Some customers are great because they’re good for business and morale. Working with them makes your employees happier. And that’s why you need cool ways to reward the most deserving customers.
Every industry is different, but rewards for customers who are just good people work across all industries. These can fit almost any budget and have proven to be successful for a variety of companies.
Try one. Try a few. When you reward customers for their professionalism, pleasantness and business, you also encourage them to stick with you.
For now and the future
- Have coffee with them. You probably can’t have coffee with most of your customers. But you can let them have a coffee on you. Send an out-of-the-blue thank you note with a gift card to a coffee shop.
- Send a treat. If coffee isn’t their thing, figure out what is. For instance, if your great customer works in a small office, send cookies to share. If you know someone is a movie buff, send movie tickets. If you’re in the health and fitness industry, send a fruit bouquet.
- Be charitable. If your customers are the giving kind, do as they do. Reach out and offer to donate to a charity in their names.
- Upgrade them. Randomly pick a few of your best customers from time to time for an upgrade — whether it’s on shipping, product or service.
- Pay attention. Customers will mention personal and professional accomplishments that are important to them. Show that they’re important to you — and that you were listening — by sending some kind of congratulations (on a milestone, promotion or other success) or acknowledgment (perhaps of a birthday or anniversary). A card is plenty. Flowers, fruit or small gift is even more memorable.
- Give them a preview. Invite your favorite customers to try products first, experience a new service before anyone else or see the unveiling of something new in your facility. Make them feel like more than customers. Make them feel like family.
- Give them bragging rights. Let customers help with naming, designing or distributing new products. One small grocery store invited customers to create and name sandwiches that it would put on its menu for a period of time — and gave them the credit for it, of course.
- Brag about them. Ask your favorite customers if you can share their stories. Interview them and put information — such as their professional background, personal favorites, reasons they like your products and company, and a quirky fact or two — into a fun story for a “Love Our Customers” feature on your website.
- Quiz them. Your best customers will be prepared to answer fun, spontaneous quizzes — and will love to be rewarded for answering correctly. Try it on social media. For instance, Funding Gates asks occasional questions (such as, “When do we post our blog?”) and gives away gift cards for the quickest responses.
- Educate them. Get your in-house experts together to talk about your products and how to maximize their use. Or have experts share ideas on how to improve something your customers want to do better (manage money or time, relax, etc.) and invite your best customers to attend the free webinar.
- Pick one each day. It’s an old marketing and customer loyalty tactic that’s lost its place over time: Reward the 50th (100th, 2nd, whatever) customer of the day. Do it differently now: Pick a customer — from your best — of the day. Put his or her name on your social media posts. Send him or her a thank-you email. Mail some items with your company logo on them. Give him or her special discounts.
