The Power of Gratitude in Building Customer Loyalty
A large retailer we’ve worked with had a Director of Ecommerce that requested that his name, title, photo, email address and direct phone number appear on every packing slip in every order, with a personal thank you to the customer and a request that they contact him if there’s any way they could have served that customer better. The responses didn’t go to a ticketing system or a customer service rep - it was truly a personal expression of gratitude to every customer, and the customers that did respond were often surprised that they were speaking with a director.
In today’s business world, the value of gratitude is often overlooked. Gratitude, however, is a powerful tool that can help businesses build strong relationships and encourage customer loyalty.
Staying Connected With Online Customers
When customers visit a store, it’s pretty easy to connect with them and express gratitude through customer service processes like thanking them for their business as checkout. Online customers can be more challenging - oftentimes the only personal interaction beyond the transactional is if the customer reaches out to customer service due to a problem.
However, there are options for staying connected and expressing gratitude to your online customers at every scale of e-commerce operation. Oftentimes the smallest and the largest operations will have the person packing the order handwrite a quick “thank you!” on the packing slip.
If you’re a larger retailer, you may want to consider taking cues from the bricks-and-mortar world and investing in some branded thank-you cards that can be slipped into each outbound package. These cards can include a message from the company, as well as space for a handwritten note. If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, you could even include a sticker or a small promotional item in each order.
Retailers of all sizes often utilize systems that will periodically send targeted promotions to customers at key points in the customer relationship, and it is often a simple task to modify those systems to make the messaging around the promotion centered on gratitude.
Getting Personal
To truly stand out in your expressions of gratitude to your customers, you may need to invest in improvements to your customer relationship management (CRM) system, so that you can track key milestones for each customer. Some systems can be configured to notify you when a customer has hit a milestone number of orders with your business, and taking the time for a personal outreach and small gift to those customers can greatly increase your customer lifetime value, and build stronger connections between you and your customers.
Saying “thank you” to your customers doesn’t have to be a grand gesture - even the smallest token of appreciation can go a long way in building loyalty and developing a strong connection with your customers.
Try Gratitude Today in Your Ecommerce Business
No matter what size your ecommerce operation is, taking the time to express gratitude to your customers can be a powerful way to build loyalty and improve customer relationships. When your competitors are only a search or click away, building strong relationships through gratitude can help you ensure your customers are thankful for your products and service!
