January 17, 2018 / in Business Recommendations, How To / by Jason Terry
By Jason Terry, talking about rewarding your team for thanking clients and vendors in unique ways.
I love it when companies do things differently. And I have the unique opportunity to see what a number of companies are doing internally when I am on site every month. Something happened recently with one of my clients, Home Rental Services, that I just had to share.
They’ve recently implemented a quarterly award for the employee that thanks or recognizes a customer in the most unique way. I believe that thanking a customer in a meaningful way is a good step towards having a customer for life. And the ideas that the HRS staff came up with were excellent, funny and creative.
Here were the team members in the running this quarter…
Paul is the Director of Investor Services for HRS. He did a video interview with Jake Stallman who works for Keller Williams. Jake referred an investor client that has since done two acquisitions and HRS manages the properties.
Jake was willing to spend the time it took to capture a video interview about the value Paul brings to the table. We used the video in a blog post. (Click here to see that story and the video.) The goal was to share a great partnership while showcasing what Paul is doing for investor clients of HRS.
Paul said, “Jake blew our socks off with his trusted referral and the ongoing relationship.” So Paul bought a really nice sock gift basket from Socks 101, a company based in Lee’s Summit. Jake loved the socks and the note about “blowing our socks off!”
Oretta is the assistant property manager for HRS. HRS manages hundreds of homes and does a lot of work with Complete Property Services. Oretta wanted to do something special to recognize Complete Property Services, and came up with mini-Bundt cakes. Why? To go along with the message, “thanks for always working your bundts off for us!” They ordered a bunch of Bundtinis from Nothing Bundt Cakes to send to Complete Property Services.
Joshua is the lead property manager for HRS. They had a renter that was patient during an air conditioning maintenance issue. He sent the renter a Carnivore Club Rub and Grilling Salt Set. The message read, “Hopefully your maintenance items haven’t rubbed you the wrong way. Thanks for your patience as we get everything resolved.” Hilarious. And I am sure it went a long way in terms of the relationship the renter has with HRS.
Oretta was voted the winner of the most creative/funny/thoughtful thank you. But for HRS, everyone wins in this story. The entire process improved team communication and relationship. And it strengthened a guiding principal to thank clients in a meaningful way. I know this best practice will come back around for HRS in the form of repeat business.
This blog post is one of the ways I can thank HRS for being a great customer of Blue Gurus. I love being part of their team, not just a vendor for blogging and website work!
Me? A blogger?
Honestly, I was skeptical. My first few posts were dry, hard to write and not very interesting, even to me. Then I had a breakthrough. I wrote about my passion for Bruce Springsteen. Very personal, very “non-banky.” The response was overwhelmingly positive.
Pam Berneking
Former President and CEO of Alterra Bank
