The Power of Simply Saying Thank You

# The Power of Simply Saying Thank You

[00:00:00]

## Welcome to the eCommerce Podcast

**Matt Edmundson:** Hello and welcome to the eCommerce Podcast. My name is Matt Edmundson and it is great to be with you on Thanksgiving Day. If you are listening to this, the day it is released or watching this on YouTube, so happy Thanksgiving, which I appreciate is a bit odd for me to say sitting here in the UK where we.

We really don't do Thanksgiving. And I've always thought, well, actually that's a bit of a shame actually. I like the idea of having a day set aside to pause and to be thankful. That feels like something we could all benefit from, right?

## Thanksgiving and eCommerce Tension

**Matt Edmundson:** So what can we learn from this in e-commerce because. There's this really crazy tension happening right now, isn't there?

Whilst American families are gathering around tables to be intentionally grateful the rest of the world in [00:01:00] e-commerce, especially our online businesses, are gearing up. For the most transactional 96 hours of the year. We have Black Friday, we have Cyber Monday, we have this sort of hyper consumerism that is the complete opposite of Thanksgiving.

It seems it's all about the sale, isn't it? Online? The, the conversion, the revenue numbers, how much we can get from customers in this sort of short weekend or few weeks if you've been doing it, maybe like how I suggested, uh, you do it a few weeks ago and I get it right. We've all been there. These four days can literally make or break your year in e-commerce.

And if I'm honest. I mean, lemme just be really honest.

## Gratitude in Business

**Matt Edmundson:** I'm genuinely grateful for all the sales that are coming in at the time of recording and also over the Black Friday weekend. I find it exciting. I find black this whole thing [00:02:00] exhilarating. I really do. I really enjoy it. But I do wonder, I wonder if we're missing something.

I wonder if I just need to stop and pause on Thanksgiving Day and think about what's going on amongst all this chaos. Now I truly believe that businesses that win in the long term aren't the ones with the best discounts on Black Friday, but I wonder whether it's the ones that take the sort of time, even just five minutes here on Thanksgiving Day, to genuinely appreciate the customers who make their business work, not just grateful for the sales, but grateful.

For the humans as well. Like I try very hard on this show actually, uh, most weeks to say, listen, thanks for tuning in. We really appreciate. I genuinely could not do what I do if you guys didn't listen to the show, right? I couldn't do it. I'm grateful for you guys. You listen to the show, you writing, you tell me your [00:03:00] stories, you come join me in Cohort.

Signed up to thousands of people on the newsletter and it's wonderful and enables me to do what I do and keep delivering what I do. But I am very aware that it's all because you guys are listening, all watching the show, right? I. So got to be grateful for the people that make things happen. Happy Thanksgiving.

So let me tell you a little bit about this and let's talk about this.

## Bar Burritos Loyalty Scheme

**Matt Edmundson:** Uh, lemme talk about bar burritos, which is a great place to start. It's actually a great place to grab a burrito here in the uk. Slick. A little mini restaurant chain. I quite like it. I quite like the food, uh, if I'm honest. It's simple.

It's, it's easy. Uh, I know what I'm getting right. Um, and I appreciate if you're like me, you are gonna have your regular go-to sort of lunch spots yourself and bar burritos just happens to be one of mine. And one of the things I like about bar burritos is I get my 10th burrito. For free. They have this sort of, you know, [00:04:00] get your 10th one free, like a reward type thing going on.

And it's automatic and it is entirely predictable. Right. Uh, I just scan my app and it is done. I know it's coming because that's how that loyalty scheme works. Right. And you know it, it's okay. But you know what I feel when I get my 10th burrito? If I'm honest, not a whole great deal. Uh, well, if that's, that's not quite true.

If I'm honest. I probably, if I'm truthful, feel entitled to it, right? Because I've upheld my end of this deal. I have purchased the previous nine burritos, uh, so I should get the 10th one for free. This is the whole purpose of this loyalty scheme, and if they didn't give it to me, well, I'd be annoyed. You know, I, I would not be happy, uh, as they say.

So I love, I, I do like the food. I do love Bartos. I'm, part of me is [00:05:00] grateful for that scheme, but I think I'm entitled to it 'cause they do it. It's just the way those kind of loyalty schemes works.

## The Power of Unexpected Rewards

**Matt Edmundson:** Now, if I compare that experience and I'm, I regular at Bartos, uh, a few years ago, um, on Emirates, the airline, they upgraded me to first class.

