I just got off the phone with a consultee whose December business was up 30% over last year. Why? Maybe because …
she FINALLY took my suggestion of hand-written thank-you notes
She’d had this suggestion on her to-do list for literally years. When she finally sat down to do it, she took a whole year’s worth of contacts and hand-wrote Christmas cards to each.
Think that there was any correlation between customers feeling cosseted, and customers coming in to the shop in December?
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If you’re in a similar fix and need to thank dozens of great customers from the last 12 months,
New Year’s cards work too!
Go buy some, pull out your best customers’ report or email list, and go for it!
Can’t find New Year’s cards? Try a blank card that says Thank You on its front, and inside write
We want to take the time to thank you for a wonderful 2016 at [Myshop] and to wish you all the best for 2017.
Yours,
(signed with your full name, and shop name if you wish)
(Be sure to tuck your business card in, so there’s no doubt in her mind who you are!)
Now, doing thank-you’s all at once can be daunting (ask any bride.) But for a shopkeeper who’s fallen behind in her daily/ weekly sessions, a holiday’s the perfect “excuse” for sending them long after the customer’s visit, isn’t it?
Extra-credit Reading
Find this idea useful? Learn more:
The Importance of “Thank You” to your wallet.
Want to write notes, but don’t know what to say? Read You Can Do It.
That would be your broadcast email. It can work wonders, getting folks in to shop. But so many shops don’t promote this wonderful customer benefit as much as they could.
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 