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First off, it’s great that you are thinking in these terms, because it will reap big rewards for you down the line.
I presume you are working off some kind of data base or CRM (customer relationship management) system. Within that kind of system are all kinds of ways to flag birthdays or special days, post reminders and schedule email sends.
One of the best examples of this is Australian dentist Dr. Patti Lund, who is probably the highest paid dentist in the world.
He is fanatical about the customer experience, and you can find more about his tactics and strategies online – all built around his customers.
One thing I would recommend is finding out how much it costs you to actually “buy” a customer through your advertising and marketing. When you know this, you’ll be able to gauge how much you could spend to “thank” someone for a referral.
Let’s say you find out it would cost you $100 to get someone into your company. Now, whenever you get a referral, you have some options. Maybe you can send out a gift card in that amount to someone’s favorite book shop, or if they are an iPod fanatic, a $100 iTunes card.
Maybe they love going to the spa. How about a trip there on you? In the meantime, you can start to develop partnerships with different vendors to help drive even more referrals and traffic.
Connecting emotionally is all about finding out what your customers’ individual needs, wants, desires, likes and dislikes are … and either fulfilling them or, in the case of dislikes, making sure they don’t have to deal with them.
Finding out what those are from a communications standpoint will help make your “thank you” items more personal, more memorable and better received.
