Ask coffee shop owners about their regulars, and many will tell you the relationships outlast the sale. 

At Creative Coffee Week in Durban, we asked twelve business owners about the customers who keep their businesses running. We heard about a regular who walks three kilometres each morning and lets himself in. Another who followed his barista from one shop to the next, a decade apart.  

In each case, loyalty never looked the same way twice. But every owner knew it when they saw it. You can't always tell who your next regular is going to be, so it’s important to give each one a reason to come back.

Their favourite regular

At Bean There Coffee in Johannesburg, that story is John: a man who walks three kilometres each morning, rain or shine, and has been coming for so long he lets himself in and makes his own coffee. "He basically has his coffee, pays himself essentially," says founder Jonathan. "And if for any reason anyone is late, I'll get a little call to say, “just checking if you're opening up today."

Down in Cape Town, Winston at Cedar Coffee Roasters has a story of loyalty that stretches back further than the shop itself. A regular named Martin followed him from his days as a barista in Salt River all the way to his own store in Woodstock, a decade later. "It's actually funny because it's like a regular times two," Winston laughs.

Sometimes the loyalty starts before a business has even properly opened. At Noble Coffee, a regular named Dave first showed up during staff training and took the free coffee on offer while the team practised. "We thought once we open, he's not going to come back," says owner Chappy. "Actually, he's been with us since day one." He's since become a regular at both of their branches.

And loyalty doesn't always look like a single customer walking through the door. Fixie runs a mobile coffee service for events and she’s had an entire running club that's found her wherever they've gone for the past four years: "Wherever they go and there's no coffee there, they always call me - we've been together almost for four years."

What keeps their customers coming back

For Jonathan at Bean There, it comes down to the basics done consistently, plus something harder to manufacture: "If you just serve a consistently great coffee with a smile and remember people's names. I think that's what keeps them coming back. Ultimately coffee is about relationships."

Berno at Treat Coffee Roasters puts the same idea more bluntly: consistency is the entire job. "The most important thing with coffee is consistency. You do one great coffee one day and your customers want to come back. They want that same experience."

Loyalty can also go beyond the product and become more about everything around it. "It's all about the customer experience, not just customer service," according to Chappy from Noble Coffee. "That covers everything from the minute they walk in, the atmosphere, the vibe, the music."

The moment that reminded them why they started in the first place

As rewarding as starting and running a business is, there are going to be hard times that can make you question why you’re doing it at all. In these moments, it’s worth coming back to your reason for starting in the first place. 

For a few of these owners, the reminder comes from customers connecting with something deeper than the coffee itself. Bean There's whole business is built on direct fair trade with small-scale farmers. Jonathan says it's the customers who keep that mission alive for him day to day. "When they pick up a bag of coffee and they've heard a story of one of the farmers, maybe Agnes from Kenya or Ernest from Rwanda. They remind me of why we're in business."

In other places, it showed up as fierce, almost territorial loyalty. Dale from Crane Flower Coffee recounts how his regulars took it personally on his behalf when a new cafe opened around the corner. "A whole bunch of our regulars got offended on our behalf and said, 'How dare they? I'm going to tell everyone just to come to your place.'"

At Umashu, a township coffee shop outside Durban, the reminder is about access as much as coffee. Owner Norma describes watching her community discover something they'd rarely had on their own doorstep before: coffee shops in the township itself, rather than a drive into the suburbs for it.

And sometimes the reminder is about legacy rather than a single moment. Winston at Cedar Coffee Roasters describes a former consulting client who eventually started using their coffee, then branched out to launch his own coffee consultancy, which was technically a competitor. Winston doesn't see it that way. "The more customers he gets means more come back to us.”

What their customers have taught them

Not every lesson from a regular is a warm one. For some, they’re a correction. Winston credits his customers with keeping the business honest, long after the early wins. "Never to rest on our laurels," he says. "As much as we believe we've got a good product and good service, it doesn't end there. We always need to improve. And we only get that through customer feedback."

Norma’s lesson came from having to unlearn an assumption about her own customers. Teaching coffee tastings, she found many people assumed espresso simply wasn't for them. It was too strong and an acquired taste. Once she showed them a different way of making it, that assumption didn't hold up. "This is drinkable," she says of the reaction. "It's not just for certain people. It's for everybody."

The importance of having community partners who show up

None of this happens in a vacuum. This is a big part of why Yoco shows up at events like Creative Coffee Week in the first place. 

La Marzocco South Africa’s Sinjin Wicks tells us it's about giving an industry that's usually heads-down in day-to-day operations a reason to actually connect. "People working in the coffee industry often don't have the opportunity to spend meaningful time together," he says. "It's really important for us all to have this opportunity to network, to connect, and to drive the coffee industry forward in South Africa."

Melanie Winter, editor of Coffee Magazine, sees it from the merchant's side of the counter. "A lot of the businesses in coffee are small and they're starting from scratch and they need support," she says. "I think it's really cool that Yoco is supporting these kinds of events."

Across twelve unique coffee businesses, it’s clear that regulars aren’t the backup plan. They are the plan. 

Loyalty lessons from Yoco customers

• Loyalty shows up unprompted: You can't always tell who your regulars are going to be beforehand. They'll show up when they show up. The real job is giving them a reason to keep coming back once they do.

• Consistency beats novelty: Reliability is the foundation of a solid business. The same great cup, the same welcome. That will always be a stronger draw than any gimmick or promotion.

• Loyalty goes both ways: Rewarding customers means going beyond the rewards you hand out and making sure they feel heard. 

• The best relationships will always outlast the sale. A regular named Martin followed Winston from his first shop as a barista to his own store nearly a decade later. Loyalty like that doesn't end when the sale does.