3miadvantage blog - an appetite for mobile

At 3Mi Advantage , we help Town Centre Managers, Business Improvement Districts, Tourism Destination Management Organisations, Shopping Centre Managers and Small and Medium sized business to merge traditional and new marketing channels, attract visitors and  customers; bringing them back time after time with loyalty and reward programs.

One way that 3Mi Advantage will help organisations is right here on this blog. We’ll be sharing valuable tips on the challenges organisations like yours face – including boosting loyalty, using social media, or generating leads.

Clive Hall, 3Mi Advantage Director

 

5 ideas to make customers stay longer

Posted on 6:52pm Monday 16th Apr 2012
Listed under: Coffee shop marketing, Hospitality and Tourism, Loyalty Marketing, Restaurant Marketing
 

If you have a bakery, deli or sandwich shop how often does a customer come in, buy just one item and them leave. If your business has a large amount of ‘one-off’ item purchases, to grow your sales you will need a substantial increase in new customers or implement some clever tactics to encourage customers to stay in your store a bit longer.

If you can keep your customer entertained for an extended period of time they may even buy three or four items from you every day.
So, how do you go from one sale, to two, three or even four? Here are a five ideas that any coffee shop or take away food retailer can implement quickly and efficiently to build customer loyalty.
  1. Add wi-fi: Free wi-fi is a guaranteed way of keeping people sitting for longer. With so many people now working from home, the local coffee shop or casual dining establishment has now evolved into the office meeting room for many. An early morning coffee could then become a mid-morning meeting with a cookie, or a lunch time meeting including a sandwich, lemonade and muffin for two people. Then if you are lucky you will capture the afternoon hook-ups as well. By changing your password each day and making it available at the till, you guarantee more sales and cut out non-paying customers taking advantage.

  2. Traditional games: This may be a well-trodden coffee shop approach, but let’s not scoff, it works! Providing games from a person’s childhood will capture their attention and make them stay for longer, but also get them to come back time after time. Café loyalty at its best.
  3. Old book swap: By having a book shelf full of old books, people can swap and borrow. Customers will stay longer to browse the selection, start reading and buy more coffee and snacks. The more you make your venue welcoming and a ‘home for home’, the greater your sales will become. A powerful coffee shop loyalty program without a loyalty card in-sight.
  4. “4-for-3” approach: Amazon has been using this simple but effective marketing tool for years. Let a customer buy four cakes and get the cheapest free. This will ensure customers spend more time browsing your product range, buy more, and then stay longer to eat them (possibly buying another drink).
  5. 50% off seconds: By providing half-priced refills not only will you tap into a customer’s desire not to miss out on the offer (even if they had not intended to have a top up), but this is also a brilliant loyalty tool. People will keep coming back to you, instead of your competitor.  

If you try all five of our ideas, your customers should never choose to go any-where else and may never have a reason to leave. More time spent, more money spent, more often.

If you are in the South of England and need some inspiration pop into Loungers.

For more information about customer loyalty programs click here.

 Image credit: keerati
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