Customer Loyalty Gifts to Show Appreciation

Yesterday was “Get to Know Your Customer Day,” which is an excellent time to give customer loyalty gifts — but don’t worry if you missed it! The best time to give a customer loyalty gift is whenever appreciation strikes.

Expressing gratitude bonds you to customers, which is essential to understanding their needs and their point of view! When you build relationships with customers, you also build loyalty, which helps your business prosper. As an added bonus: 

“When you [understand] your customers, it opens marketing opportunities. Loyal customers, invariably, will advertise your products for you.”

Read more on how to serve, appreciate, and retain your customers with customer loyalty gifts!

Get to Know Your Customers

There are many ways to bond with customers and learn more about them!

• Introduce yourself and learn customer names. Greeting customers by name every time they do business with you is a great start!
• Conduct a brief survey to identify customers’ wants and needs. To encourage responses, offer a small gift for those who return surveys — maybe a helpful ebook you’ve written, a discount or a gift certificate.
• Use your social media accounts to connect with customers! Ask questions about how your product works for them or what new services they’d like you to offer.
• Delight customers with an unexpected small token of your appreciation when they visit your store or service.  You’ll open the door to having them willing to talk with you about what the like or wish to see from your business.
• Offer a sample or treat in your office place and take the time to greet and get to know customers.
• Send a hand-written thank you note after customers consider your business or service. It’s a cost-effective gift that can be both personal and memorable.
• Express your appreciation by sending customer loyalty gifts with your sincere note of thanks. It doesn’t have to be an expensive gift — what about a gift certificate for pie, ice cream or pizza?

Any positive interaction with customers helps build relationships!

Everyday Customer Loyalty Gifts

Remember, don’t wait for a formal occasion to thank loyal customers. Sometimes a thank you “just because” is the most powerful!

In “25 Ways to Thank Your Customers,” Help Scout’s Gregory Ciotti offers an important reminder:

“Every attempt at giving thanks must be relevant and personalized, noticeable and sincere. These simple requirements will ensure your show of gratitude hits home with customers.”

It could be as “old school” as a handwritten note, he writes. Take the time to make it specific and personal. You can find templates, useful quotes, and other tips for note writing at “Customer Thank You Letters To Improve Business Relationships.”  

Or you could help customers learn something. If you sell cooking utensils and other kitchen items, for example, invite customers to a cooking class where they learn to make a tasty dish and use some of your kitchen gadgets.

Help Scout suggests you “WOW one customer.” You could randomly select a customer from your email contacts or your database and award such an amazing experience that they talk about it for months to come. It’s a great (and free!) advertising opportunity.

Customer Loyalty Gifts and Retention

Attracting a new customer is far more expensive than retaining an existing one, as Jenny Klimisch, marketing specialist for Vertical Response, observes in “Show Some Love–Inspiring Customer Appreciation Ideas.”
Data from former marketing firm Flowtown, now part of DemandForce, says it’s actually six or seven times more costly.

Klimisch shares an example of customer loyalty gifts that wowed her colleague, Jill Bastian, a training and education manager. Cheesemaker Tillamook wants to keep Jill as a customer, so the company sent her a gift package including a T-shirt, canvas bag, glass canning jar for yogurt parfaits, granola and nuts, and coupons. She hadn’t tried the yogurt before, and now she loves it.

“Tillamook made Jill one happy camper,” writes Klimisch.

Remember, they don’t have to be elaborate or expensive, but customer loyalty gifts for special occasions—or any occasion—help customers feel great about your business!

For more great professional tips and insights into building a vibrant culture of engagement and recognition, be sure to download our free e-book,“The Ultimate Guide to Employee Gift-Giving”.