Church of the Customer tackles Thank You notes

One of my favorite blogs is "Church of the Customer" because they often have articles with ideas to improve your business and Jackie Huba just posted a great article titled, "Five must-haves for thank-you notes".

In short, this is what she had to say...

... there are five must-haves for an effective, buzzworthy thank-you note:

1) Spell the recipient's name correctly (doh!).

2) Thank the person for choosing your business. If they shared a specific reason why they choose your business of why they like it, reaffirm it. For heaven's sake, though, don't turn it into a sales pitch.

3) Include a personal detail about the recipient that you picked up on. Prove that you were listening. Humanity is a good thing in the antiseptic world of business.

4) Open the door to feedback. Whether the recipient provides it isn't the point; it's the idea that you're passionate about creating a recommendable experience.

5) Be authentic: Include your full name and contact info -- email and/or phone. Or a business card.

These 5 keys are important... and they begin to give you a feeling for what a Thank You note, especially one from a business to their customer, should include. The last one, "Be authentic" is especially important and is one of the reasons that most businesses fail to use thank you notes... they see business as impersonal or "just a job".

When you care enough to make your business GREAT, the idea of sending handwritten thank you notes is a simple step in that direction. It shows how much you care to do a good job (very unusual nowadays) as well as how much you care about your customers... and people will always do business with people who care about them over the standard [i.e. rude, impersonal, rule-following] businesses.

Click here to read the full article including an example of a thank you card that Jackie received.