During the last month, I received seven requests to fill out a survey for various companies who I interacted with either online or in the real world. Sorry Terminex, but I am not interested in having you bug me. But only one company, called me to say thank you and did not ask for anything in return.
Let me say it again. They thanked me for my business and didn’t try to upsell me, cross-sell me, promote a new offering, ask me to rate their service or to like them on Facebook.
They just called to say thanks.
Now, I had a little hand in all of this since I was helping out a friend who has a small business. He was looking for some new marketing ideas and promotions to create better customer bonding with his establishment. (He asked me to keep his name out of this story)
So my marketing advice was simple (and free). Why not have all 10 employees of your business take your customer list, and call everyone up and just say thank you. He thought the idea was odd at first and he didn’t see what this would help him grow his business. But I encouraged him to try it and to see what happens.
The Thank You Experiment
So three weeks ago on a rainy Tuesday, he and his team took their list of customers and started placing phone calls to customers who had purchased from him in the last 18 months. As you imagine, they did get a lot of voice mail and answering machines, but each person offered a kind thank you said from the heart. There wasn’t a script just the directions to be authentic and genuine.
A surprising thing happened.
A few weeks after the phone calls, his business picked up. He started to see a 10% increase in orders that came from those existing customers. Most of them didn’t say, I’m ordering today because you said thank you. They just placed orders.
What is the lesson?
Sometimes marketing professionals over complicate the simple. Showing people you care and appreciate them is a killer app. It has no downside. It becomes a way to reach through the phone and web to shake the hand of people and, to simply say thanks. Why more businesses don’t do this isn’t clear to me. And there is a wonderful lesson for those employees to remind them that if your competitors aren’t saying thank you, you may have an opportunity to forge a bond. (Pssst: Don’t tell anyone, but customers are human beings and like to be noticed, to be appreciated and to be thanked.)
Big businesses may say, but it isn’t scaleable. We have thousands of customers. If 10 people called 10 customers a day, you can reach 25,000 people in a year. Is everyone too busy to say thank you to your customers? What is more important?
A hand-lettered thank you note can also work well but there is something special in the human voice and that personal connection that is powerful. An email is too impersonal but is better than not saying thank you.
Thank you for reading my blog. I really appreciate it.
Jeff, You are right. Saying Thank you is rewarding especially from customers you are doing business with. But, what about potential customers, that you meet with face to face and they tell you they want you to follow-up by Friday. You follow-up by phone – (voice-mail) and by (e-mail), no returned communications. I do this often no response after many attempts – now what?
I am frustrated – I’m trying to build a business and buyers hide behind voice-mail & e-mail. Any suggestions?
Lauren,
Sometimes I try and follow up in an unexpected way. If a call or email isn’t returned, is there some creative way I could send them something that is hard to ignore? For example, depending on the business you are in and the message you want to send, could you get through to them in a more innovative way? For example, what if you send them a telegram? Old school and hard not to notice. It could deliver a message about your 21st century technology by using something from the 19th century.
I think the bigger issue is that it is hard to chase people who don’t really care about you, your product offering or service. Perhaps you haven’t delivered a compelling enough reason to call back.
Maybe you need to learn something about the person you are trying to reach that could be a wedge or hook to get their attention. Is there some clue in their social media footprint about something they really care about? If they are huge Steelers fans or they love Motown, maybe your voice mail cleverly references that in a way that isn’t creepy but demonstrates you have done some homework.
I’m always looking for a way to be a human being first and a marketer second (or third). Hope this helps. Email me to continue this conversation offline if you want to share more details about the situation. I’m happy to help if I can.
You can connect with me at jeffreylynnslater@gmail.com