Admit it.
You feel good when someone appreciates your input.
You’re delighted when people can’t stop thanking you. As an entrepreneur, why do you think your customers feel any different?
From sending thank you cards to dancing naked in the middle of Times Square (okay, you may skip this one), here are 13 cost-effective ways you can show appreciation to your customers.
1. Give Them A Call
Emails and social media are all the rage now, so your customers won’t feel that personal touch when you appreciate them through these because these tools can be handled by programmed bots that act at the push of a button.
Instead, take time out of your day to speak with at least five loyal customers. They’ll be amazed you did because they know how busy you are.
2. Encourage Them To Vent Their Frustrations
Research has proven that loyal customers will dump you when they feel you don’t care for them, and one of the ways to express that is denying them their right to vent their frustrations.
Never say, “we understand,” instead let the customer know you’ve heard how they feel about the issue and will do everything to get it resolved.
You can consider creating a “complaints” page on your site where you can provide round-the-clock responses to their queries.
This would save you a lot time as you can refer others to your query page if they’re asking about something that’s already been answered.
3. Keep Them Elated
You have rough days?
Guess what? Your customers have those too. Let’s face it. Everyone deserves a good laugh after a hard days job. Going the extra mile to make your customers smile shows that you care.
No, you don’t need to shell out thousands of dollars to get a Chris Rock; just paying $5 to the guys at fiverr to come up with a custom photo or cartoon that gets your customers laughing goes a long way.
4. Give Them Discounts
Who doesn’t love having a certain percent knocked off their bill? If you don’t, your customers do! You should make this a surprise.
Don’t bother about doing it in during the holidays, you’d find it difficult standing out. You can make it more interesting by giving them a heads up on the discount by email.
5. Congratulate them
Your customer just graduated? Had an anniversary? Became the first person to live in mercury? All these are achievements that have great significance in their lives.
You can send them a card, make them cake, buy them lunch at McDonald’s, just anything will do! They won’t forget you remembered.
E-commerce stores give out gift cards these days, so you can reward them with one of those.
6. Work On Their Feedback
It’s one thing to say you welcome suggestions from your customers. It’s another thing to get back at them detailing what you’ve done to ensure the problem doesn’t arise again.
If you have a Q&A page on your site, include a small “solved” marker for problems you’ve taken care of.
Customers love businesses that work to provide better experiences for them and avoid those who are only concerned with getting what’s in their pocket. Make your customers feel good and it will be all good.
7. Move Them To A Higher Plan
You run subscription/level-based services? You can move your loyal subscribers to a better plan for a period. Most customers will see the benefit of the upgrade and pay for one when the bonus expires.
So, you get happy customers and more money in the bank. Win-win if you ask me.
8. Give Your Customers Business
You run a B2B? The greatest appreciation you can show your customers here is giving them, what they need the most, BUSINESS! If you own a website or a blog, you can recommend your customers or teach them ways to boost subscribers, conversions etc.
Get them on a webinar or any other training. Just do something that adds value to their business.
9. Meet Them At Home
Yes! Anytime, you’re in the neighborhood of any of your customers, just pay them a surprise visit. No need calling them beforehand because you want the interaction to be as spontaneous as possible.
Don’t bother about recommending products and services at this point. Let the visit be about them. See whatever your customer finds interesting and just flow with the tide.
You’d sell more with customers you have a good working relationship with. People never forget the way you made them feel.
10. Teach Your Customers Something
Are you in the internet marketing niche?
You can hire an expert to come do a webinar exposing ways to increase traffic to your customers’ sites. Do you provide real estate services?
You can hire a professional who knows all about legal tax avoidance to expose to your customers the legal loopholes they could exploit to minimize taxes. Tax avoidance isn’t criminal, tax evasion is.
11. Post A Video
With a recorder and your face, you could take a 5-minute video of yourself thanking your customers for doing business with you. Protip: You think it might go viral? Post it on youtube and encourage customers to share.
12. Let Customers Know Before You Make Changes
You know you run things in your business. You also know your customers run “YOU.” You should consistently show your customers you care about their feelings and you welcome their input.
If you’re making changes to your business, it’s to serve them better, right? Then, why should you take those decisions without informing them?
Send your customers reports detailing what your plans are and make them understand you appreciate their feedback. If it’s negative, you’re better off not following through on them.
13. Just Say Thank You
Hmmm, so, you’ve read all twelve points and don’t seem to get what’s perfect for your customers? Just say one word “Thank You.” (okay, two.)
Make it genuine and repetitive and watch its effect do wonders.
There’s not much to be said anymore. Now, go appreciate those customers!