For no reason whatsoever. There was no buy nine flights, get your 10th upgrade to first class or whatever it was. There was no reason. There was no expectation. Just the person at the gate tearing up my ticket and giving me a new one, just saying, thanks for flying with us. And that was five years ago, and I'm still talking about it right now.

Both times I technically got something for free. But they elicited completely different emotional responses from me. And if you are like me, you run an eCommerce business, which I'm assuming is what you're doing, listening to this show. Uh, then understanding why that elicit [00:06:00] different responses for me, why that happened and why that difference matters, I think could be one of the simplest ways.

To increase your repeat purchase rate and your referral rate simultaneously. So let's get into it, shall we? Especially when everyone is focused at this precise point in time on acquisition. Everyone's eyes are on it. And if you're listening to this show on Thanksgiving Day, it's probably too late. Uh, if you've not done that.

But it's never too late for gratitude and to be thankful. Name might be thinking, Matt. Surely there's more to it than just saying thank you. Right? Surely this is a podcast. Where you're not gonna spend 20 minutes just telling me to say thank you, and here's the thing, right? Because I think, uh, this is what I see.

It's what I, I I appreciate is going on for you, for us, in, in our office, in our eCommerce business, we're always out looking for the latest killer tactic. It's one of [00:07:00] the reasons I love doing this show. I'm super grateful for you, the listener, but I'm grateful for the experts we get on the show. I get to talk to 'em, I get to pick their brains.

Uh, I get to talk about the new software, you know, the perfect loyalty scheme structure. Should we give a discount code? Should we do something else? What's the optimal reward level? How can we gamify the experience? I get to ask all of these questions to some of the leading experts in the world, which is a great way for me to learn, if I'm gonna be honest with you.

Uh, but are we missing, like I say, this idea. Of just saying thank you, something really simple and this, because I knew this episode was coming out on Thanksgiving. I really wanted to think about this and I've, I've spent the last few weeks being sort of totally captivated again by the topic, if I'm honest with you.

Um, I've been reading through research on customer gratitude. I mean, you know, proper academic [00:08:00] stuff, neurochemistry, behavioral psychology, case studies with actual numbers attached to them. Trying to find the data behind something that I think we all know. Intuitively is true, right? So companies that regularly express genuine appreciation to customers outperform their competitors by a staggering 23% in profitability, 23%, all because they regularly express appreciation.

And we know just by doing the numbers and the maths right, that a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a 75% increase in profitability. That's the commercial reality of gratitude fundamentally. We get bigger numbers, which is a beautiful thing. And here's the thing about Thanksgiving, right, that I find fascinating.[00:09:00]

It is literally a day, isn't it? When, uh, in America. They are culturally allowed and even encouraged, dare I say, to pause the hustle and to just be grateful. No strings attached, no ROI calculations, just gratitude, just being grateful. And then like I say, black Friday arrives and we immediately revert to this sort of transactional mode mode.

But what if we didn't flip back? What if that gratitude that clearly leads to bigger numbers? It isn't just for the day, isn't just for Thanksgiving, but actually became how we operated our businesses. And this is why I've become captivated about it again, it captured me, uh, several years ago and it sort of reignited something in me knowing that this episode was coming out now, because the challenge isn't whether gratitude works, right?

It genuinely isn't. The challenge is more [00:10:00] about are we doing it the right way or are we doing it wrong? And I think with ai, I think with automation and all the tools that we have. I just wonder if we've automated it to the point of exhaustion, whether we've turned gratitude, can I say it into a transaction?

I wondered why. Maybe it's not created, the connection that we're hoping for. And like I say, I've been thinking about this.

## Levels of Gratitude

**Matt Edmundson:** I've been making lots of notes, and I think, uh, there are three levels of gratitude. There's definitely more. Um, but I've, I've sort of summarized it to three levels. I've even come up with a poncy name for it, the gratitude spectrum.

Oh, you gotta love naming things, right? So, uh, level number one is where there is no appreciation whatsoever. And I think this is where most e-commerce businesses live, typically, most of the time, especially around this time of the year, because [00:11:00] everything's in a rush, right? And everything's just like, just get it out the door.

Um, and so it's more transactional, it's more sort of functional if you like, you know? Um, your order number 8 2 7 3 6 4 has been shipped is the sort of the limit of the Thank you. Thank you for your order. Your order has been shipped. It's not rude. Um, but it's really nothing. When you, you look at, you're not being rude, but you're not, there's no appreciation, is it?

