Your most loyal customers are repeat buyers. But they’re also more likely make referrals to your business and can serve as an informal focus group when you have ideas you’d like to test.
Keep your most loyal customers happy and engaged with these five special ways to acknowledge them:
1. Make the call
It might seem old-fashioned, but simply calling your most loyal customers is still one of the best ways to thank them. Perhaps it’s after their recent visit. Or maybe you make a list of your most loyal customers and call them a few days before an upcoming holiday (Thanksgiving is an obvious one!) to let them know how much you appreciate them.
Nothing says “thank you” like sending a strong business lead. Review a list of your most loyal customers and think about who you might connect them with from your network.
2. Start a loyalty program
A loyalty program doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. It can be as simple as offering a small gift, sample product, discounted membership, or appreciation event. You can start it at any time and change it as your business evolves.
💡 WEBSITE INSIGHT: A loyalty program can be an enticing incentive for new customers and would-be customers. Encourage them to participate by mentioning it on your website — so they’ll know about it even before they start working with you.
3. Share success stories
Stay in touch with your customers to learn how their lives are improving because of your product or service. Use your social media channels, blog, or an internal bulletin board at your office or storefront to share their success stories. Images attract attention, so be sure to add photos of them if they’re open to it!
At Jottful, we like to publicly announce when our customers’ websites launch — and we use it as an opportunity to promote their businesses on our social media channels.
💡 WEBSITE INSIGHT: If your customers publicly reply and speak highly about your services, copy the post and add it to your website as social proof. At Jottful, we often do that in the portfolio section of our website, as you can see in this example.
4. Remember the details
It turns out that remembering details about your customers is still one of the most important ways to acknowledge them. Take a lesson from Danny Meyer who owns many successful restaurants in New York. He noticed how his customers responded when he remembered not only their names, but the start date of their kids’ school, the winners of their sports games, and the location of their upcoming family vacation.
Danny knew there was something special in this. So, he trained his staff to capture any details learned about customers and to enter those details into their computer system to be shared with all team members. Remembering details to delight customers became their calling card and the key to Danny’s restaurants’ successes.
This is a simple thing to do. You just need to remember to take notice, systematize the information you gather, and build this practice into your culture!
5. Refer business
Nothing says “thank you” like sending a strong business lead. Review a list of your most loyal customers and think about who you might connect them with from your network.
