Fine cigars, intriguing conversation, and big sales — that’s what cigar lounges are for.
Running a cigar lounge is a profitable and rewarding endeavor, giving you the opportunity to bring your community’s tobacco enthusiasts together to relax, socialize, and share their passion for great cigars.
In this blog, we’ll walk through a cigar lounge checklist of three simple and effective ways to attract new cigar lovers to your lounge, boost your sales, and grow your business.
1. Implement a Loyalty Program
Building a loyal base of customers is critical for the success of your cigar lounge. You want your cigar lounge to be a place where your customers regularly come to enjoy a cigar, share camaraderie with friends, and stock up on their favorite tobacco products.
A loyalty program is a powerful tool that can turn casual customers into regular patrons. Through your loyalty program, you can offer rewards points, exclusive discounts, and special perks to your customers to encourage them to continue visiting your cigar lounge, and to spend more during each visit.
Another reason why a loyalty program is an essential item on your cigar lounge checklist is that it provides valuable insights into what your customers want. For example, through your point of sale (POS) system, you can see when your loyalty program members visit your lounge, which products they buy, and how much they spend on average.
Equipped with this information, you’ll be able to tailor your cigar lounge’s offerings and operations to meet their wants and needs — giving your sales and your customer satisfaction a boost.
2. Plan Special Events
Events are an exciting way to generate buzz for your cigar lounge and create memorable experiences for your customers.
Whether your lounge is brand new or well established, events are a critical cigar lounge checklist item because they’re a fantastic way to attract new customers to your small business and boost your sales.
Here are a few ideas to inspire you as you start planning your event:
- Live Music: Invite a local musician to play in your cigar lounge, and include a cigar in the price of the ticket.
- Cigar Masterclass: Share your tobacco expertise with your community.
- Whiskey and Cigar Pairings: Partner with a local distillery or liquor store to host a whiskey and cigar pairing event.
- Cigar Tasting: Allow guests to sample various types of cigars and learn about their origins, manufacturing process, and unique flavors.
- Cigar Club: Start a cigar club that meets regularly in your lounge.
Don’t forget to promote your event! Use your POS system to send email and SMS messages to update your customers on your upcoming events and encourage them to stop by.
3. Launch Cigar Promotions
Promotions are a tried and tested strategy to add to your cigar lounge checklist. Planning sales is a great way to increase your revenue, boost customer satisfaction, and encourage customers to visit your lounge more often.
Here are a few enticing promotion ideas to try in your cigar lounge:
- Mix and match promotions allow you to offer a special price to customers when they purchase a specific combination of products. For example, you can promote two cigar brands by promoting a buy one, get one 50 percent off discount. This is a great option for cigar lounges because it gives your customers the opportunity to smoke one cigar in your lounge and take another one home to enjoy later.
- Kit building is another effective promotion option for cigar lounges. With kit building, you can group together products and sell them for a special price. For instance, you can create a beginner’s kit for customers who are new to cigars, including a selection of your most popular cigars and smoking essentials.
Your cigar shop’s POS system should make it easy to set up promotions like mix and match discounting and kit building, so that the checkout process is a breeze for your customers and employees.
The Most Important Item on Your Cigar Lounge Checklist: Cigars POS
For cigar lounge success, you need a powerful point of sale system designed specifically for the tobacco industry.
Your POS system is the engine behind each item on your cigar lounge checklist, enabling you to build customer loyalty, plan enticing promotions, and run your small business more efficiently.
If you’re looking to take your cigar lounge to the next level, look no further than Cigars POS! Cigars POS is an all-in-one point of sale solution designed specifically with the tobacco industry in mind.
Schedule a live demo today with one of our tobacco industry experts to learn if Cigars POS is the right fit for your cigar lounge.
