Customer appreciation events build customer loyalty and increase brand awareness.
Cultivating a relationship with a client into the kind of long-term, consultative partnership that successful office technology dealerships rely on takes a lot more than just sales. Selection and pricing, even expertise, can only take you so far.
Customer appreciation events are the best way to get to know your clients. Have fun together, share a meal, meet the family, and get to know each not just colleagues. The same team-building spirit that works in the office to unite your employees together can work just as well to bond with your clients.
The welcome table at LDI Connect’s TechtoberFest customer appreciation event in Jericho, New York, last October.
At LDI Connect in New York City, customer appreciation events are often a way to do client education in a more relaxed setting. Senior Vice President Brian Gertler likes showroom-based customer appreciation events because they offer a chance to “pull out all the toys,” especially pro-AV products like interactive whiteboards and security tech.
“Everything is on the table when everybody comes to our showroom because even if they’re there to see one thing, you never actually know what’s going to click,” said Gertler. “At least you’re putting that placeholder in their mind so that when they are ready for that core discipline, you’ve already captured their mind share.”
Customers mix, mingle, and learn about the newest technologies and solutions at LDI Connect’s TechtoberFest.
Cultivating an office party feeling can be low-stress and relaxed, both for your staff and for your clients. Meg Ryan, senior account manager at Emerald Document Imaging in Farmingdale, New York, loves the Monday Night Football event Emerald does every year. Its open office plan is perfect for mingling, especially after loading the space up with food, drinks, and TVs playing the game. “We don’t really have a set agenda,” said Ryan. “We just bring everyone together into our space, network freely, let them check out our products and offerings, but no one’s actually doing a hard sell. It’s more let loose and have fun.”
With everyone’s busy schedules, an open house format can work extremely well, especially for casual customer appreciation events. Chicagoland’s Pulse Technology takes the sports theme even further, bringing basketball hoops into the office for all-day March Madness and NBA viewing parties. “[Clients] like the one where you see who can throw the basketballs the fastest. They’re all competitive,” said CEO Chip Miceli. Days with multiple games are perfectly suited to this type of party since there will be something to watch no matter when people show up.
Group outings to sporting events are always popular and can be a real differentiator. It doesn’t have to be pro team either. College sports venues almost always have corporate suites available to rent these days, as do minor league baseball and hockey teams. Set up an AV presentation in the suite for product education or a “lunch and learn” before the game starts for a memorable and family-friendly event.
Donnellon McCarthy Enterprises (DME) sponsors the Western and Southern Tennis Masters series in Cincinnati, affording the dealership a unique opportunity to host customer appreciation events much different from those clients usually have access to, seeing the tennis world’s hottest stars right before the U.S. Open.
The event is so in demand that Donnellon McCarthy Enterprises has to limit guests to two tickets each, “but that gives them a chance to mingle,” noted DME President Jim George. “In Cincinnati, it’s like a national holiday because it’s the biggest event they have here.”
Think Strategically About Your Customer Appreciation Event
Going outside the office takes more planning and more investment, so it’s best to think strategically with a curated guest list and a focus on one particular product line or solution.
“When we’re doing a suite event, as opposed to an open house, it’s usually a much more targeted group with a much more specific purpose,” said LDI Connect’s Gertler. “We’ll get them into the suite, we’ll teach them something about the technology that we think might be advantageous to them and then we’ll go from there.”
Few customer appreciation events are as planned or as anticipated as the one hosted by Fraser Advanced Information Systems, whose all-you-can-eat lobster dinner has been a highlight of the fall season in Berks County, Pennsylvania, for over 20 years. Hosted annually in a hunting lodge decked out for the occasion in festive autumnal style, Fraser invites one hundred and twenty of its most loyal clients, no more no less.
“There’s never an empty seat,” said Heather Trone, marketing manager for Fraser Advanced Information Systems and a key organizer of the event. “You literally can’t fit any more people than the 120. It’s a lot of long-time customers. People that have been to the event before are coming again, they know it’s coming, they love it.”
After a reception hour for mingling, themed cocktails, and a raw bar, guests sit down to the main event, tucking into over five hundred pounds of fresh steamed lobster with all the trimmings, with Pennsylvania Dutch fruit pies for dessert. The event is so popular that Fraser Advanced Information Systems has expanded it with a satellite event in Valley Forge Park for Philadelphia-area clients.
Are Customer Appreciation Events Worth It?
But is it worth it? What’s the conversion rate on touchdowns to copier sales, lobsters to cloud print servers? To quantify how productive a customer appreciation event has been, look at two factors: who’s in attendance during the event and what they do afterward.
“We count the CEOs and CFOs we get in,” revealed Pulse Technology’s Miceli. “Those are our metrics. Usually, they’ll send some of their underlings, but, you know, sometimes you need them as navigators.”
“A big thing is when someone else posts about your event, like a customer or even just some networking community,” said Emerald Document Imaging’s Ryan. “Someone just posted a bunch of photos of them with other professionals networking. ‘Look at us, we’re having fun.'”
Another way to measure ROI of a customer appreciation events is by keeping track of meetings booked or any kind of follow-up after the event. When your sales reps meet with clients afterward, do they mention the event? Do they look forward to the next one? Building any kind of regular tradition, whether it be quarterly or yearly, is the key to long-term customer relationships.
Successful client appreciation events don’t just happen by themselves. Even something casual needs deliberate planning about the guest list, refreshments, and what, if any, product demos or sales presentations will happen. Carefully consider who will be present on your side of the guest list as well and see if you can include some persuasive experts.
“It’s one thing to say how great a particular technology is,” explained LDI’s Gertler, “it’s another thing for a subject matter expert or manufacturer to be in the mix and not only to help represent that technology but to tell people candidly why LDI should be their choice for that technology.
“Everyone needs to be very welcoming because sometimes networking can be intimidating for others,” advised Ryan. “Having a team member at the door to welcome someone, say hi, what’s your name, where are you from, all of that is so important, more important than whatever you’re trying to sell.”
The Ultimate Goal for Your Customer Appreciation Event
Ultimately, customer appreciation events remind customers that you’re thinking about them, that you know them, and that you’re someone they can trust.
“If you have a customer for many, many years, you pretty much say ‘they’re going to do business with me again,’ but the changing of the guard is continuing,” said Pulse Technology’s Miceli. “Make sure you know what they’re thinking and what they’re looking for because they’ll change in a heartbeat.”
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