Setting Your Business Apart in the "Thank You Economy"

Gary Vaynerchuk's 2011 book "The Thank You Economy" showed business owners that the rise of the Internet and rapid fire social media has given customers their voices back.  Their opinions, positive or negative, are communicated immediately and vastly on places like facebook and Yelp.  This new paradigm requires that businesses project authenticity, originality, creativity, honesty, and good intent in order to created loyal customers.  Loyal customers refer more business by word of mouth, spend more money with you, forgive mistakes, and offer real suggestions for improvement.  An easy way to start building that relationship is by expressing appreciation to those customers with thank you notes.

Saying "thank you for your business" sounds obvious, but think about this: when is the last time you received a thank you card from someone you do business with?  Or really any communication that wasn't about your bill being due?  The simple strategy of sending a hand-written thank you note will make a huge impact with your customers and lets them know how much you really value their business.  While this seems like a no-brainer for new business, don't forget about your existing customers.  Those long-term buyers need to be given the VIP treatment as well because we all know it is cheaper to keep customers than it is to try and bring in new ones.

In this high-speed, electronic world, there is something special about a hand-written note.  It makes your customer (or vendor, employee, excellent sales person, etc.) feel like they matter to you and your business.  Keep short notes on customers you've interacted with or vendors you've recently met with.  Then you can go back once a week and write out those notes to be mailed.  You can also email that information to a virtual administrative assistant service such as Administrative Business Consulting to have the cards written and mailed.  Services such as ABC will provide cards, hand writing, and mailing for a per card fee.

Once you have thank you cards down pat, consider personal birthday or other seasonal cards for your top clients.  Try to touch customers at least once a quarter with a message that is not just a mechanism for selling products or services.  You will set yourself apart from your competition and your customers will think about your business in a whole new way.