Treat Your Customer Right: 4 Ways to Engage Your Customer

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been re-publishing some of the blog posts I’ve contributed to other blogs. 

In my previous position, I worked in the handknitting yarn industry and as an avid knitter and crocheter myself, I relished the opportunities to go to trade shows and consumer festivals to check out the latest wares. A few years ago, I discovered Bar-Maids, a small body products company based out of Washington selling lip balm, body bars, scrubs, etc. aimed at the niche market of fiber crafters.

While their quality products have earned them a permanent place in my daily repertoire, it’s their savvy and whimsical approach to marketing that has earned them a place in my heart. Bar-Maids is a great example of a company that remembers that engaging content can come both online and offline. In today’s digital world, sometimes it is physical items and personal attention that can break through the noise. (Tweet this.)

Today, I share four examples from Bar-Maids that you can apply to your company’s communications, whether you sell physical products or not.

Add a Custom Touch: Let Them Choose

When you buy a moisturizing bar from Bar-Maids, you can select the type of saying that is imprinted on the vellum liner paper that protects the bar within its tin. Since their main business is with fiber crafters, that’s one of the options, but vacation and wine-themed options are available too. It might seem like a little thing, but offering your customers an opportunity to customize their purchase (or subscriptions or accounts) can give them a sense of ownership. In a blog post earlier this year, I talked about Daniel Pink’s book, Drive, which explores how we are all motivated and autonomy—a freedom of choice—can be a powerful driver.

Give a Little: Everyone Loves Samples

Bar-Maids often includes samples of new and seasonal scents in their shipments. Not only does this give customers a chance to discover products in an industry (scented body products) where trial makes a big difference, but it creates an element of surprise and delight. Now you may be thinking that it doesn’t necessarily apply to your industry, but let’s look at the book industry, where eBooks in the “guilty pleasure” vein have done really well by including a teaser chapter from a related book at the end of the first. Or perhaps you may have noticed the growing popularity of including teasers at the end of movie credits that give those dedicated fans who stick it out to the end a little something extra to see.

Again, it’s not just about getting them to think about the next purchase, it’s also about creating a sense of an “exclusive club” in which they now belong. Now think about how you can apply that to your company…

Make Giving Feedback Easy—Oh, and a Sense of Humor Doesn’t Hurt Either

You may have been wondering about the photo at the top of this post. It’s a pre-stamped postcard that Bar-Maids includes in each order. (Including the stamp lowers the barrier on getting feedback!) Plus, it asks the customer for feedback in the form of a mad lib-style fill-in-the-blank. Not only is it charming and very engaging, but I’m sure it ensure that Bar-Maids gets a higher percentage of customer feedback than most companies.

There are a lot of websites with pop-ups harassing you to share feedback. (You know the ones I’m talking about.) Wouldn’t a more human approach, like Bar-Maids’, be more likely to engage the customer? What if you mailed a pre-stamped, fun and easy-to-fill-out postcard to your 100 top customers in an attractive invitation-like envelope? I bet you they’d take notice and get back to you.

Thank Your Customers for Being Loyal

Once Bar-Maids received the postcard I filled out, I got an email thanking me for my time, and it included a coupon from them. I wasn’t expecting anything for taking a few minutes to fill out that card, but receiving the email felt good and made me feel valued as a customer.

At my last company, we started an email automation program that rewarded our most loyal active email subscribers, some of whom had been on our list for over 1o years! We got amazing feedback from customers who got up to 50% off their next orders based on their tenure with us, and I’m sure that goodwill can be seen every time they walk into a store and think about which brand’s products to buy.

On the flip side, think about what is genuinely useful and desired by your customer. I once received a little package in the mail from a website I sometimes shopped; it was an attractive little box and I was excited to have received something from them out of the blue. Inside was a deck of photos of products and prints of the company’s Instagram photos…with no discernible value for the customer at all. To me, that was a missed opportunity. If each card had included a home decor tip (it was a home furnishings company), a cocktail recipe, or even a fun factoid, it may have been something I would have kept and referred back to, instead of something I recycled two minutes after having flipped through the cards.

In the end, engaging your customer has to come from understanding your customer: his/her behaviors, motivations, and desires. (Tweet this.)

I hope these examples have given you some ideas for how you can engage your customers both online and offline in more personal and human ways. I’d love to hear your thoughts on additional suggestions in the comments.

This post originally appeared on InNetwork and appears courtesy of them.