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According to the widely accepted Pareto Principle, 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers. It is also much cheaper to maintain a current customer than it is to attract a new one. One of the best ways to retain a customer is to let them know how much you appreciate their business. Read on for some of our favorite ways to go beyond saying “thank you” and make your customers feel truly special.

Handwritten notes
It may seem almost heretical in the modern eCommerce world, but sending a handwritten note to your customers is a great way to stand out from the competition. Depending on the size of your company, you may be able to send a note to each first-time customer. Or, you could focus on sending 25 notes per week to a percentage of your most valuable customers. It can be as simple as thanking them for their purchase or their loyalty, telling them how much you appreciate them and including a personal business card or special coupon. So much of the mail people receive is junk, a string of examples of poor marketing techniques. By taking the time to actually sit down and write out a note, you are creating a bright spot for your customer in a pile otherwise full of bills and gimmicks.

Discounts and rewards
The vast majority of eCommerce businesses offer some kind of loyalty or reward program to their customers. These programs can take many forms, such as sending customers a special coupon or gift on their birthday, providing free shipping on an item after a certain number of purchases, or giving them exclusive first access to new or sale items. If your company does not currently have a loyalty program, implementing one will be essential to keep up with your competition. For an established loyalty program, explore new ways to use it. Can you try a point system, where a certain number of purchases or dollars spent will trigger a discount or free item, like many grocery stores and restaurants use? Get creative with your reward program and make it easy for your customers to take advantage of.

Personalization
No one wants to feel like just another number or statistic. Make sure any emails, direct mail materials, and other communications address the customer by name in the salutation. Collect as much information as you can about your customer in as few steps as possible. If you know their birthday, send them a free gift or special offer a few weeks prior or on the day. Using their order history, send them discounts on items that they purchase often or recommend complimentary products. Reach out to customers on social media, customize landing pages, tailor e-mail blasts, and create a comprehensive individual experience. Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name.

Valuable content
Customers will notice when you create original content that improves their life in some way. A deep understanding of your target audience and their preferences can help you tailor this content to their needs. If a company sells vitamins, maybe the target audience is interested in fitness and healthy eating. The purchase of vitamins may come with a surprise bonus, like recipes for healthy weeknight dinners or an upper body workout routine. Perhaps this material is included in the box when the vitamins are shipped, or maybe it is available for free download or sent in an email after purchase. This content would be relatively cheap for the company to produce and would allow for easy A/B testing to determine the ROI.

Live sessions
Another way to show your customers how much you appreciate them is by soliciting and utilizing their feedback. You can obtain this feedback in a variety of ways, including surveys, social media, and analytics. However, to reach your customers directly, consider doing a live video session where you can have a conversation in real time. This will create a mutually beneficial situation in which your customers get to see the person behind the brand and express any positive or negative feelings, while you get to delve deeper into why a customer is satisfied or unsatisfied with a product or service. Another way to use live sessions is to have an interview session with an industry leader of public figure. The session could be marketed to new customers as a way to encourage buying, or exclusively to repeat customers as part of your loyalty program.

Make an impact
Provide your customers with the chance to make a difference. If your company donates any money to charitable causes, let your customers know how their purchase influenced your ability to give. For example, if 10% of all sales last month were donated to an animal shelter, send an email to all the customers who made a purchase during that time period and let them know about what was accomplished and show them the impact of their purchase. This could sound like “thanks to you and all of our customers this past month, Company X helped over 100 dogs and cats get the veterinary services they needed to be placed for adoption!” The customer will feel great about their purchase and appreciate the time you took to follow up.

Superior customer appreciation means a lot more than saying “thank you” at the end of an email. Go the extra mile to make them feel special and you could gain a customer for life.