Best 7 customer appreciation ideas to win B2B clients for life

Customers can choose your business begrudgingly or because they love working with you. It often depends on how you make them feel – in other words, customer appreciation.

Taking the time to value your clients boosts satisfaction, improves loyalty and increases retention. It can even help you win new clients through word-of-mouth marketing.

In this article, you’ll learn what customer appreciation looks like from a business-to-business (B2B) perspective, why it’s essential and seven strategies to show customers you care.

Key takeaways for customer appreciation

• Customer appreciation recognizes, values and rewards clients through tangible and intangible gestures.

• Even simple actions like handwritten notes or milestone celebrations can boost loyalty, retention and referrals.

• Tailor gestures to each client’s journey to make your efforts more personal, meaningful and impactful.

• Technology like Pipedrive’s CRM and AI tools scales customer appreciation – try it free for 14 days to centralize data and automate outreach.

What is customer appreciation?

Customer appreciation is the practice of recognizing, valuing and rewarding your clients to strengthen relationships and build loyalty.

There are two ways to show appreciation toward buyers: using tangible or intangible means.

Businesses express tangible appreciation through physical gifts and intangible appreciation through non-physical gestures, like a surprise service upgrade.

Here’s a table that classifies different types of customer appreciation and gift ideas:

Customer appreciation can be a one-off event or an ongoing commitment. For example, a SaaS company might celebrate Customer Appreciation Day 2025 by calling its clients to say thanks.

A marketing agency might go the extra mile by sending personalized, handwritten thank-you notes to clients after every major project. Along with the note, they’d include a small, thoughtful gift, such as a branded journal.

This simple, sincere gesture delights the customer in the short term and elevates client relations beyond a business transaction. In the long term, it builds customer trust and encourages future partnerships.

The numbers back it up. Below, you’ll discover why the latest research shows customer appreciation is vital for B2B brands.

Research-backed benefits of customer appreciation

The latest studies show that appreciating customers is a proven business strategy for improving customer satisfaction, revenue and client retention.

Here’s a summary of what customer appreciation research indicates:

• Valued clients are happier clients. McKinsey finds that customer experience-led growth strategies improve satisfaction and engagement by 20% to 30%.

• Customers reward appreciation with loyalty. Forrester suggests that buyer-obsessed companies have 51% better customer retention than organizations that don’t prioritize customer-centric strategies. If people feel valued, they’ll be more likely to do business with an organization in the future.

• A better experience boosts your bottom line. KPMG shows that a 2–3% increase in retention rates can cause double-digit revenue and operating income growth. According to research by Forrester, improving brand and customer experience can lead to up to 3.5x revenue growth plus increased retention and customer loyalty.

Customer appreciation is as financially savvy as it is amiable. Demonstrating that you value customers will create brand advocates who buy more, stay longer and refer friends.

Below, you’ll learn ideas that can make customer appreciation benefits a reality.

7 of the best customer appreciation ideas for B2B brands

Whoever you serve and whatever you sell, there’s a practical, meaningful and engaging customer appreciation method for your business.

Here are seven effective customer appreciation strategies, examples of companies that use them and advice on executing them.

1. Send thank-you messages

A personal note of gratitude is one of the simplest, easiest and most impactful ways to show customers you care.

A handwritten thank-you note elicits a stronger emotional and personal connection than an email or text message. The fact that you’ve taken the time to draft it proves how invested you are.

Handwritten thank-you messages are one of the ways HeyTaco founder and CEO Doug Dosberg grew his business.

HeyTaco also sends stickers with every thank-you note as an additional gift and word-of-mouth marketing tool. The brand gets free exposure if customers stick them on their laptops, water bottles or anywhere else.

You don’t have to write as much as Doug. Here are some short customer appreciation quotes you can add to your thank-you card.

HeyTaco included the thank-you note as a package insert, but you can also send yours by direct mail, email or social media.

While digital methods lose the personal element of handwritten messages of appreciation, they might be more realistic for smaller B2B brands that don’t have the time or budget for direct mail. Plus, you may still get the benefits of a handwritten note.

When a South Korean beauty retailer conducted an experiment sending different types of notes to customers, customers who received handwritten or photocopied handwritten notes more than doubled their future spending compared to those receiving no note or machine-printed messages.

There was no difference in spending between handwritten and photocopied notes, meaning the message might be more important than the medium.

2. Give customers special offers and discounts

Send customers discount codes and special offers to show your appreciation and reward loyalty.

Merkle’s 2024 Loyalty Barometer Report finds that 61% of consumers say surprising them with offers and customer appreciation gifts is the most effective way brands can interact with them.

Unlike a loyalty scheme, where customers earn discounts, you show gratitude by sending customers offers out of the blue.

For example, digital advertising tool Fibbler gave existing customers free access to a new feature so they could decide whether upgrading was worthwhile.

