5 Low-Cost Ways to Celebrate Customer Birthdays

We all love when someone remembers our birthday, right? It makes us feel seen and valued. What if you could give your customers that same special feeling by recognizing their birthdays in a unique way? In this article, we’re giving you five low-cost ideas for celebrating customer birthdays.

Recognizing someone on their birthday can be accomplished multiple ways, and you get to personalize how you want to celebrate your customers. Your motivation for running a birthday recognition program should be to build stronger relationships with your customers and for them to feel appreciated by you.

But before you choose WHICH method is best for you, we also recommend keeping in mind a few key logistical details. First, if the program can be automated through your CRM or point of sale system, that is ideal. If it can’t be automated, make sure you know who will be in charge of the program and have all the available resources for that team member so operating the program doesn’t become a burden. The simpler and easier, the better!

Here are five different low-cost ideas for celebrating customer birthdays:

· Birthday Discounts – Birthday discounts are a better ROI for your business. It not only recognizes the customer’s special day, but also gets them in the door (or online) and helps to continue building that buyer trust and satisfaction. But because they are basically just a coupon, you’ll have a lower utilization rate, which impacts your relationship with fewer customers.

· Free Birthday Item – Similar to a discount program, you could provide a free item to your customers on their birthdays. An example of this is Starbucks, who offers a free drink item (any size or variety) to Gold Card members on their birthdays. For a service business that doesn’t sell a product or operate a storefront, maybe you mail a postcard to your customers with birthdays that month, offering them a free promotional product or reusable tumbler if they stop by that month to claim their birthday gift. This requires stocking that item on-hand, but it also allows your staff to personally visit with that customer and strengthen that relationship.

· Birthday Cards – Mailing a simple birthday card to your customers can still mean a lot, especially if it’s hand written. But e-cards are also a good idea if you can’t keep up with hand written cards, and electronic methods could potentially be automated to happen without your team having to remember to initiate it.

· Monthly Birthday Party – You could host a monthly (or quarterly) birthday party for your customers. This might look like an “after hours” event with special discounts and treats, or maybe a come-and-go party during the day with treats offered to all your customers with birthdays that month.

· Social Media Shoutout – Another great way to recognize your customers for their birthday is to do a social media shoutout. This might be one post at the beginning of the month, once a week, or on the dates of their actual birthdays. Once a month is the easiest to keep up with, and this also lets other potential customers see that you offer people a special perk, and might influence them to become a customer if they haven’t already.

Building out a birthday recognition program can be very inexpensive, but highly effective in making a positive impression with your customers. All businesses are different, so have fun making customer birthday celebrations unique and a true reflection of the business relationship you’re wanting to build with them! And if you need any help designing custom birthday graphics or postcards, you can always #HireAMaven.