Guest Editorial provided
By Erik Deckers
www.ErikDeckers.com
Do you give sirsees and lagniappes? Southern in its usage, a sirsee is a small, inexpensive gift that lets the recipient know you’re thinking of them. A lagniappe – a French word commonly used in Louisiana – is a small little extra given as a thank you. Business people can give sirsees and lagniappes to their customers as a way to promote and grow their relationships.
Although they’re similar – small, inexpensive gifts – they’re given at different times and for different reasons.
Sirsees (pronounced SIR-see; no one is sure how it’s spelled though: sirsee, sursee, surcy) are sent out of the blue, given unexpectedly. We usually send little thank you gifts to our best customers during Christmas, but what if you did it at unusual times of the year? Send your customers a small sapling on Arbor Day, a flag pin on Flag Day, or a local coffee shop gift card on their birthday. (Vote with your dollars and support your local area merchants!)
The sirsee does a couple of things for you. First, it puts your name and face in front of your customer one more time. It’s a reminder that you exist, you’ve done business with them, and that you’re kind and helpful. It further cements the relationship, and hopefully takes it to a more personal level than just vendor-client. (Remember, people buy from people they like.)
Don’t just give one to your best customers. They already like you, and you already have a great relationship with them. Instead, give them to some of your newer customers and smaller customers; they could become some of your best customers too.
The added bonus is that in some cases, a sirsee can cost a lot less than a personal visit in terms of time on the road, mileage, gas, and even lunch or coffee. If your time is typically worth $25 an hour, and you spend an hour driving to and from your appointment, spend an hour meeting with your client, and it cost $5 in gas just to get here, you just spent $55. Plus, in two hours, you only put yourself in front of one client.
But for $5 apiece, you could reach 11 clients for the same amount of money, and get it done in two hours. How’s that for efficiency? The sirsee should not take place of a client visit. But if you meet with them once a month, you can add a 13th “visit” to your schedule with that $5 gift.
Lagniappe (pronounced LAN-yap) is another term we get from the South. It’s a French term (by way of the American Spanish phrase, la ñapa) that means an extra or unexpected gift, usually given to a customer by a merchant.
When you go to a restaurant and they give you a little mint with your bill, that’s a lagniappe. When Enterprise Rent-A-Car gives you a free ride to their office, that’s a lagniappe. When a printer throws in an extra 100 business cards with your 1,000 card order, that’s a lagniappe.
It’s a great way to show customers that you appreciate their business without breaking out the thank you cards for every order. But you don’t need to do it every day, or it becomes expected, and doesn’t have the same effect when you only do it once in a while.
A lagniappe is not a special offer, like giving a free piece of software with every laptop purchase, or real estate agents who gave away HD TVs with every home purchase. It’s small, it’s a spur of the moment thing, and it’s not expensive. (Although I’m accepting any and all HD TVs any real estate agents want to send my way.)
Sirsees and lagniappes are excellent ways to improve customer service without breaking the bank. Done properly, they’ll increase your business, because your customers will know you care about them, and that you will always do that little extra to earn and keep their business. In exchange, the customers may return a little more frequently, spend a little more money, and tell their friends about the great experience they had with you.
