Customers Deserve Our Thanks and Appreciation

Designing Strategies eNewsletter

Volume 14 Issue 80

Happy Thanksgiving and the Coming Holiday Season Everyone!

It’s hard to believe that we are half way through Fall and that Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Somehow these holidays have a habit of sneaking up on us. Lots of cleaning to do. Long grocery lists with ingredients for traditional family recipes are on refrigerator doors or in our digital To Do list. Run the good china and silverware through the dish washer. Pull out that special table cloth. Time to celebrate and be thankful. Thankful for our families, friends, health and home, of course. But, should remember those less fortunate than we are at this time of year. We should also be thankful for co-workers and especially for our customers. There is never a bad time to thank customers and remind them how much they are appreciated.

We are at a time of year when thinking of others is far more important than thinking of ourselves. Remembering family members and friends is not that hard to do. Remember the less fortunate is sometimes a bit more difficult. How about remembering the customers who made our small businesses the success they have become? Don’t you think customers deserve our thanks and appreciation too? They play an important role in our profitability, our growth and success.

Customers Deserve Our Thanks and Appreciation Too!

Here are six simple, inexpensive tactics you can use to show your customers you care and appreciate them. These ideas are just the tip of the iceberg. Click on the links to fine many more great ideas you can capture and add your own interpretation. Just don’t forget them and how valuable a part they plan in the growth and success of your small business.

Handwritten notes and cards

We are all operating in an online, on-your-phone, digital universe these days. Inboxes are so full of email messages that we look for excuses to hit ‘Delete’ instead of reading them all. Our messages are lost in a world of noise. How to be heard? Take time to send a nice thank you card or handwritten note letting a special customer they deserve our thanks and appreciation. An actual, physical handwritten card or note has so much more warmth and personality than yet one more email or text. Get personal!

Give a gift of memories

Pick up some attractive, inexpensive blank journals and interesting pens (or your company pen). In a personal note to each customer, thank them for the important part they play in your success. Suggest they use the journal all year to jot down things that they are thankful for or appreciate. Write something in the journal yourself about how much that customer deserves your thanks and why you appreciate them. Help them get the ball rolling.

Have Coffee Together

There are any number of ways this tactic can play out. You meet them at a local coffee shop for good coffee (or tea) and tell them how much you appreciate their contribution to your success. Relate one or two things that make them special to you. If you have customers out of town, send them a note with a $5 Starbuck’s or other national coffee chain. Then, set up a time to ‘meet for coffee’ via Google Hangouts or through a Skype account. Have that chat from a distance, but be sure to remind them how much they are appreciated. You might even get some feedback and good ideas during your conversation.

Put together a ‘Thank You’ video.

Fivestars.com blog offered this great idea. Video brings you to life, it adds personality. Involve your entire staff. It can serious or quirky. Post it on your website or Facebook page. Better yet: send it customers to them via a personalized email is better. The video doesn’t have to be a major studio production. A short video recorded at the office or studio on your smartphone or tablet will work. Check out more appreciation tactics from Fivestars here.

Put Your Customer in the Spotlight

Who doesn’t like to be appreciated – in public, no less? Shine a ‘spotlight’ on a customer on your website, in your newsletter or social media. Get a snapshot of them to personalize the message. Write a heartfelt message about why they are a valuable customer. Include something personal about them, like their favorite charity, a hobby or a group they support. Go a step further and donate in their honor to the charitable group. This gem comes from HelpScout.net. For more of their ideas…

Give Some Useful Swag

Access Development suggested this tactic (and a whole lot more). Send some of your company swag. Free gifts are appreciated. Fill one of those logo coffee mugs with candy from a local candy shop, or some gourmet coffee or tea. Print up some nice t-shirts – nice enough that they will wear it, not billboards for your company. Remember, it’s a gift because you appreciate them. Make it useful for them: a thumb drive with your company logo will get used. So will water bottles and travel mugs.

Make a personal delivery. Go to them where they work with a tin (with your logo on it) of candy or cookies. Show appreciation for them in front of their co-workers. Who doesn’t like to be appreciated in front of others? You can bet that their co-workers will be impressed – and a little big jealous.

Conclusion

Keeping a a good customer can be more challenging than finding one. It is certainly a more cost-effective way to increase sales than bringing in new customers. The key is keeping in touch, letting them know you appreciate them being a part of your community of customers (link to blog). A little effort can go a long way to keeping your company top of mind with them. Remember that customers need to Know, Like and Trust you to maintain a successful, long term business relationship.

The list above is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ways to give thanks and show appreciation to customers. The links above include dozens of ideas from which to choose.