Thank You! When was the last time you thanked your customers for doing business with you? I’m not talking about the regular, transaction related thank you, I am talking about just saying “Thanks”! for being my customer with no expectation of getting something back from them in return.
This is all part of a bigger movement called “gratitude marketing”. You will hear more about this in 2010, and I predict that it will be the overriding marketing theme for the next decade. Making sure that your customers know that they are appreciated and valued is a simple concept, but one that tends to get lost inside of the other challenges we are facing as we all begin 2010.
My challenge to you is to tell every one of your customers (including your employees, vendors and suppliers) that you appreciate them and look forward to working with them in 2010.
If you are looking for a fantastic way to execute your “Thank You Strategy”, check out what I do at www.mykeepintouchstrategy.com.
Lastly, and most importantly, THANK YOU! for being a part of my world. I look forward to serving you in 2010 and beyond!
I was watching golf over the weekend and a commercial came on for DirecTV, the series of ads that has the Board of Directors for the “Cable Company” sitting around a table trying to figure out why they are losing customers to DirecTV. One board member suggests a “blamestorming” session, where he promptly “blames” their problems of one of his fellow board members. Hilarious.
According to www.unwords.com, the definition of “blamestorming” is as follows:
(blām’stôr’mĭng)
1. (n.) A method of collectively finding one to blame for a mistake no one is willing to confess to. Often occurs in the form of a meeting of colleagues at work, gathered to decide who is to blame for a screw up.
So, my question to the small business owners of the world today is, are you spending your strategic planning time “blamestorming” or are you actually brainstorming? It is very easy to fall into the trap of excuses about the economy, your lack of sales, the consumer not spending, etc. What is harder is to come up with out of the box ideas that can gain market share or retain your current customer base. My challenge to you today is to come up with one idea that can either bring new clients to your door or add value to your current customer and then act on that idea, violently. As General George Patton said, “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week”.
Please leave me a comment letting me know what your idea is!
