Do you have regulars at your business? ‌🤝‌

[isabelle]

Hey Seller Community! ☀️ Apparently Summer officially started yesterday 🎉 I hope everyone is enjoying their week and hopefully some good weather!

This week, we're wondering...

Do you have regulars at your business?

How long have they been your regulars? Do they get special discounts? Are you a regular anywhere? 

A regular is defined as "a regular customer or member, for example of a bar, store, or team"...

[DinaLRosenberg]

During the Covid lock down we started doing live sales on Instagram- we "met" so many people during those almost 3 months- and those people that showed up whenever we were live became our regulars... some we have met in person- some are across the Country - and some have come to visit us all the way from California (we're in NY).

we do our best to remember our customer's name and what's on their wishlists. We say hello to everyone as they come in the door... we blast music and have dance parties (the opposite of what you think would go on at a metaphysical shop- you're probably thinking calm zen music- not us!)..

We even get our customers bday gifts. they've become our extended family and we just love em.

as for me being a regular- I live in a small village (where the biz is as well) so I'm a regular at the coffee shop and many other local restaurants.. I love that small community feel.

[Michael_L]

I am a regular at the local Safeway where I buy flowers for our graduation photos.  I now know the 4 florists who work there by name and we usually spend 10-15 minutes chatting over a 2-minute transaction! haha don't tell their boss.  While I don't get discounts, I do get flowers held for me even on busy days like Valentine's or Mother's Day, and great service all the time.

Most of our customers are graduates, so that's a one-time event in most cases, but we have had people contact us later on for headshots and occasionally wedding photos 🙂

[remmelyancey461]

1. ---

   @isabelle wrote:
   

   Hey Seller Community! ☀️ Apparently Summer officially started yesterday 🎉 I hope everyone is enjoying their week and hopefully some good weather!

   This week, we're wondering...

   Do you have regulars at your business?

   How long have they been your regulars? Do they get special discounts? Are you a regular anywhere? 

   A regular is defined as "a regular customer or member, for example of a bar, store, or team"...

   ---

[Lovewell]

Hey everyone. 

I love this question. Man, do we have "regulars". We are community coffee shop and our morning traffic is very much made up of mostly regular crew. We have our work force, teachers and students, moms before drop offs, nurses coming off shift and nurse going to shift. 

I think some of our regular crew started out as once or twice a week folks, and moved into every day or multiple times a day. 

For our shop our goal is to remember as many names as possible, so each interaction we try to keep organic and hopefully create "regulars" or new "family". 

Since we have only been open for 2 years most of our crew are fresh to the family. We hope they stay part of the family for a long time. 

We send out special emails through Square Marketing and get a really decent return on it, we also have loyalty cards - buy 9 get the 10th free, which has been the biggest bang for our buck. We have created a lot of return customers turn family through this. 

What do you do for returning customers?

Cheers, 

Andrea 

[PerroneTech]

I have a computer repair business, so you can imagine I have regulars. Actually, regulars are a good sign that I'm doing my job right. I have too many. However, some stand out above others. I'm the go-to guy for many of my customers, just to call for small bits of advice or to ask how to move forward with a technology purchase, etc.

I have only been doing business in a storefront for two years, so they have really only been my regulars for two years. I love my regulars. They always pay promptly, they sometimes get discounts (hey, I'm not running a charity here), and would prefer to support me rather than big business.

When a place treats me right, I make it my business to be a regular there. I have been a regular at my barbershop for 18 years. I have been a regular at food places for several years. I have been a regular at my mechanic for 10 years. Again, when you treat people right, when you make the experience about them, when you make sure you deliver consistent and friendly service then you make people feel good about spending their money there. That's why I treat all my customers well. I am open with them, I am transparent, I make sure they are informed about their purchase and why is it of value to them. This way they feel good about spending more because I am NOT cheap.

I should mention that I do not use Square's loyalty system. It is yet another fee. I say either make a plan that is all-in on all the services or make it all free and raise the fee rate. I really don't like this nickel and diming of small business, it's not a good look sometimes.

[weredoughcookie]

As a bakery we definitely have regulars. We also sell ready to eat cookie dough that tastes better than what you can get in the grocery stores today, and many coming in just for the dough.

But we have some customers that are really close friends to the point where we reach out on private messenger on social media to make sure they are okay if they haven't been in for 2 or 3 weeks.

Most of our regulars come in for the cookies though.

Our loyalty points system through square certainly encourages a lot of return customers. 

[Doran]

Yep!  As a skincare studio obviously we had a ton of regulars but I was surprised when we opened a boutique that we would get so many neighborhood regulars.  It is actually fun.  Since we have a nice kids/baby selection pregnant women or couples often come in and now we get to know their little ones too.  

[MudFire_Dex]

Yes - we are membership based so our members are here daily, weekly, or monthly and pay on a subscription. We don't really have a "loyalty" function for that other than to grandfather them in at old pricing when membership pricing changes. We are considering utilizing Square to do a loyalty promotion to sell clay to our members though.

