What Businesses Can Do for Me... Here and Now

When I was flying with KLM to Sweden last week, I noticed a stewardess welcoming a few
passengers and offering them drinks. The others around
them didn't get these "special" drinks, and were completely
ignored. (Including me.)

Why?

Because the "welcome" passengers were frequent customers, with a
status called Elite, Silver, Gold, Marble, Platinum, Titanium, or
whatever. Valuable customers. KLM knew exactly

who they were, where they were, and when
they were flying.

I think those "welcome" passengers didn't mind the special
treatment. In fact, if I had paid thousands of Euros on a
dozen air tickets, I would expect to be treated as a
special guest every now and then.

What if you could treat your valued customers in a
similar way?

What if there are twenty customers in your retail store, and you
could walk up to one of them and offer him a free drink?
Only because he is a valuable customer who has had many purchases
with your retail chain across different store locations?

What if your restaurant is almost fully booked, but you're
keeping one table reserved for a valued guest who just
tweeted that she's considering having dinner at your place?

What if you have a very popular product that is almost sold out,
and you would be able to contact earlier customers within a
radius of one kilometer, to tell them there are only three
items left?

If I were your customer, and only if I really liked your
service as a regular customer, then I wouldn't mind if you
contacted me with special offers. In fact, I insist that
you do! Everyone likes to be a special person
sometimes.

Services like Twitter, Foursquare and Gowalla are already available and
can be connected to businesses.

Why don't you use them?

(picture by Aaron
Escobar)