感恩生财

    2009年，克里斯蒂娜•鲍威琳开始举办客户答谢午宴，当时她觉得这样做仅仅是为了照顾一位朋友萧条的生意而已。

    她没料到的是，这些通常在华盛顿特区周围像The Palm和Capital Grille这样的高档饭店举办的午餐会竟然给她带来了近900名客户，有力地推动了她自己的生意。

    鲍威琳意想不到的成功说明，答谢和感恩可以在生意场上产生多大的威力。

    “我们并没有开发新客户，而是决定回到老客户身边，向他们致谢，进一步发展关系，”她说。近20年来，她的莱斯顿豪华车租赁公司（Reston Limousine）很少、甚或从来没有采取过任何方式来感谢其近2万名客户。现在，“我认为这是我最重要的举措，”鲍威琳说。

    一些商家并没有选择仅仅只在一年中的某一天（比如感恩节、元旦或一年一度的感恩顾客促销活动）表达感谢之意，而是将其纳入每天和每周的计划和决策当中。它们正在看到这样做的好处：员工们觉得自己受到了赏识，通常会更加积极地工作；而客户们则更有希望成为“回头客”，同时带来新主顾。

    “感激可以激发起积极的互惠行为，”里士满大学（University of Richmond）营销学教授兰迪•拉希奥说。如果客户认为企业把顾客的最佳利益放在心上，他就更愿意跟这家企业发展长期的关系。

    拉希奥第一次对感恩行为的效应产生兴趣是在卡特里娜飓风袭击美国之后，当时路易斯安那州举办了一场感恩活动，感谢民众的捐款。根据他的研究，许多看到这场活动的人更有可能在未来捐款或从事志愿活动，甚至那些之前没有参与捐助活动的人也会这么做。

    企业可以采用多种方式表达其感激之情。比如，面向最好的客户举办私人销售活动；在账单上附上几块巧克力；或者仅仅是说上一句谢谢你。感激务必要真诚，如果不是面向所有人，效果会更好。

    拉希奥说，客户回馈的方式通常表现为：介绍一位朋友，在网上写上一段正面的评语，或者是愿意以后购买更多产品。 

    When Kristina Bouweiri started hosting customer appreciation lunches in 2009, she thought she was just helping a friend boost her lagging business.

    Little did she know that the lunches, which have been held in posh restaurants around Washington, D.C. like The Palm and Capital Grille, would introduce her to almost 900 of her clients, giving her own business a jolt.

    Bouweiri's unexpected success is testament to the power of appreciation and gratitude in business.

    "Instead of going after new business, we decided to go back to old clients and thank them, and develop relationships," she says. For almost 20 years, her company Reston Limousine had done little or nothing to thank its almost 20,000 clients. Now, says Bouweiri, "I consider it the most important initiative that I have."

    As opposed to showing appreciation one day a year -- at Thanksgiving or New Year's or in an annual customer appreciation sale -- some businesses are building it into their daily and weekly plans and policies. And they are seeing the benefits to this approach: Workers are often more engaged when they feel appreciated and customers are more likely to come back and give referrals.

    "Gratitude motivates positive reciprocal behavior," says Randy Raggio, a marketing professor at the University of Richmond. If a customer believes that a business has his best interests at heart, that customer is more inclined to develop a long-term relationship with the business.

    Raggio first grew interested in gratitude in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when the state of Louisiana ran a thank-you-for donations campaign. Many people who saw the campaign were more likely to donate or volunteer in the future, according to his research, even those who had not previously participated in that particular campaign.

    A business might show their appreciation by having private sales for their best customers, by offering a few chocolates with the bill, or simply by saying thanks for your business. It needs to be genuine and it's better if it's not open to all.

    Customer appreciation, Raggio says, usually comes in the form referring a friend, writing a positive review online, or perhaps a willingness to pay more later on.