Journal of Retailing (2026-04). Via Lighthouse Intelligence -- https://lighthousedata.io/data/name-addressing-spend-increase-17-3
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<blockquote cite="https://lighthousedata.io/data/name-addressing-spend-increase-17-3" style="border-left:3px solid #2563eb;padding:12px 16px;margin:16px 0;font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;background:#f0f4ff;"><strong>17.3%</strong> -- average spending per person increase for restaurant customers addressed by name<br><small>Source: Journal of Retailing (2026-04) · <a href="https://lighthousedata.io/data/name-addressing-spend-increase-17-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lighthouse Intelligence</a></small></blockquote>
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