It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do for a living, everyone likes to feel appreciated for either who they are or something they have done.
“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” ~ Oscar Wilde
Let’s take a second to investigate and think about the above quote. How often do you have good intentions in mind for someone yet fail to follow through with those intentions? Probably more often than not for myself and many other folks. But have you ever noticed how something so small and simple as a “thank you” can make a positive difference in the way you interact with people?
Not only is saying thank you a decent and mannerly practice to take part in regularly, but in terms of business it can be an extremely cost-effective measure to strengthen the relationship between your employees, your clients, and customer base. It is easy to express your thanks in many different ways, so why wouldn’t you want to? What do you have to lose?
Three Benefits of “Thank You”
Do you ever notice how often you actually say “thank you” on a daily basis? Whether it be to the checkout girl at the store for bagging your groceries, someone on Twitter for retweeting your tweet, or even your spouse for making dinner, do you actually mean it when you express thanks or gratitude? Here are three huge benefits that Incept experiences by simply saying “thank you” in different ways to our employees and clients.
- Appreciation can easily increase employee loyalty and work place camaraderie.
I will never forget when I had a phone call with a gentleman in Chicago about donating blood at his local donor center. I must have suggested at least five to six different blood drives that would fit his scheduling needs, yet he was still on the fence about committing to a drive to donate. This was the type of phone call that tested my abilities as a Conversational Marketing Expert™ (CME). Long story short: I ended up getting the gentleman to commit to a date and donate, but after the phone call my boss, Steve Kieffer, came up to me after listening in on it to thank me for doing such an excellent job with the situation. I’ll never forget because he pointed out the positives and was professionally personable. He even rewarded me with an extra break. That was a little gesture that reinforced the fact that I work for a great company and have great bosses who care about my work. That was almost a year and a half ago.
- Saying “thank you” (and meaning it) can increase customer or donor loyalty.
When people feel appreciated for something they have done, they are more likely to do that same action again. When it comes to Incept and recruiting blood donors, we make sure the donor knows they and their actions are deeply valued and appreciated. We do this in the form of a thank-you call in which we thank the donor for their recent donation and ask them to complete a simple, one-question survey regarding their experience. When I’ve made thank-you calls to donors, there have been times where you can hear in their voices the gratitude they’re feeling that you called and recognized them. This increases the probability that they will donate again.
- “Thank you” is an easy way to strengthen the relationship overall with your customers or donors.
Saying “thank you” doesn’t cost a thing, yet the benefits in actually strengthening the relationshipbetween yourself and whomever you are talking to are vast. I say this even knowing that while I pride myself on being a fairly decent performer when surfing the phone lines, I don’t get an appointment on every call. Sometimes people can’t donate due to physical reasons, extremely unorthodox schedules and many other contributing factors. I don’t let the fact that I won’t close out the call with an appointment stop me from providing good customer service and relations, though. I still make it a point to thank them for donating in the past and taking my call. Why, though? Because no matter if you get the close for an appointment or not, we do everything we can to strengthen the relationship with the donor on our client’s behalf. Saying “thank you” is an easy way to leave a favorable impression on them for when we call back.
Do you have someone in your life you should say thank you to? It really is amazing to see (or in my case, hear) people’s reactions when you say those two, simple words and genuinely mean it.What are some other ways you can say “thank you”?