I just had another birthday and find myself another year older. It’s fascinating to look at birthdays from a customer experience perspective and think about the different companies that have birthday wishes built into their CRM practices. I just did a quick search in my inbox and discovered just how much birthday spam I have discarded over the last week. Here’s a review of everything.
Men’s Wearhouse sent me a $25 coupon if I spend $100 or more. This mostly just looks like a coupon for a quarter of a dress shirt. Those of you that have seen me at a conference now know that I am outfitted exclusively by Men’s Wearhouse.
ProFlowers sent me a 20% off offer for an order of flowers. This one is actually funny to me. The only reason I use Proflowers is buy flowers for someone else. Actually, my birthday would probably be even better if I bought my wife flowers. I think ProFlowers might be onto something here.
Daphne’s California Greek sent me a $5 coupon good for fourteen days. Thanks Daphne’s.
Nicolosi’s, an Italian restaurant we frequent often, gave me a $15 credit on my next bill. I had deleted the message without even reading it, but when picking up a pizza the other night, we were pleased to get $15 off!
Benihana sent me a $30 gift certificate for my entire birthday month. Wow! I’m glad I checked my spam folder for that one.
Richard Branson unexpectedly sent me 500 Elevate Points for Virgin America airlines. Not bad considering I’ve only flown Virgin once. This is precisely why he is a customer experience legend.
The Miscellaneous… My car dealer, insurance agent, and lender all remembered to wish me a happy birthday.
And my big winners…
Starbucks is the one I look forward to every year. Without fail, they put a free drink on my Starbucks card and I cashed it in. That’s always one of my favorites.
Facebook birthdays are the best. Who doesn’t like getting wished happy birthday by 100+ people in their network? It’s definitely one of my favorite parts about being on Facebook.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my amazing wife, kids, family, friends, and colleagues. Nothing tells those in your life that they are important like celebrating their day. I’m grateful to all of my family, friends, and brands who took the time to make my day special. Do you know your customers’ birthdays? What are you doing with that information?