It's level, level one. It's just, it's not there. Level two is where I think we try and get to a lot to, 'cause we know we should be more grateful. But we're too busy in many ways, right? So we then automate it and level two is all about automated depreciation. And this is where things like the Bartos loyalty scheme lives scan the app, Bish Bash, Bosch the till, figures it out, no dramas, right?

Buy nine, get your 10th three. It's sort of [00:12:00] automated. We get the automated thank you emails, you know, point systems, tiered reward programs, those kind of things, just. Automated stuff, really, it's better than nothing. It's better than level one obviously. Um, but I think what interests me about automated depreciation is on one hand, it saves me time.

But on the other hand, I think it has huge diminishing returns because like I say, I think over time it creates entitlement rather than gratitude. Like when I think about that 10th burrito and I am starting to get hungry now, um, it does become expected. And if you don't get it, like I said, you get annoyed and if you do get it.

The first time you're like, this is cool. The second time you're like, it's cool. The third time you get it, you're just like, yeah, it's whatever. It's just what I expect, right? And so I think the automation removes this sort of perception of free will and it becomes a contractual obligation [00:13:00] rather than a gift, which is where I think Bartos will probably find themselves right now.

It'd be very hard to take it away. And research shows that gratitude is heightened when customers perceive your actions as discretionary rather than obligatory. Obligatory get the word right. Um, and I think that's the key insight here. It's not, it's like. You can actually be giving less but be perceived to be giving more.

And this is where I think level three comes in. Okay. So we've gone from nothing to automated to level three, which I think is what I would call personal gratitude. And this is where Emirates for me lived. It was a personal thing done by a member of their staff who probably had the authority to do it.

Transformed the whole experience for me. It's where things like handwritten notes live and yes, I still get them with some of the eCommerce, uh, packages I get sent to me because I think. I remember them and [00:14:00] I like them because that's where human real human connection happens, isn't it? So personal gratitude, I think compounds over time rather than diminishes over time.

And that's the crucial bit, right? It increase, it compounds. It doesn't diminish, and I don't think it has to be expensive, but I do think it has to be genuine. It has to feel like someone actually cared enough to do something they didn't have to do. And I wonder if that's the insights right? We're all sort of missing while we're obsessing over our Black Friday conversion rates.

So let me tell you, uh, where I figured this out initially was in a beauty, in a beauty business that we ran. Okay? And we moved the business from Jersey, which is where it ran over to the uk. And when we did, I. [00:15:00] We shifted our entire business model. Now, if you've been a regular to the show, you may have heard me talk about this a little bit before.

This is where we shifted our model to a more customer service sort of centric model, which when you actually think about it, means finding more ways, more creative ways, more authentic and genuine ways. To say thank you, right? So we did the handwritten notes. We noticed when customers purchased from us multiple times, and we would reach out to them and we'd say, Hey, thanks for being part of the journey.

Thanks for buying from us. We're just a small business. We appreciate you guys coming along. Um, we allocated actually a budget of about 50 pounds, I guess that's about 70 US dollars, um, to every member of staff in the warehouse and in the customer service team. Um, and they could use them to, towards, they could use that money.

Um. Towards what we called sms, SMOC, sms, [00:16:00] right? It means sexy moments of customer service. Um, I dunno where that name came from. Um, but I, I quite liked it. And it came from, obviously came from somewhere, these sms. And so they could spend that money on a customer without any authorization. They did not need to go to a line manager or anything.

They had this budget. They could spend it just to create. Moments that mattered for our customers to create these sexy moments of customer service. I would quite often go to the warehouse, just pick out random orders, um, and drop in a note saying, Hey, it's Matt here. Um, yeah, I run the company. Just wanted to drop you a little line, um, saying I really appreciate you being a customer of this company.

Uh, by the way, here's my personal email. If you ever need anything, I would love to hear from you right now. You might think that sounds risky, giving customers your direct email. But it definitely wasn't, some customers would email me, right? And I, it was great. [00:17:00] They would email me and say, Hey, thanks. It's really kind of you to do that.

And I would just email 'em back and listen, really appreciate you being part of the business and start a conversation and find out what made them tick. But you know, what happened, right? Quite often they would email our customer service team to say, uh, can you tell Matt, um, thanks. I just didn't wanna bother him directly, but I thought it was really cool that he put that little, little note in there.

