The third Thursday of each quarter (January, April, July, October) is Get to Know Your Customers Day, an opportunity to learn more about who’s supporting your business and why.
As a small business owner, you probably already make an effort to get to know your customers on a regular basis. But it’s helpful to check in with the progress you’re making with regards to customer relations by setting aside an official day—or four—to do so each year.
Whether you partner with local businesses in your area to host a “speed-dating” style event with live music and libations or send out a survey asking for feedback on your services, there are plenty of ways to start a dialogue with customers to help shape your business model and sustain important client relationships.
If you are looking to improve your customer experience while building relationships, this is the perfect opportunity to do so. Read on for the tips you need to make the most of Get to Know Your Customers Day.
5 ways your small business can celebrate
You engage with your customers all the time, whether it’s at your restaurant, boutique, or job site. For Get to Know Your Customers Day, build off of those interactions with these five unique ideas.
#1 Start a conversation on your social media channel
Many of your loyal customers can be found on any social media platform, so why not put this powerful digital tool to good use? Social media is an effective way to engage with existing customers while also finding new clients in the process.
Studies show that 57% of consumers will follow along with a brand’s social channel in order to gain new information about their products or services. For Get to Know Your Customers Day, turn the tables and use your platform to learn more about them. This not only helps with customer engagement but will also allow you to foster long-lasting customer relationships as well.
Tap into a wide variety of feedback tools
As the business owner, it’s important that you find out what your audience likes and doesn’t like so that you can tailor your business plan accordingly and improve the customer experience as a whole.
With social media, it’s easy to get feedback from your followers in a number of engaging ways. Open up the comments section for consumers to sound off about their favorite products or services, make use of interactive features that lets users share their opinions with a simple tap of a button, or host a Q & A live stream video that allows customers to get answers to their questions in real-time.
Here are a few sample questions you could incorporate into your posts to boost customer engagement:
Real estate agents can find out more about their audience by asking questions like:
- Are you currently looking to buy or sell a home?
- Do you prefer to learn more about available properties on social media or via a website?
- What is most important to you when searching for a home to purchase?
NOTE: You can also connect with neighbors and ask similar questions by becoming a Neighborhood Sponsor on Nextdoor.
Retailers can use a social media poll and swap out the possible answers of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ with ‘this’ or ‘that’ to gauge interest in the latest trends.
- Clothing boutiques can share two outfits side by side to find out what aesthetic the audience leans towards.
- Furniture stores can post juxtaposed pictures of a couple of home accent pieces to find out which one their followers would be more likely to buy for their own home.
Say Thanks
Work with your more design-oriented team members to create a thank you tribute for your social media page. As HubSpot discovered, a little sincerity goes a long way to getting to know customers.
During their spring customer appreciation celebration, HubSpot posted a video on Twitter of their employees sharing their favorite customer memories and why their customers mean so much to them. They asked customers to share their favorite stories of the company as well, topped off with the hashtag #CustomerLove.
The video did a beautiful job of engaging customers and showing gratitude.
Not only are these social media features a creative way of learning more about consumer tastes, preferences, and motivations but they’re also a clever way of boosting your account’s overall engagement rate (one of the ways that algorithms determine the visibility of your content in your followers’ feeds).
#2 Ask for feedback and sweeten the deal
Who doesn’t love a freebie? Asking for feedback can sometimes feel a bit cumbersome, but if you incentivize participation in a survey with a hard-to-resist giveaway item, you might find you’ll get more of a response.
Reach out to customers via email and send along a link to a survey that includes a number of carefully considered questions. In exchange for their time, find a way to reward them with a free gift. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- For restaurants: Present survey participants with a coupon for a free appetizer or drink. This will not only motivate them to complete each question but will also drive more traffic to your eatery.
- For beauty salons: Customers who complete the online survey could earn a free wax or manicure for themselves and a friend.
- For hardware stores: Participants who submit a survey will be entered to win a grand prize such as a power tool kit, outdoor patio furniture, or a store gift card that can be used for things like building materials, paint, or landscaping supplies.
#3 Set up an in-store feedback box
If you know you tend to get more foot traffic than online traffic, take advantage of Get to Know Your Customers Day by setting up a box for feedback in your brick-and-mortar establishment. Print out a stack of comment cards and display them at the front door for guests to fill out as they come in or just before they leave. Be sure to include a mix of questions, some that can be answered using a simple 1-5 rating system and others that allow survey participants to elaborate with more detailed comments.
Feel free to let your business' and your customers’ personalities show with a few creative, fun-filled questions:
- For bookstores: If you could have coffee with any character from a book, who would it be and why?
- For salons: What’s the most adventurous color you’ve ever dyed your hair? Did you have any regrets?
- For interior designers: What was your dream home as a child and how has it changed since then?
Incorporate the giveaway idea into your in-store survey, too. Customers who submit a comment card into the feedback box will be entered into a drawing to win free goods and services from your business. Or collaborate with a few local businesses to raffle off a giveaway bundle.
