Little Things Matter

Dec 8 2006

I spent a couple of hours today doing something that most people may say was a waste of time. We’ve identified a group of customers that we wanted to send a physical Christmas card to. Through the mail the old fashioned way.

Our cards (that we’re using this year for partners, suppliers, customers, etc.) have the following printed on the inside of them:

Wishing you and yours the very best this holiday season and throughout the new year

All of our customers will get an email message from me in the next week or so, but this is a group that we wanted to send this physical card to as well. We printed a small insert with this additional message:

As 2006 comes to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your business. As one of our valued customers, I appreciate the relationship that we have with you. I wish you the best this holiday season, as well as smashing success in the coming New Year!

JEREMY HANKS, CEO

I think many people would have figured this effort was good to go. A physical card and an additional message from the CEO. But I wanted to sign the insert. Again, easy enough to scan my signature and hit the print button. But you know what? That’s just not very personal at all.

So I signed each insert. Hundreds and hundreds of them. With a real pen. In blue ink. And it took a good few hours. And I can barely move my arm. And to me, little things like that really do matter.

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6 Comments; Filed under Business Culture
  • http://www.valleyword.org Sandi

    Hi, Jeremy!
    Welcome back! I totally agree with the significance of personally signing the card inserts. In our first time guest packets at my church there is a letter that I wrote to welcome our visitors. I personally sign all of them when they are printed, and I use a color ink that makes it obvious that it was hand signed. I’ve received comments of appreciation from guests who later became members on how they’d noticed the extra effort. It let them know that they were worth a little extra effort…Because to me they are!

  • http://www.myspace.com/thewesly D.O.W.R.

    This is the kind of gut splitting awesome stuff that makes Doba the place to be man.

  • http://www.myspace.com/thewesly D.O.W.R.

    This is the kind of gut splitting awesome stuff that makes Doba the place to be man.

  • http://www.shmula.com/ Pete Abilla

    The little things are the big things. Nice work in showing that Doba is customer obsessed and truly cares about the customer.

  • http://www.shmula.com Pete Abilla

    The little things are the big things. Nice work in showing that Doba is customer obsessed and truly cares about the customer.

  • http://www.valleyword.org/ Sandi

    Hi, Jeremy!
    Welcome back! I totally agree with the significance of personally signing the card inserts. In our first time guest packets at my church there is a letter that I wrote to welcome our visitors. I personally sign all of them when they are printed, and I use a color ink that makes it obvious that it was hand signed. I've received comments of appreciation from guests who later became members on how they'd noticed the extra effort. It let them know that they were worth a little extra effort…Because to me they are!

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