I choose what I like

So you do not follow a sporting club; wear only Dior; drive a BMW. You wear whatever you feel like, watch all sorts of sports and drive a car you liked at the time of purchase; not because of its make, you just liked it. As I mentioned in our last article there are many types of loyalty besides brand, sport or club loyalty. Today we will explore one of the most important types of loyalty. One which I call: 'coffee shop loyalty'. This is not to be confused with loyalty programs which must by default be a keen topic of discussion.

Massive, free advertising

Many of us have a favourite coffee shop. We go there week after week. We meet our friends there; we may take business associates there. Not only do we offer the owner repeat custom, we bring friends along. By bringing business associates for coffee we are, in effect, recommending the shop as a good place to visit to the broader community. This increase in custom costs the coffee shop owner not one single dollar. The owner potentially acquires well-populated chains of customers from your friends and business associates through a single alliance; you. He pays you nothing.

This is massive, free advertising. You must ponder its success and the reasons for its success frequently. Can we find the secret recipe? To tell the truth, there is no one single and global solution. There are many aspects to 'coffee club loyalty' because we see people sitting, chatting, drinking and enjoying themselves at crowded coffee shops all across town. Examine those that you see often-crowded; examine even more closely those that seem to have a few less patrons than the others.

Getting it right

Why scrutinize empty shops? Surely we want to see what the good ones are doing to keep such repeat crowds sitting at their tables? Absolutely right! But is it not equally important to see if we can find out what the empty ones do, don't do, in order to remain empty? They are so regularly empty; it must be planned so it is up to us to see what they have in their plan. We will leave it out of our planning.

Gather information about people

Gathering information about people is just as important as gathering information about the goods we sell or the services we supply. So how do we start, remembering the budget for research is small? Think back for a moment to your favourite coffee shop and see if we can get some sort of criteria which we could use to plan for a successful coffee shop. See if we can stretch this to our online store. Make mental notes next time you are there. Better still take pen and paper. Ask a few of the regular customers why they keep coming back. Do this over several visits so that you can have time to analyse the thoughts of other customers and formulate more focussed questions for yourself. Do you see patterns emerging? I bet you do. Are you going there this week?

Staff turnover is typically high in coffee shops. My favourite shop has a high turnover too but the staff are always friendly, happy, courteous, know how to react with patrons from a large number of different backgrounds. The owner must look after staff as well as patrons. New staff quickly learn your name. Service is brisk, efficient, and reliable. There is nothing particularly expensive or outstanding about the dcor. It is comfortable, rather than modern. Many regulars come several times each week and stay for much longer than it takes to drink a cup of coffee. There is nothing special about pricing. The menu is fairly static; functional. They occasionally run a special night such as their birthday party or to promote a local band. The owners are always mingling with patrons. It is in a good location; a lot of foot traffic, close to other shops and has parking near by. And that is about it. I will be there again next week.

Doing what corporate giants do

You are now doing just what the big corporations discussed previously are doing. The budget is slightly different. You are finding out what customers do and do not like. When we set up a store online we tend to forget that our customers will be the very people we talk to at the coffee shop. Online customers are coffee shop customers too. They know what makes them leave or stay; buy or not. Your own friends are an equally valuable source of information. Ask them too.

Getting the right blend is the key to 'coffee shop loyalty'; it is the key to online success.

Paul Hathaway 2005