When you integrate gratitude into your business, you build relationships better, your customers will stay with you longer and you’ll get more referrals. Here are 29 ways to use gratitude to grow your business and make it more profitable.
- Write a Note: This is pretty rare these days, but start to send handwritten notes to your customers. It’s hard to find a company that does this, which will set you apart and make your company even more memorable. Can you remember the last time you received a handwritten thank-you card from a business?
- Make Gratitude Calls: Spend some time calling clients, past clients, colleagues who refer business to you and anyone else who has impacted your business over the past year. These calls shouldn’t be sales calls, they’re gratitude calls. Your intention is to thank those that have positively impacted your business’ growth as well your own personal happiness.
- Have Customer Appreciation Parties: If you have a brick and mortar, local business, throw a customer appreciation party. You could team up with another local business. Let’s say you own a gym. Partner up with a hair salon or fitness apparel store. They can host the party and provide food and wine, as well as provide a discount to your clients. Your clients are happy because they feel appreciated, get free food and wine and get a good deal on products. The other business is happy because they are getting new customers and making sales. Win Win!
- Give a Personalized Gift: It’s a pleasure to send unexpected gifts to others – it doesn’t have to be something big, flashy or expensive. It’s the thought that counts. And it is so much fun when it is least expected. Make it personal - something that has meaning to your customer. Even better, make it a gift that their spouse or whole family can enjoy!
- Give a Book: There are so many great business and personal development books out there. Give one as a gift to customers. This shows that you’re interested in the well-being and personal growth of your customers. One of my favorite books to give away is The Miracle Morning which teaches you how to set up a morning routine for success. Of course The Grateful Entrepreneur makes a great giveaway as well. Make sure to write a personalized note inside the book so your customer knows this is a thank you meant just for them!
- Get Together With Your Customers On The Road: If you have customers that don’t live near you, make it a point to meet them when you’re traveling. If you’re going to a conference or traveling for pleasure, let your customers know where you’ll be. If anyone lives in the town you’ll be in, take them out to breakfast or coffee. Nothing beats meeting your customers in person.
- Spotlight Customers on Social Media: Call out customers via Facebook or Instagram to let them know how much they mean to you. Make it personal, be sincere and leave them smiling. Another way to profess your love: feature customers on your website. This makes customers feel valued and gives them a sense of pride in doing business with you.
- Send a Treat: Can you imagine your customers opening up a package from you, only to find a sweet treat, such as some homemade cookies or brownies. You’ll be a hero! There’s also companies like Edible Arrangements where you can send sweet treats like chocolate dipped strawberries. Yum!
- Offer an Unannounced Bonus: Surprising and delighting your customers is a surefire way to have raving fans, and customers for life. Regularly give your customers an announced bonus. A T-shirt, an extra session, or even an upgrade of some sort into a more valuable package of services.
- Send Cards on Weird Holidays: A lot of businesses send out holiday cards at Christmas. You can stand apart and do something different by sending cards on different, and more unique holidays, such as Groundhogs Day, St. Patrick’s Day or the 4th of July! Thanksgiving is a good one too, since it’s a holiday specifically to express gratitude.
- Appreciate Employees: Most people in the workplace don’t feel appreciated or valued, thus don’t feel grateful for their job or their boss. This impacts the customer experience, team spirit and organizational effectiveness. Appreciate your employees regularly. Your employees will also stay longer, saving you money!
- Say Happy Birthday: Send every team member a birthday card on their birthday! Recently I read about a CEO that hand writes 7,400 birthday cards annually for all his employees personalizing it with comments relevant to each person. In addition, when he hears about random acts of kindness in the workplace, he sends a thank you note to the individual letting them know their efforts didn't go unnoticed. These gestures helped Sheldon Yellen grow a billion-dollar disaster relief and property restoration company.
- Refer Customers To Your Customers: We all want our customers to help us out by referring business to us. Well some of your customers have their own businesses. Help them out by sending business to their customers. What a way to show them gratitude! You can even promote events they are having, articles they’ve written or anything else you think your audience will like of theirs.
