Being Thankful

I buy a lot of stuff online, and am thus in a lot of email streams. I don’t open all of them, but I do read a lot, and I am struck by how few companies actually thank customers for their business.

Why thank customers? Well, because they pay your salary, and those of all your friends and coworkers. Because when people buy things from you, they place an implicit trust in you to deliver what you promise. We as marketers should thank people for that trust.

The only time I get thanked, it seems, is by recorded messages that also tell me that my call is very important to them, when it clearly isn’t. There is a difference between a throwaway thank you and a sincere one, and consumers can smell that difference a mile away.

I like it when United pilots tell me that they realize that I have a choice in airlines, and that they thank me for flying United. I remember an email I was sent when they were at death’s door after 9/11, which was signed by everyone at United thanking me for my loyalty.

Yes, I know they sent out a billion of them. I harbor no illusions that it was individually typed. I wouldn’t want them to. I just want companies to recognize that purchases are an act of faith that needs to be acknowledged.

It amazes me how many of my past clients spent 90% of their effort on customer acquisition, thinking of retention as something they’d worry about later, or that isn’t necessary. The worst manifestation is when new customers get a huge discount while the schmucks that have been loyal through 37 purchases have to pay full price. Many companies call a discount offered to a loyal buyer “subsidizing your users” and scoff at the stupidity of it.

I’d like to gently point out that the subsidizing of their relationship is the other way around. Their loyal buyers are subsidizing THEM despite their callous disregard.

But this post isn’t about discounts or frequent buyer clubs or whatnot. This is about expressing thanks occasionally.

I’d have liked it if maker of the dog food I buy had thanked me for retrusting them when it returned to the shelf. They didn’t, by the way, and that still chaps my ass given that I am literally placing the life of the cutest pup in the World in their hands.



I’d have liked it if the American Red Cross had sent a thank you for my tsunami online donation slightly faster than eight months after the credit card got charged. I know that they had lots to do at the time, but a thank you sent eight months late is more disdain than gratitude.

Life can often seem a thankless business. Don’t make it one for your customers. You can thank them easily and simply with digital, and you don’t even have to use some elaborate 2.0 platform. A nice SINCERE email will do it.

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to write.