What is Get to Know Your Customer Day?
Understanding your customer results in improved loyalty, successful marketing, and refined solutions. If your organization is looking to strengthen its foundation, this business holiday is right around the corner. Get to Know Your Customer Day occurs quarterly – on the third Thursday of January, April, July, and October. Here, we will provide effective and creative ways to participate in this holiday.
Upcoming Get to Know Your Customer Days:
- 04/14/2022
- 07/21/2022
- 10/20/2022
- 01/19/2023
Reward Them for Feedback
The most straight-forward way to learn about your customers is to just ask them! A simple way to gather both demographic and psychographic information on your customers is through a digital survey. You can easily create surveys on websites such as Qualtrics and Survey Monkey, for little to no cost depending on the plan you choose. Once the results are in, make sure to analyze the data and build customer profiles. These platforms have tools to make analyzing your results streamlined and easy.
Remember to keep the survey simple, quick, and relevant to the company. To incentivize this, let the customer know they will receive a reward once the survey is completed. This could be an amount off their next purchase, or a free gift – just don’t forget to provide the reward once it is completed!
Customer Survey Question Examples:
Demographic
- How old are you?
- If applicable, what gender do you identify as?
- Where are you located?
- What industry do you work in?
- What is your level of income?
Psychographic
- Do you prefer to shop on mobile or computer?
- How did you find us?
- Which product or service is most important to you?
- What activity do you most often do in your free time?
- Are you happy with your work-life balance?
- Do you pay more attention to quality or price?
- Do you spend more money on yourself or your family?
Satisfaction
- How frequently do you shop here?
- How often do you use (product or service)?
- How satisfied are you with (product or service)?
- Which product feature do you find most valuable?
- On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with (product or service)?
- Has your opinion on (product or service) changed in the past 12 months?
- How can we improve your experience?
- Why did you choose our product versus a competitor?
- Do you have any additional feedback?
Host an Exclusive Party
With pandemic restrictions lifted in many areas, we once again have the opportunity to connect with customers in the real world. Give your customers a reason to come to you by hosting an event during special hours.
Create a Social Atmosphere with Special Offers
Invite your customers to bring a friend to the exclusive party as a +1, to ensure that this event has a comfortable and social atmosphere in which you can truly build rapport face-to-face. Create an opportunity they can’t miss with exclusive offers. Including special discounts and prizes are a must, as this extra incentive is the hook to bring these customers in initially.
A custom ornament to commemorate the event is a great giveaway as well. You can create your own keepsake design specific to the event or to show the attendees that their time spent at the business is appreciated. Learn how Give Kids the World used custom keepsakes as a gift for sponsors during an exclusive event.
Build Meaningful Relationships
Once your guests arrive, they should find a range of refreshments that everyone can enjoy, further giving them a reason to stay for the entire event. Customers who are passionate about your brand are your best ambassadors, and they will not forget this special event held just for them.
Not only is this a great way to build real and valuable relationships with your customers, but it is an opportunity to tangibly build customer profiles. Ask them questions, getting to know them on a personal level. Use empathy to understand their pain points and successes. Identify employees who excel with customer relationships, and have them work at the event.
Mail a “Thank You” Note
Gratitude goes a long way, but a customary “thank you” email is seen as easily automated by customers, coming off as ordinary. Going the extra mile really shows your customers that you care. Write them a letter to let them know that you appreciate their business, with more than a simple “thank you”. Make sure to personalize it, using their name and customizing it for the product or service that they receive from your business. If you have the capacity, mail these out rather than send them an email. If you want to provide extra value, handwrite these, or make a personal call to let the customer know they are appreciated and their patronage does not go unnoticed.
Here is a template for a thank you note to customers:
“Dear (customer title and name),
We are truly grateful to be your chosen (product or service type).
The growth that we have experienced throughout the years is due to patrons like you who have loyally supported our business.
We really value the trust you have in our business, and are committed to always providing the best (product or service) to you.
Thank you again for your business, and please do not hesitate to let us know how we can improve your experience further.
