The Power of Gratitude
You started your business with a plan that you believed would succeed and become prosperous. Showing gratitude towards customers is a great way to ensure that success, but often it’s one of the easiest things to allow to fall through the cracks. It can be one of the biggest things to set you apart from your competition – both positively and negatively. It’s an often simple and economic way to secure key professional relationships that can become more powerful than you might have imagined.
The Thanksgiving holiday being the capstone of the month of November, leads to what some consider a month of gratitude and thankfulness. Expressing gratitude is powerful and can yield unexpected results. Consider the stakeholders of your business: customers, vendors, employees, partners, investors, and power partners. Consider making your appreciation tangible when interacting with the people who help make your business thrive. Choose a means of showing your appreciation in ways they value.
Here are 6 ways to show your gratitude:
1. Return the Favor. If you have a customer who is a business owner, support their business with your own patronage or with referrals. Follow them on social media and share their posts to help them grow their brand. Show you care about what they do outside of how they interact with your business.
2. Send a surprise gift or personal note on special occasions. This builds better relationships knowing that we care beyond their name and the products they order, and that we value them as a person and are grateful to them.
3. Follow up with your customers. Often a simple thank you email or follow up phone call can go a long way. This is by far the easiest and most economical, but also perhaps the most effective. You might also teach them something useful. Host an online seminar, or lunch & learn to teach customers something they can apply to their business. Offering them your knowledge is something no one else can give.
4. Partner with customers on charitable causes. It builds relationships and they’ll see your commitment to the community.
5. Display an attitude of gratitude every day. Never forget to thank customers for their business. They made a choice to come to you. They could have gone elsewhere.
6. Consider again the stakeholders of your business. Make a habit of expressing your gratitude year-round. Sure, you can host a party or give gifts, but those are quickly forgotten. Building relationships out of gratitude is timeless and eternal.