1. Pleasantly surprise you customers. For example a restaurant might offer a free, bite-size taste of their best dessert.
2. Give customers a bonus or something free on their birthday.
3. Put your employees in a uniform.
4. Let the customer play a fun game for prizes, discounts, or just for the heck of it.
5. Follow up the customer’s visit with a hand-written thank-you note.
6. Add the personal touch. Learn each customers name and have every employee speak to customers by name.
7. Wrap the customer experience in a theme.
8. Give them something complimentary: cookies, coffee, soda, water, wine (at a boutique business).
9. If you’re the owner, talk to customers. Offer to take one to breakfast or lunch to get their opinions and advice.
10. Call a customer up for no reason at all.
11. Change the furnishings – especially important if your customers return frequently. You can do things like add plants. I know of a medical clinic that used a plant service and changed the plants out every season.
12. Let customers offer in-store product reviews while they’re in your store.
13. Have special theme days. Let your employees dress to the occasion. Holidays, big sporting events, off-the-wall national recognition days, big local events.
14. Give customers a comfortable place to sit and relax. Let them take a load off while they consider what they will purchase.
15. Forbid mobile phone use by employees in front of customers.
16. Have special one-time events. For example, hire a local choir to sing Christmas carols or have a band play John Philip Souza on Independence Day.
17. Treat the kids to something special like balloons or stickers.
18. Educate your customers – tell them the story behind the product, the science behind the technology, the details of production.
19. Have at least one special non-sales signature event each year, such as this car dealer’s pancake breakfast on Christmas Eve.
20. Have an art display with creations from a local elementary school.
21. Greet customers when they walk in the door. Wait on your customers, immediately. Look at them when you talk to them.
22. Don’t just clean your bathrooms, theme your bathrooms. SolutionPeople has a John Travolta Disco bathroom.
23. Put nametags on your employees and give them fun, playful titles.
24. Take digital photos of products your customers consider while they’re in your store, email them to the customer that evening.
25. Do you provide professional services? Give you your customers audio CD’s explaining how they can do some things on their own. A local chiropractor provides a “better posture” CD to patients.
26. Add a personal video greeting to your website.
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