National Customer Service Week:
Twenty Five Ways to Show Your Loyalty to Your Customers

Welcome to this special article marking National Customer Service Week – October 3-7th.  I hope you are delivering special care and appreciation to your customers this week but also every other week.

Most customer relationships don't end in conflict.  Most vanilla to death.  Neglect is more dangerous than strife; indifference more costly than error.  Great relationships are fueled by affirmation.  Nurturing the bounty of customer loyalty requires more than proper cultivation and seeding.  It must be fertilized with attention and care.

Courting the customer does not end with the sale or transaction.  Superior service providers never take a valued relationship for granted and remain ever vigilant for ways to celebrate the joy of the partnership and express gratitude for the return it provides.

Below are twenty-five ways to show your loyalty to your customers.  Use this list to jump start your own list.  Amplify the items to suit your situation and customer.  Remember, what turns on one customer may be a turn off to another.  Recognition comes from the root word "cognoscere" meaning "to know."  Tailor your affirmation.

  1. Invite a customer to an important staff meeting
  2. Arrange for a special learning experience for customers
  3. Hand write a thank you note to a key customer
  4. Send customers greeting cards on all key holidays
  5. Name a policy, building, or conference room for a key customer
  6. Provide a special parking space for customers
  7. Start a fund or scholarship in the name of a key customer
  8. Provide a donation in the name of your customer to his/her favorite charity
  9. Provide a special discount for loyal customers
  10. Create a forum that allows for public recognition of customers
  11. Remember a customer's birthday in a unique and personalized way
  12. Send customers a subscription to a magazine they value
  13. Buy helpful books for key customers (like one of ours, just kidding.)
  14. Invite customers to your home for a cookout
  15. Provide tickets to an event valued by the customer
  16. Nominate your customer for a special award
  17. Find a way to compliment your customer to their customer
  18. Put up pictures of your customers in the cafeteria
  19. Invite customers to your facility to talk about their needs and goals to all employees
  20. Feature key customers in your organization's newsletter
  21. Give your customer a gift that you won; like a weekend at __.
  22. Poll your customer for their input on important changes you plan to make
  23. Ask your customer for advice on how to better run your organization
  24. Purchase an ad in a key publication to thank your customers
  25. Have an executive write a thank you letter to a key customer

 


© Chip Bell Group, 2023.  Courtesy of John R. Patterson (www.johnrpatterson.com).  Permission is given to download and distribute this article as long as it contains this copyright notice.