Blog

Enticing customers to your bar should be at the forefront of your operation but have you considered a strategy to keep them there (spending money) once they’re inside?

The secret to boosting your profits will be getting customers to stay in your bar/pub past the 1 or 2 drinks mark. This is usually a difficult task as depending on your location many ‘punters’ like to move around from bar to bar on a night out, however, it is not impossible! With a little bit of thought and planning there are things you can do to increase your customer retention.

Professionalism and great customer service is obviously a great place to start when wanting to retain customers for a longer period of time however we’d expect this to be the basic standard when running a successful bar. It’s the not so obvious solutions that we’re going to concentrate on in this blog article. Listed below are our recommended solutions for keeping guests at your bar longer.

Happy hour

If you time a happy hour correctly then you will more than likely find customers stay on that extra hour to enjoy the benefits of reduced prices. The thought process behind this is that you can increase your sales volume for one hour and then you’ll have a captive audience for when prices go back up. If your establishment serves food you will also find that people are more likely to order once they’ve had a few drinks.

Cocktails

Most bars sell cocktail but do they really utilise their potential? The cocktail culture has found a vibrant international home in the UK, which is great news for bars as they are fantastic products to upsell. According to Cellar Trends research 45% of respondents purchase cocktails in pubs/bars, over 10% in clubs, while 20% now do so in supermarkets so the potential is huge. It’s important to make sure that you have the UK’s favourite cocktails stocked; these seem to be the Mojito, Pina Colada, Cosmopolitan, Margarita & Bloody Mary. With the winter months now approaching why not consider featuring warm, spiced beverages and cocktails to give your bar the edge over others in the area. You can view Quandos cocktail products here for inspiration.

Games

Don’t be afraid to be quirky, offering your customer’s games to play at their tables can have a big affect on the atmosphere in your bar. This is quite a traditional strategy for retaining customers however they keep guests in their seats longer so they end up spending more at the bar. They also provide a great opportunity for your staff to bond with the customers. You can view our games range here for inspiration.

Free Wifi

Nothing keeps people sitting longer than offering free wi-fi. With the influx of social media and all things digital it’s important that you offer people the opportunity to come in and relax on their smart devices. You may open your audience up that way to professionals who need a place for meetings or people who like to work in non-conventional places.

Quando drinks have been front of mind to the licence trade when it comes to barware. Whether it’s bar appliances, accessories or drinks stock you need, we are on hand to offer technical support backed up with a speedy and reliable service. Please feel free to contact us regarding any inquiries.