Your customers are very smart; after all, they decide to do business with you. Thank the customer. Thank the customer with sincerity. Praise the customer. Congratulate the customer. But do so sincerely. If you aren’t sincere, the customer will sense cynicism, not sincerity.
There are oodles of ways to say thank you. Every product package the customer sees should say. “The employees of XYZ Corps thank you for your business.” Salespeople should send customers’ handwritten thank-you notes. The carpet merchant should call each customer to inquire about the carpet installation and to thank the customer. Accounts receivable managers should send a thank-you note when the tardy customer finally pays an old bill. Quality assurance people should personally respond to every complaint (and not with a trite form letter) and thank the customer for taking the time to alert the company to a problem. If it is considered a serious problem, the president, or another acceptably high-ranking executive, must call the customer.
Please, no self-serving thank-yous, such as the billboards and full-page ads that proclaim, “Thank you for letting us celebrate our 30th year in business!” These simulated “thank-yous” are about the advertiser, not the customer. Sometimes the self-congratulations posing as a thank-you, are nakedly self-serving.
Write a thank-you when you don’t get the business. Customers will appreciate your goodwill. They will remember you the next time they are ready to buy. Your thank-you might lead to another thank-you.
Sincere thank-yous never hurt. They cost nada. Say, “thank you” over and over and over.
