What is it worth to you to bring your very best customers into your store? Do the math: common knowledge says that it costs five times as much to obtain a new customer as to keep an old one, and that 80% of your sales come from the top 20% of your customers. That means that you should be treating your top 100 as a very valuable asset.

That’s what we had in mind when we put together this card inviting our best customers to come in for a free gift (an $8 item we bought for 75¢ on closeout) and $10 off any purchase.  The cards were printed at Walgreens for less than 40¢ each, and we hand-wrote the addresses on each one to make them more personal. The top 10 got a very small gold star on the back of their invitation indicating that we had a bonus gift for them.

We have a preferred customer program that helps us capture the data regarding the dollar amount of purchases made throughout the year — your POS system may provide the same data for you.  We realize, however, that some shoppers prefer not to participate in a customer reward program. They are unfortunately left off the list, although we sometimes add individuals back in manually if we notice that one of our “regulars” isn’t included.

In the past we’ve sent out our “top 100” thank you card in December, but this year we realized that it made a lot more sense to invite these customers to come in during the quiet month of January.  We have had a return rate of over 40%, giving us many chances to say thanks to these loyal customers — as well as a nice boost in sales during a very slow time of year.

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder