6 Unique and Creative Ideas for ‘Get to Know Your Customers Day’
Last update: 27 July 2023 at 10:07 am
5.00/5Customers are the backbone of any business. For your business to be profitable, it’s vital that you know who your target market is, what their preferences are, and match your products to their needs. Regular trend analysis and communication go a long way to knowing your target market, but one of the best tools you can use to learn about your customers is to observe Get To Know Your Customers Day.
There are four days each year on which business owners and employees should get to know their customers. These days fall on the third Thursday in January, April, July, and October. Each Get To Know Your Customer Day is a dedicated opportunity to connect with your customer base, build relationships, and hopefully secure their continued loyalty.
If you’ve never incorporated a Get To Know Your Customer Day into your retention plan, it’s not too late to start. Here are some ideas for getting the most value out of this day of customer celebration.
Reintroduce Your Business to Your Customers
A subtle reminder about what you do or what you sell can make a huge difference. Reaching out benefits customers who haven’t supported your business recently, and those who have purchased your goods or services only on one occasion.
Reopening these channels of communication will stand your business in good stead for future loyalty.
Get To Know Your Customers Day is the ideal time to connect with your customers. Use a series of emails with help from an email marketing agency in the UK or elsewhere as teasers leading up to this day in January, April, July, and October.
Creative text ideas are more effective in grabbing attention than bland informative emails. Remind them to add the Get To Know Your Customers Day dates to their calendar, and let them know how much you value their business.
Ask For Feedback
Get To Know Your Customer Day is the perfect chance to ask for your customers’ thoughts and ideas. You can do this in the form of an online questionnaire or survey, or individual emails requesting honest feedback on a variety of topics.
The internet has some useful programs you can use to draw up a questionnaire or survey, but make sure you ask open questions that require more than a yes or no answer.
The more information you can get from your customers, the more value this exercise has for your small business.
Your questionnaire should aim to determine your patrons’ shopping habits. Finding out if there are specific days on which they shop or preferred times of day can help you in targeting the right audience for a store promotion or event.
Ask for feedback on things like customer service and their overall customer experience. It’s important to know how your customer feels when in your store, using your product, or interacting with your employees.
You might prefer to survey your patrons when they visit your business on any Get To Know Your Customers Day. Provide your employees with a brief outlining the information you’d like to get. They can frame the questions themselves based on their interactions with each customer on the day.
Build Your Customer Profiles
Making the effort to get to know your customers definitely adds value to your business, but won’t mean much if you don’t keep records. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to maintain an accurate record for everyone who interacts with your small business, so focus first on your regular patrons.
When they visit your business, use these opportunities to find out about them. Make a note of their:
- name
- birthday or those of their family members
- hobbies
- special interests
- what they buy, particularly if there are repeat purchases
- other relevant information that may have come up in your conversations
What your customers buy will help you to learn more about them and their shopping habits.
Ask each customer to complete a form with information like their name, email address, and date of birth and also ask them to opt into receiving a company newsletter that will keep them up-to-date on new products, promotions, or job opportunities. You’ll find that showing an interest in your customers builds loyalty and strengthens your customer relationships.
On days like ‘Get to Know Your Customers Day’, you’ll also be able to send out personalised offers to all of your loyal customer base if you have a better understanding of what it is they wish to get out of your business.
Offer a Reward or Incentive
Everyone loves to get something for nothing and Get To Know Your Customers Day is the perfect chance to say thank you for their custom, or incentivise them to support your business.
Businesses that already have loyalty programs might offer double points on Get To Know Your Customers Day, or scratch off two blocks on loyalty cards instead of one but, if your business doesn’t have such a program, it doesn’t mean that you can’t implement something specifically for this holiday.
Think about what would make your customers feel special. It could be a discount voucher that you email them to be used on their next visit or with their next order or a free gift they receive when they enter or leave your store. Anything that adds value to their customer experience will keep your business at the forefront of their mind.
Create a Get To Know Your Customers Event
Organise an event to tie in with a Get To Know Your Customers Day in January, April, July, and October. You can use this to promote your products, brand name, or service, but first and foremost it’s about building customer relationships. If you have a main street location you can invite your patrons to just drop in, but if your business is more remote you may need to hire a venue.
Communicate details of the event through email and by advertising it on your website. Use in-house marketing channels to promote your event to your customers as a way to say thank you to them for the support they’ve given you and the part they’ve played in your success.
Regardless of the type of event that you arrange, make sure that you connect with your customers on a personal level and not just in terms of the business that they can give you.
Small, intimate events allow business owners to spend more quality time with customers, but larger-scale events can reach more customers.
The time of year can determine the type or theme of your event. You might organise a new year event for Get To Know Your Customers Day in January, where you serve champagne and canapes, and celebrate what the new year has in store. April could tie in with Easter, July could celebrate summer and October could be a run-up to Halloween.
All these themes can generate excitement among your customers and have great exposure potential for your website or social media.
Leverage Social Media
Take the opportunity of Get To Know Your Customers Day to push your social media channels to your customers. Get them to connect with you through likes, follows, and sharing your posts. You could link a competition to your social media pages that require people to like and share a particular post. Social media platforms are wonderful marketing tools.
Take advantage of interacting with your target market across these channels and use them to add value to your small business. Ask your followers for referrals so that you can build your customer base. They can name friends who may be interested or just tag them in a post. There are many ways to use social media to grow your clientele.
Companies with a regular social media presence have a better chance to build better customer relationships. Invite people to review your product and customer service on social media because when reviews are in the public domain, business owners are more inclined to pay attention and take measures to improve their services.
Record any events that you’ve arranged for Get To Know Your Customers Day, and publish a short write-up with photos of the event, and create a hashtag for the day and use it as much as you can. Tag your customers, and encourage them to interact with the post by commenting and sharing with friends using the Get To Know Your Customers Day hashtag.
Try it Out
Notwithstanding the usual, better-known holidays that have regular places on your calendar, there are many other special days in the year that need to be celebrated. On Get To Know Your Customers Day, we need to celebrate our customers and the value that they add to your business. You can go all out and arrange lavish events and free gifts, or you can keep it small and more intimate.
When Get To Know Your Customers Day comes around, at the very least, say thank you. Those two words, said from the heart, hold more meaning than any gift or event. It’s a simple sentence that costs nothing, and takes no time at all. It’s the very best way to convey to your customers just how much you value them.
