Encouraging repeat business can give your coffee shop the edge over the competition. Read on to find out the benefits of loyalty schemes and how you can use signage to promote your own.
When it comes to coffee, competition is fierce. But by growing your base of loyal customers, you can give your business a real boost.
Research has found that existing customers tend to spend 67% more than new customers. They also cost less than newcomers, who can be as high as 25 times more expensive to tempt through your doors.
A happy repeat customer is also more likely to recommend your business to others, which means you can grow your customer base with minimal effort on your part.
Getting customers to come back to your cafe or shop therefore needs to be as habit-forming as the coffee you serve up. But how do you encourage loyalty?
An excellent product and fabulous customer service are key, but you can also lure customers into the habit of returning with a fantastic loyalty scheme.
Loyalty schemes for coffee brands
Loyalty schemes are essentially structures that give your customers points for something like buying a coffee, which then add up to them receiving some kind of reward or discount.
Schemes like this can be very influential. Indeed, a report on loyalty by Bond’s found that 74% of Amerricans would be likely to recommend brands with good loyalty programmes.
For your coffee business, this scheme can be as simple as giving return customers a free coffee after a certain number of visits. The simplest way to do this is with printed rewards cards. Every time a customer buys a coffee from you, you can give this card a stamp to record the purchase. Once enough stamps have been collected, a free coffee can be enjoyed.
Alternatively, you can go more high-tech and opt for a digital scheme. These have the added advantage of being able to track your customers so that you can check when they visit and what they buy. You can also send them push notifications if their visits drop off.
Whether you go simple or more complex, it’s important to judge the amount of effort required for the freebie correctly. For instance, when Costa Coffee revamped its reward scheme so that a free coffee was earned after 8 cups were purchased (with a free slice of cake on the customer’s birthday), they generated an additional £1.2 million in incremental profit each month in a year.
Your business probably isn’t of the goliath stature of Costa Coffee, but offering a free drink after a certain number of purchases can still pay dividends. Just don’t put too high a price on it – most businesses recommend asking for no more than 10 stamps, otherwise the scheme becomes off-putting.
Promoting your coffee reward scheme
Once you’ve set up your scheme and printed your cards or created an app, you’ll need to flag it up to your customers so that they don’t miss out!
Make sure you pop messages onto your social media channels and website, if you have one. If you send out a regular newsletter, make sure it’s included as a story too.
The most important place to advertise your new rewards scheme, however, is in your coffee shop or cafe itself. When buying a coffee from you or enjoying it in your cafe, it’s a great idea to have the loyalty scheme promoted to reinforce the behaviour of coming again.
Countertop Display Units can be a great way of advertising the scheme, particularly if you have paper reward cards on offer. An eye-catching design and clear text explaining what the customer needs to do will help to drive home the message. If you are running a digital-based scheme, include a QR code so customers can quickly download your rewards app.
You can also use Table Talkers to flag up your scheme, which are very handy if you offer table service and customers tend to not pay at a counter.
Promotional posters in your customers’ eyeline are also a must. Pop them up behind your counter and in a window for maximum exposure.
You can also promote your scheme outside your business. A bold Pavement Sign can remind passing loyal customers that they can earn a free drink while also attracting the attention of newcomers.
Want to start promoting your loyalty scheme?
If you’d like to create some stand-out signage to get coffee addicts to keep coming back for more, get in touch with us today! As signage and point-of-sale specialists, we can help you to get your coffee loyalty scheme the notice it needs.
Contact us on hello@bdhtullford.co.uk or by calling 01603 620780.