How to Thank Your Customers

When you have made a major purchase whether it was a car or living room furniture chances are you received some sort of thank you from the company you made the purchase from. Usually at a high quality dealership for cars or furniture the salesperson will be given the responsibility to write the thank you note but often times the note will be signed by anyone who you came in contact with during your purchasing experience.

Thank you cards are a nice touch, particularly if they are hand written. Giving a small gift can even be appropriate if the purchase is large enough to justify the expenditure. A nice quality travel mug for coffee, a bouquet of flowers, or a gift card to a favorite place are some of the more commonly given thank you gifts businesses give to customers.

How do you incorporate this customer appreciation into your online purchase where often times you will never see your customer? While the appreciation may not be as easy to show, it will definitely be worth it if you can find an appropriate, repeatable way of thanking your customers for their business.

The first decision you need to make is which customers you are going to recognize. Will you base your decision on number of orders or on the amount spent with your company in a given period of time? It is possible to give gifts monthly even though quarterly or annually seems to make the most sense?
Once you have decided which customers you are going to recognize you need to have a process to identify those customers. Make sure your process is easily repeatable. It's best if you have one customer service agent or other person in your company whose job it is to recognize the customers.

You can identify this person with a title such as customer relationship manager, customer fulfillment manager, or perhaps customer care manager would fit better with your business. The person you select needs to have regular contact with your customers. Additionally, it is important that this individual have enough authority to solve any problems that may be brought to their attention by the customers they are coming into contact with regularly.

The level of reward you give to your customers needs to be commensurate with your industry and with their volume of purchases with your company. Whether you sell buggy whips or blow guns, make sure the customers you are spending effort on to reward are worth the effort. You want to do the right thing and take care of all of your customers but only go the extra mile for those who have earned it.

What should you give you customers? Try to give away things that are thoughtful and useful. Cheap trinkets don't usually build loyalty but well thought out gifts do. Talk with the people in your company who deal with the customers the most. If a quality travel mug is appropriate then have their company logo and yours put onto the cup. If a windbreaker or other type of garment makes sense, then consider that. Find something that your customer will appreciate that is unique to your business relationship.

Perhaps a holiday basket would be best with a card signed by everyone on your team. The handwritten note or card is a classy touch every customer will appreciate, no matter how far their physical location is from your company. It still is a very personal touch and one that will make your company unique.