From the Yellow Chair
From the Yellow Chair
Creative Ways To Show Thanks To Your Customers
Loyalty doesn’t happen at the invoice; it happens in the simple, human moments after the job. We break down a practical gratitude playbook for home service brands—HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and beyond—so you can turn happy customers into repeat buyers and vocal fans. The strategy is delightfully simple: make it personal, make it useful, and make it consistent.
We start with the smallest levers that deliver outsized returns: handwritten-style notes after big installs, quick follow-up calls that ask for nothing, and fridge-worthy mailers like school calendars, grilling temps, or Wi‑Fi password magnets. Then we layer in low-cost, high-touch ideas your techs can run daily—branded leave-behind treats, neighborhood holiday drop-offs, and surprise ornaments tied to local mascots or counties. Each touchpoint is designed to feel like a favor, not a pitch.
From there, we explore scalable digital gestures and community-first moves. Think curated Spotify playlists for seasonal vibes, “Customer of the Month” spotlights that create social proof, and donated service calls for neighbors in need or local nonprofits. We show how to partner with nearby businesses for gift-card thank yous and referral swaps, and how to elevate maintenance memberships with real perks—free filters, early scheduling, and limited-time discounts on IAQ, duct sealing, or dryer vent cleaning. To close the loop, we outline a review program that welcomes honest feedback and fuels user-generated content, giving you a steady stream of stories that beat paid clicks on both trust and ROI.
If you’re ready to build a gratitude system your CSR team can own and your community can feel, this guide gives you the steps, scripts, and ideas to start today. Subscribe, share with your team, and tell us: which thank you tactic will you try first?
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What's up, the Lemon Heads? Welcome to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. I'm Crystal, and today we're talking about showing appreciation. Right? So, one of my favorite things to do, I think it is so important that your culture, so your customers, your team, everyone feel a sense of gratitude that you have for them. And so today we're going to talk about 15 creative ways to say thank you to your home service company's clients. Um, and that actually will build loyalty on the backside. So let's dip some lemonade. All right, so my first section here is make it personal, right? So, how can we do some things that are personally um from you? So if you're a smaller company, this is a little easier for you to do. But, you know, what does your install follow-up process look like? So are we sending handwritten or at least the appearance of handwritten thank you notes? So maybe after large installs or big ticket, like big repairs, uh, maybe if they sign up for maintenance club, you are actively sending them a thank you note that is very personal, you know, just very handwritten and a style that's something unique. You know, I hope your family enjoys your new air quality or, you know, excited to be able to take care of you two times a year, something like that. But mention in how important it is that you have gained their trust. I think that is a super cool way to really just reiterate one more time. Like, thank you for trusting us to take care of your home. So, especially in home comfort, I think this is really important. So just maybe think through what are you doing to reward or thank customers that have done are actively have recently done business with you in a way that is you're interacting with them in a meaningful way. So, second thing is I love direct mail to your existing database. Um, and so send something cool, right? So send um maybe you send a magnet they can stick on their refrigerator for the Wi-Fi password. Maybe you figure out the school holidays, those of you in a rural market, like what does the school calendar look like for the next year? So in the next couple of months, maybe send that out, a magnet mailer. And on that magnet, that's what I'm talking about. It could be a place to write your Wi-Fi password. It could be school holidays, it could be a sports schedule, it could be grilling temperatures. There's a hundred things it could be, right? So um, but mailing them something that's just kind of unique and make sure on the content of the actual card that you say, hey, thank you for being a valued um partner with you know crystals heating and air. Um, I just think it's, you know, thanks for trusting us to keep you cool all summer and warm all winter. I just think it's an easy way to be friendly and branded and something kind of cool for them to keep. I mean, some of it might go in the trash, but at the end of the day, we're just trying to make an impact and we will with those. Um, the other thing that I think is kind of interesting that we can do, and I'm referencing my notes here because you know, I went crazy writing all these crazy notes, but um, you know, just appreciation calls like do a ringless voicemail drop that is goes out. You can utilize chirp and things like that. Buy the credits, just send out a thank you call. Hi, this is Crystal calling from Crystals Heating and Air Conditioning. I need absolutely nothing. I just wanted to tell you that I hope you enjoy this holiday season and