So, you’ve got your business off the ground. You’ve done the paperwork, got the documentation and you’re ready to go for new customers. Website, marketing, vehicle, you’re ready to go. You do the work, the customer gets what they needed and they pay the invoice. A good outcome and a good start. What more needs to be done on top of all the other stuff you’ve already got to think about?
Well, a lot actually! But don't be alarmed!
When it comes to growing your business, you’re not just building a customer base, you’re building a trusted name in the community. It would be great if the work could speak for itself and you’d keep building your business from that, unfortunately you and your customers need to speak for it. Marketing does the work in getting your name out there, but with so many competitors, how can you make your business stand out?
Our friends over at Lifestyle Tradie have a great article about the importance of customer relationships and how to build positive ones as your business gets going. They cover the basics of what businesses can do to establish a reputation and how your business can shine through with a great customer experience.
In this article we’ll cover an aspect of customer experience that is often overlooked; a thank you message for customers.
Four Reasons Why You Should Send A Thank You Message
A thank you message for customers is a great, cost-effective way to improve customer experience with your business. Anything that can build a loyal customer base is something worth trying, especially if it makes your business stand out among competitors.
Like Lifestyle Tradie covers in the article we linked above, maximising customer experience will shift your reputation higher as a business that connects with customers and cares about their needs.
Let’s look at four reasons why a thank you message for customers is something your business should consider.
1. Customer Retention
We’ll start with the big reason why sending a thank you message is a good idea.
You’re probably already aware that customer retention is great for your bottom line. Repeat customers mean you don’t need to put any time or money into getting a lead, you probably have all the relevant details about them on file which makes planning a visit easier for everyone and you’re (usually) sure they’re good for the invoice. Repeat customers are also more likely to pay more on average than new ones, as they know your business does good work and trust you for bigger jobs.
A thank you message to your customers is an easy way to increase the chances of customer retention and leads us to the next point.
2. Customer Communication
A thank you message for customers can let them know that you are open to future communication for whatever they might need.
For some reason, some people really can’t stand making phone calls and annoying spam calls have stopped some from picking up the phone altogether when an unknown number rings. Calling is still the quickest way to get in contact with a lot of customers, but unfortunately doesn’t work with all of them.
With a thank you message for customers, you can show a call-avoidant person that you can also be reached easily by email or text and that there’s multiple ways they can reach your business. It also opens up the idea that your business might send more messages in the future with special offers or new services. You become a service provider they can contact if they have any issues and put names to the business.
This leads us to another good reason why having a thank you message for customers ready to go is great for your business growth.
3. Customer Loyalty
Customer retention and customer loyalty might sound pretty much the same. It does overlap, but there’s a difference.
That difference is the customer being happy with the work vs being happy with your business.
This is a basic comparison, but it’s like getting a coffee. Some people just go somewhere convenient because they’re busy and don’t have the benefit of picking and choosing. They need coffee that’s drinkable and that’s that.
Others go somewhere because it offers all the milk they could dream of and they can’t get rice milk anywhere else. (That’s also a thing now.) But the places that stay steady and always have customers? Those are the ones that remember names, remember orders. Put a little bikkie on top of the cup and thank you for coming. We’ve all done it, gone out of our way to go somewhere because we like the owners and/or the staff.
Like is the key word. Two Maccas will sell the exact same coffee, but we like one more because the service is better.
If you remember a customer and a customer knows you remember them, it’s easier to foster a friendly relationship and their loyalty to you and your business. If another company comes around trying to undercut your prices or offering an alternative, a loyal customer is more likely to reject them. It’s not just your work that they’re happy with, it’s you as well. They want to support you and your business, even if it means turning down an offer that might seem better at first, because they’re happy with you.
A thank you message for customers is a great way to give them a sense of appreciation and to kickstart a relationship that could become a foundational part of your business.
Which leads us to the next benefit of customer loyalty and appreciation.
4. Word-of-Mouth
One of the best leads is a lead you didn’t need to pay for. Word-of-mouth from loyal customers to their friends and family can become a great source of potential future work.
Digital word-of-mouth now means that opinions that reach possible future customers can come from any of your previous clients, so the impression you leave on them becomes more valuable than ever. There’s always going to be a customer or three who are never satisfied and want to complain no matter what you do, but everyone has met these kinds of people before. A few bad Google reviews won’t matter if the rest of your customers are happy, and positive reviews drive traffic and interest to your business.
AroFlo has a great digital word-of-mouth article covering reviews in more detail and how even negative reviews can become a way to improve customer experience. It’s good to have many angles when it comes to communication and shows you’re proactive about customer service.
How To Write a Good Thank You Message For Your Customers
So, you’ve seen some of the benefits and are probably thinking that having a thank you message for customers is a good idea. There are plenty of examples out there (including a few hand written examples we’ve provided for you further down on this page,) but you’re in the trade business. It goes without saying that you like learning how to do things yourself. We can help with that.
You don’t need to be a writer to make a personalised thank you message for customers. If anything, it’s better to be straightforward so the customer knows you’re coming from a genuine place. Unless you’re a florist, you don’t need to be flowery with your messages.
There’s still work in writing a good thank you message for customers, so we’ve put together a list of the things you’ll need to consider when making them.
How you’re sending it
The first thing to think about is how you’re going to send the message; text, letter or email.
Most likely an email will be the easiest and best way. When you send a thank you message for customers via email, they’ll be able to search your name in their inbox should they require your services again and be reminded of your appreciation.
It’s up to you how you send it, and there might be situations where a simple text or posted letter will fit the client you want to thank.
How you’re sending it
The first thing to think about is how you’re going to send the message; text, letter or email.
Most likely an email will be the easiest and best way. When you send a thank you message for customers via email, they’ll be able to search your name in their inbox should they require your services again and be reminded of your appreciation.
It’s up to you how you send it, and there might be situations where a simple text or posted letter will fit the client you want to thank.
Tone and Format
Next, talking about the basics.
Tone-wise, for tradie businesses, you’d want a nice balance between friendly and professional in your thank you message for customers. Stuffy and corporate is frustrating to read and write; no one really likes writing like that unless you have to.
You can do this by using greetings like ‘Hey’ or ‘Hi’ and the name the customer felt comfortable with you using. Most people will be happy with a first name, but if someone insists on Mr/Mrs/Miss, better to be safe and use that. You can include your own name in the message to give the message a friendly feel and so they have someone to refer to if they get in touch in the future.
Some example phrases for a thank you message for customers could be: ‘We appreciate your business today’ or ‘thank you for choosing our team’.
Format is straightforward: stick to the basic rules of grammar and you’re golden.
We’ll have more about examples of format and tone in your thank you messages for customers later in the article.
What you want to thank them for
It might seem obvious, but it is good to consider if you want to be specific or general in a thank you message for customers.
Do you want to go with a more general thank you message for customers? With a simpler message, your business can set up a template and put in the details of the customer. This saves time and means you can send the message off sooner, but for repeat customers you might want to have different templates.
On the other hand, do you want to make more personalised messages with details about the job? These can be effective but are much more time-consuming.
Again, it’s up to you what you want in your messages. If it depends on the customer or you want to make a standard template.
Keep it to the point
We’re all receiving dozens of emails a day. If you’re running a business, it could be hundreds. Depending on your customer, they could have the same situation and want to be able to get through emails quickly.
This isn’t it to discourage sending a thank you message to customers, even customers that could have lots of emails coming through each day. It will still remind them of you and that you’ve solved whatever problems they had, which might lead to some of the benefits discussed above.
Just do what this paragraph should do: get to the point. Add detail if necessary but keep the message about the job and your appreciation of their business. That way it stays a pleasant thank you message for customers and leaves them with a positive impression of your business.
Encourage feedback
As covered above under word-of-mouth, feedback can be a win-win for both your business and the customer. You can end your message with an invitation to leave a review on your business page and keep communication open if a customer has any problems or concerns. Sometimes things just go wrong, people make mistakes. Customers that trust you to do good work and fix any problems are customers that will come back.
It’s easier for them to have a business they trust and can get in easy contact with, and great for your business to have a repeat customer.
Examples of a Thank You Message for Customers
Taking what we’ve covered so far, here’s a few examples we came up with of a thank you message for customers. You’re free to use any of them as your own templates by copying them individually or by downloading them all at once using the downloadable section at the beginning of this article.
New Customer Templates:
Template 1:
Hey [Customer Name],
It’s [Your Name] from [Business Name] here. We’re just reaching out to thank you for choosing our small business for your recent job. We’re a local team and it’s thanks to locals like you that support us that keep us going.
If you want to support us even more, we have a review page on google [page link] and hope our work’s earned plenty of stars.
If there’s anything you’re concerned with or have questions about, you can shoot us an email or give us a call at [Business Number].
Thanks again from [Business Name],
[Your Name]
Template 2:
Hi [Customer Name],
Thanks for picking [Business Name] for your recent work. We appreciate it and hope our team has covered everything you needed.
If there’s anything we’ve missed or you have any questions, you can email us or call [Business Number] and we’ll sort it out for you.
We hope to hear from you again!
Thanks,
[Business Name]
Returning Customer Templates:
Template 1:
Hey [Customer Name],
It’s [Your Name] from [Business Name]. Thank you for choosing our business again for your work, we’re happy that you’ve come back to support us and hope that we can help you with whatever you need in the future.
As always, if there’s any issues or questions for us, send us an email any time or call us at [Business Number] and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
Thanks again for your support,
[Your Name] from [Business Name]
Template 2:
Hi [Customer Name],
Thanks for coming back to [Business Name], we appreciate your support of our small business. We’re glad to have return customers like you and hope we’ve done a great job.
If you haven’t already, we’d love it if you could leave us a review on our [Business Page].
Thanks for trusting us with your job and if there’s any questions or problems just let us know on [Business Number] or send an email and the team will get back to you.
Thank you,
[Your Name] from [Business Name]
Now It's Time To Create Lasting Impressions
We hope this guide has got you covered with all the reasons why a thank you message for customers is a good idea and how to get your own message out there. Customer appreciation is just a small part of making your business shine but can have effects that last many years as you grow in your community.
You want to do what you can to leave a positive impression on a customer, even after the job is done. A lasting impression that can give you a steady backbone of loyal customers that forms the foundation of your growing business.
Of course, email is fine for when you’re not in the field, but what about face-to-face customer service? For more info on that, AroFlo has a guide here to cover all the bases about field service customer experience for tradies and how you can develop an amazing customer service experience in your own business.
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