Friday Poll: How Does Your Station THANK Its Advertisers?

    • 993 posts
    October 11, 2018 11:12 PM PDT

    This week's Friday Poll Question is a two-parter:

    1) How do you personally thank your advertisers for their business? (Thank-you notes? Cards at Thanksgiving or Christmas? Other specific gestures?)

    2) How does your station management/ownership demonstrate appreciation to its advertisers, especially those who advertise every week? Does your station make it a point to say thanks to its advertisers in some formal way?

    Please share your answers in the comments below. Thank you!

     

    • 17 posts
    October 12, 2018 6:03 AM PDT

    I wish we would have something else other than cards which we send out usually around Christmas.  IF I see a client out for lunch or something like that I will buy their meal or drinks. I would like a little "kitty" fund to do that kind of stuff but we don't so I do it when I can.

    • 121 posts
    October 12, 2018 6:42 AM PDT

    Through out the year, we do some trade business for a few accounts that pay us in gift cards.  Some of these businesses only do trade with media, others use it as a supplement to their paid advertising.

    One example is DeBrand's Fine Chocolate that is a local company that has really good sweets. https://www.debrand.com/ 

    They advertise for Christmas and Valentines Day on all 6 of our local stations all in trade.  I got $16,000 in gift cards from them this year.  We keep a stash of them and use some to buy Christmas gifts for clients, but I like to use them as surprise appreciation gifts to clients year round. Instead of handing them a gift card, I will usually buy something with the gift card to give them.

     

    Our local Philharmonic is spending $25,000 in cash with me this year and I offered them a duplicate schedule for trade.  A pair of tickets are worth $150 each and they make a nice gift too.

     

     

    • 993 posts
    October 12, 2018 3:51 PM PDT

    Scott,

    Wow, you've got this nailed. Very nice to hear!

    • 12 posts
    October 17, 2018 6:38 AM PDT
    This is a big hot button of mine. We cannot do enough to thank our customers!
     
    To me, it starts with the basics: When was the last time you called a customer for no other reason than to express appreciation for their business? When was the last time you sent a hand-written note to that effect?
     
    To be effective, these activities should be programmed into your day, every day. Perhaps you feel comfortable making three phone calls and writing three notes every day – then do it without fail!
     
    We had great success with the simplest little campaign ever: We printed up Customer Appreciation certificates, each with the name of a customer, put them in inexpensive frames, and distributed them to our clients. (I think we did it around Customer Appreciation Day – it'll be March 19 next year, by the way.) Those certificates, faded ink and all, remained on the walls behind the counters of countless clients for years.
     
    I've always believed that our inventory is a client-satisfaction device. In its highest form, the satisfaction comes from investing in a good radio schedule and reaping the results thereof … but inventory can also fix a problem with a client, or be used as a way of expressing appreciation. How do you think a client would feel to get a phone call from you saying, "We want to thank you for being a loyal customer of ours for X years, so we're going to give you an extra dozen commercials this week"?
     
    (I know that many of you, upon considering the foregoing, will think I'm suggesting that you sell out or devalue your product, but that's not the way the client sees it. If you are conducting yourself honorably in general and respect the value of your inventory, then your gift will not diminish that the value and will be all the more appreciated.)

    This post was edited by Jay Mitchell at October 17, 2018 6:39 AM PDT
    • 121 posts
    October 17, 2018 8:11 AM PDT

    Great Advice, Jay!   The extra inventory idea is one I'm going to push for our slower seasons as we have been "sold out" due to political this month.