Uh, which I thought was quite fascinating. Um, and that's the thing about gratitude, isn't it? It doesn't create, I don't think entitlement, genuine gratitude doesn't create entitlement. I think what it does is it creates an almost reverent appreciation and over a period of time. Sort of, like I say, 12 to 18 months.

Our an our overall turnover increased by 20%, which may or may not sound like a lot to you, but for us, 20% was worth millions. Um, at the time. And our repeat purchase rate shot up above 40%, which was well above. The average for our industry. And it didn't stop there and it kept on growing. Uh, we did, ironically, [00:18:00] still makes me laugh.

We did ironically get a complaint from, uh, a customer who, uh, said that we were being too thankful and rah rah, you know, that sort of. Wasn't appreciating the new language and, and the way we were doing things, which I thought was quite funny. Uh, I you some people just are gonna complain. Uh, you, you definitely can't please everybody all the time.

Uh, but it did make me laugh. Um, yeah, maybe they're addicted to complaining. Uh, but what I did learn, uh, about. Gratitude though, was that it actually works. Authentic gratitude has a significant impact on your bottom line. But here's the thing, right? It's got to be consistent. Um, and I think it's also got to be costly to you in some way to give that thanks.

Whether [00:19:00] that's time or money or attention. Um. I think you give it in a way that doesn't have any expectation of direct return. Um, and I would also suggest that you culturally embed it into your business. And don't just use it as a tactic. I think people see through that. Um, you know, I think, uh, I'm, I'm not trying to disparage my American cousins that love the Americans live there.

Thought it was great. Still think it's great, but, um, probably. In some sectors, I think that the gratitude given has become insincere. Let me put it that way. Um, it's just said for the sake of being said, um, you, we've, we all get the emails right? I get 20 emails a day saying. Uh, really enjoyed the podcast.

Um, it was great in this episode when you're talking to this person and you read the email guy, and there's no way you said that or think that I think AI has gone through and written this email for you, just so I buy [00:20:00] your software, whatever it is you're trying to sell me. Right? Um, so I think there's that insincere.

Gratitude, which is I think, a tactic and it works. Don't get me wrong. Um, I just, I, I, it's not my bag if I'm honest with you. Um, and I think culturally embedding gratitude, like giving your staff the ability to do things without you being involved, whether that's a budget or time or whatever, that's culturally embedding.

And one company that's been talked about a lot recently, especially on LinkedIn. Um, I've seen this a couple of times. Jimmy Kim, uh, if you follow Jimmy Kim on LinkedIn. A shout out to Jimmy. Great guy, um, from the awesome podcast. He talked about this as well. Five guys. Um, if you've ever been to five Great guys, they sell expensive burgers, really expensive smash burgers.

Um. They're okay. I mean, I think I do better, but they're okay. Um, but when you buy fries, right? It doesn't matter whether you buy the small, medium or [00:21:00] large, they'll put the small cup, Philip, full of fries, they'll put it in the bag, but then they'll also put in the bag, um, another scoop of fries, right? So when you open it, you go, goodness me, I've got a lot of, I've got a lot of fries in the bag.

Cost them millions annually to do this. They never mention it in their marketing. They never promise it. They just do it. And that's cultural. That's not tactical. But I think I, maybe it is tactical. I, it definitely brings people back, but it's certainly cultural as well. And I think that's the difference between Thanksgiving gratitude and sort of a, a dare I say, a Black Friday thankful tactic, right?

One's genuine, one's transactional.

## Implementing Gratitude in Your Business

**Matt Edmundson:** So how do we actually implement this in our business? Right? Here's my suggestion. Here's what I'm gonna suggest you do. Um, it's what we do, right? And it seems to work. It's what we do with [00:22:00] clients. Um, start by auditing every single touch point in your business. And what do I mean by that?

I'm talking about every interaction your customer has with your company. So wherever a customer or a potential customer interacts with your company. That's a touchpoint. It may be, um, your ads. It may be social media. It's gonna be your website, your homepage, your about us page, your checkout process, your thank you page.

There's the order confirmation, email, the shipping notification, email, the actual package when it comes into their hands. All the follow-up emails, right? These are all touchpoints. These are all times when your customers or your potential customers interact with you. So what you have to do is, I think, write down all of those touch points.

