According to a study conducted by Loyalty One, 94% of customers who received a surprise gift or special recognition felt more positive about the company and 34% of customers gave the brand more business afterwards.
It’s important for customers to trust your brand before they buy or continue to buy. Adding simple, intentional gestures throughout their customer journey will build that trust.
Today we want to share 💫four tried-and-true ways💫 to develop long, successful, and trusted customer relationships.
Not only will we share examples and our biggest takeaways, but also explain how you can tangibly apply these to your customers.
Send a Gift
Terminus recently collaborated with Tinker Coffee to create a custom bag of coffee and gave it to our customers to start their day off with a special cup of Joe. We also created a spinoff game, Cards Against Marketing, just for our B2B Marketers.
Here’s what people thought of these:
Many people were impressed and excited about these gifts. Pushing the boundary on traditional gifts (giftcards, snacks, books) is worth it, and generates engagement both on and offline. When you are considering what gifts to give, consider local partnerships and ways to introduce play into your customers’ lives, especially with their role in mind.
Create an Unforgettable Experience
Terminus also launched BreakShit, a virtual marketing conference. We know what you’re thinking…another basic conference over Zoom? Absolutely not! BreakShit was one with saxsquatch intermissions, Jay Baer as the host, and a vote for the best presenter to receive $10,000 for charity.
Here were some of the customer reactions:
Quality time is impactful for both customers and brand awareness. Taking risks on company branded events will make you stand out from the crowd and noise online. Justin Keller, our VP of Brand Marketing, had a few things to say about the importance of out-of-the-box marketing,
“I’ve been doing this long enough to know the same playbooks are being run in 2021…The playbook is old, so write a new playbook”.
How can you cultivate quality time for your customers? Find zany ways to get them to stop scrolling, and incentivize them to spend their time with you through entertainment, philanthropy, and rule-breaking playbooks!
Maybe an entire conference isn’t realistic for you, what about a shorter experience? This year Terminus hosted “Read Between the Wines” where we shipped customers two bottles of wine, hosted a tasting virtually, and promoted Sangram Vajre’s new book MOVE.
Here’s a peek into the event:
Boom! Quality time of one to two hours in a virtual setting. Have some ideas for your next virtual group event for your customers yet??
Be Their Biggest Cheerleader
On another note, Terminus created a monthly newsletter just for our customers. This was with the goal of sharing product updates and spotlighting our 🌟Customer Rock Stars🌟. We included our annual ABMie awards to celebrate our customers in the August newsletter.
The three recipients are listed below:
Words of affirmation are a cost-free way to boost morale and let customers know you appreciate them. Making sure you provide personalized feedback and love can go a long way. In the B2B space, the people behind the businesses are key, why not amplify them?
When you are thinking about how to spread words of affirmation, consider your audience, engagement channels, and ways to touch each and every customer.
Make Life a Little Easier
Lastly, Terminus sent kits to support our customers along every point in their journeys. The first is called, “Let’s Rock!”, and is a direct mail kit sent to customers right after onboarding. There is fun swag, access to a resource hub to answer any and all questions, and linked ways to engage with the Terminus community whether that be with our e-learning platform or advocacy program.
The second is called, “Let’s Keep Cultivating”, which is sent to customers right after renewal. We even included a little money plant🌳.
Check out these two kits below:
The point of these kits is to provide helpful resources surrounding our products, the implementation process, open dialogue for questions and concerns, and support for our newer as well as longer-standing partners.
How can you make life and work easier for your customers? The little things of checking-in, offering help, and being proactive really do add up. Think through what your customers would value in terms of saving time and energy. Then do it again and again!
Growing and sustaining a strong partnership with your customer is more important than ever, especially in today’s fast-paced and virtually-based world.
Now that you know how we have navigated our customer relationships, which of these four tried-and-true ways will you try?
