It’s the holiday season, let’s gain weight and celebrate!
During this time, many people think about doing nice things for others; you might decide to buy a gift for a loved one or contribute in some way to a charitable cause. Fruitcakes for everyone! Here at WebPunch, we are all about celebrating and spreading the love. In business, it’s not uncommon to receive a card or a basket of goodies from associates or companies we patronize. These gestures are great for feeling warm and fuzzy, but guess what? Warm and fuzzy is what you want your clients to feel all year round! Don’t wait until December when your message can get lost amongst the baskets of fancy fruit and cured meats. Every interaction between your company and your clients should feel like a warm, cuddly embrace from Santa Claus.
So what should your company do? First, identify who your most loyal patrons are. You know, the ones who would stand in line for the opportunity to sit on your knee and give you their wish list. These clients are the ones who spread good tidings of cheer about your wonderful business to their friends, family and colleagues. If you aren’t able to easily identify these devoted clients, then you need to start by adding WebPunch’s customer feedback tool to your Christmas list. Yes, all of your clientele should feel important but those who keep coming back and those who endorse your business to others need to be treated with extra care.
After you have established parameters to identify your preferred customers, you will then need to create a customized action plan just for them. You need to make absolutely sure that these clients are treated like the VIPs that they are. Your plan of action should have a system in place that accounts for how frequently these clients are targeted and what your company did to make them feel important. As your business continues to grow and you accumulate more clients, this tracking and accountability system will be worth its weight in gold, literally. Or frankincense.
Simple things you can do to make your clients feel important is like remembering to put the lights on the tree. Call your clients personally to let them know how important they are to you. Take the time to send a hand-written card to share your gratefulness for their loyalty and patronage. Offer your promoters discounts or added services that are only available to special clients like themselves. Let these individuals know that they have been promoted to a preferred program! Be sure to tell them to give you a call personally if they ever feel like they’re not being treated in this manner. Heck, learning your clients’ names and making sure that they are addressed in a personal manner will be impressive to most. People like to feel that they are unique and part of an exclusive group. When your company makes them feel this way, you can guarantee that they will keep coming back.
We realize that this concept isn’t new; airlines, grocery stores, hotels and other vertical markets have proven that this approach works. Again, this method requires that your business not only keeps track of what you are doing, but for whom and how often. Too often, efforts such as these fall through the cracks which can be a nightmare for your business; the opposite of the joyful celebration you are hoping for.
WebPunch has all of these systems ready to go for your company right now. Of course, this holiday season you should reach out to everyone who means something to you, but don’t bah humbug and forget the eleven remaining months of the year. Partner with us and be your clients’ Santa Clause every day of the year! At WebPunch, we can help you put smiles on your customers’ faces all year round.