Now to save you doing this, um, I've written down like 95% of them for 95% of the businesses, uh, in this week's freebie, which you can get. [00:23:00] Um, it's um, I'll explain a little bit more about it in a minute, but it is in there. Um, okay. If you wanna save yourself a bit of time, but you're gonna want to think about all the touch points that people have with your business.

Write every single one of them down, and at each one of those touch points, you want to look at that and go, how do I show gratitude here? Right?

## Evaluating Business Gratitude

**Matt Edmundson:** That's the question you have to ask yourself. Um. Is this automated? Is it personal? Is it diminishing? Is it, uh, growing in terms of what it's doing for the business and what I'm doing for the client?

How's that working? Now, obviously there may not be gratitude at every single point, um, but for you and your business, there'll be at least probably one or two really key, crucial points where if you injected some gratitude. Uh, it's gonna have a huge impact on your business. So for five guys it was just literally, let's just throw a few more fries in the back.

Right?

## Maximizing the Thank You Page

**Matt Edmundson:** [00:24:00] Um, what is that moment for you now, your thank you page? Uh, I love the fact we call it a thank you page. 'cause quite often the thank you page on an on a e-commerce website, it literally says thank you. Even the URL says, thank you. Uh, but that's all it does say is just, thank you. Uh, just one word.

Thank you for your order. Whatever it was, 8 2 7 3 6 4. Um, and I think most businesses waste this opportunity. Like a hundred percent of your customers are gonna see that. Thank you. Or for your order page. Right. Um, and so do something a bit creative there. I like to put like a video, um, on our site at the, at the moment I think we've got one where Jen, who's our head of marketing and I, um, are just chatting away, just saying, Hey, thanks.

Really appreciate you buying from us as a company, explaining what's gonna happen next, and inviting people into the journey that we're trying to go on. Super simple, very, very effective. People watch it. People get to know us. [00:25:00] It's great. The thank you text is still there, but we're trying to be a bit more creative, be a bit more imaginative, both in our text and the videos.

Um.

## Creative Shipping Notifications

**Matt Edmundson:** Another area where you can do this, uh, that I've seen work super well is gonna be your shipping notification emails. You know, the, your order is just shipped. It's, there are two emails which are gonna get open pretty much every time you send them. And one of those is your just shipped email. The other one's the order confirmation, right?

Um, and most businesses just fill them with tracking links and nothing else. And I think. There's another wasted opportunity. Can I do something at that touch point? Can I send a photo maybe of the person in the warehouse who picked their order? Maybe that person's holding up a sign with a customer's name on it, or they're holding that box that they're gonna ship out with a thumbs up.

Um, just saying, Hey, thanks for supporting our business. You know, this is what we do. Um, thanks for trusting us with your money. Uh, [00:26:00] it's not complicated to do, right?

## Handwritten Notes and Personal Touches

**Matt Edmundson:** Handwritten notes are obvious ones. They don't have to be novels. I'm a big fan of handwritten notes. Hygiene, you know, hygiene. I just realized saying that out loud.

Uh, I'm not talking about personal hygiene. Hygiene, um, notice this is your third order. Really appreciate you trusting us. Thanks again. You know, it, it doesn't take but 20 seconds to write that, so give your team permission to be grateful as well. If it's just you, you be grateful if you have a team. Give them permission.

The smox budget we did was one of the best decisions we ever made. It was messy. It was, the accountants didn't really like it 'cause we're the invoices, where are the receipts? But it just worked really well for our customers. Right. Um, super grateful we actually did that because when warehouse staff recognize a customer's name, because, you know, they, they, well, they do, don't they?

I mean, you think about. People in the warehouse, they're picking and [00:27:00] packing orders. They get to know people's names. They get to see them. They get to see where they live. They don't know these people, but they feel like they're starting to at least connect with them because they see them. And they don't need a system to remind them to add something to the box, whether it's a note or a gift.

They could just do that because the people that are picking and packing care, and maybe we can connect them a little bit. And so it becomes more than just, I'm shipping out this box and you know, Jean is, is is for her. It's more than she's just getting a box. But Tony's picked and packed that thing. Right?

## Cultural Gratitude in Business

**Matt Edmundson:** And this I think is what I'd call cultural gratitude. Not just tactical gratitude, because that means it has to become part of your. Business. Right. So I, I've done a lot of reading around gratitude, read it recently, but re and, and like I've said before, you know, implementation is not the same. Uh, information is not the same as implementation, right?

