What if your customers recommended your business to their friends and colleagues? Do your customers know how much you appreciate their business? What if you could do all this without spending a fortune?

To establish goodwill and rapport with your customer, you should start to thank your customer and show them your appreciation. This is important for service businesses. Thus, service businesses must focus on quality of execution and customer service to achieve brand differentiation.

Here are some of the suggestions. These techniques can be implemented either free or with a minimal investment.

Technique 1

Send your customers a thank you e-mail. As soon as the first part of a transaction is complete (an order is submitted, a contract is signed, etc), send an email to thank the customer and to confirm that you have started the fulfillment process.

Don't just simply stop here. You should also send e-mail when you ship the product, if the order involves physical goods. If your business provides a service, keep the customer updated on your development towards reaching the agreed-upon goal. The completion of a service module or milestone could be a good time for a status update. Use these communication opportunities to thank your customers.

Technique 2

You need to show your appreciation to the customer. Thanking the customers doesn't stop once the transaction is complete and an order is received. There could be doubts from your customers about the products or services you offered. The quality of post-sale customer service is going to make a crucial difference between a customer coming back to you or choosing your competitor in the future. Provide exceptional customer service now to get repeat business later.

Technique 3

Thank your customers by sending Thanksgiving cards. This is a highly unconventional approach, but it is effective. By sending out Thanksgiving cards you will differentiate your business from your competitors and use this as an additional opportunity to thank your customers.

Successful business owners should always invest time and effort into thanking their customers. This could pay off ten-fold through repeat business and word-of-mouth advertising.