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26-05-2017, 08:11
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https://i0.wp.com/boakandbailey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/pub_1970s.jpg?resize=650%2C276If someone comes into your pub twice you’re missing a trick if you*don’t say hello.We were hanging out with Bailey’s parents recently when his mum told us this story about their pub-going in the 1970s:
The second time we went into The Cobblestones the landlady came over and said,*‘Right, if you’re going to be coming in regularly, I ought to know your names.’ Then a few months later she said,*‘I’ve got something for you,’ and gave Dad a pint glass with a euchre (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euchre) hand on it, and Grandpa a glass with cherries on, because he liked the fruit machines. We drank in there for years.
This seems like such a simple, effective, emotionally manipulative approach. If you see the same face twice, make a formal introduction, and then use those names at every opportunity. Then after, say, three months of regular custom ask if they’d like a loyalty card, or a glass behind the bar, or make some other small gesture — ‘That one’s on the house.’
Lock them into the relationship, like the free sandwich thing at Pret a Manger (http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/you-sometimes-free-coffee-pret-5558481).
In practice, there are probably all sorts of reasons this doesn’t happen so often these days, not least the fact*that it feels ever rarer to actually find the licensee behind the bar. We often ask (because we want permission to take photos or need to ask some questions for one Thing or another)*‘Is this your place, then?’ and we can’t think of many occasions when the answer has been anything other than,*‘No,*I’m just the manager.’
In big chains, though, Creating Regulars could be built into staff objectives and the performance management programme… Aaaaaaaaand we’ve depressed ourselves.
QUICK ONE: Turning Casuals into Regulars (http://boakandbailey.com/2017/05/turning-casuals-regulars/) originally posted at Boak & Bailey's Beer Blog (http://boakandbailey.com)


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