The Power Of 'Thank You'
For the last year or so, I’ve been noodling about different ideas for creative in relationship marketing. I included customer service in this realm, too. So much of what I see and hear in both areas is blatantly self-serving, artificial and sometimes just flat out nonsense. How is it supposed to work?
Then, last month, I got an interesting perspective on a speaking tour. All while hopping on one foot because I’d broken the other one.
Everywhere I went, people stopped to talk about this column. They asked about the foot, and then sent e-mails with "get well soon" notes.
You are great friends! You, the readers of Target Marketing magazine. Over the years, you’ve responded overwhelmingly every time I’ve asked you to.
So, I want to thank you very much! Those words—"thank you very much"—are magical, aren’t they?
When you remember to thank someone, wondrous things can happen—such as what happened with me the other day in California.
Mike McCormick, Mason & Geller’s creative director, and I were driving from the L.A. Convention Center to Woodland Hills for a training session, and I was in danger of death by starvation. (That means lunch was 15 minutes late.)
Michael stopped at a Denny’s Restaurant. We had 20 minutes to eat and be on time for the session.
We got our table and when Tim, our waiter, brought the food, he asked where I was from. We chatted, and I thanked him for the quick service. He asked for my business card. In the car, I called Denny’s customer service number to tell the company about its great waiter. It was closed.
When I returned to New York, there was a handwritten thank-you note from Tim Talent, the Denny’s waiter in Woodland Hills. I called Tim to ask why he’d written the note, and he said, "Because I want people to know they’re not just a dollar amount to me. I’ve written to many folks from London and Italy, and they come back and visit."
Denny’s should thank its lucky stars it has an employee like Tim. Guess where we’ll have lunch next time we’re out on Topanga Canyon Boulevard? Tim, a waiter in a huge chain, is undertaking his own customer relationship campaign and doing a great job.
So why are thank-you notes magical?
Well, for one thing, we don’t get many of them, and the ones we get are usually pretty bland. Some are even templated. The best Thank-you notes are the ones you never expect, like Tim’s note.
They’re not a waste of time and money, because they work. People remember the thank-you notes, remember the person who sent them, and remember the person’s company, too.
So it occurred to me that Tim had given me two great lessons:
1. Just send thank-you notes.
2. Send them from a real person at your company. Don’t send them from a company, as in "All of us at Joe’s widgets want to thank you for your business."
How do you write a great thank-you note? Here are some ideas to consider:
Thank you so much for meeting with me yesterday. It was very interesting to learn about your agency and to hear about your objectives.
How about this instead:
Visiting with you yesterday was a real treat. Mike’s a character, and your whole staff is so enthusiastic. What a great idea to have the meeting out on your wood deck. Imagine, a wood deck on Madison Avenue!
When Dwain talked about your Ford direct marketing program, I realized it was very close to what we’re doing!
After I left you, I decided to forget about going back to the office. I walked up Madison Avenue to a Starbuck’s and between the latte and biscotti, thought about the new business idea we discussed.
After our meeting I visited Knowledge Base's web site and found that it’s located near my home. So, I’m going to follow-up. Thank you for your idea, which was A GREAT ONE.
I’m sitting at my desk looking at the beautiful bouquet you sent me. It came in a lovely basket, and now my whole office looks like spring. I’m going to bring it home for the dining room table. Thank you.
Copyright 2005 Mason & Geller Direct Marketing, LLC., All rights reserved.
