This summer it’s Euro 2024, by the end of August it will be the return of the Premier League. Soon after that the Champions League will be back. If you have a bar or clubhouse that regularly screens football matches, there are plenty of reasons why fans might be paying you a visit to enjoy a football match on a big screen or meeting up with with other fans for the atmosphere – and the draught beer.
Since Sky started broadcasting live football regularly in the UK in 1992, many bar owners have appreciated the extra custom that televised matches bring on a quiet Tuesday evening in November or a wet Wednesday in March.
Over the years the reputation of football fans as being mindless thugs has long gone. And whilst there may be the odd incident at grounds, most football supporters are well behaved and – aside from visiting your establishment to enjoy the football match and your comfortable bar furniture – there is no reason that they won’t return for other reasons. Perhaps they will come back with friends or family. Here are five tips for turning football fans into loyal customers.
Promote When Showing Football & Sports at Your Pub
Decide which matches you are going to screen and make it easy for people to find out that you are screening them. Chalk up in the bar area fixtures over the next few weeks and their start times. Advertise the matches outside your front door. Add the matches to your website and Facebook page. In short, if somebody has come in to watch one match, make it easy for them to come back again by giving them clear information on what other matches you are screening and when.
Incentivise Return Pub Visits
During the Euros, offer an incentive to watch the next match. One bar I know of has been offering vouchers to customers watching England play for a free burger at a BBQ before the next England match. Cost of a burger? Just a few pence. But getting returning customers to watch each match at the pub is worth a lot.
Publicise Your Other Pub Events Beyond Football
Promote other types of activity in your bar. Do you feature live music? Sunday Carvery? Breakfast service? Advertise around the bar or in the toilets the other types of entertainment that you put on for customers. As soon as people walk through your door, you should be educating customers about what else you offer as well as screening football matches.
Pub Loyalty Schemes
There are many different types of loyalty cards available – from simple slips of card that can be stamped, to credit card style electronic systems. Whatever card or discount you offer, make sure you capture data from the customer.
An email address is probably the most important but if you can get hold of a birthday that is useful as well (to offer people a free drink around their birthday). Armed with an email address you can stay in touch with future relevant events, new opening hours, Christmas menus – you name it, you can contact people who have signed up to your loyalty card.
Introduce a Pub Passport
Want to encourage customers to try out a range of drinks and foods over time? Why not create a pub passport?
For every country in the Euros, you can list a drink or food item for people to try. This could be anything from Carling Black Label (UK) Kortenberg (France) to Roast Turkey crisps (Turkey). They get a stamp for each country they ‘visit’ and if they complete the set they can get a voucher to be spent within a specified period of time at your bar.
You could even throw in a competition prize such as a weekend trip to Dublin (to visit the Guinness brewery) or something equally exciting as an overall prize. This encourages visits at non-football screening times as well as during matches. This will plant the idea of visiting at times that have nothing to do with football.
But this doesn’t have to be restricted to the Euros. It can equally work for the World Cup in 2026, the Olympics, the Rugby World Cup. It can work for any large scale sporting event with an international component that you want to encourage returning visitors.
Of course the main way that you will encourage returning visitors is to provide a pub, restaurant, bar or clubhouse that people will want to return to! By making people welcome, providing comfortable and attractive seating and tables, good quality food and a well-stocked bar, people will look to return.
But remember, you want to encourage people to come back a few times in a short period of time and they will develop a habit of choosing your venue over other places. Once people find themselves sitting comfortably, looking round and thinking ‘I like this place’ then you have every chance that they may become a loyal customer.
Trent Furniture offer a wide range of pub furniture that helps to make your customers comfortable and want to stay longer in your company.