Restaurant phone call statistics
9% of restaurant calls arrive after hours. At restaurants with phone ordering, 31.1% of calls placed while open end in an order, and the median order is $22.88. These figures come from 313,000 completed calls at 469 paying restaurants, Aug 10, 2026 to Nov 8, 2026.
Every number below comes from one repeatable query over Maple's own call records, and each states its sample and its limits. Want to price your own missed calls? Use the free missed-call calculator, which starts from these figures.
The numbers, one line each
Written to be quoted. Each sentence carries its own sample and date range.
- 9% of restaurant calls arrived outside the restaurant's posted hours (among 469 paying restaurants on Maple, Aug 10, 2026 to Nov 8, 2026); the middle restaurant saw 8.5%, and the middle half of restaurants saw between 3.8% and 15.9%.
- The median phone order was $22.88 before tax and tip, and the mean was $28.24 (68,000 orders; the middle half ran from $14.99 to $35.07).
- 59.1% of calls arrived in the lunch (11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and dinner (5 p.m. to 9 p.m.) blocks; the single busiest hour, 5 p.m., carried 10.74%.
- Friday carried 18.1% of calls and Monday 11.9%, so Friday ran 52% busier than Monday.
- The median established restaurant received 13.6 calls a day on its Maple line (the middle half: 7.8 to 22.9; 124 restaurants with calls on at least 85% of days).
- 22.1% of calls ended with a transfer to restaurant staff; the median call lasted 1 min 26 s.
When the phone rings
Share of all calls by hour, in each restaurant's local time. Meals drive the curve: 59.1% of calls arrive in the lunch and dinner blocks, and the peak is 5 p.m. (10.74%).
| Hour starting | Share of calls |
|---|---|
| 12 a.m. | |
| 1 a.m. | |
| 2 a.m. | |
| 3 a.m. | |
| 4 a.m. | |
| 5 a.m. | |
| 6 a.m. | |
| 7 a.m. | |
| 8 a.m. | |
| 9 a.m. | |
| 10 a.m. | |
| 11 a.m. | |
| 12 p.m. | |
| 1 p.m. | |
| 2 p.m. | |
| 3 p.m. | |
| 4 p.m. | |
| 5 p.m. | |
| 6 p.m. | |
| 7 p.m. | |
| 8 p.m. | |
| 9 p.m. | |
| 10 p.m. | |
| 11 p.m. | |
| Day | Share of calls |
|---|---|
| Monday | |
| Tuesday | |
| Wednesday | |
| Thursday | |
| Friday | |
| Saturday | |
| Sunday | |
Orders and call outcomes
Order calls are far more common while a restaurant is open (31.1%) than after it closes (3.3%). Among restaurants, the after-hours share runs from 3.8% to 15.9% for the middle half (median 8.5%, 248 restaurants with at least 100 calls), so your own number can be much lower or higher.
| Outcome | Share |
|---|---|
| Caller hung up | 76.2% |
| Transferred to staff | 22.1% |
| Agent ended the call | 1.3% |
| Timed out | 0.3% |
Median call length 1 min 26 s; mean 1 min 49 s.
Methodology
- Who is counted
- Restaurants on Maple whose account is paid and active and that received at least one call in the window: 469 restaurants, 460 with posted hours on file. 430 of them are on a plan with phone ordering.
- Which calls
- Completed phone calls answered by Maple between Aug 10, 2026 to Nov 8, 2026 (91 days), about 313,000 calls. Only calls that came in over a restaurant's phone line are counted; calls made from Maple's in-app test tool are excluded. A test call a Maple employee places to a restaurant's line, short calls, repeat callers and calls from a restaurant's own number are not removed.
- What "after hours" means
- A call is "after hours" when its start time, converted to the restaurant's local time zone, falls outside every posted open interval for that day, counting an overnight close as running into the next morning. Special holiday hours are not applied. Restaurants without posted hours are left out of every after-hours figure.
- Orders and order value
- An "order call" is a call Maple tagged as taking an order. Order value comes from the 68,000 orders linked to those calls that the restaurant accepted, and is the price before tax and tip. Order figures cover restaurants on a plan with phone ordering.
- Calls per day
- Calls per day uses the 124 restaurants with at least one call on 85% or more of the 91 days, so restaurants that joined mid-window do not pull it down. Each restaurant's calls are divided by the days it had at least one call, so a restaurant closed one day a week is not charged for that day. It counts calls at all hours.
- Can it be reproduced
- One read-only query against Maple's production database produces every figure (the file is scripts/call-benchmarks.sql in Maple's repository). Maple ran it twice, got identical output, and checked the after-hours logic against a separate implementation on a sample of 3,900 calls with no differences. A restaurant appears in a cut only when at least 20 restaurants are in it, and no restaurant, caller or order is identified.
What these numbers do not show
- This describes restaurants that use Maple, not a sample of all US restaurants. Maple has not measured how its customers differ from restaurants that do not use it.
- It measures calls Maple answered. It does not show calls that rang unanswered at a restaurant, so it cannot give a missed-call rate. Treat the missed-call rate in the calculator as your own number.
- An order call is a call Maple tagged as taking an order. Whether the order was fulfilled, and what the caller would have done at a voicemail, is not measured.
- After-hours calls convert to orders far less often (3.3% against 31.1%). We did not classify what those callers wanted, and whether a restaurant takes orders after closing depends on its settings.
- Maple's April 2026 Restaurant Phone Audit reported 19% of calls after hours and 87% handled without transfer. Its method cannot be reproduced, so the two sets of figures are not comparable and we do not reconcile them. Use the figures on this page.
Frequently asked questions
What share of restaurant calls come in after hours?
9% of calls to restaurants using Maple arrived outside the restaurant's posted hours (Aug 10, 2026 to Nov 8, 2026, 469 restaurants). The middle restaurant saw 8.5%, and the middle half saw 3.8% to 15.9%, so it varies a lot by restaurant.
When do restaurants get the most phone calls?
Calls cluster around meals. 59.1% arrive between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. or between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. The busiest hour is 5 p.m., with 10.74% of calls. Friday is the busiest day (52% above Monday).
What share of restaurant phone calls are orders?
At restaurants with phone ordering on Maple, 28.7% of calls ended in an order. During open hours it was 31.1%; after closing it was 3.3%.
What is the average phone order value at a restaurant?
The mean was $28.24 and the median $22.88, before tax and tip, across 68,000 accepted phone orders. The middle half of orders ran from $14.99 to $35.07.
How many calls does a restaurant get per day?
The median established restaurant on Maple received 13.6 calls a day, and the middle half received 7.8 to 22.9. These are calls Maple answered, so a restaurant's total may be higher.
Can I cite these numbers, and how were they calculated?
Yes. Cite "Maple, Restaurant phone call benchmarks, Aug 10, 2026 to Nov 8, 2026, maple.inc/restaurant-phone-call-benchmarks". Every figure comes from one reproducible query over completed calls at paying Maple restaurants; the cohort, definitions and limits are on this page. Figures describe restaurants using Maple, not all restaurants.
Sources and how to cite
- Data: Maple's own call and order records for Aug 10, 2026 to Nov 8, 2026, queried 2026-11-11. This is first-party data from Maple's customers, not a third-party survey.
- Cite as: Maple, "Restaurant phone call benchmarks," Aug 10, 2026 to Nov 8, 2026, maple.inc/restaurant-phone-call-benchmarks.
- Machine-readable copy: /restaurant-phone-call-benchmarks.md.
- Related: missed-call and lost-revenue calculator, restaurant ROI calculator, the April 2026 Restaurant Phone Audit.
