Reply To: Surprise and Delight Gifts

[Wendy]

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I agree with @Ryan – whatever you do, make sure it is personal and genuine. This may take a little bit of research to understand your customers and what will surprise and delight them.

Personally, I love the handwritten thank you note idea. If you have their mailing address where you know they’ll receive it, handwritten notes are fantastic. Could you get your CEO to sign it with you? What else can do to make that handwritten note hit the mark you want? What about a follow-up phone call from the CEO to say thanks in person?

Gift cards are tough, IMO, and not as personal. That said, I do love receiving a gift card to Starbucks or Amazon – two places I buy from regularly. But that may not be true for everyone.

If it were me, I would start with what outcome are you looking for? Are you simply just trying to say thank you for being a customer or are you trying to get something else? Depending on the answer, you can start researching ideas that would make sense for your customers.

For example, last year we launched (what we call) an ask/get campaign for one of our clients. Our client is a non-profit community for female founders — aimed at helping them get access to funding for their companies. They wanted to get feedback from their community members — asking them what they want to see from the community — and also say thank you for being a part of the community. We created a program where our client partnered with an executive coach to offer 3 free sessions to their target list of customers. Coaching services can be very expensive, so this was a way for them to give their community members a hugely valuable gift in exchange for some feedback — plus the executive coach had the opportunity to grow her practice. It was a hugely successful campaign and one they will likely repeat in the future based on the feedback they received.

Hope this is helpful.

[Wendy]

Helpful

Up

0

::

I agree with @Ryan – whatever you do, make sure it is personal and genuine. This may take a little bit of research to understand your customers and what will surprise and delight them.

Personally, I love the handwritten thank you note idea. If you have their mailing address where you know they’ll receive it, handwritten notes are fantastic. Could you get your CEO to sign it with you? What else can do to make that handwritten note hit the mark you want? What about a follow-up phone call from the CEO to say thanks in person?

Gift cards are tough, IMO, and not as personal. That said, I do love receiving a gift card to Starbucks or Amazon – two places I buy from regularly. But that may not be true for everyone.

If it were me, I would start with what outcome are you looking for? Are you simply just trying to say thank you for being a customer or are you trying to get something else? Depending on the answer, you can start researching ideas that would make sense for your customers.

For example, last year we launched (what we call) an ask/get campaign for one of our clients. Our client is a non-profit community for female founders — aimed at helping them get access to funding for their companies. They wanted to get feedback from their community members — asking them what they want to see from the community — and also say thank you for being a part of the community. We created a program where our client partnered with an executive coach to offer 3 free sessions to their target list of customers. Coaching services can be very expensive, so this was a way for them to give their community members a hugely valuable gift in exchange for some feedback — plus the executive coach had the opportunity to grow her practice. It was a hugely successful campaign and one they will likely repeat in the future based on the feedback they received.

Hope this is helpful.