Thanksgiving is among the busiest time of the year not only for holiday shoppers but especially for business owners as well. Normally, retail stores, online shops, and businesses would prepare for the impending rush way ahead of time.
Amidst all the mayhem of going over last minute protocols, adding more sales or customer service staff, or introducing special training to your outsourced Philippine call center staff, it is often easy to forget that this special season is all about showing gratitude.
As you think of ways on how to become more productive and efficient on Black Friday and the rest of the holiday season, you may forget that customer retention is grounded on the personal connections shared between you and your customers. True, the customer support you provide must be prompt and effective now more than ever, but taking advantage of the busy season to build a genuine connection with your clients by thanking them can help you make a shopping experience turn into an opportunity of forging a lasting relationship.
Reinforcing customer relationships
Expressing your sincere gratitude to your customers must be done differently than usual. It s common courtesy to say thank you at the end of every purchasing transaction, so you need to make your expression of gratitude more special. Welcoming customers with season s greetings or asking your employees to wear customized holiday uniforms are some ways of making a memorable shopping experience that your customers will remember.
If you haven t started one yet, now is the perfect time to think of customer appreciation programs that you can implement in the next few weeks. The principle behind every loyalty program is making sure your best customers will stick around for a long time. Don t make it too complicated or time-consuming since your efforts may end up useless when your loyal customers choose to leave you after feeling frustrated that they can t accumulate all the points that you require.
Although these programs can also be your way of generating more sales, make sure that you make the approach personalized and genuine, since customers hate marketing programs that are thinly disguised as loyalty incentives.
Personalized interaction can be done in several ways, such as going off-script on the phone, addressing your customers by their names, giving them handwritten thank you cards, or just greeting them with a smile. All of these efforts show that you value your customers as individuals and not as sales drivers.
Recognizing employees’ hard work
Your customers are not the only ones you need to thank this holiday season; your employees also deserve some appreciation. Catering to customer needs and listening to complaints all day long can be a taxing job. Being on the frontline comes with a lot of responsibilities and thanking your staff for doing this job effectively is one way of motivating them to do better.
Successful retail businesses are not only the best places to shop, but are also the best places to work. When employees are grateful for how they are being compensated and rewarded, they will pay the gratitude forward and treat your customers with genuine appreciation.
When business owners or managers take the extra effort of acknowledging the different challenges faced by their staff and thanking them for handling them, the employees feel special. It makes working hard to do a good job seem easier to accomplish. Gratitude must flow from the top to the employees, and from your employees to your customers. When your customers are welcomed and served on Black Friday by happy employees, their customer experience will likely be a remarkable one. They will remember you for being that store in the corner with energetic workers and will most likely come back in the future.
Thanksgiving is a reminder that in order to build strong and lasting relationships, thanking the people responsible for all your blessings is a must. The attitude of showing gratitude must be integrated across all company levels. When thanking people becomes a company-wide habit, negativity will unlikely come your way; your employees and customers will feel appreciated. And ultimately, all of these efforts will positively affect your bottom line.
