Tips to appreciate customers during the Holiday season

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Although the priority for small and startup businesses during the holiday season is to maximize sales, it is also critically imperative that activities to appreciate your customers are included in this period.  After all, it is the same customers on whom you have been depending throughout the year and will depend on in the coming year.

The following are some tips to show your customers and clients that they are appreciated during the holiday season:

-          Do one big giveaway – It may be expensive but throw caution to the wind and recognize one customer in a big way.  Put on a customer based promotion using some type of competition to randomly select one lucky customer for a big giveaway.  It could be a gift certificate, gift basket of selected products or a big discount on a future transaction.  The important thing is that the giveaway should be impactful, both for your business as well as the customer.

-          Customer Appreciation event – Everyone likes a little cake, ice-cream; some freshly made sandwiches and a cool drink.  Throw it together with some music and a ‘vibesy’ DJ and you have a party.  A customer appreciation event is a great way to show your customers that you appreciate their business.  Since you have a captive audience, you may also use the activity to introduce and test a new product or service and bill it as part of the appreciation event.

-          Distribute branded items – Branded items are great way to show appreciation to loyal customers.  If you can, have up to two different items that way you can ‘tier’ the gifts according to customer levels.  Customer levels may be determined by sales, referral or a combination of both.  Your branded items serves two main purposes in this instance, firstly it must be a useful gift that the customer will value enough to use all the time and because it carries your company’s name, the item will help to increase awareness of your brand and by extension, your products and services.

Of course, these tips are not exhaustive.  Small and startup businesses can creatively identify more inexpensive but meaningful ways to appreciate customers.