The 12 Gifts of a Customer Experience Christmas

Even as the temperatures where I live loom at 3 digits, the Christmas Holiday season approaches, and many stores have begun lining their shelves with holiday merchandise, decorations and gift ideas. Families who celebrate the holiday will be out from “Black Friday” and beyond looking for the perfect gift to surprise their loved ones, crush it at the holiday party, or be the best “Secret Santa.” And while finding the perfect doll, new phone, car, or jewelry for the people in your family, friend group, or office is important, don’t forget to give your customers the perfect gift.

12 Gift ideas for a Customer Experience Christmas

1. Appreciation

Take time to give the gift of genuine appreciation to your customers. Appreciation goes a long way and can greatly improve customer satisfaction. There are dozens of things to appreciate your customers for including:

1. Being a long time customer
2. Being a new customer
3. Being a loyal customer
4. Being a good or friendly customer

In addition to appreciating them for being a customer, be appreciative of the type of customer they are and the help they have provided your organization. Many customers are often the inspiration for new features, product changes, improvements and new customers via referrals. Appreciate the role your customers have played in your success. Bonus: Give the gift of appreciation to your peers and team as well.

2. Kindness

Give the gift of kindness. Bring kindness to your customers during the holiday season, especially those who are busiest during the holidays. As the traffic increases and availability of presents decreases, so can the world’s kindness and patience. Be especially attentive to giving kindness to your customers this holiday season and beyond.

3. Better outcomes

Every customer wants better outcomes for their cases and support issues. Be sure that you are giving the gift of a new year worth of better outcomes. Consider how you and your team can provide faster resolution, timely help, and support for their goals.

4. Respect

Give the gift of ongoing respect to your customers. Respect means to hold in high regard, to give esteem, and show kindness. When you respect your customers, you acknowledge their skills, abilities, and the value they bring to your business. Respect also seeks to do no harm to the person or relationship. Here are several simple and practical things to respect about your customers:

1. Their industry and business knowledge – appreciate and give esteem to their knowledge of the industry that they are in as well as their unique business.
2. Their understanding of your products and services – acknowledge that they have a level of expertise and knowledge of your products and services related to their business.
3. Their humanity – respect that as a person they are someone of value, dignity and worth.

5. Punctuality

Be punctual! When was the last time a customer thanked you for being 15 minutes late to a meeting or appointment? Chances are you will never have a customer be excited that their time was wasted. However, when you are punctual and value the customer’s time you are giving them another form of respect and giving the gift of helping them use their time wisely. Be sure to value your customer’s time.

6. Reliability

Alice, not her real name, provides excellence at every turn. When she gives her word that something will be done, it is as good as done. This instills confidence and trust in her customers, peers, and organization. Help your customers by giving the gift of reliability. This enables them to believe that you will do what you say, and by the time you said it will be done. Being reliable helps the customer and their business with planning and risk management when issues and cases arise.

7. Convenience

“I love being unduly inconvenienced,” said no customer ever. Be sure to give the gift of improved convenience to your customers. Focus on providing greater ease of use. Where possible invest into multi-channel options for cases and issue management, including phone, email, chat, knowledge base, and newer AI offerings. Reduce redundant forms, questions, and processing within the workflow for customers who need assistance.

8. Money

Help your customer save money. If your company offers tiers and packages, review your customer’s tier and package to ensure that they have the right fit for their needs and budget. In addition, look for ways that they can gain value, utilize and leverage paid for services and get the most for their money. While saving money is a good gift to give to your customers during the holiday season and beyond, be sure to also help them spend their money wisely. As your company broadens its offerings and tiers, be sure to give your customer the insight to match their growing needs to other offerings, even if they cost a bit more.

9. Dedicated CSMs

When things go wrong, as they sometimes do, who can your customer call to make sure they are being heard? Consider giving your customers a dedicated CSM who can answer their questions, help expedite their issues, or give them confidence that they are being seen and heard.

10. Unconditional Attention

When was the last time you scheduled a customer service call just to check in and see how things were going? I’m not talking about a check-in with a hidden agenda, an upsell waiting in the wings. I’m talking about a genuine call to provide your customers with unconditional attention. Give the gift of a true check-in call with no additional agenda. Just call and listen. If they ask questions that lead to an opportunity, be sure that this request is handled, but not the focus of the call.

11. More value

Everyone loves a good sales price. When stores provide a discount on good and desirable products, many customers are more than excited to take advantage of the offer. What if I told you that your customers don’t really want discounts? While giving discounts to customers is common and would be a welcome gift for the holidays, or random Tuesdays as well, focus on giving them more value. Invest time into understanding their business. Consider providing additional features, products, or services that may help their business grow, expand, or stay profitable. Evaluate whether existing offerings are correctly packaged and sized, and look for ways to optimize what your company provides within them. Recently our team worked with one of our vendors who provided us with the gift of more value, without offering a single penny off. Mike, not his real name, provided more value by answering questions, making suggestions on our product usage, making connections within their organization for mutual benefit, and sharing about new services that were within our offer as well as those being added at a premium tier. Insights, training, Q&A, time, industry knowledge, coaching, best practices, connections, and general guidance are all ways to give your customers more value all without 20% off red tags.

12. Fewer problems

As long as software exists there will be defects and bugs. As long as services exist, there will be challenges with delivery schedules and meeting conflicts. While avoiding all problems and challenges is neither realistic or possible, avoiding foreseeable problems and challenges is. Be sure to give your customers the gift of fewer avoidable and foreseeable errors, problems and conflicts. This gift can be given in the form of notifications, email blasts, knowledge based articles, software guardrails, improved documentation, continuous process improvement, and organizational quality assurance processes. As your company seeks to eliminate problems before they reach the customer, you will give them peace of mind, fewer problems and a more enjoyable customer experience.

Finding and giving the perfect gift for the holidays is great, but you don’t have to wait until Christmas or New Year’s to give your customers a better experience, or any of the gifts on the list.