Mercer Island
Chamber of Commerce

Have you ever seen the small print on a coupon, discount, or promotion that reads “For new customers/clients only?” It’s infuriating to have supported a business only to see new customers getting better rates. Doesn’t matter if it’s a stylist, cable company, a pet groomer. Loyalty should matter. So why do so many businesses offer the most competitive rates to people who’ve never purchased before? Meanwhile, someone who bought from you three times last year hasn’t heard from you in months. One of the most expensive mistakes you can make in Q4 is spending so much energy finding new customers that you overlook the people who already know and like you. The cost of overlooking those who already like you is enormous but not in the way you might imagine because you likely don’t know about it. It’s an appointment nobody books, a corporate order that goes elsewhere, or a regular customer who becomes someone else’s regular. They liked you but you either slipped their mind, or they don’t feel valued enough to come back, especially if they see you “valuing” new prospects all over the place. Fortunately, you can address it without hiring a consultant or buying another marketing program. Start with the customer relationships you’ve already earned. Find the People You’ve Lost Touch With Set aside 30 minutes to review your sales records, appointment history, or past invoices. Identify customers who purchased before but haven’t returned within their usual buying cycle. Look for patterns. Which customers ordered gifts from you last year? Which clients usually schedule a service before year-end? Did a business place a large order once, then disappear? Find somewhere around twenty names so you can thoughtfully follow up with them. Finding more might be overwhelming and discourage you from reaching out. If you don’t have detailed records, start with what you do have: last year’s invoices, your appointment calendar, or the customers your team remembers asking about. You’re looking for a reason to reconnect that makes sense to the customer. Give Them a Useful Reason to Return “We miss you” is pleasant and a good start, but a relevant reminder gives someone a reason to act (even if that someone is no longer with the company their replacement can understand what you did/do). A restaurant could contact the person who booked last year’s team lunch. A printer could remind customers about ordering year-end thank-you cards. A service business could reach out about an approaching maintenance appointment. For example: “You ordered client gifts from us last November, so I wanted to check whether you’re planning something similar this year. We have options in the same price range, and I’d be happy to send you three ideas.” That message saves the customer time. It also shows you paid attention. Use the communication channel the customer has invited you to use. A personal email or a quick conversation during their next visit may be enough. Keep bulk promotional outreach to people who’ve signed up to receive it. Resist the Automatic Discount Before offering 20% off, ask what would make the purchase easier. Could you provide gift wrapping? Put together a ready-to-order package? Reserve an appointment? Recommend three products based on what someone previously purchased? A corporate customer organizing gifts for 15 employees may appreciate individual packaging and one invoice more than a modest discount. Make sure any extra service fits your capacity and pricing. Free delivery loses its appeal quickly if your entire staff spends December driving around town. Convenience can give customers a compelling reason to choose you while protecting the profit you need from the sale. But don’t discount the power of the discount, especially for business-to-customer companies. When everything is increasing in price, it’s nice to be able to save a little money. Check What Happens After Someone Says Yes A successful reminder can still lead to a lost sale. Does your message link directly to the relevant product or booking page? Are your hours current? Can someone quickly find your ordering deadline? Who responds when a customer replies? Ask an employee or trusted business contact to follow the steps a returning customer would take. Have them try to place an order or request an appointment. Watch for the small obstacles you’ve stopped noticing: an outdated form, a missing price, or instructions that require a phone call during hours when your customer is working. Fixing one obstacle may help every customer who follows. Put Your Chamber Connections to Work Your chamber can help you build reasons for customers to return and discover other local businesses along the way. Ask for an introduction to a complementary business. A florist and a caterer might coordinate referrals for company celebrations. A photographer could connect with a salon serving clients who need professional headshots. Each business gains a useful recommendation to share with its customers. You can also ask which seasonal promotional opportunities your chamber offers. Depending on the chamber, those might include a shopping guide, member offers, business features, or local purchasing campaigns. Give chamber staff something specific to work with: what you offer, who it helps, the deadline, and how to buy. “We have employee gift packages for teams of five to 25” gives them more to share than “Please promote our business.” Make Follow-Up Someone’s Job Q4 gets crowded. Assign one person to manage your reconnecting efforts, even if that person is you. A simple spreadsheet can track the customer, reason for contacting them, date, response, and next step. Review it weekly. Record resulting sales and the time or discounts involved so you can judge whether the effort paid off. Before you spend more to introduce yourself to strangers, give those past customers a reason to say, “I’m glad you reached out.”

