Let’s face it, if it wasn’t for regular customers, most businesses would definitely struggle to make ends meet and so based on this fact how often do you thank your customers for their regular business? If the answer is you can’t remember or you haven’t ever, it’s fine, we’re all guilty of being creatures of habit. Customers buy, we sell, repeat process again and again and again, until service and/or product is no longer needed and/or wanted for any particular reason.
But why should we thank our customers for their business? One simple and easy reason is based upon a moral we learn from a young age, we are taught to treat others how you would want to be treated yourself, do you like to be thanked when you’re not expecting it? Of course you do, it gives you this warm fuzzy feeling, no matter how big or small, it makes you feel like you’re actually a valued person, not just another piece in the buying process puzzle.
There have been many scientific studies in the past that illustrate the personal benefits of showing and receiving gratitude. Benefits such as improvements in physical and mental health, stress reduction and even assistance in sleeping better. From a business point of view the benefits are just as positive, here is a great statistic: 60% of ‘businesses have lost a customer because they feel the business is indifferent to them’. You’ve heard the term ‘hindsight is a beautiful thing’ many times, if those businesses knew they could have retained those customers just simply by thanking them, I pretty much guarantee that the majority would have definitely shown gratitude one way or another. Customer loyalty is priceless and a topic we will explore further later on in the week.
There is a great amount of talk in the world of business at the moment about giving the customer a personalised experience, concepts such as personalised marketing, sales process, and an aspect we see quite regularly in the promotional products industry, personalised promotional products. This is definitely an increasing trend in the promotional world, we are seeing interest in this from both the supplier’s and customer’s side. Suppliers are investing in machinery to be able to brand products individually, making it easier to print and engrave individual names on merchandise. Customers are requesting such products because they want to make the recipient feel special, it works particularly well with luxury pens. Pens such as Cross, Schaeffer, Parker, Mont Blanc etc. have a high perceived value and are regularly timelessly engraved with names, giving them an extra special touch. We know this works well as it is already a popular concept in the consumer world and has been for many years!