Customer Appreciation Ideas – 10 Ways to Thank Customers
What is Customer Appreciation?
Customer appreciation is a gesture of gratitude and recognition to customers for their patronage. It includes thanking customers for their patronage, providing excellent customer service, and creating a pleasant and memorable experience for them.
Customers can be acknowledged in many different ways, including personalized thank-you notes, exclusive discounts, rewards programs, and special events. By establishing long-term relationships with customers, increasing brand loyalty, and ultimately driving business growth, customer appreciation helps businesses grow.
April 18th is celebrated as customer appreciation day, but you don’t have to wait for that day. Instead, you can celebrate it every day in small ways throughout the year.
You may ask why to appreciate customers.
You already provide a great product and service, which is a given in today’s age, but do you appreciate your customers for being loyal to you, helping you pay your bills, or advocating your business to their contacts?
10 Best Customer Appreciation Ideas
Customer appreciation is a critical component of your experience strategy. Mainly, another reason for you to show that you care about them and for them to be a loyal advocate of your business.
1. Feature Customers in Your Communication
2. Send Something Closer to Your Customers’ Heart
3. Send Your Customers a Meaningful Gift
4. Send Discount Offers to Your Customers
6. Show Your Customers That You Care
7. Implement Customer Feedback
8. Designate a Customer Appreciation Week
10. Send Handwritten Thank You Notes
Let us look at some ideas for customer appreciation
1. Feature Customers in Your Communication
In the late 90s, a data center was trying to sell space to a financial processing company. The financial processing company had multiple meetings but had some apprehensions before signing on the dotted line.
That’s when the data center released an advertisement on the front page of a leading newspaper. It addressed the ad to this customer.
It read something like this:
Dear Karthik,
These are the reasons why you should take up space at our data center…
Did it work?
You bet.
Imagine doing something like this with your existing customers. They would remain your customers for eternity.
2. Send Something Closer to Your Customers’ Heart
The Souled Store sells The Big Bang Theory merchandise on its site.
Who would buy this?
The fans or fanatics of the series.
What would they appreciate when they buy the merchandise?
The roommate agreement that Sheldon Cooper signs with his roommate is a legendary piece of trivia. They would definitely appreciate receiving this.
So, the Souled Store threw that as an offer to all their customers who buy The Big Bang Theory merchandise for 749 bucks and more.
Here it goes.
3. Send Your Customers a Meaningful Gift
A few years ago, we decided to send out a gift to our customers. We looked at all the attributes that defined us – we came up with legacy, innovation, quality, leadership, trust, and process.
We wanted a product that resonated well with all of these attributes.
So, we decided to go with the single malt Amrut Whisky. Connoisseurs the world over have had jaw-dropping moments with Amrut during tasting sessions in Whisky exhibitions. Amrut was chosen as the third-best Whisky by the Whisky Bible.
Amrut always chose quality over quantity.
So, we wrote about the common attributes between our brand and Amrut and sent it to our customers.
To this day, they remember this gift. This is an article that I culled from the Internet.
4. Send Discount Offers to Your Customers
A few months ago, I bought a hoodie from an online shopping platform called Nobero.
Recently, I received a WhatsApp message that read like this:
Our records show you had purchased something amazing from Nobero some time back. So, we just wanted to reach out and say THANK YOU for being part of the Nobero family. We really appreciate it.
And as a token of appreciation, we’d love to extend an exclusive coupon to you. Use coupon – GRAB15 at the checkout to get an additional 15% OFF (on top of existing sales) on our entire collection.
Did I go back?
I leave that to your imagination.
One another example is this.
I buy my meat from freshtohome.com. They keep sending constant messages to me like this:
Dear Customer,
Rs. 150 worth FreshCash has been added to your FreshToHome Wallet.
The offer expires on Sunday, 23rd Oct 2022.
This works every time. I haven’t shopped anywhere other than freshtohome for my meat needs in the last year or so.
5. Launch a Referral Program
One of my friends runs a boutique targeted toward upmarket women. All of her customers are through word of mouth.
She keeps launching referral programs where they get a cut on their designs when they refer someone they know.
They genuinely like the designs she creates. So, they refer, but the referral commissions act as a silent catalyst as well.
It always works.
6. Show Your Customers That You Care
When I was a kid, I saw an advertisement for Lufthansa airlines. There was a self-addressed postcard at the bottom, which you can tear and send for more details about their aircraft and their programs.
Being curious, I filled up the information, tore the postcard, and sent it. I had mentioned my age as 11 in the postcard.
They didn’t ignore me.
Instead, they sent me a detailed brochure of everything about Lufthansa airlines, its aircraft, routes, and offers.
To this date, I have that image of Lufthansa.
7. Implement Customer Feedback
Most customers are averse to giving feedback.
The biggest reason for this aversion is that they feel their feedback will not be acted upon.
What if you act on it and send them a note thanking them for the customer feedback and how you implemented it?
That means you have earned a customer for life. Besides, you would get deeper feedback that would allow you to grow your business.
8. Designate a Customer Appreciation Week
Designate a week as customer appreciation week.
Provide offers to all your existing customers across all your products and offerings for that week.
Write to your customers in detail about why you are doing what you are doing.
Write to them about how they have helped you grow. Write about how you came up with an appreciation week to show your appreciation, where you provide them with offers.
Go ahead and host events in multiple cities with your customers. Ask them to bring along their friends and family, who will also get introduced to your brand.
9. Feature Customer Reviews
Get reviews from your customers about your products and services.
Publish them on your website, product pages, and social handles. It doesn’t matter whether it is good or bad – publish them.
While publishing the review, thank them contextually and let them know what you will do about the review.
This would provide immense satisfaction to anyone who has taken the time to write a review.
10. Send Handwritten Thank You Notes
Your customers are what make your business successful. When it comes to thanking them, nothing beats a handwritten note.
These notes are personalized and are good at communicating sincerity and humanizing your brand in customers’ eyes.
With so much digital junk, wouldn’t a handwritten note stand out?
These are some top-of-the-mind ideas you can use as a part of your customer appreciation strategy. This would make it memorable, meaningful, and sustainable for businesses of any size and shape.
About the Author:
With due credit to Rene Descartes, Dhivakar lives by the saying, “I Think Therefore I Am.” He believes in 80% thinking and 20% execution on anything creative. He executes the digital marketing strategies of ClearTouch on this 80-20 rule.
Besides, if you want to chat up on automobile, formula 1, Hollywood, Music, Food, Single Malts, and any conspiracy theories, Dhivakar would be all ears and is equally a great conversationist.