1.) Ensure the guest experience – You build guest loyalty by taking care of them while they are in your bar. Make this the foundation for all your decision making and more customers will be there. When people leave happy, they become long-term customers and tell their friends.
2.) Gather your guests contact information – You should be constantly building a database of your customers, and using a good customer relationship management software program to keep track of them. You do this in a number of ways – one good idea I did that worked well was a fish bowl we placed at the hostess stand where we offered a free $100 gift card and all you had to do to enter was drop your business card in. We got hundreds of business contacts this way.
3.) Continually communicate with your contact list – You should be communicating with your list through the use of email, social media, and printed media with content about your business. Much of this content does not require a direct offer, as the main purpose of this communication is to build a strong relationship. Use a combination of direct mail, email, social media, and old school methods like constantly going out and being social.
4.) Get customer feedback and adjust your offering – With the open lines of communication you have opened in step 3, you are now able to ask your guests questions about their experience at your bar. This information will become valuable as you adjust your business to match exactly the experience they are looking for. As well as the inevitable emails, phone calls, and face to face conversations you will have with your guests about their experience, you can also use tools like surveymonkey.com to survey your entire list whatever you want to research and get a great idea of where they stand on a topic.
5.) Use multiple forms of media to grow your list – You should have several different methods of generating new business happening at once, and your phone should be ringing constantly with people interested in doing parties, bookings, and reservations. You should have multiple forms of advertising (offline and online), as well as old school marketing efforts like getting down on the streets and meeting the people you want to tell about your wonderful bar. Diversity leads to stability. Never rely on any one way to generate new business.
As simple as this sounds, this is the formula for wealth in the night club and bar industry.
