Building Customer Loyalty: Write Thank You Cards

Sending handwritten thank you cards adds a personal touch that will undoubtedly be appreciated by your customers. In fact, they will be floored! It’s such a rare thing to actually receive a special, personalized thank you from a business, let alone a thank you note card that is handwritten. Unheard of these days! They’re more likely to get hit up to ‘like’ a company’s social media pages (well, we’re not opposed to asking them to do that as well, but maybe after the thank you card has been sent out) than be shown major appreciation. Thank you cards are not only a great tactic to building customer loyalty; it’s also a wonderful way to stand out from your competitors.

When to Send Thank You Cards

Try to get the note cards out ASAP within a week of the three below scenarios. Don’t let it slip until later in the month when you may forget and not send one at all, or it’s less relevant for the recipient since a lot of time has passed. That said, sending one later is better than not sending a thank you note card at all.

1. The obvious reason is to thank your customers for buying your product or using your service. Sort of a no-brainer, right?
2. You had an initial client consultation, but they haven’t booked your service or purchased your product yet. DEFINITELY send a thank you note for their time and consideration of your product/service.
3. An existing or former client referred someone to you. Bingo — a thanks is in order. Building customer loyalty is all about recognizing them.

Another Reason to Be Nice
All this additional correspondence takes minimal effort on your part, yet it allows you to stay top-of-mind should your customers, or someone they know, be in need of your company’s offerings. Who are they going to remember? The guy or gal who has been so thoughtful and engaging, that’s who. Customer loyalty, score!

Sample Letter
Here is an example of what you could write to your customer within the note card once they have used your service or purchased your product. As you can see, short and sweet is A-OK. If you’d like to elaborate briefly on something personal from your interaction, such as “Enjoy your vacation in Maui,” even better. Showing that you remembered a snippet about them is great.

This sample letter is based on a recent home remodeling service:

Dear Sally,

Thank you very much for your business. It was a pleasure working with you on your kitchen and bathroom remodels. I am thrilled with the way they turned out, and hope that you are happy with the outcome.

Thanks again for thinking of Esposito Remodeling for your home. I look forward to working with you again in the future.

Best regards,

Harry Esposito

Get Started Now
If you haven’t made handwritten thank you note cards a routine in the past, there’s no time like the present to get going. Make a list of 10 people who you think deserves a thank you based on what we’ve outlined above, or for other reasons you may have. Write your cards and mail them out within the next week. Tada! You’ve just started a really positive new marketing initiative in less than 15 minutes.

How have you incorporated thank you note card writing into your company’s routine and what kind of results have you gotten? Leave us a comment below, on our 123Print Facebook page or tweet us @123Print.