9 ways to surprise and delight customers

Businesses are always looking for ways to impress their customers. It’s the best way to ensure their loyalty and get them spreading the word about your business. 

But with so many other businesses out there fighting for their share of the market, it can be difficult to cut above the noise and really stand out. 

To help you get ahead of the competition, we’ll be taking a look at nine ways that you can surprise and delight your customers. Specifically, we’ll be talking about these tactics:

1. Underpromise and overdeliver
2. Show them early results
3. Use Humour
4. Celebrate them
5. Send them a gift
6. Just check-in
7. Send handwritten notes
8. Have excellent customer service
9. Ask them for an interview

Setting expectations is a difficult part of acquiring new clients and customers. You want to sell yourself, but you want to make sure you can deliver on your promises. 

A surefire way to exceed customer expectations is to underpromise and overdeliver. Don’t sell yourself short or put yourself down, but when talking about the things you can do for customers, it’s always best to give them a figure on the lower end of the scale. 

For example, if you can reasonably expect to improve web traffic by 20%, maybe quote them 15%. Then, when you do hit the 20%, you’ll look like a hero. 

Everybody likes to be kept in the loop, so show that you’re delivering on what your customer wants from your business. 

When you’ve just started working with a new customer or client, it’s natural for them to be sceptical about your service because they have nothing to base their assumptions on. 

The best way to make everybody feel more comfortable is with an early update on your progress. After the first week or so, email them to report the progress you’ve made so far, what it means for the long term, and where you expect to be for the end of the month. 

This might sound trivial, but a touch of humour in your correspondence and customer service can make a huge difference to your relationship with customers. 

Business isn’t just about results and figures, it’s also about people. If you can make your customers enjoy working with you, it’ll build a strong foundation for the future of your relationship. 

You don’t need to try anything too crazy, just add a touch of humour to your communications. Include a gif or a meme with your emails, make a call-back to something they’ve mentioned earlier. Little things like this will humanise your brand and encourage customer loyalty.

You and your customers are in a partnership, so you should take the time to put the spotlight on them. 

Share their social media posts, or write your own posts about the progress you’ve made with them. It’ll strengthen the relationship between you and show that you care about them in more than just a professional capacity. 

Send your customers small gifts to celebrate landmark occasions. Try it for holidays or for major milestones, like hitting their targets, or the anniversary of your partnership. 

Start off with more generic gifts, like discount codes for your business, then when you get to know them a little better you can start including more personal things your know they’ll enjoy. 

It’s always nice when a friend or family member says hi out of the blue, for no particular reason. Well, your customers are no different. 

They’ll appreciate it if you send a little email now and again just to remind them that you’re there. Ask them how they’ve been getting on since your last meeting, include a newsletter about your upcoming events or products, and maybe even share a couple of links to websites they might find useful based on your past conversations. 

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This one is super simple but incredibly effective. Keep a note of all your customers throughout the year, and send the most valuable ones handwritten notes around Christmas. 

It’s a small gesture, but it shows that you’ve taken the time to think about them and actually write a card. It’ll make them feel valued, and increase the human bond between you. 

Great customer service is rarer than you think, with most places doing the bare minimum. Because of this, it’s an easy place for your business to go above and beyond expectations. 

First of all, train all of your customer service team in techniques for empathy and active listening to make sure they’re getting the best experience when interacting with your business. 

Outside of that, you can reward customers for their loyalty. Send them promotional offers, invites to VIP sales, and first access to new product lines. 

If you’ve built a strong relationship with some of your customers, ask them for a sit-down interview and post it on your website. They’ll be flattered to know you’ve taken an interest, it’s another way to celebrate them and value their opinions, and their testimony will attract new customers. 

During the interview, focus all the questions around them and their experiences, rather than trying to shoehorn in a plug for your own business. Toward the end of the interview, you can ask them how your service has made a difference to their lives, just to round it all off. 

Financial management can be stressful and time-consuming when you’re self-employed. That’s why thousands of business owners use the Countingup app to make their financial admin easier. 

Countingup is the business current account with built-in accounting software that allows you to manage all your financial data in one place. With features like automatic expense categorisation, invoicing on the go, receipt capture tools, tax estimates, and cash flow insights, you can confidently keep on top of your business finances wherever you are. 

You can also share your bookkeeping with your accountant instantly without worrying about duplication errors, data lags or inaccuracies. Seamless, simple, and straightforward! 

Find out more here.