Don’t take it from me…

“There is a big difference between a satisfied customer and a loyal customer.” — Shep Hyken

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” — Jeff Bezos

“The customer’s perception is your reality.” — Kate Zabriskie

A great, low pressure way to try your hand at event planning and to change up your networking strategy is a customer appreciation event. Avoid the pressure of building and fostering connections and simply focus on celebrating and appreciating your customers. After all, your business would not be anywhere without them!

As the host of your own event, you are in charge of the guest list, flow and feel of the event, budget, and, of course, the logistics (time, place, etc.).

BONUS: It’s a win-win! Building loyalty with your current customers is always a good idea. After all, they’re already there! Hosting and sponsoring an event, sets you up as a business leader in the community and gives your business a huge boost in exposure.

Let’s make your first customer appreciation event a success!

1. 1. Keep it simple. For you and your guests, using a pre-registration tool like Eventbrite, makes registration and guest tracking easy. Pre-registration boosts the attendees commitment and makes it easier for you to estimate and track attendance. Check out Eventbrite options, including email reminders and calendar invites.
   2. Have a team behind you. You can’t manage everyone and everything yourself! Have a few employees who are great connectors and business leaders ready to help manage the crowd, promote your business, and foster loyalty. These people will be on the lookout for stragglers and help to get them involved in the conversation.
   3. Give away prizes. Nothing makes a person feel more appreciated than to get a gift, no strings attached. Each person attending the event should get a goodie bag so that every single person leaves with merchandise, product information, and coupons or special discount information in hand. Put together 2-3 larger prizes to give away through a drawing throughout the night. Keep the anticipation building!
   4. Follow up. Be sure to collect email address with your registrations so that after the event you can reach out to all attendees and add them to your master marketing list. This is a great one-on-one opportunity to find out more about your customers’ needs and to personally meet them.

Ready to take the next step in building your customer loyalty program? Give us a call at Piccolo Marketing at 615-348-7768 to get started planning your big event!