Sincerely,
_________.”
If you want to take this even further, send your customer swag bags with branded materials. Undoubtedly, not only is this a nice surprise for them, but the branding on an item that others see increases brand awareness for you. Consider sending out branded items, such as water bottles, totes, tech accessories, or hand sanitizer. Custom ornaments with your company’s brand are also a great way to stay within your customer’s mind year-round, and are something they can look back on fondly.
Learn about creating your own custom ornaments.
Additionally, don’t forget about swag that can be specific to your business – such as a branded leash or collar for your pet supply business, or a yoga mat for your personal training service. However, if you do not want to do this, you can instead add a discount offer for their next transaction.
Interact with Customers on Social Media
Social media is one of the best ways to connect to your customers day-to-day. If you need creative ways to connect with customers on social media, the interactive tools you can find on these platforms are your friend.
This or That
Polls are a simple, fun, and effective way to analyze your customers and keep them engaged with your account. Play a game of this or that, where you have customers choose between two of your products in a poll, with photos of them side by side. This does not have to be your own products either – it can be something otherwise relevant to your customers. For example, if you are the owner of a sports bar, have your customers choose between a series of sports teams or players. If you are an apparel brand, have customers choose between celebrity looks.
Rate This
A similar concept is having your customers rate things on your story using the slider with an emoji. Have them decide how much they love or hate something. We suggest choosing something outside your company to gather new information about your customers and to avoid the risk of having your product/service poorly rated in a public space on your own platform. That can be saved for surveys.
Use Reactions
On Facebook, posting a graphic with each reaction emoji and having customers choose whichever correlates with their choice on the post is a great way to drive engagement and get a sense of what they like.
Question and Answer
The most straight-forward type of post would be a question and answer. Ask your customers a question directly, either on a post or your story, with the questions feature. Share out the best responses afterwards. These questions can be relevant to your business, or fun questions to simply build rapport and give your followers some fun. If appropriate, add a personal touch to your brand by answering these questions yourself!
Some questions you could ask are:
“If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?”, “If you could meet anyone, who would it be?”, “If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?”, “You’re given $1000 to spend in store, what would you spend it on?”, or, simply, “Ask us anything!”
Host a Giveaway
Additionally, you could host a giveaway on social media. Having your customers comment to enter into a giveaway gets them engaged with your social media account and has them checking back in on your account to see if they are the lucky winner. Give away a highly-desired product or survey to one winner – and be sure to announce whoever won on social media once the giveaway is closed.
Need Design Help?
If you’re looking for a way to easily upgrade your design capabilities when you create these, tools such as Canva, Pixelied, and Adobe Express are your friend. In these programs, you can search templates to make content creation a breeze.
Create a Loyalty Program
Get to Know Your Customer Day is the perfect time to roll out a loyalty program! If your customers are consistently coming back to you, why not encourage this? This can also be a great way to ensure they are not going to the competition. After all, creating new customers is much more expensive than retaining current customers – and loyal customers tell their friends about you. Here are some loyalty program software to make creating your own a breeze:
Yotpo
Yotpo offers unique campaigns with advanced segmentation. You can create reward offers and tier-based programs, and incentivize referrals. It makes building user-generated content and reviews easy, and hosts a comprehensive ROI dashboard and analytics for meaningful insights.
Loyalty Lion
Loyalty Lion is best for ecommerce. This program integrates into Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, and other major ecommerce platforms. You can customize your program with loyalty points and rewards, and build campaigns that encourage engagement, alerting customers about rewards they can use in your shop.
Fivestars
Fivestars specializes in loyalty programs for local businesses. Every sale at your brick-and-mortar store adds a customer to your database. Through this program, you can reach your customers through text, emails, and more.
CandyBar
CandyBar is a punch-card loyalty system. The platform is simple and clear, making it easy for both customers and employees to use in store. The analytics help your business to understand its customers.
Build Customer Profiles
Get to Know Your Customer Day occurs quarterly, but be sure to use these methods of appreciating and exploring your customer base regularly, and any time you need some fresh ideas. Connecting with your customers, understanding them, and building customer profiles will ensure that your business reaches its audience effectively, and will take your business to the next level.
If you are looking for more ways to show your customers you appreciate them, consider creating a custom ornament program for a meaningful keepsake they can treasure for a lifetime.
