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A customer walks into a coffee shop and before they even reach the counter, the barista starts making their drink. At a neighborhood game store, players gather around the same table, greeting each other by name before the first cards are shuffled.
For local businesses, moments like these are the clearest sign that customers have become regulars.
Regular customers become part of the rhythm of a business. They show up week after week, bring friends, recommend favorite spots, and help businesses get through slower seasons. They also spend more. According to the 2026 Square Local Economy Report, regular customers drive six times more annual revenue than transient customers and leave 11% higher average tips.
But regulars don’t show up by accident. Businesses need to deliver a consistent, reliable experience that gives people a reason to keep coming back.
In Greenville, businesses like The Bread Lady, Blue Ox Games, Simply Natural Creamery, and Blackbeard Coffee Roasters have spent years building those kinds of relationships. Each owner has their own approach, but together they show how local businesses turn first-time visitors into loyal regulars and how those relationships become the foundation for long-term growth.
The Bread Lady: Making customers feel seen
The Bread Lady has spent more than two decades serving Greenville with artisan baked goods made through a slow, hands-on baking process. But while the bread brings people in, owner Heather Jackson believes the relationships are what keep them coming back.
“My idea of a regular is someone who knows us by name and likes the friendliness we have here,” says Jackson. “We try to connect with our customers by learning their names and what some of their favorites are.
“People come back to where they feel known and welcomed.”
Those small interactions have created a dependable base of repeat customers who return for their usual orders. In 2025, 78% of The Bread Lady’s revenue came from repeat customers. “Our regulars are the ones that keep our doors open and keep us baking,” Jackson says. “They are the ones that give us an idea of how to prepare each and every day.”
To reward repeat visits, The Bread Lady uses Square Loyalty. Customers earn points on qualifying purchases that can later be redeemed for discounts, giving the bakery a simple way to encourage repeat business while staying connected to its customer base. “Our customers earn 1 point per visit with a $10 minimum purchase,” says Jackson. “Ten points equal $10 off total sales.”
But their loyalty program works because it supports an experience that customers value. The Bread Lady has built loyalty the old-fashioned way through consistency, warmth, and making people feel remembered every time they walk through the door.
Blue Ox Games: Building loyalty through community events
On any given week at Blue Ox Games — a specialty tabletop game and comic shop — customers might stop by for a trading card tournament, a board game night, or simply to chat with fellow gamers. What keeps many of them coming back, though, is the feeling that the store is a community space.
Owner Harry Frank has watched that sense of routine develop over 15 years of running the business. “Usually, we realize a customer has become a Blue Ox diehard regular when we see them at least once a week, sometimes almost every day,” he says. “Often, it is when we start seeing them plan their next trip while still in the store, and that means everything to us.”
Blue Ox Games has built retention around community events that give customers a reason to return. Weekly events create habits, while the store’s atmosphere encourages customers to stay, connect, and become part of a gaming community.
Those repeat visits have become the foundation of the business itself. According to Frank, the store has an annual returning customer rate of 85 percent. In February 2026, 87% of customers were returning visitors. Of those customers, 41% visited the store more than once during the month. “This means that about 90-95% of our revenue comes from people who make the choice to shop with us more than once,” says Frank.
While events bring people through the door, Frank believes that customer service is what keeps many customers loyal long term. “For our local customers, we really provide a sounding board for their geeky questions and gaming interests. Never underestimate the power of a friendly ear!”
To keep operations running smoothly, Frank and his team rely on Square to track returning customer rates, compare performance against industry benchmarks, and speed up checkout with saved customer information.
“For us, the biggest help Square provided was tools to identify our returning customer rates,” Frank says. “This helps us know how we are performing against industry standards [and] keeps us focused on doing what we know works.”
Simply Natural Creamery: Turning routine into revenue
For many customers at Simply Natural Creamery, a visit to the creamery is a standing tradition. The family-owned business processes roughly 8,000 gallons of milk each week and serves a steady stream of local families, many of whom stop in multiple times a week for ice cream, milk, and other farm-fresh products.
Owner Holly Rollins says these repeat visits were one of the first signs that the business had become part of the community.
“We first noticed regulars when customers started coming in multiple times a week and our team began recognizing their orders before they even spoke,” Rollins said. “This was a big deal for our business, because it meant we weren’t just a one-time stop, but part of people’s routines and family traditions.”
Rather than relying on constant promotions, Simply Natural Creamery focuses on creating an experience customers can count on. “We focus on consistency, quality, and customer experience,” Rollins says. “That includes friendly, personal service, a clean and welcoming environment, and high-quality products made with farm-fresh ingredients.” Rollins estimates that the majority of the creamery’s revenue comes from repeat customers. For a business built around local families and routines, that predictability helps the team anticipate busy periods and navigate slower seasons with more confidence.
When it comes to operations, Square helps the team see the patterns behind those routines more clearly. “Square has been a valuable tool for tracking customer trends and identifying repeat visits,” Rollins says. “It allows us to better understand our busiest times, top customers, and purchasing patterns.”
Blackbeard Coffee Roasters: Creating a community anchor
It didn’t take long for Blackbeard Coffee Roasters to start building a loyal base of regulars.
“The very first week we were open, it was clear we would have a large group of regulars,” Blackbeard Coffee owner Matt Sterling says. “We had a number of people that came every day [during] our first week and still come multiple days every week eight years later.”
Today, repeat customers account for 65–70% of revenue for the downtown Greenville coffee roastery. The business has earned that loyalty through a culture built around coffee — where regulars can count on a great drink every time, and where staff make a point of learning customers’ favorite orders. For some of its most devoted regulars, Blackbeard staff go one step further by giving their drinks special names “to show them how much we appreciate them,” says Sterling.
As customer habits became more established, Square Loyalty gave the business an easier way to both measure and reward repeat behavior. The loyalty program allowed Blackbeard to begin tracking customer activity more intentionally, while still keeping the experience seamless for both staff and customers.
“After about six months, we added the loyalty program in Square and that has been very helpful to quantify our regulars, but also [to] have an easy system to provide rewards to them,” Sterling says. “It was an exciting moment when that first customer was able to redeem a free drink.”
Square also helps the business connect customer behavior to business performance, with insights into past orders, peak periods, and how repeat visits drive growth over time.
For Blackbeard, the value of regulars became especially obvious during a 10-month stretch of road construction directly in front of the shop. “Without our regular customers choosing to maze their way through to us, that season could have been almost impossible to navigate,” says Sterling.
The business case for regulars
Across all four Greenville businesses, the pattern is the same: regulars bring predictable revenue, honest feedback, and word-of-mouth referrals that advertising campaigns can’t drive. Repeat customers also spend more over time, giving businesses a higher customer lifetime value than one-time visitors. Data from the Square Local Economy Report shows regular customers drive six times more annual revenue than one-time customers.
National chains may have broader reach, but local businesses win on familiarity, expertise, and personal connection. According to Square Consumer Survey data, 56% of memorable customer experiences are tied directly to knowledgeable staff.
The right tools make it easier to deliver that experience consistently. All four businesses use Square Marketing and Square Loyalty to encourage repeat visits and strengthen customer relationships. According to our data, 90% of local businesses using a marketing tool successfully maintained regular customers, compared to just 38% of businesses that didn’t. Businesses using marketing tools also saw major operational gains, including up to six times higher daily order volume and two times higher daily revenue.
The businesses that thrive are the ones that turn first-time visitors into long-term regulars and use the right tech tools to reinforce those relationships over time.