Your customers have seen the sales, the giveaways, and the “something exciting is coming” posts. But there’s one hot event that is drawing in crowds across all types of business and that’s B-I-N-G-O! It’s more than just a fun game everyone can play. Give your audience a bingo card and suddenly there’s a mission. Businesses are finding creative ways to use bingo to bring people together and give them reasons to explore. The familiar format makes participation easy: fill the squares, complete a row, earn a reward. The fun comes from what you put in those squares, what people can win, and who you invite to play. You can host a lively evening or create a monthlong challenge customers complete on their own. Here are several ideas from businesses and event organizers, along with ways to adapt them for your audience. 1. Plant Bingo The prize table is growing. Literally. Plant bingo awards the winners houseplants instead of cash or generic prizes. Some businesses give the winner an option between plants, while others specific which plant is up for grabs. While others still make sure that every participant receives a plant buddy. It can be a natural partnership between a gathering space and a plant-focused business. A nursery, florist, coffee shop, or home décor store could adapt this idea. Offer easy-care plants for beginners, herbs for cooks, or unusual varieties for collectors. Between rounds, share a quick care tip so winners have a fighting chance of keeping their prizes alive. Even if you don’t sell plants, partnering with someone who does can increase both of your email lists if you make them sign-up to attend. 2. Boozy Bingo Wineries, breweries, and distilleries are giving customers another reason to pull up a chair. You can pair bingo with a featured cocktail, a food vendor, or a themed evening. A wine bar could host “Bingo and Boards” with shareable charcuterie. A brewery could partner with a neighboring restaurant for dinner delivery. Keep the game entertaining for people choosing mocktails, too. The gathering should work without anyone needing to drink alcohol to participate. If your state allows, you can give away free glasses, bottles, mixers, and booze-infused food items. Don’t forget funny booze merch. 3. Music Bingo Unlike the first two examples, this isn’t about the award but how you play. Replace called numbers with song clips. Players mark the matching song titles on their cards. Choose music your audience will recognize. A vintage shop could build an evening around the decade represented in its merchandise. A café could host an afternoon edition. You can hire an established host or entertainment company to handle the cards, music, and pacing or if you have a vivacious employee, they can play emcee (not to be confused with run DMC. See what we did there?). 4. Bingo for What You Sell Take the plant-prize concept and apply it to your own inventory. Consider a bookstore offering books, a pet store offering enrichment toys, or a kitchen shop offering gadgets and specialty ingredients. A boutique could create themed prize bundles around travel, cozy evenings, or accessories. This gives people a chance to discover products they might otherwise walk past. Introduce each prize with one useful detail: what it does, who would enjoy it, or how to use it. 5. Menu Bingo Many customers have a favorite order. They may also have absolutely no intention of changing it. A menu bingo card gives them a reason to venture beyond the usual. Sam Jones BBQ in Winterville, NC awards stamps for featured menu purchases. Completing a five-square row earns a voucher for a free sandwich combo. Your card could feature specific dishes or prompts such as: Try a seasonal special. Order a side you’ve never had. Choose a staff favorite. Come in for breakfast. Save room for a house-made dessert. Design the card around dishes you want customers to discover. Make sure several winning paths are affordable and achievable. You want to offer alternatives where dietary needs would block participation. 6. Shop-Local Bingo This is a favorite of chambers, especially around the holidays. Before you go recreating the wheel, check to see if a similar program is offered near you. If so, find out how you can be included. In most cases, the chamber hands out a bingo card that entices participants to explore local businesses and collect stickers/stamps toward prize opportunities. The card could include spaces for visiting a new shop, attending a demonstration, finding a locally made product, or stopping at a participating eatery. Businesses can contribute prizes and promote the card, spreading the work and introducing customers to one another. Mix purchases with discovery activities so participation doesn’t require a shopping spree. If your chamber doesn’t currently have one, they may be able to help you find partners and coordinate a neighborhood or communitywide version. 