Focusing on Locals First

By Mike Ryan

When asked about increasing gross sales over the next 12 months in the latest Buy Local Santa Monica Member Survey, most business owners listed attracting new customers as their priority. However, when it came to the percentage of sales coming from repeat customers, 71% of the time existing business accounted for more than half of all sales.

 

Somewhere along the line the tried and true regulars did not translate into growth from those surveyed. But the fact of the matter is repeat customers are the bread and butter for most of the small businesses here in town.

 

For Keiko Nakashima, Main Street has been an ideal location to open her walk up restaurant- Sunny Blue Omusubi and Frozen Yogurt.

 

“I love it here. I needed to be in a place where people are more willing to try something different.”  Kieko explains.

 

Omusiubi is a meat or veggie filled rice ball wrapped in a crispy seaweed shell. It is essentially the Japanese version of your standard sandwich. It is also a fun, new, and affordable treat that have been selling like hotcakes for their first 18 months of operation. Fresh, fast, and made to order, Omusubi has been an instant recipe for success. But the demographic that has been coming through the doors was the biggest surprise for Kieko.   

 

“I didn’t think that I would have this many locals coming in. I thought I would see more tourists. People have been bringing in their family and friends and that has helped.” says Kieko.

 

For Kieko’s sake, her regulars are bringing in new customers all through word of mouth. But Keiko does take matters into her own hands to retain her regulars as well.  

 

Implementing a customer loyalty programs has been a great way to get customers coming back to Sunny Blue. Give a regular a stamp card, after they come in 10 times, they get a free Omusubi roll. For the small price of a freebie, Keiko has had ten times the business, plus the card provides a little cheat sheet with the patrons name on it.  The customer gets rewarded for their loyalty, and Kieko gets repeat patronage.

 

From Starbucks to Subway, the customer loyalty card is not anything new. However, Sunny Blue has recently aligned themselves with a business specializing in a paperless version of the stamp card for the iphone named Stamppede. Stamppede also helped with the Buy Local Member Survey. So to say Stampede specializes in customer traffic would be a fair assessment.

 

“Stamppede is a database of your customers.” says founder of Stamppede, Brad Myers. “The main focus is to get a critical mass of those customers.”

 

Once the data is reviewed, things like the importance of local customers becomes more black and white. Now every time someone uses the customer loyalty program by scanning instead of stamping, Keiko can take advantage of the digital finger print. She now knows where her customers live, their email addresses, and how often they frequent her business. She can send out promotions, updates on daily specials, or even coupons for customers whom haven’t been around for a while. Not to mention her printing costs on stamp cards have gone way down.

 

There are a variety programs out there to help drive in more customer traffic. Sunny Blue has been fortunate enough to find the right fit for them. With all the high tech ways to help boost business Kieko still stresses the most important method is remembering the customers name. Stamppede has provided Sunny Blue with a wealth of insight through customer data, but putting a name to a face is invaluable for any small business committed to keeping their local customers coming back for more.

For more information on Stamppede:  http://www.stamppede.com/.  For more info on Sunny Blue:  http://sunnyblueinc.com/.