Love is a universal language. It’s safe to say that most people respond favorably when they are shown love. Of course, love means different things to different people. The dictionary definition of love is a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. Thusly, let’s assume that to most people love means showing affection and kindness to others. If that is true, one might ask the question, why wouldn’t that principle work in business as well as in life? I believe it does. The fact is, when you demonstrate love in your business, it shows. Your team feels it, your customers feel it and you feel it. And more importantly it feels good.
Let’s dig further and discuss some ways to show love in your business. Perhaps you have thought of some of these strategies but haven’t executed them in your business. My challenge to you is to spend some time thinking about how you can show love in your business on a daily basis. I promise it will benefit you in the long run. Below, I’ve listed five easy ways you can immediately demonstrate love in your business.
Send Thank You Cards
Can you remember a time when you got a thank you card in the mail and how it made you feel? Did it make you feel happy, appreciated or cared for? You probably smiled after opening the envelope. I know I have. It may sound ancient to some people but thank you cards are a very underestimated way of showing gratitude and appreciation. Your team members and staff whether part-time or full-time, deserve some appreciation for doing a good job. Whether you send a card or gift, it’s the thought that counts.
Sending cards are a great way to show the recipient that you spent an extra 10 or 15 minutes to look for a nice card and mail it. And if you’d like to take it a step further, sending a hand-crafted greeting card is even better. I’m personally a fan of the hand-crafted greeting cards at Ms Craft Princess Designs. Check out their cards and you’ll be delighted at the creativity. Their tag line is giving a hand-crafted greeting card is like giving a hug, and we agree.
Implement Customer Appreciation Sales
Did you know there is a such thing as a National Customer Appreciation Day in the USA and around the world? According to CallCentreHelper.com Customer Appreciation Day is an event that some organizations choose to create an excuse to shower their customers with appreciation and nice gestures.
Showing love to your customers and clients by having appreciation sales is an easy way to keep them coming back. Your customers are the reason why you have revenue to run your business. Keeping your customers happy, means that you give them incentives to shop and save. Everyone likes a good sale. The perceived value of savings from the customer’s point of view will serve you well in the long run. Not only will having customer appreciation sales help to keep your customers loyal, it will give them incentives to to share the news of the great deal that received with their friends.
Remember you control the frequency of the sale and the percentage of discount offered to the customer. You can have a customer appreciation sale once per month or quarter. You can even have flash sales that only last a couple of hours out of the day on any given date. The bottom-line is simply, showing your customers some love by providing them a savings on your products and services.
Create a Loyalty Program
Customer loyalty is essential to your business success. Without customers you do not have a business. Without loyal customers, you increase your expenditure of acquiring new customers. It is far easier to keep your customers loyal and give them reasons to continually buy from you, as opposed to trying to get new customers day in and day out. Did you know that it is far less expensive to retain customers rather than get new ones?
Did you know that it costs five times more to attract a new customer than it does to retain one. Let that sink in. Would you really like to spend five times more than you have to just to get a new customer? Most people would answer no way. That said, it stands to reason that you would create programs that would reward your customers to keep them coming back.
There are benefits of customer retention and the number one benefit is profit. Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95% according to research done by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company.
Loyalty programs can work a variety of ways. The most important things to remember are to promote the loyalty program to your customers often and make it user-friendly as well as attractive to your customers.
According to Hubspot, there are six different types of loyalty programs.
- Point-based loyalty program
- Tiered loyalty program
- Paid loyalty program
- Value-based loyalty program
- Coalition loyalty program
- Game-based loyalty program
Create a Referral Program
Word-of-mouth advertising is the oldest form of promoting a business. The concept word-of-mouth implies that people are talking about something and sharing it with others. Giving your customers a reason to refer your business to their network of family and friends is just smart business. It’s also a way to get word-of-mouth advertising working in your favor. Referral programs are different than loyalty programs in that they require the customer to become ambassadors for your brand by telling others about your business. In essence, with referral programs you are asking your customers to take an active role in helping to promote your business in exchange for perks and rewards.
Your referral program can pay your customers cash, give them savings or reward them with perks and special offers. Whatever incentives you decide to give your customers, remember to make it attractive. No one wants to go to the trouble of recommending your business to their family and friends just to be offered an ink pen. The value of what you offer your customers in exchange for their referral should be a minimum of 5% to 10% of the cost of goods or services that you stand to make off of the referred deal.
Donate to a Local Charity on Behalf of Your Customers
Giving back to the community is a great way to show that your company or organization is invested in the community in which you operate. Donating to a charity is a thoughtful way to bring your customers together for a common cause. You can promote the fact that a portion of your sales for any given time period will be donated to a local or national charity. If you decide to take it a step further, you can give your customers a list of charities that your company is considering making a donation to and allow your customers to vote on the top two or three charities or causes that you will provide a donation to. If your customers realize that a portion of the revenue from their purchase is going towards a good cause, they may be motivated to spend more.
Donating together with your customers is a great way to show love for your customers and the community you do business in. Not only do community donations help deserving causes, they also serve as a way to unite people together which forms a bond for the common good.
In summary, there are many ways you can show love in your business on a regular basis. The opportunities are endless when it comes to creating an atmosphere of gratitude and appreciation with sparks feelings of love and affections. In life, humans beings crave attention, affection and validation from other human beings. In business, it is quite the same. Your customers are waiting on you to acknowledge their importance and significance in your business. The fact is, if you fail to show appreciation and love to your customer. Show them some love and you will be glad you did.
Now it’s your turn. How have you shown love to make your customers have warm and fuzzy feelings about your business? Sharing is caring. It’s safe to say that we could all use a little more love in our lives and businesses too. Leave your two cents below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
This article was written by Lori A. Manns, President of Quality Media Consultant Group. Want to use this article for your blog or business website? Here’s the author’s box that you must include.
© 2021 Quality Media Consultant Group LLC – All Rights Reserved
This article was written by Lori A. Manns. President of Quality Media Consultant Group. Lori is a multi award-winning marketing mentor, sales coach and trailblazing business strategist who works with small business owners and entrepreneurs to help them grow and scale their businesses. She specializes in sales and marketing strategies that result in her clients attracting their target market, gaining brand visibility and growing revenue. Lori is President of Quality Media Consultant Group, a consultancy firm specializing in media, advertising, marketing and sales. She is the founder of the Trailblazer Business Academy. where advancing entrepreneurs go to learn growth strategies and how to run a profitable business the soulful way. Lori is also the creator of the Sponsorship Sales Secrets.