thank you for trusting Crystals Heating and Air for so much time. Um, happy holidays. Right. And then they're gonna be like, did they just call me and say happy holidays? Yes, I did. As a matter of fact, I did. I'm not upselling, it's a really quick, easy thing to listen to. And now your CSR team or your people, whoever you get to do these outbound calls, they um look like the heroes. So let them do outbound calling or do ringless voice smell drops. At the very minimum, do a text. But again, you want to make sure that these are very intentional strategies. Um, and then I think there are some unexpected, delightful things that we could also do to say thank you. So leave behind um little items and so branded cookies, emergency, like for me, it'd be like emergency lemonade packets, right? So something that's branded for you. So if you have something that's to do with sunglasses or animals or anything like that, just now for the next few months, just every time you go to a call, drop off something kind of cool that really mimics your day. So, like, thank you for letting us brighten your day, your friends at Crystals Heating and Air. And it is a um sunglasses or a car shield for the windshield, something like that. Um, again, I love the holiday surprise mailers, a Christmas tree ornament um with the town. So, you know, let's say you serve all of East Texas. Like, could you do something with your county or your city or your school mascot, something like that. Again, that's harder when you're in larger markets. But, you know, if you're um got a mascot, maybe you send a fun ornament with your mascot in the year on it. Um, those are relatively inexpensive ways um to again just to stand out. Drive through and give out uh poenzettas, like that's another choice, right? So you could drive around again. If you're a super huge company, this is gonna be a little bit more challenging. But if you're a smaller local company, you still can do lots of intentional things like driving a trailer around full of pointsettas and handing them out. Um, do all kinds of little cool candy canes, hot cocoa, cocoa mugs, right? Anything that says thank you for letting us keep you warm or keep you cool all year long. So those little surprise gifts and mailers, you know, I mentioned the magnet earlier. Um, and then like I just said, the the points that is like a neighborhood drop-off thing. So thanks for you know trusting us. Even if you go into um like HOA communities and do something cool, like, you know, I just want to thank you for your um business this year, right? So there's again some cool stuff in there. So let me recap the few that I've mentioned. So handwritten thank yous of some sort, or at least the appearance of handwritten thank yous, follow-up postcards that are just thanking everybody for their business all year long. Um, and then the customer appreciation calls, um, no upselling or anything in those, you know, that's ringless voicemail drops or outbound calling. Leave behind treats, something that you can leave at every call that you go on as a um just a little thank you that's on brand. Um, surprise mailer specifically during the holiday season. So, you know, we can say thank you all all year long, um, but specifically during the mailers, like, you know, if you think that you're gonna your Christmas cards might get lost in the mail, do a thank you card. I mean, a Thanksgiving card, do a New Year's card, right? Um, the Christmas tree ornament I mentioned, and then of course the magnet with some kind of cool information or reminder on it. And then those neighborhood thank you drops. So the points that is you drive around and drop off, or you know, you put out um, you know, door hangers with some cool coupon codes and things on them. Not that that's necessarily saying thank you, but you could say, hey, this HOA, thank you for letting us in the market. Thank you for letting us service your neighborhood. Um, and again, just great for communities. Another cool thing, and I thought this was kind of cool for those of you that are a little bit more tech savvy. Um, create a Spotify playlist and email it out. Right. So email your database and say, hey, here's a Spotify playlist full of warm and cozy winter playlists, spring, you know, Christmas, anything like that. But share it with your customers as just a little note to say hi. Thank you for your business. Um, and then there's other ways that we can say thank you. So, like what if we did some spotlights, right? So customer of the month, yard of the month, roof of the month, I don't care, right? But something cool of the month. Um, it just gives you a consistent piece of content that you can post so you don't have to dream it up every month. Um, but celebrating people publicly and on social media a lot of times has really good benefits and people really love to engage with that. Um, feature their story, something they said, their five-star review, their before and afters, something that really shows that they were a part of your business. Um, the next thing is what about donating a service call? So for every 50 calls, we're gonna nominate a neighbor in need or we're gonna go serve a neighbor in need. Um, you know, free service calls for veterans, right? So there's all kinds of little cool like service call things you could do. Um, also, you could just go do a preventative maintenance on a local nonprofit that has a facility. So the women's shelter, the