Saying 'Thank You' is something we are taught from a very young age, usually some of our first words.  As business owners we would be lost without clients, let's face it - without them we wouldn't have a business!!  But how do we let them know we are thankful?

I was having a particularly bad day one time and I thought I'd grab a coffee in a certain well-known fast-food joint before going for a hospital appointment.  I really wasn't feeling up to it so I drove drive-through (I know the height of laziness for a cup of coffee).  I will never forget how it felt when the server handed me my cup and said 'you have a great day and we'll see you again soon'.  Just those few words, which she'd probably said a million times, meant so much and cost her nothing.  That's how a 'Thank You' can make your clients feel.

So here's a few ideas to get you going:

Email or Send an actual Thank You note / card

This might seem a bit strange but let me ask you this.  Remember back in the good old days when we all used to send Thank You cards after birthdays or Christmas?  It's a bit like that ... except our Mothers aren't forcing us!!!  But if you've got a database of client information then there really is no excuse.  If that database includes date of birth then why not make it a birthday card, that way it doesn't just look like a mass-mailing.

Special Offers

How about special offers for existing clients?  Time, and time again, businesses run offers for new clients forgetting where their current income is coming from.  We see this a lot with the likes of phone companies ... switch to us and save.  But the existing clients have to keep going with full price.  It's just not fair or nice.  Have special offers that actually mean something and are useful for clients.

Send a Gift

This is where you can be practical and still promote your business.  What is one thing we're great at in Ireland?  Drinking tea, right.  So why not send clients personalised gifts like mugs.  These can be done with their logo on it if they are a business too but with a message from your business, or they can be purely your business information.  There's lots of options too - say your clients are all Ballet Teachers, why not give them a personalised bag for their shoes?  Check out our Shop page for more ideas or get in touch if you know what you're looking for.

Send them referrals

Are your clients businesses too?  Why not say thank you by sending them referrals.  This is a great way of saying Thank You and it costs you absolutely nothing.  There's a saying 'What Goes Around, Comes Around' and while we usually associate this with bad karma it can work for good too.  If you actively help others, they are more likely to help you.

Give back

This doesn't mean literally give back to the client but let's say your client is a Nursing Home that you've just done a deep-cleaning in, why not give something back to the residents like a hamper of goodies to be shared.  Or if you're a Garden Centre and you've just sold a load of plants to the Tidy Towns committee you could give back by helping out planting them or give them some extra free.

What ways do you give back to your clients?  Leave a comment below and let us know.