Last month, two big companies treated their customers to a surprise. Well, sort of.
On March 23, Starbucks hosted their Free Pastry Day. On their website, they said,
We love you. It's not Valentine's Day or our birthday or anything like that. We feel like doing something nice for you, 'just because.'
Wow. They made it sound so spontaneous. Even though they deliver the same surprise on the same day every year, so, technically, it isn't a surprise.
The coupon on their website entitled people to one free dessert at any store.
On the same day, Ben and Jerry's—now owned by Unilever, one of the world's largest corporations—had their Free Cone Day.
Hmm. Wonder which one started theirs first.
We can do Starbucks and Ben and Jerry's one better
Aside from the marketing managers in corporate boardrooms who plan and execute a flawless Free Day every year, then sit back all smug because they had surprised their customers again, what I really wonder is:
As solopreneurs and small biz owners, how can we surprise our customers?
Most of us don't have marketing departments to plan our surprises. And besides, aren't the best surprises totally unexpected, in-the-moment kinds of things? The things that really get people talking about us and our businesses?
Like the pay-it-forward thing I saw recently on the local TV news. It happened to be a Starbucks (again). You might have heard about it. One morning, at the drive-up window, a guy decided to pay for his drink and for the customer in the car behind him.
It's a little confusing because it was pay-it-forward to the person in back of you. (Okay, that was just my muddled writer's brain at work.)
Still, this one act took on a life of its own and by the afternoon, the string of pay-it-forwards was unbroken.
The thing that made it so cool was that it was spontaneous. It was totally unexpected. It was a surprise.
And it made the news.
How can we treat our customers to a surprise now and then—one that will naturally get them telling stories about their experience with us, which is our version of being "in the news"?
Might we surprise a customer in online checkout by throwing in a free gift before they finalize their purchase?
Can we send a link to an article that solves a problem we know they've been struggling with?
Might we say, "I don't think you really need this (fill in the product or service). This other thing will work just as well and it's less expensive." ?
Or, "I took care of that for you but it took so little time that I'm not going to charge you for it." ?
Do you surprise your customers from time to time? How has it worked for you?
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