Here are some tips to make your offers more meaningful:

• Tailor discounts based on customer needs or product interests for added relevance

• Send special offers during milestone anniversaries, after successful projects or during customer appreciation weeks

• Make offers exclusive to each customer, emphasizing that the discount is a special reward for their loyalty

• Deliver your discount offers through personalized emails or direct communication that explains the reason for the offer and expresses sincere gratitude

• Add a time-sensitive element to create a sense of urgency and prompt action while still reinforcing appreciation

Rather than giving money away, these discounts increase customer spending by boosting loyalty and driving repeat purchases.

3. Create a customer loyalty program

A loyalty program is one of the most common ways to express gratitude, reward clients for their loyalty and encourage repeat purchases.

Loyalty programs are more common in the business-to-consumer (B2C) space, although B2B brands can also run them. For example, email marketing platform Moosend runs a program that rewards marketing agencies whose clients use the platform.

In addition to receiving a 30% recurring commission, agencies get a dedicated account manager, priority customer service and a listing in Moosend’s exclusive partner directory.

Use the following tips to create an engaging program that your clients will want to take advantage of:

• Make the program easy to join and understand to maximize participation

• Define simple, achievable ways clients can earn points, such as purchases, customer referrals and reviews

• Offer meaningful rewards such as discounts, free services or exclusive access to industry content.

• Incorporate points, badges, tiers or challenges to encourage engagement and reward positive behaviors like referrals or product education completion

Using a rewards program to express gratitude is an excellent way for small businesses to boost satisfaction while increasing repeat purchases with a limited marketing budget.

4. Celebrate customer-versaries

Celebrate important customer milestones, such as anniversaries, major purchases or personal events like birthdays, to show customers you track more than just the status of their latest payment.

For example, Shopify honors retailers with milestone awards for reaching 10,000, 100,000 and one million sales, using custom crystal trophies personalized with the company’s branding.

If you use a customer relationship management (CRM) system like Pipedrive, celebrating wins or anniversaries is easy. Here’s how:

• Track key dates such as contract anniversaries, first purchases or significant business milestones in the contacts timeline

• Set recurring reminders for these dates or create triggers that automatically send emails on the anniversary of each milestone

• Create automated appreciation-based follow-up activities that occur at a set time after major events

To deepen the emotional connection, encourage customer success teams to monitor customer accounts for personal milestones like birthdays or work anniversaries.

Authenticity is key when making these gestures. Ensure celebrations align naturally with the customer’s journey, then deliver your messages promptly to make them as relevant and impactful as possible.

5. Surprise customers with free products or upgrades

Surprise giveaways, gifts and upgrades delight customers and create goodwill that often turns into positive word-of-mouth marketing, referrals and new customers.

The trick is to make the gift meaningful. Clients probably won’t appreciate a mousepad with your logo on it, but they might like:

• A free upgrade to a new subscription tier

• A free trial of a new software feature

• A discount on the previous month’s subscription

• A comped ticket to an industry event

Swag still has its place as long as it’s relevant, funny or useful. For example, the marketing automation company Omnisend sends branded t-shirts to loyal customers based on their behavior.

These t-shirts work because they’re fun, hyper-relevant gifts that customers will use. They also double as marketing assets since recipients might share photos of their swag on social media.

Include a personalized note explaining the gift and expressing gratitude. It will make your gesture more meaningful and frame it as appreciation rather than a sales tactic.

6. Ask for their input

Asking customers for feedback or inviting them to shape your product’s future shows you appreciate their input and ideas. It’s also a great way to reward loyalty and prevent customer churn by finding and fixing product issues.

There are plenty of ways to capture the voice of your customer:

• Conduct customer surveys or interviews at strategic points to gather input on product features, pain points and service quality

• Create advisory councils or beta test groups that give customers early feature access and a voice in development

• Build a public-facing product roadmap and let customers request and vote on new features

• Project management software provider ClickUp uses the latter method to acknowledge and appreciate customers’ thoughts. Here’s what its feature requests page looks like:

If you implement the product roadmap approach, always close the feedback loop by sharing the changes or improvements you made based on customer input.

To reinforce your appreciation, send a follow-up email and publicly thank customers for their ideas in your social media marketing when possible.

7. Invite customers to special events and product launches

Invite customers to exclusive customer appreciation events, behind-the-scenes tours and early product launches to make them feel special and deepen customer engagement.

Loyal customers love exclusive perks, VIP access and the chance to learn about new features or strategies that can make them more successful.

For example, Mailchimp’s insider program offers agencies and freelance businesses early access to tools and invites to exclusive events. It helps the brand retain customers by making them feel part of the company’s growth journey.

Here are some ideas to create your own VIP customer experiences:

• Host online or in-person appreciation events showcasing upcoming product features or company updates

• Invite key account customers to your offices to meet your team

• Offer networking opportunities with peers and company leaders, such as SMB conferences, to build a VIP community

• Run educational workshops to help customers get the most from your product and learn skills to grow their businesses

Don’t miss the opportunity to show customer appreciation after the event. Send personalized thank-you notes, share recordings and collect feedback to demonstrate your ongoing gratitude.

