Bar Loyalty

One of the things that makes the bar business so cutthroat is the need to get high volume and keep it. Bar customers are notoriously fickle--after all, the slightest incentive can get most bargoers to try a new place, whether it's the prospect of fine females, cheap drinks, or fancy appetizers. This is all the more reason that a smart-run bar will reward its loyal customers to keep them coming (and this also means that those customers' friends will show, too).

Case in point--most bars tend to have "buybacks" where after you've ordered say five beers at the bar the bartender will comp your sixth beer. Not that the customer will specifically stay for those extra beers in the hopes of getting a free one--after all, if it was really about economics you'd be doing shots at home and picking up women at the drugstore instead!--but it is one of those little things that makes the customer realize that they're noticed and appreciated. This provides a warm association with the bar.

Of course, one of our haunts back in Portland was a popular bar--good location, lots of space, good decor, often live music and friendly staff--but the official policy was "no buybacks". Bartenders would give out free beers to regular customers--mind you, these are customers who would routinely spend over a hundred dollars a week at the bar and would bring their friends often--but this was done at risk of getting fired. What sort of business sense was it to penalize your staff for doing the very sort of customer relations efforts that they should be encouraged to do?

Needless to say, as many of the abused staff of that bar started switching to working at other local drinking holes, their friends--us, the customers--tended to leave with them, visiting the old bar less frequently. Whether this hurt business in any way is doubtful--it's still a good location, and crowds beget crowds--but I can't help but think that once the center of popularity moves elsewhere in town the bar owner might regret not taking care of his original core of loyal customers.