The United States is in the middle of the most serious economic crisis since the 1930s. It’s been two years, the US has registered annual decline in median home prices. However, over the past 24 months, consumer prices have risen 7.8% according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. From coloring hair at home instead of at the salon to trying cheaper laundry detergents, new evidence indicates that Americans are modifying even minor household habits to save money. Americans are changing their everyday purchases and abandon brand loyalty.

On the marketing side, do you know that it costs 5 times as much to bring in a new customer, than to keep an existing one. Knowing that your marketing budget might be cut, perhaps it’s time to ensure loyalty with your customers by utilizing the “back to basics” of customer service. It’s usually hard for consumers to find another brand for the same product and that meet their needs. But why do they leave? They leave because of a lack of attention to plain-old customer service.

When customers buy a product or contact your company, your employees have the opportunity to improve or worsen the relationship with the customers. Hopefully you want to improve the customer relationship. So, it would make good sense to make these contacts as meaningful and helpful to the customers as possible. If you want your customers to be loyal, it is a good practice to have both you and your employees pay attention to your customer service practices and follow the basics.

And one of the basics is to show gratitude to your customers: always end each contact with a “Thank you” or a message of appreciation for their business.

So I wanted to share my experience with two nice cards that Bloomingdale’s and Gilt sent to me after my Christmas purchases.