So reading about it is one thing, implementing it is another.

## Examples of Gratitude in Action

**Matt Edmundson:** So [00:28:00] there's some more examples from businesses that do this. Well, I'm gonna share them with you. I, and again, I want to be super clear for, I, I, I give you these examples. I want this to serve as idea generation for you to help you think creatively.

This is not a checklist you have to copy. You certainly don't have to do all of them. Um, I just want them to prompt you for, and, and maybe you'll pick out one or two things that work super well for your business. So there's a website called Chewy, which is, uh, aimed at pet owners. They include handwritten, heartfelt notes to pet owners.

Simple gesture, but it's contributed 14.7%, Sam, as a, how they measured that 14.7% sales growth, uh, and 20% profit growth. For a handwritten note. There you go. Right. So they're not just selling pet food, um, are they? They're, they're in effect. They're connecting with people and their love for pets, [00:29:00] and they're doing that with these handwritten notes.

So would handwritten notes work for you, for your business, or do would it feel forced? Um. I don't know. Right. Warby Parker had their general counsel, uh, send a customer who lost their glasses to replacement player pairs a book and a handwritten note. It was a complete surprise, and the customer posted about it on social media and guess what?

It went viral. No one could have predicted that one act of generosity and thankfulness created a lifetime customer and probably hundreds of new ones with the fact that this whole thing went viral. So could someone on your team have the discretion to do something unexpectedly generous when they see an opportunity to bless somebody?

We've talked about five Guys and Bartos and I, I am definitely getting hungry. Um. But I, I'm just amazed at the simple gesture, um, of the extra [00:30:00] fries they did, calculate how much it cost them millions. Um, but it gets them way more back, right? Like if they stopped doing it, they'd save whatever it is, two or 3 million a year.

But I bet you they'd lose that, um, in sales, in free marketing and customers talking about it constantly. Jimmy Kim posting about it on LinkedIn, either Rory Sutherland was talking about it. I saw him talking about it the other day. So. All this publicity generated, uh, amazing. Really? So is there something small that you could consistently over deliver on without making a big deal about it?

I think that's a really great question, isn't it? Now, uh, some businesses optimize their thank you page with complimentary product recommendations, referral program invitations. With just a genuine video saying thanks. Like I say, almost a hundred percent of your customers are gonna see that page. So what could you do?

What could your thank you page become [00:31:00] if you treated it as an opportunity? Rather than just, I'm just gonna use the Shopify blank template thing that they give me because I dunno what I'm supposed to do with it. Right. Um. Have a think about that. And one thing that surprised me actually in the research was, um, and again, I think I intuitively knew this, but when things go wrong, sincere gratitude during that time, right?

So not only dealing with the problem why it's gone wrong, but sincere gratitude creates more loyal customers than if nothing had gone wrong at all. That's a remarkable opportunity. When things go wrong, express some gratitude and create a more loyal customer. Right? A genuine apology accompanied by a small gesture of appreciation, can easily transform disappointment into advocacy that is [00:32:00] insane and powerful and useful.

Right? Um. And like I say, the point isn't do all of these, we have a business, for example, where we talk about sustainability. So just throwing free gifts into the box. Actually, that's gonna create lots of complaints because, well, people don't always want those if their, if their whole ethos is sustainability, right?

It's just like it's waste. It's more stuff. I didn't ask for this stuff. Why are you sending me this stuff? And so. What's your business? What do you, what do your customers want? How could you be, um, grateful in an authentic way to your customers and pick one or two things that you think are gonna work and things that you can do consistently.

Remember the two coaching questions, right? What can I consistently hit an eight out of 10 doing? It's that whole consistency. How can you do that? So then it's not just a tactic, [00:33:00] um, because someone's told you to do it. This is actually a way of life for your business. We just, we just want to embed into our culture, into the values of our business.

Gratitude, just to say thank you and to say it a lot to make our customers feel valued. And I think they can tell the difference, can't they? Customers between genuine gratitude. And like I say, this sort of insincere tactical, performance based gratitude. Maybe, might I say it? Um, I think they can. Now. I hope this is helpful.

You might still be thinking, well, this sounds nice, Matt, but does it, going back to the coach coaching question, does it actually move the needle when you are drowning in orders from your Black Friday weekend? Well.

