Why Thankful
Companies are Successful Companies
With the holidays fast approaching, most companies have
already planned to thank their employees with monetary bonuses or gifts, but a
successful business must remember to thank another key player—the customer.
So how important is customer appreciation? As it turns out,
it’s vital. According to a study by the Rockefeller Group, 82 percent of
customers will leave because they think you do not care about them. It’s
important to make each customer feel like they are your only customer, which
could lead to word-of-mouth referrals, increasing your sales.
Customer Service is
Key
Showing customers gratitude is a key part of the sales
experience that usually determines whether or not the customer will return for
future purchases. According to Help
Scout, on average, loyal customers are worth up to 10 times as much as
their first purchase and it is six to seven times more expensive to acquire a
new customer than it is to keep a current one. This means that losing just one
customer is costly, and it’s critical for businesses to put effort into making
their customer experience top notch.
The good news for small businesses is that 80 percent of people
agree that smaller companies place a bigger emphasis on customer service. And
almost 9 out of 10 customers say they would pay more to ensure a superior
customer service experience.
Investing in your company’s customer service may take some
time to plan and implement, but in the long run, it will pay off. Not only will
you create a culture of gratitude, but it can also positively affect the business’s
bottom line.
Start from the Top
Down
To retain your customers and attract new ones, build a
culture of gratitude in your company from the top down. Most organizations
struggle with this concept. In fact, according to a Gallup
poll, 65 percent of employees say they don’t feel appreciated at work.
“Too many people leave work every day thinking, ‘My boss
doesn’t appreciate me,’” said Liz Jazwiec, author of Eat That Cookie!: Make
Workplace Positivity Pay Off … For Individuals, Teams and Organizations. “When
the majority of the people in a workplace feel this way, the overall
environment is hugely impacted. Productivity decreases, turnover increases, and
it can become very difficult to stay afloat, especially in a tough economy.”
Gratitude in the
C-Suite
When Doug Conant became the CEO of the Campbell Soup
Company, the company’s stock price was declining and according to Fast Company, it was the worst
performer of all the major food companies in the world.
Conant was in a serious car accident in 2009, and while
recovering in the hospital, he received many get-well notes from employees
around the word. Journalist Janice Kaplan included Conant’s story in her
yearlong effort to learn about the effects of gratitude and how to show it more
in her own life. While employees could have felt obligated to send well wishes to
Conant, it’s likely that they were genuine as the CEO had sent more than 30,000
handwritten thank you notes to his employees during his tenure.
As an added bonus during the creation of a culture of
gratitude, Campbell Soup jumped ahead of S&P Food Group and the S&P 500
in 2009, according to Fast Company.
Other leaders have also begun to recognize the importance of
gratitude, including Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. Zuckerberg
challenged himself to write one thank you note every day in 2014, according to
the Washington
Post.
Even though not every business manager or owner has the time
or resources to make big gestures, there are a lot of other small ways to show
appreciation to your employees. One example is when an employee puts in a lot
of overtime.
"You don't have to apologize that they worked,"
Kaplan said. "We understand that that's sometimes part of the job. But
recognizing it, saying thank you, letting them know that it wasn't for naught
really can go a very far way."
Building a culture of gratitude can feel uncomfortable in
the beginning, but it can mean the difference between the success or failure of
a company. Start with small, daily acts of appreciation, and soon, gratitude
will become second nature.