We’ve barely left Black Friday and companies are still going full steam ahead after the last goals of the year because we are already approaching the final stretch for Christmas.
Normally all the ecstasy that takes over the commerce in the weeks before, turns into a kind of depression after Christmas.
I imagine that everyone has had the experience of needing to exchange some gift they got at Christmas. Particularly, it is not something I like to do, simply because it is difficult to find cases where the exchange itself is not accompanied by a not very happy service, especially if the exchange is not for a higher value item or if you don’t want to buy anything else.
Unfortunately, many companies do not realize the great opportunity for the beginning of relationships with new types of customers that Christmas generates, and that will happen not only in these next three weeks but also in them.
The best time to start building a relationship with an existing customer is during the holidays when he feels more relaxed and ready to give his attention to the company.
It is a good moment because the client is looking forward to getting gifts from the store and therefore, the sales staff is usually more attentive and willing to listen to him.
Moreover, it’s a good moment to make known your brand name, as this is a special time of the year for most people.
When you reach out to your clients, you can ask for their feedback on products and services, as well as share news about the latest developments in your organization.
What should you say?
Remember that the main objective of the message is to make your client feel valued and appreciated.
You can use a variety of different techniques, such as:
• Share how much you appreciate his loyalty to the brand;
• Ask for advice and recommendations for future purchases;
• Tell him what you have been doing recently to improve the product or service;
• Ask for feedback on the website, catalogs, or social media profiles;
• Let him know about other events that you organize
Targeting your customer during the buying Christmas gift phase
In today’s world, it seems like every day we are bombarded by ads trying to sell us stuff. It can be hard to stand out from the crowd and get noticed. However, when it comes to targeting your customers during the buying Christmas gift stage, you need to make sure you have a unique selling proposition. This means that you need to come up with something that makes you different from other retailers.
It is reasonable to imagine that a considerable part of the sales that your brand makes at this time of year is not for your usual audience, but for new customer profiles. A husband buying for his wife, a son for his father, a son-in-law for his mother-in-law (yes, it happens!), a friend for a friend, and so on. And the more specific your audience is, the more likely your company is to make sales to people different from them.
The reasons these new types of customers will use to choose your brand to buy the gift can also be quite varied. From low price, convenience, timing opportunity, or even because they know that the giftee uses or likes your brand.
But here we have a fact. When your brand sells to a person who is not the target audience defined by marketing, it is also establishing a type of relationship with this person. It is at this point that I invite you to make a change of perspective. A person does not only need to have the profile established by your company’s marketing to be defined as a target audience, but also have a good experience with the brand, and establish a relationship bond.
Maybe this new type of customer will not buy as often as a customer with the desired profile would buy, but knowing him and knowing how to relate to him will help you understand his moments and reasons for buying.
Targeting your customer during the exchange phase
This is the moment where the lack of skill of many brands ends up creating a bad relationship experience. If any of the sales that your company made were to people who were giving gifts to others, without knowing exactly why they chose your brand, the moment of exchange can bring you several types of customers: the customer who has the profile and already consumes your products, the customer who doesn’t have the profile and is a little lost without knowing how to make the exchange, and the customer who has the profile but never consumed your products.
When people win a gift and have to exchange it, they may be more susceptible to frustration. Don’t turn the exchange moment in your company into a bureaucratic activity or a moment of “profitability” only, but take the opportunity to turn it into an excellent experience with your brand. Transform a possible frustration with the gift that didn’t fit into an excellent experience with your brand, both for those people who were already customers and for those who may be from now on.
However, the most important message I want to leave you with is that your company, for sure, must have more customer profiles than your marketing can imagine. So, try to change a little bit the perspectives on how you look at your customers and try to always add two new variables for them: the moment of purchase, that is, when they are going to buy; and the reason for the purchase.
This can help you understand that, even if your brand is a women’s clothing brand, for example, a man can also be a type of loyal customer in his own way, since obviously, he will not always buy, but he may buy for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and so on.