10 ways to delight your customers for free
Give your customers exactly what they’ve paid for and they’ll be satisfied. But wow them and they’ll come back with friends. Here’s 10 ways to delight your customers for free.
1. Send a handwritten thank you note
With so much of business automated these days, interacting with a company has become rather impersonal. So why not buck the trend and surprise your customers with a personal touch. An email from your account is a step forward but a handwritten thank you note from the head of the company or the sales rep who closed the deal with a personal note about why their sale matters could make such a difference.
2. A personalised thank you video
This is perhaps one of the most fun ways to delight your customers for free. If the head of the company is just too busy to get involved, then why not build a creative video template that you can personalise quickly and easily to send to every new customer. Think Elf Yourself but instead of superimposing their faces into the video (toooo creepy) you add their name and company in somehow. This won’t work for every type of business. Funeral directors for example should steer clear of this approach. But if your brand is fun this could be perfect.
3. Give them something genuinely useful along with their purchase
Show your customers that you truly understand them by giving them something incredibly valuable with their purchase. This could be a free guide on how to cut operational costs, a referral to one of your partners, a recommendation of a network to join or even free training for the team.
4. Tell them they’ve been selected to receive a surprise discount
Who doesn’t love a discount? Particularly one that they weren’t expecting just as they were about to buy! This will guarantee delight and the added bonus of thinking they’ve been singled out to receive it will make them feel special and ensure they don’t forget about you for a while.
5. Do them a favour
By spending money with your company, they’ve done you a favour. So do one for them in return. As part of your thank you email, ask them how you can help them. While a large proportion of people will ignore this question, those that do respond will be more engaged going forward. Just make sure that if you commit to doing what they ask, that you actually go through with it!
6. Recognise one of their milestones
Remember all the happy birthday emails you used to get from obscure clothing brands and restaurants? This is one of the oldest ways to delight your customers for free but it still works well.
If you’re a B2B provider, as part of the new business process, ask your customers about when they started their company and then be sure to email, call or send a birthday cake every time they celebrate their anniversary.
It shows them they’re a valuable customer.
A classic upsell tactic but if you remove any signs of price or a sales tactic, then the customer will only see it as a generous gesture. Then, if your product or service is good enough, they’ll end up buying it anyway when the trial is over.
8. Share the marketing love
If you work with small businesses or startups, one of their biggest pain points is awareness. Help them with their marketing efforts by giving them a mention on Twitter or some other form of public recognition.
For consumer-facing businesses, this tactic works for you too, particularly if your target audience is mostly made up of millennials.
9. Go out and get feedback in person
Automated feedback forms don’t always accurately capture customers’ views of your product or service. They’re incredibly impersonal, a bore to fill in and often encourage vague and rushed answers.
Take the time to see some, if not all, of your customers face to face and you’ll not only gain a lot more insight into how people feel about your product or service but you’ll build a stronger connection with them for the future.
10. Give them the VIP treatment
One of the final ways to delight your customers for free is to make them feel like a VIP. Create a special group of your “best” customers and reward them with discounts, previews of new products or services, additional insight and features and invitations to events. The fact that you could be offering this to all of your customers is something they never need to know.
And that’s it. 10 simple ways to delight your customers for free. No more mediocrity. Go wow them!