Goal Setting During EnergySwing’s barbecue, Darragh reports, “One guy came up to me and said, ‘I’m finished with my ribs. Let’s talk turkey. I have work I want done.’” That, however, is not the way most people respond to a customer appreciation event. You have to decide from the outset whether you want the event to create immediate business or just good will you can tap into later on.
If it’s leads you want, make sure you prepare your salespeople on how to approach customers. Write a script. And be realistic about how many sales you can expect to make. Customer appreciation events are a more nuanced approach to generating business than direct mail or television advertising. You won’t be able to measure results as precisely.
Swimme and Son, in Elizabeth, N.C., can’t pin specific contracts to the picnic the company throws for past customers every August. But there’s a demonstrable up-tick in repeat business. For January through July 2004, sales to past customers were 22% of volume, co-owner Theresa Swimme reports. Sales to past customers accounted for 32% of August business, and 42% of business in September.
Results don’t necessarily have to be as easily measured, or obvious, as that. The Millers, for instance, have thought about what they expect from their annual picnic. “We’ve talked about having goals,” Ann Peterson Miller says. “We could have sponsors with booths related to what we do. But that would change the tone of it. We decided to just make this fun. But we do plant a seed in people’s minds. They’ve had a good experience with our company, and we want them to share that with others.”
Ferro agrees. “Our marketing philosophy centers around the customer experience and leveraging customers. We’re marketing to our existing customer base. We want our siding and roofing customers to go into kitchen and bath with us,” he says. To achieve that, “you’ve got to have a relationship.”
The Right Target There are lots of ways to figure out whom you invite. You can, for instance, ask every past customer. You can invite only those you’ve done business with in the past 10 years. You can invite those who’ve done a certain specified amount of business with you. Or you can make it an open house and invite the whole buying public.
EnergySwing combined an open house in the morning with its barbecue in the afternoon. A few people drove more than an hour to come, Darragh says.
Some contractors invite customers to bring friends; others want to focus on the people they already know. “We encourage bringing friends along,” says Seth Selesnow, marketing manager at Alure. “A lot of people come to see the type of company we are.”
While ABC Seamless of Northeast Ohio hasn’t encouraged customers to bring friends, some ask if they may do so. That’s fine with the Millers.