7. Coffee Crawl Bingo Coffee shops can give customers a reason to explore the local café scene together. Prickly Pear Coffee Co.’s coffee crawl in Nashville, Tennessee, uses bingo challenges and individual shop stamps. Limits on how many squares each shop can stamp encourage participants to visit multiple locations. You can adapt the approach for coffee, tea, pastries, or dessert shops. Squares might include trying a different brewing method, discovering a café with outdoor seating, or asking a barista for a recommendation. Spread the challenge over several weeks. Nobody needs to complete a coffee crawl in one highly caffeinated afternoon. 8. Reading Bingo Reading challenges make excellent bingo cards. Oregon City Public Library’s card includes prompts such as reading a mystery or a book with a one-word title. A bookstore could create a seasonal reading card, with staff recommendations for each square, or attending a discussion/book signing, or reading in a new genre. Offer a modest reward (maybe a beautiful bookmark) for a completed row, and something more for a black-out card. Then invite participants to a gathering where they can share discoveries. That creates a natural next visit and gives readers something to talk about. 9. Fitness and Wellness Bingo Fitness businesses are using bingo to encourage participation and variety. Workroom Pilates in San Leandro, California, describes its monthlong challenge as a combination of fitness, habits, and community. A studio could include trying a different class, attending a beginner workshop, meeting a new instructor, or completing a recovery activity. Keep multiple routes to a winning row so beginners and people with different abilities can participate. Use the card to help customers explore your offerings without turning every square into another purchase. 10. Trivia, TV, and Movie Bingo Bingo also works with entertainment themes. You can offer TV and movie bingo, holiday bingo, and custom-themed games. One adaptation is trivia bingo: put answers only on the cards and read questions aloud. Players mark a square when they identify the correct answer. A kitchen shop could use food trivia. An outdoor retailer could build questions around camping or wildlife. A local-history theme could bring several businesses together. Keep the questions accessible. Customers came for an enjoyable evening, not an exam. 12. Meet-Someone Bingo Give guests a reason to start conversations. Networking bingo uses prompts that participants complete by finding people who match them. It’s a great way to make introductions easier at events. For a customer gathering, try prompts such as “has adopted a pet,” “knows a great local hiking spot,” or “has taken one of our workshops.” These types of prompts also lend themselves to further conversation. Ask players to collect different names across a winning row. This works especially well for businesses building a community around a shared interest, including craft shops, coworking spaces, and hobby retailers. Make the Fun Work for Your Business Before designing a game card, decide what you want it to accomplish. Fill a quiet evening? Introduce new products? Encourage repeat visits? Help customers discover neighboring businesses? Build community among your customers. Additionally, you’ll want to decide if you’re hosting a Bingo Night where the game(s) is played at your location of whether it’s a challenge they complete over time. Then keep the first version manageable: Explain the rules upfront. Include dates, qualifying activities, verification, and exactly what completing a row earns. Budget the rewards. Account for staff time, supplies, hosting, and prizes. Give staff a simple explanation. They should be able to describe the game and handle cards consistently. Track the result. Compare attendance, sales, repeat visits, or featured-product purchases with your goal. Before launching, confirm the requirements that apply to your location and format, particularly if you plan to charge for play or award chance-based prizes. Start with one bingo event or short challenge. If you need a venue, prize partner, or neighboring businesses to join you, contact the chamber. Tell them who you’d like to meet, and they can likely help make the introduction.