animal shelter, the local goodwill, all of those things could really benefit probably from some complimentary services. Video yourselves doing it. And then honestly, you really want to kill it, make a little donation at the same time. Hey, we just dropped by. We wanted to bring you this$500 check, and we're gonna go ahead and run and make sure that you know your systems are operating efficiently, and then they're gonna share about you. And that's what we want, friends. Those are golden. Um, inviting customers to local Christmas events. So, like at the Christmas parade, can you mark off a section where you invite your clients to sit? Um, or just doing cool, like, hey, I have extra tickets to the Forest Festival, to the Fourth of July event, to this, to that, and give them out as customer appreciation gifts. Just thank you for being a part of our family. This is super great. Pro tip, super great for maintenance club members. Hey, I've secured a deal on water park tickets. Here is a link. Get to take advantage of my discount that I earned for you guys, right? So just giving away perks as a part of being a part of your membership is even a cooler thing. Um, you know what? When you make a little mistake, or if you just want to tell somebody thank you for referring other people to you, support local. So send gift cards to local coffee shops and local eateries and local service providers because it really helps. So think about if you were to partner with a local power washing guy, and for every new install that you did, you gave them a$150 power washing gift card. Hopefully they return the favor. They're gonna recommend you, they're gonna talk about you. But it's great for you to be on their social feeds, for you to be on the for you to be on theirs and them to be on yours. Um, but support local. So, you know, even a$10 local coffee gift card, it's$10 they didn't have. Um, and it's a simple way to, you know, give um a little boost to your local shops, but also a cool way to win some admiration from people as you say thank you. Um, again, those VIP maintenance perks, you know, like free filters or a service reminder, a surprise gift sent to them, a coupon code get to them. You know, just hey, thank you for joining. So all year long, you should be sending something to the people that join your maintenance club, other than an invoice. You feel me? Other than an invoice, right? So something cool to send them, you know, a little checklist, a magnet, a keychain, something. Um, but also just all throughout the year, I love to send them little discounts, like especially if you're trying to add a service. So, you know, you want to add on aeroseal or you want to add in the air purification, like the IEQ side, the smell good in the air side, dryer vent cleaning. Offer your members a discount on that service to get the ball rolling, get some reviews, and get some content videoed. Um, the thank you discounts. Here's 10% off any accessory in 2026 as a thank you. Um, hey, you've been with us over 15 years. Here's a hundred dollars off any of our bundled products, you know, water filtration system, something like that. Again, a thank you discount. And then a thank you and testimonial exchange. So send a message like we really appreciate you choosing us. Um, and your revert your review means so much. And so if you leave us a review, everybody enters into a quarterly um giveaway, and we're giving just for leaving an honest review. So even your little one, two, and three and four stars, you'd have to enter everyone into it, but then give away a vacation voucher, like make it juicy, right? Make it really good. So, listen, guys, really at the end of the day, what I want you to do is be intentional about saying thank you. So, shouting out customers that choose you. Um, if you have something in your brand, like can you give them a high five? Can you put uh sunglasses on their face? Can you give them lemonade packets? What can you do that is on brand to say thank you for their install and then asking them to share about their experience with you? That is how we build user-generated content. That's how we get people talking about us. And that is so much more valuable than a PPC lead, right? We want people talking about us and we want to acknowledge and thank them for choosing us as their company of choice. And so at the end of the day, saying thank you is one of the simplest marketing tools that we can utilize. Um, and it's one of the most overlooked. Many of you just like, oh, I don't have time, I don't have money, I don't have a way to do it. It's about intentionality. A CSR would be in charge of follow-up calls for my installs or open estimates or whatever we've got. The more personal, the more unexpected, and the more heartfelt that the gift is and the thank you is, the more it sticks and resonates with that homeowner. So don't sleep on that. And if you just implement even one of these ideas that I've given you today, you're going to see an uptick in loyalty and referrals and just loving on your brand, right? So thank you for joining me today from the yellow chair as a short little sip of lemonade today. Hey, you know what? This is probably going to air right before the Lemon Seed Conference. It is not too late. Go look at LemonseedMarketing.com at our conference coming up January 25th through the 27th, right here in Lefkin, Texas. If not, follow us on all of our socials. We will talk to you later. Bye.