For pubs and bars
A card for trivia night, parma night and the Friday regulars
A local's best customers turn up every week for the same thing: trivia on Wednesday, the parma on Thursday, the footy on Saturday. A stamp card on their mobile thanks them with food rather than drinks, and a text to the club fills the room on the nights that need it. Counter Club does both from the bistro counter.
The Drover's Lantern Hotel
One stamp per bistro meal. Eight earn a free parma or main.
6 of 8 Two meals to go.
What gets in the way for pubs and bars
The reward should not be a drink
A free drink for drinking often sits badly with responsible service, and promotions involving alcohol fall under your licence conditions and state rules. A free meal is a better thank you and a far simpler one to explain.
Event nights need a crowd
Trivia with three teams is a flat night for everyone, including the host. A text to the club on Local Favourite the afternoon before fills the tables with people who already like the place.
A wallet full of member cards
Regulars carry cards for the footy club, the bowls club and the bottle-o. A card that lives on their mobile number takes up no room and is never left at home.
A worked example
Pub work, with Counter Club
The Drover's Lantern Hotel is a fictional corner pub with a front bar and a bistro. A bistro regular comes for parma night every week and spends about $32 on the meal, around $1,500 a year over 47 weeks. The owner stamps meals only, never drinks, and the sign at the bistro counter says so. The card is 8 stamps, one per bistro meal, and the reward is written as "a free parma or any main up to $28". A weekly regular fills it every two months.
The QR is on the bistro counter and printed at the foot of every trivia answer sheet. By winter 340 locals have joined, so the pub is on Local Favourite with its own texting number. On a Tuesday afternoon the manager sends: "Trivia is back tomorrow from 7:30, teams of up to six, first prize a $150 bistro voucher. Ring the bar to hold a table." Eighteen teams turn up instead of the usual nine. The text used 340 of the month's 2,000 campaign messages.
Not a Chain
Pubs and bars on Not a Chain
Not a Chain ranks pubs and bars by their Google rating, adjusted for how many reviews stand behind it, with chains left out. Figures as of October 2026.
See the pubs and bars on Not a Chain. Being listed there has nothing to do with using Counter Club: no listing is sold and no rank changes.
Questions from pubs and bars
Can the reward be a free drink?
We would steer away from it. Promotions that involve alcohol are covered by your licence conditions and state liquor rules, which are yours to check, and a reward for drinking more is a poor look for a local. A meal, a dessert or a bistro voucher is simpler.
Who should we ask to join?
Adults who already come in: the bistro regulars, the trivia teams, the Friday crowd at the bar. The card is a thank you to them, so ask at the bistro counter when they order, and leave it there.
What should a pub text the club about?
Events and food: trivia, a band, the parma special, the big game on the screens, holiday trading hours. Name the night and the time. Leave drink prices out of it.
Also for
Other shops and services
Beauty salons
Beauty regulars return on a cycle: brows every four weeks, waxing every five or six, a facial each season.
Counter Club for beauty salonsCar detailers
A full detail or a paint correction happens once a year at most, but the owners who care enough to book one also come back for a…
Counter Club for car detailersCar washes
Car wash regulars run on habit and weather: the same Saturday morning every fortnight, unless it rained all week.
Counter Club for car washesPut the QR by the till this week
Setting the card takes two minutes. The first fifty members are free, paid for by a marketing consent instead of a card, and the card runs in full from day one.