- Create A Gratitude Culture: Sandra Yancey, a successful entrepreneur who began eWomen Network says that behind her company’s motto “Give first, share always” is a sense of gratitude. She ensures from the top down in her company that gratitude is practiced amongst the members and with not-for-profit causes.
- Send Flowers: Send one of your best customers flowers or balloons to their work, just because. No specific reason. It will brighten their day and all of their co-workers will want to know where they came from. Great exposure for you and your business!
- Birthday Lunch: Call up your client who is celebrating their birthday in the upcoming months and invite them to lunch. Encourage them to bring three of their friends along. What client would not respond to such warmth and gratitude? At the lunch, do not talk about business. And do not check your phone. Focus on the people in front of you.
- Celebrate Employee Milestones With Gratitude: There’s a platform called Tribute that helps employees celebrate their co-workers with a video montage of their peers telling them why their awesome. When the recipient of the video watches it, you can be sure there will be tears!
- Add A “For” After Your “Thank You”: Whether you are expressing gratitude for a team member, or a customer, add the word “for” after your “thanks” or “thank you.” “Thank you for” is a more genuine and meaningful expression of gratitude. You are telling the other person WHY you are grateful. The will strengthen the worker relationship and customer experience.
- Know The 5 Appreciation Languages: Just like the 5 “love languages,” there are 5 “appreciation languages” in the workplace: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Acts of Service, Tangible Gifts, and Physical Touch. Take the time to know the primary appreciation language for each of your team members and then show them appreciation in that language.
- Express Personal Gratitude Daily: Each day, find something non business related to be grateful for: your health, your family, the roof over your head, etc. Being a business owner has its ups and downs. Expressing gratitude daily can improve your mood, and increase your happiness and optimism. All of these things can give you a boost in your motivation levels performance in your business.
- Throw Welcome And Goodbye Parties: Throw welcome and goodbye parties to acknowledge team members...or even clients. If someone joins your gym, for example, make a fuss over them and introduce them to everyone so they feel right at home. If someone leaves, have a goodbye party for them so they know they’ll be missed.
- Recognize The Big Days: Recognize your clients’ big days, such as birthdays, anniversaries, etc. Most businesses know this is good practice, but not many actually do it. Send your clients a card on these big days.
- Go Complaint Free For 21 Days: In the book A Complaint Free World, your challenge is to go complaint free for 21 consecutive days. If you complain before 21 straight days are up, you go back to day 1. It usually takes several months to complete this. When you complain, you can’t be in a grateful state of mind at the same time. It brings on negative emotions which can affect your energy levels and decrease performance. Pledge to go complaint free and your business will grow.
- Offer Sympathy: How many businesses send out sympathy cards when a family member of a customer passes away? Practically none. Your business should do so. Send a heartfelt handwritten sympathy card when your customers lose loved ones.
- Start Your Meetings With Gratitude: We know that starting your day with gratitude can set the tone for a positive mindset and day. The same thing is true for meetings. If you have team meetings (in which what’s not working is often discussed), start your meetings off by going around the room and having each person share 1 thing they’re grateful for.
- Give Back: Gratitude and giving back go hand in hand. If you REALLY want to create a culture of gratitude in your company, consider volunteering with your team. Some examples are feeding the homeless or building a house through Habitat For Humanity. Or you can even do a fundraiser where the proceeds go to a specific charity. Get your customers and clients involved too!
- Use Client Gratitude Videos: Genuine customer gratitude builds trust and inspires sales. Authentically capture your customers’ buying experience on video so your prospects can feel more comfortable purchasing from you.
- Create Personal Thank You Videos: Most of us have email autoresponders thanking our customers for a purchase. It’s the same email that goes out to everyone. Set yourself apart by taking 60 seconds and creating a personalized video thanking your customer for purchasing your product or service. That short amount of time will make a world of difference setting yourself apart.
- Send Thank You Notes For Referrals: Customers are the heart of your business. A customer that sends you a referral is like gold. Treat them accordingly and send them a handwritten note (and possibly even a gift) for anyone they refer to you.
Business comes down to building relationships. Treat people with kindness. Care about them. Listen to them. Make them feel valued and important. Do that, and your business will thrive and you will make more money.
