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Chapter 44—Customer Appreciation Events

In some industries, it’s all about the party. Events, like customer
appreciation events, can be a good (expected even) way to
build relationships with customers. In other industries, they
fall flat.

Extravagant parties have been on the decline in recent years.
Between the recession and hectic lifestyles, it takes a lot to
attract prospects to an event. Creativity is essential—people
are busy, so they only accept the most interesting invitations.

I know of one CEO who designs his customer appreciation
events to be kid-friendly. His reasoning—if customers can
bring their kids, they don’t have to spend time away from the
family or hire a babysitter, which makes them far more likely to
attend. Another CEO rents a race track and a few F3000 cars
for a day (with professional drivers) and takes his top twenty
customers for a day of driver training and racing. The event is
not cheap to host, but he is thrilled with the ROI.

The most important thing is to do something that you’re
passionate about. If it’s a wine tasting, you better be an
oenophile. If it’s a day at the race track, you should like fast
cars.

When preparing the invitation list for a customer appreciation
event, include current customers, customer-facing employees
(internal sales support or upper management make a great
impression) and some prospective customers—inviting them

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© 2012 Lisa Shepherd