dindatc

There an ice cream shop nearby my place. Once I decided to go there because I wanted a cup of coffee with ice cream so badly. That place doesn't look very attractive. It's quite old and they only accept cash payment. The coffee was so so because, well, it's not a specialty coffee place; it's an ice cream shop. But the eiscafe (as it's called in german) wasn't bad.

Despite not being a huge fan of that shop, I keep coming back there every few weeks to buy my eiscafe. I got a little bit surprised by my regularity. I don't normally like going to a shop that don't accept card payments. So how did this place manage to retain me?

First, the coffee is okay. Although it's far from being the best, it's also not bad enough to make me stop coming. So I wasn't desperate enough to look for another eiscafe place.

Second, the place is just 100m away from where I live. This proximity brings convenience: I could take a 10 mins break during work hour to grab my eiscafe. I could also walk by that shop after grabbing my lunch from a sushi place nearby.

Lastly, not many coffee shops nearby offer eiscafe. Yes I could get much better coffee somewhere else, but will they have coffee with ice cream? probably not. In this case, there's no competition within the radius of 400m.

It's funny to think about it. You don't actually need to be the best to attract & retain users. You just need need to be good enough, and as long as your competitors are not within your users' arm reach, you'll still be able to win and retain your users. Just be at the right place & the right time, and don't suck.