## The Science Behind Gratitude

**Matt Edmundson:** I hopefully have proven that it has, um, with some very daring stats now when customers feel genuinely appreciated.

And this is where we, again, where the research I found really helpful, deep diving into this. Uh, 'cause to [00:34:00] try and understand why, right? So when somebody feels genuinely appreciated, whether it's your customer, a member of your team, uh, a supplier, your partner, your spouse, whatever dopamine gets released in their brain, that's the reward.

Hormone. Okay. Oxytocin, which is the bonding hormone also gets released. Serotonin, the happiness hormone that's involved as well. So the brain's releasing all kinds of really good stuff, right? It's not soft psychology. This is like proper brain neuroscience that we can take advantage of in many ways. So customers who feel appreciated are less likely to shop.

For the lowest price next time. This is quite fascinating. They're also more likely to refer friends. They are more likely to buy again. They're more likely to leave positive reviews, and they're more likely to post on social media without you asking. Or because you've [00:35:00] been thankful. Right. And then what happens is we go into what I call the RR measure, the referability and repeatability idea.

We'll talk more about this in future episodes, I'm sure. But what tends to happen here then is the repeat customers. Move down this sort of scale, which I have, and they start to become your brand evangelists. Not because or not just because of product quality. Let me just clarify that. Um, or because you gave 30% off, but because of how you made them feel, um, after they'd already said yes to buying from you, right?

There's that emotion. How did you make them feel? And so in the beauty business I mentioned, um. We had that great growth. We weren't doing anything revolutionary. It was, I mean, when you looked at it, it was pretty simple and you're like, how did that equate to that? Because the product stayed the same, the delivery time stayed the same.

So what were we doing that's different? Actually, our prices went up. [00:36:00] Oh, okay. And actually we focused on service and we just focused on being genuinely grateful, consistently without expecting an immediate payback, just because it was a right thing to do, and the business transformed. That's all a bit interesting, isn't it?

And if I think about my own, um, buying habits online, there are a couple of sites that I buy from, not all the time, um, but if I need stuff that they sell, I'll go to them. Like there's a few stationary websites like, um, hunter Paper Company, I don't even know where they're best. Hunter Paper co.com, I think is a URL.

Um, they're great. Send little handwritten notes when I order my journals from those guys. Paper Republic. Um, in Austria they do the same, some lovely little handwritten notes, and it's just literally one or two sentences, nothing earth shattering. But I remember them. I can't tell you what they said on them.

I just remember 'em, I remember the way I felt when I got them. Um, and so I [00:37:00] always, if I buy gifts, I'll go to Paper Republic, I'll go to um, hunter Paper Co, and I'll, is there anything relevant on the, I mean, to be fair, if I'm buying gifts, I'm probably gonna use our new seven year site, but that's another story.

But you see what I mean when it comes stationary, these, the, I'm talking about these guys on the podcast. They're not huge corporations with massive budgets. They're actually, as far as I can tell, quite small businesses. Um, but they understand the fundamental, fundamental aspect I think of human nature, that personalization, just being grateful, right?

Oh, and this is especially true this time of year because businesses are just treating everybody else like a transaction number, right? You've got a real opportunity to do this well, and this is why I wanted to get this episode out today. Um, I appreciate you've gotta make it through the weekend. And I, I hope you do, and if you, you're listening to this post weekend, I hope it went for you brilliantly and well.

Um. But is there something here [00:38:00] that's a bit of an unlock for you in this idea of gratitude? Yes, you're gonna be overwhelmed. Black Friday weekend is properly full on, isn't it? Um, and maybe me adding, just be more grateful to your to-do list might not feel like, you know, a blessing. It might be one more thing that you just don't have time for, but genuinely, um.

You're already sending out the order confirmations, you're already shipping the products, you're already creating the packing slips, you're already doing all of these things. Those touch points already exist, whether you optimize them or whether you don't. So why not use them to build relationships, long-term relationships with your customers, and not just process transaction.

Okay, that's my challenge for you this Thanksgiving. Okay, take five minutes. Literally. Five minutes and just think about. I don't know, three or four customers by name. [00:39:00] If you need to just go and pick some random customers that purchase from you over the weekend. Actual people though, but write them a quick email.

Separate toward the order confirmation stuffs, or write them a handwritten note to go into there, or just express your gratitude to them for being a customer. You don't need to give them a discount code. You don't need to do the upsell. Just genuine. Lovely appreciation. Do what you can and actually see how it makes you feel.

