One of the most overlooked ways to plan for long term growth is the utilization of thank you cards mailed to your customers. In short, thank you cards help create a personal connection with customers, and have a positive effect making them feel appreciated for their patronage. Customers have tons of options when it comes to disposing of their junk, so taking the extra step in making them feel good about their choice with your service is a great way to solidify the new working relationship.
Writing a thank you card has become a relic of the past, and many companies are either too busy or don't think the juice is worth the squeeze. I strongly believe this personal touch goes an incredibly long way to build lasting customer relationships and referrals.
I mean honestly, who would ever expect to receive a thank you card in the mail after having a service provider at their house? Not many, and that’s the point! I know I have never received one before, and if I did, I would probably call the company and thank them for taking the time to thank me! In fact, my business Grizzly Junk Pros gets calls just like that from our customers weekly! It’s the unexpected gift of gratitude that goes a long way. We have fun with it too, we choose to use these funny fruit-looking characters that say thank you in different comical ways. It brings a little bit of joy into someone's life, and it’s not hard to do. Life is more fun when you can laugh a bit!
Thank you cards are not designed to provide an immediate return on investment, rather they’ll provide long term benefits to your overall business growth. It will lead to stronger relationships and increased customer loyalty, which will in turn lead to an increased percentage in repeat business and customer referrals. Remember, this is a long term play in the growth of business.
How to write a thank you card that converts:
Sending a plain ol' thank you card is fine and will definitely provide benefits to your business as we discussed before, but there’s a more effective way of writing the thank you cards so that they convert the way you need them to.
Specifically, if you’re looking to increase your online reviews, you can tailor the thank you card verbiage to call the customer to action leaving a review. Make the directions simple for them to follow, and include a QR code that goes directly to the webpage you’re looking to get a review on. QR codes have been around forever but ever since the shutdown, everyone, including grandma, knows how to use them - thanks in part to all these damn restaurants getting rid of paper menus! (Can you tell I’m an analog kind of guy?) So use this to your benefit, and make it easy for them to do what you need.
Keep it short and simple.
The thank you card shouldn’t be long-form for a couple of reasons. First, we don’t need you spending all day writing three thank you cards because they are multiple pages long and your hand feels like it's gotten carpal tunnel. And secondly, ain’t nobody trying to read all that! Think about how fast you chuck mail… set yourself up so you don’t get chucked too! Keep it short and sweet and right to the point.
Here’s a general template for writing thank you cards:
Start with a greeting that addresses your customer.
Write a thank you message to express your gratitude.
Add specific details to your thank you cards so they feel that it’s not cookie cutter.
Write a forward-looking statement.
Reiterate your thanks.
End with your regards.
Here’s an example of thank you cards focused on customer retention we use in our business:
“Dear [Customer First Name] , it's been such a pleasure working with you. If you know anyone who's in a similar junk hauling situation, we'd love you to give them $40 off their first service with us simply by mentioning this thank you card. One of the reasons we're able to keep the cost of our service down is because we get a lot of our business through referrals from people like you.
Bear-ing regards, The Junk Pros Team”
Feel free to use this for your own cards too!
See what’s going on here? We're acknowledging them and appealing to their ego. People love being acknowledged. We're not asking them for a favor, but instead offering something valuable they can give to someone in their network. And we're giving them a reason to give us referrals - a reason that has directly benefited them.
Include some marketing materials before you seal up that envelope too (like a magnet or a business card) so the next time they get around to it, they’ll think of you!
The last thing to do with thank you cards for customer retention is insert the card with the fold pointed down, so when the customer takes the card out of the envelope, the marketing materials inside don’t fall out. Lick the envelope shut, affix a stamp, seal it with a kiss, and send it off!
Whatever your customer cycle is like - maybe 6 months to a year for repeat business - if you do this every week, you’ll have a bunch of new referrals and repeat customers starting to enter the fold of your everyday booking requests!
The juice is definitely worth the squeeze, my friends.
Schedule a call today to figure out how to best incorporate this into your own company. ✌️
Justin Hubbard
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