Closing Loops: Making Moments For Your Buyers
Remember that time you had to work late? You’re sitting at your desk crushing through the work at hand, then you close your laptop, push your chair back into your desk, and emerge from your workspace. You stumble down the hallway and find your way into your dining room to find that your partner made your favorite meal, has an ice-cold one waiting for you, and your favorite record is playing at just the perfect volume.
How did this happen? This happened because your partner knows who you are, what you value, and what would make you feel seen and loved in that moment…just because! Now, imagine that you did this for your buyers. How would it make them feel if they were made to feel like your business knew them, knew what they liked, and created little moments for them…just because. At The Lev Co, we call this moment making. But what we’re referring to here is really closing loops.
See, your business has more data on your customers and audience members than ever in the history of business. You’ve probably got their email addresses, their phone numbers, their physical addresses, and by and large, you likely have a sense of who comes through your physical and virtual doors every day. So here’s the question: how are you closing the loop with them and moment making…just because?
Here are a few ideas of what this could look like in your business:
For Cafe Owners
The folks who walk through your front door and order a vanilla-oat milk-latte every single day…who are they? I can tell you that they are likely between the ages of 17-40, have expendable income, are likely in school or work in a professional office/virtual environment, and care about little micro-luxuries like a $7+ tip latte. But here’s where you could potentially close some loops for these customers. Instead of spam SMS texting that coupon or reward code that feels automated (because it is)…what if you crafted a text that you’d send to every customer that comes in more than 2x a week?
Something like this:
Hey (insert their first name),
You’re here every week…like multiple times a week, and I (insert owner or manager's name) wanted to let you know that you’re why we do this every day.
Thanks for being a regular! You make our day when you come in and I hope we’re making your day better when you come in.
Don’t even try paying on your next visit. We’ve got your (insert their specific coffee order)!
See you soon (insert their first name)!
Sure, this is not scalable, but that’s not what we’re doing here. We’re closing loops here. The scalable things are for another conversation entirely.
For Roastery Owners
Now, let's imagine that you own a roastery and you mostly sell wholesale coffee to cafes. What then? Your approach could be something like showing up to their cafe around 11:30 am with lunch from the crew’s favorite taco place without notice! Or maybe you could drop off a case of closing beers 30 minutes before they close. Let’s be honest, closing a cafe is always better with an ice-cold beer, but it also lets the folks who are representing your coffee day in and day out know that you care about them and appreciate their work.
For Green Coffee Importers/Exporters
Finally, what if you’re selling to green coffee buyers? Well, I don’t know very many green buyers who don’t like natural wine. So that is a good place to start. Maybe you keep an eye on the owner's Instagram stories to learn what kind of natural wine they are into, then you drop off a couple of bottles with a handwritten note saying something like:
“Hey (green buyer’s name), saw that you were enjoying (x wine) a few weeks back and I’m really into (insert the wine you’re dropping off). I heard this bottle goes well with weekend plans and a good record :).
Enjoy!
The real point of this is to do things…just because. When your partner grabs that snack from the store that you love…just because, it makes you feel like they know and see you. When your best friend mails you a silly card to say that they love you and are thinking about you, it makes you feel that you’re on their mind and that you matter to them.
So why wouldn’t we do this in our work environments? We have our buyers' email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, and you probably follow their personal Instagram profile…you know more about your buyers than you’re willing to admit I’m sure.
So close the loop! Make your buyers feel special. Give them a reason to think well of you outside of when you’re just doing your job. Make moments for them by closing loops.
Need more ideas on closing loops? Drop us a line at hi@thelevco.com and we can set up a brainstorm session where we can come up with ideas to do this very thing!