Showing sincere appreciation is one of the easiest ways to build a closer relationship with your customers. It’s simple, but remarkably few companies ever take the time to genuinely show customer appreciation.
New and growing stores that focus on loyalty and word of mouth can carve out their own place in the most competitive of markets.
In this pursuit, thanking customers for their purchase goes a long way. In fact, nearly half of US consumers say customer appreciation is an indispensable part of providing excellent care.
Being purposeful and personal when thanking your customers can help create connections, increasecustomer lifetime value, and improve customer retention.
This guide will explain why you need to show customer appreciation, provide you with 44 “thank you for your purchase” templates, and offer useful advice on providing memorable customer service.
6 types of “thank you for your purchase” messages
While creative planning and smart decision-making set the stage for delight, at the end of the day, you still need a few simple ideas to act on. A great thank you message not only shows your customers you value them but also encourages them to share their experiences with family and friends.
If you need a little inspiration, here are six examples of how to show your thanks and cultivate a loyal and satisfied customer.
This is a tried-and-true way to thank your customers. Writing a personalized thank you note shows that there’s a human involved behind the scenes and behind the screen.
Thank you notes are effective because they’re a bit of a lost art. Think about the last time you actually sent a handwritten letter instead of quickly firing off an email or a text. Those mediums allow for incredible efficiency, but a handwritten thank you card creates something tangible and meaningful.
Remember these five steps when writing the perfect thank you note:
A brand that describes itself as “a business built on love,” John’s Crazy Socks knows a thing or two about making a connection. Customers almost always receive a personalized, handwritten note inside their sock order.
While sending a handwritten note in every order might not be scalable, you can always set a monthly goal for yourself or for your team. Brandon Eley, founder of 2BigFeet, explains how he ensures he contacts as many customers as possible: “It’s my goal to send 1,000 cards every year, which works out to just four cards every weekday.”
Involving your entire team helps create a culture of gratitude for your customers.
You might also send out thank you cards after replying to a customer, a special order, or a holiday. It doesn’t just have to be a card inside the order.
To streamline the process, use a service like Postable to send thank you notes on your behalf.
For one-off notes, or if you’d like to invest a bit further in this idea, there are a number of online options for sourcing quality cards that will brighten up your customers’ mailboxes, including:
Packaging inserts are all about exceeding customer expectations. Unboxing is an experience in itself, and customers look forward to the moment they get to hold their new product in their hands. They are primed to be delighted with just a little extra effort. It’s also an opportunity to add value to the order through beautiful how-to manuals, and a chance for upsells.
Below are a few standout examples from stores that understand the value of delivering a small surprise.
The Frank Body brand is bold, to the point, and all about beautiful bodies. It includes a package insert with its body scrub orders that reinforces the brand, offers a simple how to, and encourages customers to stay in touch through social media.
Package inserts can be as targeted or as catch all as you like. Just make sure you keep a stack next to your order packers and toss one in each box. Need to stock up on package inserts? Check out these providers for high-quality stickers, business cards, and flyers:
Stickers
Business cards or promotional material
Resource: Before you check out the providers, use our free business card maker to design your own cards in minutes—no design skills necessary.
Free samples aren’t just an amazing way to delight your customers and say “thank you for purchasing.” They also showcase something the customer hasn’t tried yet. If they like it, maybe they’ll add it to their next order. As much as possible, match the sample to your customer’s profile so it’s something they can use.
If you want to take things a step further, try recording a personalized thank you video for your customers. Whatever the medium, the key to thanking customers is to be personal, thoughtful, and genuine.
Personalized videos feel thoughtful because they are time-consuming manual work. Send videos in a post-purchase follow-up or as a separate interaction entirely. Videos are particularly great for special occasions and holidays where you can be creative with the theme.
Videos are a great experiment to run if only to see how customers react. There are many different ways to use videos to say thank you for purchase, which means you can really get creative. Here are a few tools for creating quick, personalized videos:
Rewarding loyal customers with discounts and coupons is a great way to keep them coming back while thanking them for their patronage. Although you have to be careful with discounts, as they can train repeat customers to wait for deals, sending a discount to a new customer is usually a cost-effective way to get them to return and make another purchase.
Julep runs a makeup box subscription and always adds a little bonus for customers who need to stock up.
Writing copy for your coupons can be a bit tricky, because you don’t want to come off as trying to make a sale or as overly pushy. Use words to promote the exclusivity of the coupon like:
Discounts can either be sent separately, as a package insert, or in a thank you email. If you’re creating discounts, make sure you use a unique coupon code so you can track how effective it is.
Showcasing your customers is a great way to publicly share how much you appreciate them.
Build strong customer relationships to elevate your brand above the competition.
User-generated content (UGC) is especially great in the creative industries, because your customers rely on exposure to grow their own audience. For example, hairdressers love to be featured on Instagram. Small businesses love shout-outs. It can help give them credibility and gain clients. Plus, it creates a bond between you and them.
Luxy Hair’s user-generated content shows off its products while helping its clients build their own brands by sharing beautiful images.
To find great content to share, create a hashtag that customers can use on their own posts. Before sharing content, make sure you ask the owner for permission.
Now you know what a good business thank you looks like, here are some templates to help you thank your customers.
You can copy and paste these customizable templates into an email or purchase note and send them to customers after they’ve made a purchase.
Don’t just copy these message templates—customize them to your liking and brand voice and you’ll be amazed at how far they can go in helping create a loyal customer for life.
Sending the perfect thank you doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, most consumers don’t have a high bar when it comes to appreciation. Show customers that there’s a real human behind the scenes and behind the screen.
Simply express gratitude, personally and directly, for being a customer and placing trust in you to deliver. That’s enough to create a connection.
It might feel overwhelming, or even disingenuous, to personally thank every customer for every order. For that reason, it can be helpful to segment customers into the groups that you’d like to prioritize.
For example, handing out a swanky gift package with every order is a surefire way to blow your budget. But segmenting high-value customers and sending them a handwritten note with a branded gift can cement an already positive relationship. Here are a few ways you can group your customers into different tiers of thank yous:
The budget for your thank you program will be linked with the number of customers you want to reach out to. But even if you’re hoping to show gratitude to all of your customers, you don’t need to spend a ton of money to create moments of delight.
In The Thank You Economy, Gary Vaynerchuk writes: “It’s not the money that makes these efforts shocking and awesome, it’s the care and creativity involved.” Frugal wows are often just as effective at creating that connection. It could be as simple as a card, package insert, or small sample, just be sure it fits within your budget.
Depending on whether you’re including a thank you in every box or just occasionally sending out swag, decide on a repeatable process to get those thank yous in the hands of your customers. It doesn’t have to be automated, but structuring the process will make sure it happens consistently.
If you’ve got a team working for you, provide an easy way for them to nominate customers for thanks. It might be a Google form or a Friday afternoon session hand-writing cards.
Pulling the entire team into these moments of delight creates a culture of gratitude for your customers.
There are so many different ways to thank your customers and create moments of delight post-purchase. Remember, the key is to be personal, thoughtful, and genuine. Customers—and people in general—love a sincere thank you but dislike insincerity.
When you have an attitude of gratitude, creating connections and building brand advocates is natural. Building these customer relationships gives you the opportunity to elevate your brand above the competition.
Illustration by Lynn Scurfield
Design by Brenda Wisniowski