[lawnbrook]

We are a winery/distillery/restaurant in a semi rural location. As such we have a large collection of both local and 'out of towner' regulars. My aim for the coming months is to build a more formal method (wine/spirits club, loyalty etc) to try and formalise the relationship with regulars, and ultimately grow the repeat customer base.

[Msevents757]

Because we are an event hosting company that host events inside of malls for vendors, typically we do not have "regular" business hours. We will answer emails, text and phone calls just about anytime we are awake and not busy. However; we do truly hope that most people will be respectful in terms of how early or late they call if they are not having an urgent matter that needs to come directly to us during an event.

[JTPets]

I work out of a farmers market it's a shared space, I offer vendors 5% off, I had square marketing set up on weebly, i'm now trying to get the square one setup properly now and we offer emails for lapse and stuff like that. We have a number of loyal customers we see month after month, but no special offers specifically for them. We now just started Square loyalty with a points program for 1% back

[lenjobakes]

We absolutely have regulars and we love them!!

We know their names, their kids' names, their pets' names, where they work, where and when they go for vacation - everything!

(Which means we obviously know their order and their fave products and we think of them when we're coming up with something new!)

We're really big on community here (because I don't know another way to live my life) and ensuring that we created a space that allowed everyone to feel like they belonged was the most important thing.

We don't give our regulars discounts; they fight me when I skip the tip screen 😂

But now that we have the Square Loyalty program, I take it upon myself to redeem their "gems" for them and often they walk out not paying anything. They would never initiate because they want to support us, but I think they appreciate it.

[TCSlaguna]

We have regulars who come to buy crystals, greeting cards or incense weekly. Some of them have been customers for 15 years and have followed us through two moves. They love to talk about how they just went for a swim in the beach or just came from a meditation group. We have gotten to know them quite well, and they really show up for our events. We do have a locals discount as an appreciate for them and the community. 

I am a regular at a local coffee shop, located in an industrial park behind a post office, with little signage. When it first opened I thought it wouldn't last six months given its location. Boy was I wrong! Some days there is a line outside the door and quite a wait. I guess having an amazing product helps with word of mouth. 

[LitDesigns]

Good Question Olive_

First I must say I love hearing about the loyalty other businesses have. Loyalty is Retail Love. I have a lady that inspired an entire category, by making 1 custom request, and it is now my most popular category. She also is on an unspoken subscription. Regulars are great! For me, just having an interaction with them is a full tank of passion. I'm grateful for every one!  The Love for my stuff grows my Love more than I ever knew possible. Please Please reply to this message with your site url. We must support each other!

[JUYBoutique20]

Yessss!!!!  We have some customers who has been with us since the beginning.  We have a loyalty program, but for my loyal regulars I actually send them a gift card at the end of the year to say thank you....

[LukeNieuw]

I have a lot of Regulars at my business. Being a golf course we sell Membership which means we end up seeing those individuals quite a bit. 

We put on special events specifically for our Members that are completely Free. It helps add value and creates some excitement and fun for them.

[homeprogreen]

I definitely have regulars. Some have been shopping at the shop since I opened 9 years ago. Don’t really get special discounts but definitely get special attention and I will go out of my way to give them extra services 

[designtime]

Yes, regulars are a great part of the business. We have loyalty program set up and it's a great incentive. We know on certain days when someone should be coming in and what new they may like. Got to keep the regulars happy so they will come back and hopefully bring others. 

[Candlestore]

Yes we have regulars that order at all different times, some are in store regulars, and others just order online regularly.  Usually once or twice a yr some of our webstore regulars come in to say Hi and smell the new scents we come up with.

[ryanwanner]

Hi @isabelle !

Being in the coffee biz, our regulars are our lifeblood. In my opinion, you haven’t made it as a coffee shop if you don’t have the daily table of retirees solving all the worlds problems over their morning cuppa. 🙂

Many of our regulars have been with me since day 1 fourteen years ago, and the majority of them have my personal number or social media pages. So yes I know when the team is messing up!

Ive definitely found the Loyalty helps us keep track of a lot of our newer regulars, but I feel that knowing our regulars is such a vital part of our day that I have it built into the job description:

-You can be out of training when you know 25% of our regulars orders and names

-First raise is considered once you’re at 50%

-Team lead needs to know 75%
-Store managers need to know 95%

I also have a discount on our systems called “Regulars Thank You” where each team member is allowed to buy a drink or a meal for a regular once a week. We have a little notepad for who got the comp for the week so we don’t continually give the discount to the same person. My rationale is this: while I agree with using loyalty, I feel “wow, Joe, this is the third time I’ve seen you this week. I want to buy your drink to thank you for continuing to support us” has a lot more credibility than “the system says you’re up for a discount”. Like @lenjobakes most of them fight us on it, but it’s the thought that counts. 

As for discounts, we mostly do discounts on the coffee side. When we see the same person in multiple times in a week, we invite them to bring in their own mug. Any time they’re in and use that mug they only pay $1 for their coffee and the 8oz price for any fancy coffee drinks regardless of mug size. It’s been really popular over the years. Every mug on these shelves belongs to a regular.