A bottle of Champagne arrived in the post for me recently. I was delighted, it was unexpected and of course Champagne just makes you feel happy. Here’s how and why it happened and how being delightful could benefit your company.
Last month, as regular readers might know, I attended Social Media World Forum in London. I will always Tweet at a conference like this, firstly I know there is information on the day that I will want to share with my followers because it is useful, secondly I get to meet people at the event itself. I am always aware however that I might be flooding the Twitter stream with my tweets so try and hold back, only sharing the very best information. The event was great, I met lots of new people both in person and on Twitter and I learnt loads too.
A few days after my return I got a Tweet from one of the event sponsors Synthesio saying that as I’d Tweeted so much they were going to send me some Champagne, could I DM my address. I was sure once they found out I was based in Ireland they would change their mind but a week or so later the Champagne arrived in the post along with a really handy little book ‘The Quick Start Guide To Social Media Monitoring’ (pictured above).
Surprising people like this is a great way to build brand ambassadors, you can be sure every time I see the Synthesio logo now I’m going to remember the champagne and how nice it was to get such a surprise. I’ve even looked into what the company do, at the conference I was aware of their branding but didn’t look any closer. Now I know the next time a client is looking for paid brand monitoring their name will make it onto my recommended list.
How can you be delightful?
So how can you be delightful? Take a look at the most engaged users on your social media channels, why not treat them to something? Don’t make it a competition, don’t even announce it in advance, surprise them and reward them for their loyalty. A discount voucher isn’t enough, it should be something tangible. If you sell a product you could send them a sample and ask for their feedback, if it’s a service can you offer them a short consultation for free. If you want to be really delightful why not research your influencers a bit further. You can find out quite a lot from a Facebook profile or by reading a few tweets. Try to discover what they’re in to and reward them with something that matches those interests. If they are a reader buy them a book from the genre they are interested in, if they are a wine lover find a great bottle that they will love, if they are a foodie an artisan food product would go down a storm.
The result will be a very happy person who will have an even stronger connection to your brand and will talk about you even more pushing your brand awareness and encouraging more referrals.
Have you ever delighted your customers? Have you ever been delighted by a spontaneous gift from a comapny? I’d love to hear your stories.
