If you are going to proclaim that you care, then you should truly demonstrate it. If you proclaim you care about showing customers love, then you’d bloody well better act like it. More damage is caused by not walking the talk.
“Your Call is Very Important To Us”… Is it really?
I have spent the most frustrating day sitting on hold, listening to outgoing messages telling me how important my call is. Please don’t use this outgoing message if you do not have a reasonable hold time. Both of these consumer organizations should know better. The insult of listening to the direct message over and over again is much worse than enduring typical hold music.
When is the last time you called your customer support line and experienced what your customers do?
“We appreciate your business”…Really.
From a positive standpoint, there are many organizations that are very good at reinforcing their customer appreciation event. Here are a few simple, low-cost approaches that can go a long way to retaining your customer relationships.
5 Ways to Say “We Appreciate Your Business”
1. Make it personal.
Send personalized cards My dentist’s office of 11yrs sends me a birthday card with signatures from each person in the office. Send customers personal thank you cards for referrals. Do you track when your thanking customers first starts doing small businesses succeed with you? Send an anniversary card telling them how much you appreciate your business. If you can’t recall how to send a physical card, check out www.paperlesspost.com.
2. Discounts to recognize loyalty.
Frequent shopper programs are easy to manage. It sure would be nice if my local pizza place recognized that I used to be a weekly customer and sent a small discount card telling me they missed my business.
3. Frequent buyer incentives.
You should know who are your most loyal customers. Reward them!
4. Branded SWAG
Pens, coffee mugs, hats, key chains, mini-flashlights, memory sticks, etc. Reward customer loyalty in other ways. Match your giveaway to the type of service you provide. If you fix computers, give away low-cost branded memory sticks. If you are a plumbing service, give away low-cost mini-flashlights. Everyone likes to get SWAG (stuff we all get).
5. Free consultation, service, analysis, or reports.
Offer something of your expertise for free or at a discounted service. You can target customers milestones who only use the X services by introducing them to the Y service you also offer to social media platforms or social media channels with user-generated content.
Bottomline:
Retaining customers is much easier to do than finding new customers for future interactions. Reward continued loyalty. Remind your happy customers that you appreciate their business. Really you do.
As usual, your customer feedback and comments are welcome!