Recently, I ordered a running armband. It arrived — with a thank you note for my purchase. It was the old-school kind of thank you, on heavy stock paper and in an envelope.

It made me smile — and got me thinking about how far a simple “thank you” can go to improve customer relations. It took little effort on the part of the business, and for me, it created a positive association with the company.

Here are some easy ways you can thank customers and create positive associations — and hopefully relationships — with your company.

  • If you mail items, a thank you note, like I mentioned above, will certainly make a good impression, but don’t feel you have to be fancy. Envelopes aren’t necessary. You can even print out a standard thank you, but I recommend you sign it. If you have the time to jot down a note in pen, even better.
  • Thank customers just for being customers. At software company Wufoo, every employee every week writes a card to a loyal customer.
  • There’s plenty of room for being thankful on social media especially.
    • On Twitter, thank someone when they share a link to your business or blog or if they retweet you. If you have the time, thank folks when they favorite your tweets as well.
    • On Facebook, if someone leaves a comment on a post, thank them for weighing in.
    • Even consider thanking people for complaints they leave on social media, depending on the nature of the complaint. For example, I’ve thanked people for their feedback, and I’ve thanked them for their patience when their issue required time to fix.
    • Folks are so surprised to get a personal thank you, they’re likely to return the favor by sharing it on social media:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154237177893086&set=a.50580063085.75871.725458085&type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/acelebrant/photos/a.480432548808989.1073741828.477306969121547/511525052366405/?type=3&theater

  • I’m sure you do this already, but don’t forget to thank them in person as well. A “Thank you for shopping with us!” at the time of purchase can only help.

And to end this: Thank you for reading my post on thank you’s!

Check out the customer engagement tools in our Thryv local business marketing platform.