Mark Your Calendar: April 21 Is “Get To Know Your Customers Day”

If you’re a small business owner looking for ways to develop a more personal relationship with the people you serve, look no further than Get To Know Your Customers Day.

Get To Know Your Customers Day is a quarterly event that allows you to dig into the root of your business: your clients. Learn what people like about your business, what they don’t like, what they look forward to getting more of in the future, and even find out how cool they really are. 

Here’s how to get your celebration started! 

Use Social Media Outlets 

Now more than ever, small businesses are turning to social media to get themselves off the ground. Social media allows you to interact with the people who buy, sell, and work with your products daily. Use your social media channels to get the word out about Get To Know Your Customers Day and how your business wants to celebrate with them! Start conversations, ask questions, and gain valuable feedback from your followers. This can be a precious tool, especially for companies that don’t get to interact with clients in person. Social media posting allows business owners to respond to questions, say thank you, and learn what’s on the minds of your customers, and what is working and what isn’t with just a few little clicks. The key is to be authentic – and ensure your message isn’t complex.

Simple is sometimes better. An easy-to-respond survey that asks followers to choose one of the “like” options is a fast way to collect feedback.

According to a study by Pew Research Center, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are the three most popular social media platforms in the US. If you don’t already have a solid social media presence or are just getting started, you may want to look into a social media management tool to help you stay organized and on top of your posting game. Many available products now allow you to schedule posts days in advance and provide valuable metrics about the people engaging with your account. You’ll find more ideas about using Facebook and Instagram and choosing the right channels for your business here.

Keep an Updated Database 

Being a small business owner means you are presented with an endless number of tasks that need to be completed on any given day. Why not cut yourself some slack and make things easy when reaching out to your customers? By simply keeping a customer database on file for your business, you are allowing yourself the opportunity to make your customers feel like the special people they are. Put together some curated deals for your customers based on repeat purchases or products they may like based on their buying history. When Get To Know Your Customers Day comes around, send them a heartfelt email that lets them know how much you appreciate their business and how much they have helped you grow, and then say thank you with a special offer that’s just for them. A little gratitude goes a long way. You could even include an email survey and ask questions like:

• How did you hear about us? 
• What are some of our products you can’t live without? 
• What makes us stand out from the others? 
• How can we improve? 

Since this survey option is more formal than a social survey, you can also use it to gauge interest in new products and see how your customer’s needs have changed. If you are looking for a cost-effective way to get a survey out, you can do it through your social media outlets of choice, or try a free platform like SurveyMonkey or Typeform.  

You can even use an automated database platform (think HubSpot, Salesforce, or any number of CRMs) to keep you organized and to help you reach a lot of clients with minimal effort on your end, giving you more time to focus on your business and how to keep your loyal patrons happy. After all, satisfied customers are one of the best investments you can make as a small business owner. 

Talk To Your Customers

Social media has its perks, but if you prefer to do things more traditionally, that’s okay too! There is so much value in engaging with your customers in person. Spending facetime in your shop or on the sales floor is a great time to sit down and get to know the people interested in what you have going on. If in-person interactions are your thing, you could even host a customer appreciation event on Get To Know Your Customers Day. This is a positive way to build a community within your business and the area it serves, and a way to get to know your patrons in a less formal, more relaxed environment.  With so much business taking place behind closed doors or through screens over the last couple of years, it will be a refreshing change of scenery to engage with others in person again. If face-to-face won’t work for you, you can also look for tools that help manage your client contacts and text them, too. A quick Google search of “Contact management software” or “CRM with text messages” will provide you with a long list of options (and price plans) to choose from.

While it would be great to get to know your customers every day, busy schedules don’t always allow for this. So try the next best thing: Mark your calendar with the 4 days you have each year and make a plan to let your customers know how important they are to you by finding out more about who they are. Whether you go big or small, the effort you make indicates you care.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this post does not, and is not intended to, constitute business, legal, tax, or accounting advice and is provided for general informational purposes only. Readers should contact their attorney, business advisor, or tax advisor to obtain advice on any particular matter.