'cause if you are having a bad day, I tell you there's, there's definitely some worth in you sitting down for half an hour writing some thank you notes to clients and just being genuinely grateful. It'll transform how you feel, right? It's not just for your customers. Just putting that out there, especially if you're leading the business.

Uh.

## Implementing Gratitude Consistently

**Matt Edmundson:** Then figure out a way to do that consistently, not just this weekend, not just on Thanksgiving, but how do you get that to be part of your business? How do you get [00:40:00] that to be part of the culture of your business? And like I said, uh, we've this month's freebie, um, we've called it the Touchpoint gratitude audit.

The TGA, we love the naming conventions we have here. I mean, it's just, it is literally a simple table where you map every customer interaction and brainstorm, um, how to show more genuine appreciation at each point. And in the download, um, which you can get on the website at eCommerce Podcast dot com slash resource.

I'll just click the resources link. Um, it will take you there and look for the gratitude audit. Um. Download that because I've also included for you, um, two or three, I can't remember whether it's two or three different examples for different business types at different scales on how to make it work for them.

So I've used examples from the skincare company, the supplement brand, and the gift company, um, [00:41:00] showing exactly what personal gratitude looks like at each of those touch points. So like I say, you can get that freebie. That'll be super helpful for you, and it will just help you to brainstorm and find those sort of one or two key things that you can do.

Plus, I think we're gonna throw in there, 'cause I'm recording this before we've made the freebie, so I don't wanna overcommit, uh, 'cause it's not like it's not a busy time of the year. Um, but we'll throw in there some templates, uh, for the handwritten notes. Again, not because you need to copy the templates, genuinely you don't.

Part of me sometimes thinks you're better off without them just right from the heart. Um, but hopefully it's gonna prompt you. Right, and we'll throw some of those extra things in there in the freebie as well. So you can grab that completely free on the website. Uh, we'll put a link in the description. If you're watching this on YouTube, there'll be a link in the description.

If you're listening to it on the podcast, uh, we'll put the link in the show notes as well. Um, just go, uh, and, and, and get it, and, and hopefully that's gonna help you and [00:42:00] see what you can implement, because like I say. Remember this, gratitude is not a tactic. It is a posture. It is a heart thing, and when that is done authentically, it creates really interesting results in your repeat customer rate and in your referral rates.

That I think no 30% discount could ever actually come close to.

## Final Thoughts and Thanksgiving Wishes

**Matt Edmundson:** Now, I mentioned at the start that we don't actually do Thanksgiving here in the uk, which like I said, is a bit of a shame, but maybe we should just create our own version, not the Turkey and the family gathering though. Oh, I'm all for, you know, family gathering.

It's always nice to hang out with the family. But just with the intentional pause to be grateful. So who are you grateful for today? What are you grateful for in your business with your customers, your team, your suppliers? What are you grateful for? Um, I'm grateful for the customers who keep coming back.

I'm grateful for the team members who pack our orders [00:43:00] with care and who do the marketing. Everyone involved in the business. I, I'm so grateful Every day I wake up and I thank God for the businesses that I get to run. It is a real joy. It is a real pleasure and a real treat. Um, and I do think the commercial success follows the gratitude not the other way around.

I don't think you have to be successful to be grateful, but I think you do have to be grateful in order to be successful. So, uh, just my two peni on this Thanksgiving day. And like I say, super grateful for you guys. Grateful for you listening to the end of the show, which we are now reaching. Um, I dunno if you've noticed actually on the episodes where we do the recording with an expert, with a guest, um.

We do this thing now called saving the best or less because we are aware that actually a handful of people do wait around to the end. And so we say to the guests, give us your best top tip right at the [00:44:00] end for those that make it. Um, and so if you haven't done so, make sure you listen always to the end of the shows because that gold is just, is just wonderful.

Uh, it really is. Um, and like I say, just a little gift, a little thing that we do for those of you that hang around to the end. So thank you for being with us. Thank you for listening to the show. Thank you for all of your support. I do wish you every success over this weekend and leading up to the Christmas holiday.

And if no one's told you yet today, let me be the first. Love this. You are awesome. Yes, you are created. Awesome. It's just a burden You have got to bear. I've gotta bear it. You've gotta bear it. We've all. Got to bear it. That's it from me. Have a phenomenal week wherever you are in the world. I'll see you next time.

Happy Thanksgiving and bye for now.