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Bringing new people into your shop is always a good thing. But it’s your regulars who are your bread and butter.
In fact, a recent study by Bain & Company found that when customers come back in, they spend roughly 67 percent more than first-time customers. Which nets out to a lot. Over their lifetime, loyal customers are worth 10 times as much as their first purchase, according to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs. So it’s definitely worth the time to figure out how to up your regular customer count.
Not sure how many repeat customers you have? With Square, all that data is at your fingertips. Just check your Dashboard to see the breakdown. If those numbers are sad-panda-ish, it’s time to strategize about how to improve. We can help. Our Customer Engagement tool is a quick and easy way to help you get people coming back again — and again.
5 Ways to Get More Repeat Customers
1. Beef up your directory
First and foremost, some magic. Because everything’s hooked up to Square’s point-of-sale system, your Customer Directory has your customer lists loaded up and ready to go—with key information like when people last visited last and what they bought. This means no more entering customer information from clipboards on the countertop — which is a huge time-saver, to say the least. (You can also import your customer lists from other tools.)
2. Pore over your data
Data is knowledge is power. So it’s worth pouring over all the insights available in Square Customer Engagement. For one, you can see the breakdown of how many of your customers are regular, casual, or lapsed. For another, you can dig deeper to spot customer trends. The Insights tab of Square Customer Engagement features some key intel like how often your customers come in, how much they spend, and what they buy. All this information can help you make key decisions about how you run your business — and bring more people in.
3. Do some email marketing
So you have your customer lists, as well as your insights. Now it’s time to put that stuff to work. Square Customer Engagement comes with three beautifully designed email marketing templates to help you quickly send out messages to your customers. You can whip up and send email to promote an event, promotion, or announcement. And you can laser-target your messages to the customer group (loyal, casual, or lapsed) that you think would be the most engaged with it.
What’s more, you can track what’s working and what’s not. There’s a detailed set of analytics associated with each email you send, so you can spot trends and make adjustments when needed. You can also see the impact on your bottom line — tracking exactly how many additional dollars you’re bringing in thanks to your email marketing efforts.
4. Engage with customer feedback
To improve as a business, you need to know how you’re doing. There’s Yelp, yes, but sometimes people want a more private forum. That’s where the Feedback feature comes in. Customers can leave you accolades or suggestions right within their Square receipt. Since it’s a closed dialogue between you and your customer, the conversation feels more personal. You can respond with messages or discounts, so you can keep what’s working and turn any dissatisfied customers into loyal ones.
5. Offer a loyalty program
If customers are weighing where to get their morning cup, they’re likely to choose your shop over the competition if they have incentive to do so. One way to do that? Give them goodies for repeat visits.
Offering a rewards program is a simple way to do this. Square Loyalty automatically tracks and rewards customers based on the program you’ve set up. You can set up a punch card system where customers receive points from purchases to earn a reward. Or you can offer reward levels that allow customers to bank their points to earn tiers or higher-value rewards.
An added bonus: customers enrolled in Square Loyalty spend 37 percent more after they join. You can enable your Loyalty program in the Customers section of your Dashboard.
Regular customers are not only key to the success of your business — they’ll help you forge more meaningful relationships with your local community. Hopefully these tips will help you bring some more in.
