Encouraging repeat visits

To reward loyal, repeat customers, many companies offer membership and reward programs that incentivize regular visits to their stores.

We wanted to know how independent garden centers engage in this practice and what methods they use to give back to their regular customers. Here are some of the responses we got for last month’s Your Turn prompt:

Facebook comment from Cultivate Garden & Gift in Parksville, B.C.: “We use a membership system with yearly renewal. Cost is $25 annually and the customer gets discounts along with other benefits (listed in our webpage). Currently have over 1000 members and are located in a small town on Vancouver Island, BC. Our POS system keeps a history of their purchases, just by phone number (so no card that the customer has to carry).”

Facebook comment from Scott Bardash of Allisonville Garden & Home in Fishers, Ind.: “We are just rolling out a rewards program right now, so I will be interested to see how this works for other garden centers!”

Facebook comment from Toni Palafox of Mission Hills Nursery in San Diego, Calif.: “We have it in our POS and offer the customer quarterly to redeem their points.”

Twitter message from Sunbeam Gardens in Avon, Ohio: “We offer 1% on [wholesale] orders $1,000-5999., 3% over 6,000, in the course of a year’s sales including sales items. 1% discount on cash at time of pick up or delivery. Free flat of quart material with referral of new customer. Modified every few years. [Running for] approximately 10 years.”

Sincere thanks to everyone who answered last month’s question! Be sure to look for this month’s Your Turn prompt in the Home Page section.