Hosting a “Customer Appreciation Night” is a fun and effective way to let your customers, friends, and family know that you are truly ready for business or you want to increase your business. The holiday are creeping up on us very quickly and now is the time to plan for that big boost that you can bring into your business for the year end! This is the perfect time to showcase all of your new applications and processes along with your new products and of course your high quality products and service.
Be creative in putting together your invitations and planning what specials you will have to offer. Encourage your guests to bring a friend with them. Make sure the invitations are of the same high quality workmanship as your embroidery. For the holidays you want to make sure you create a full holiday theme! Have your business totally decked out with holiday decorations and make it very festive! You also want to let your guests know that they will receive a free gift just for attending. Create something embroidered for them to take home. This can be done very inexpensively.
For the Holiday Party theme, you could make some felt ornaments with your logo and contact information on them. I have done this. They are quick to turn around so you can have a large quantity ready before your “Customer Appreciation Night.”
Important Customer Appreciation Details
The best hours for these “Customer Appreciation Nights” are from 4 pm until 7pm. This will give people a chance to come during business hours or after work. Holding the event for two nights usually works better than one night because more people will be able to fit one of the nights into their schedule.
Have all of your samples tagged with pricing and ordering information. This will make it easier for you and the customer. This eliminates a lot of questions and gives your customers and prospects a level of security knowing that you are totally organized and know what you are doing!
If you have a home business, it can be held off premises. A small room in a hotel or a meeting room in a club or organization will work for this purpose.
If the “Customer Appreciation Night” is at your place of business, have your machines running. This is very impressive. You can be running the items that they are going to be taking home. Seeing the process actually done is very exciting to someone that does not know anything about embroidery.
Do not try to do this yourself if you are the only person in your business. See if you can pull in a helper and get them trained enough to run the one type of job, over and over for that night. This could be a son or daughter, husband or trusted friend. It is not hard to train someone to do this if they are only going to be doing the same job over and over.
You need to be free so that you can mingle and be talking to your customers and prospective customers. You want to be as helpful and answer as many questions as possible.
Gift Baskets-Great Gift Display Idea
Have a variety of different samples displayed in an attractive manner and encourage them to ask questions. Help them to visualize their ideas on a garment or other item. You can create some various themed baskets such as a House Warming, Bridal Shower, Baby Shower, Child‚’s Birthday and even a Get Well basket! People love gift baskets and they are very easy to sell. You could have one for each theme and then take orders.
The gift baskets could contain various items but most of all, embroidered products. An example of products could be for a bridal shower, a bath towel, hand towel and washcloth set along with a roll of embroidered toilet paper and embroidered soap. They could all have the bridal couple‚’s new monogram on them. Gift baskets are easy to create and can command a high dollar!
Keep It Simple
Have plenty of business cards and brochures for them to take. Make up a form for them to fill out with all of their contact information on it including their email address. Have a bowl or basket for them to drop this form into. You can have a drawing for a gift certificate at the end of the evening. Serve refreshments, but keep it simple. You want this to be a fun event for you and the guests.
A “Customer Appreciation Night” does not have to be expensive to be very effective. Remember, everyone needs personalized gift items, even your corporate clients. We all have Weddings to attend, birthdays, anniversaries and need gifts for many other occasions, personal and corporate. Keep it simple and most of all have fun and make sure that it is an event that your guests will remember.