#4 Create an opportunity to mingle
There’s so much to learn about your customers’ interests and values from simple conversations. For Get to Know Your Customers Day, host an event that allows those conversations to happen organically. Turn your coffee shop, restaurant, or real estate open house into an event space where your customers can come to chat with each other, learn more about your business, and enjoy a few refreshments.
For example, The Perry Group Real Estate Company hosts a customer appreciation barbecue in October that’s perfect for getting to know their clients and their families:
“We give our clients TPG t-shirts, serve the best BBQ in all of North Carolina (Ole Time BBQ), and send everyone out to the cornfields to have a wonderful time with their family. As they leave the event, we love to provide each family with a mini apple, pecan or pumpkin pie from award-winning Slice Pie Company (also owned by a TPG client, Kristen Cleve!)”
Bonus? The team at The Perry Group’s barbecue creates an opportunity to learn more about their clients and for their clients to get to know local businesses by partnering with Slice Pie Company.
Can’t get together in person? Opt for an online event instead. Spice up a classic Zoom meeting by hosting a virtual coffee date. Send the attendees a gift card to a local coffee shop ahead of time and meet up to exchange ideas, updates, and play a few fun games over a cup of joe. Send out an open invitation by posting the details of the day to your Business Page and leave the comments section open for guests to ask questions that they’d like to have answered at the event.
#5 Hold a special appreciation sale
There’s nothing that says “we appreciate you” quite like discounted services or bargain-priced goods. For Get to Know Your Customers Day, plan a festive sale that not only entices community members with prices that are too good to pass up but also gives you the opportunity to learn more about them.
The Fall Customer Appreciation Day hosted by Madison Earth Care, a landscaping and garden center based in Madison, Connecticut, is a real-world example that plenty of small businesses can learn from. Not only are they selling discounted bulbs and pumpkins but they’ve also teamed up with local businesses, authors, and artists for an event that sends positive ripple effects in all directions.
Why It’s Important to Get to Know Your Customers
In addition to figuring out how to get to know your customers, as a small business owner it’s just as important to understand why. Getting to know your customers’ interests and buying behaviors is useful when structuring your next marketing campaign but there’s more to a successful customer-business relationship than that.
Especially for Get to Know Your Customers Day, consider shifting your motivation for celebrating and for how you run your day-to-day operations from transactional (motivated by the sale) to relational (motivated by what occurs after the sale is made). When it comes to relationship marketing, the first purchase is really just the start of what could be a long-term business relationship. The key to fostering that relationship? Tapping into your customers’ emotions—and maybe your own, too.
Consider this: Research shows that consumers who had developed an emotional connection with a brand recommended the company 71% of the time and had a 306% higher lifetime value.
Building a positive emotional relationship with a consumer does more than just maintain that one bond. It lays the foundation for a network of several consumer-brand relationships to be fostered over time.
Getting to know your customers means:
- Being a company they can trust: Building trust can happen in a number of ways but it often starts with the basics such as being respectful of your customers’ time. Respond to inquiries via email or phone in a timely manner, for example, or be consistent about showing up to meetings on time. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to show your customers that you value them, their time, and their choice to do business with you.
- Being authentic: As you take the time to get to know your customers, make it a two-way conversation by sharing more about who you are and what you stand for, too. Any business looking for a lesson in authenticity can turn to the example of Patagonia, the popular outdoor gear and clothing retailer. They remain committed to being an environmentally conscious brand by incorporating things like this into their business model:
- Encouraging the purchase of used versus new clothing on their Worn Wear shop.
- Using recycled materials in the manufacturing process whenever possible.
- Offering mending services for damaged clothing or gear and even directing their customers to DIY care guides on their website to prolong the lifespan of their purchases.
Patagonia has earned quite a name for itself already, but small businesses can follow suit by showing authenticity in their own way. Get meaningfully involved in the community, partner with micro-influencers who can advocate for your brand, and be upfront about milestones and setbacks as your business grows.
Get to know your customers with Nextdoor
If you’re searching for more ways to spice up your plans for Get to Know Your Customers Day, start by claiming a free Business Page with Nextdoor. This way, you’ll be able to tap into a hyperlocal community of other business owners and consumers right in your own backyard.
Use it as a place where you can virtually shake hands with neighbors for the first time and build your relationship from there. Share your expertise, values, and exciting updates and invite neighbors to leave a thoughtful recommendation.
Another avenue to foster relationships within your community starts right here.
Sources:
CM.com 5 Examples of Relationship Marketing Done Right.
https://www.cm.com/en-us/blog/relationship-marketing-examples-done-right/
Entrepreneur. 5 Relationship-Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses to Use to Increase ROI. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/333498
Sprout Social. 36 Essential social media marketing statistics to know for 2021. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-statistics/
National Calendar Day. Get to Know Your Customers Day. https://nationaldaycalendar.com/get-to-know-your-customers-day-third-thursday-of-each-quarter/
Claim your free Business Page to get started on Nextdoor. For resources on how to use Nextdoor to stay connected with your local customers, pertinent news affecting businesses, and more, follow us at @nextdoorbusiness on Facebook.