How to perfect a customer appreciation strategy

A great customer appreciation strategy is never complete. It evolves as you learn more about your clients, and your ability to recognize and reward clients grows.

Here’s how you can optimize your appreciation strategy to create meaningful, lasting relationships.

Centralize customer information in a CRM

To make meaningful gestures to hundreds of clients at scale, you need a way to collect, store and centralize customer information.

A CRM system is the easiest way to organize and analyze your clients’ data. In Pipedrive, you can record customer data from every sales interaction, including:

• Phone calls

• Email threads

• Meetings and sales demos

• Sales contracts and subscriptions

• Customer support requests

With hundreds of integrations in Pipedrive’s Marketplace, you can pull real-time data from apps like marketing automation platforms and customer service tools. This CRM centralization gives you a 360-degree customer view.

Here’s an example that shows the information a company has about a client, including contact information, details of key sales activities and related notes:

This unified picture lets your teams spot occasions for appreciation and tailor each gesture to the customer’s journey and preferences.

Imagine your CRM notes say a client loved a software feature in their trial, but couldn’t afford to include it in their subscription. You then offer the feature for free on their customer-versary to say thanks.

Centralizing customer information helps marketing reporting software provider DashThis stay on top of client relationships.

By integrating Pipedrive with tools like HelpScout and Intercom, account managers can track every interaction and adapt responses to increase customer satisfaction.

Centralizing customer information also makes it easier to personalize and automate goodwill gestures. You’ll find out more about that below.

Personalize every appreciation interaction at scale

Improve customer satisfaction by personalizing every client appreciation interaction with data from your CRM. It will make even small gestures like a thank-you email feel meaningful.

Your customers have come to expect personalization. McKinsey research finds that 71% of buyers expect personalized experiences and 76% get frustrated without them.

The same research also finds that companies that excel in personalization generate 40% more sales revenue from these customer interactions than slower-growing competitors.

Here are some ways you can personalize customer appreciation efforts:

• Sending thank-you messages that cite details about the customer’s purchases, feedback or goals

• Recording a personalized video message

• Celebrating customer milestones and anniversaries in a personalized email

• Spotlighting customer success stories on your socials or your company blog

• Offering a discount or a free gift based on the customer’s activity

Tailoring every message to individual customers may seem like a lot of work, but an AI-powered CRM can help you automate workflows and processes and deliver personalization at scale.

Pipedrive’s AI CRM is beneficial here. Customers can use the platform’s AI email writer to personalize emails using CRM data.

Here’s what a customer success manager might enter as a prompt:

Click on “Generate email” for Pipedrive to create a complete email in seconds.

You can copy the email into a message and edit it as necessary. You can also edit your prompt and change the email tone or length.

This level of personalized appreciation makes existing customers feel recognized as individuals, creating an emotional connection that inspires repeat business and brand advocacy.

Automate customer outreach to never miss an opportunity

Put customer appreciation on autopilot by creating triggers that automatically send personalized messages of gratification. It will help you scale your appreciation efforts without losing the personal touch.

Use email marketing software like Campaigns by Pipedrive to automate workflows for thank-you emails, discount offers and milestone messages at pre-defined moments.

For example, you could create a trigger that sends a thank-you message to customers after they’ve been with you for a year.

This video explains how you can automate campaigns in Pipedrive:

Among Pipedrive’s success stories is package surfing holiday provider SurfaWhile. It uses Pipedrive’s automation features for welcome emails, goodwill messages and other interactions during customers’ trips:

Automating messages in this way frees your team to focus on adding greater personalization where it matters while maintaining consistent appreciation.

Collect and track customer feedback to analyze and improve your appreciation efforts

Listening to customers is one of the easiest ways to show them you have their best interests at heart. Regularly collecting, tracking, analyzing and acting on feedback helps you measure the impact of your customer appreciation efforts and identify what resonates most with your clients.

Pipedrive integrates with tools like Nicereply, WeHelp and Trustmary to facilitate automated feedback collection after key interactions, such as calling a client or sending a discount code to say thanks.

You can also build your own customer feedback tracker using Pipedrive’s customizable pipelines.

Assess feedback data to personalize future appreciation efforts. For instance, reward clients who value quick response times with exclusive dedicated support or early product access.

Ensuring buyers feel heard and valued is how you make your appreciation efforts customer-led. This approach increases the impact of even the smallest gesture while boosting satisfaction and loyalty.

Final thoughts

Whether with a handwritten note, a surprise upgrade or a thoughtful milestone celebration, taking the time to appreciate your customers reaffirms their choice in your company. It boosts customer satisfaction, drives loyalty and can lead to long-term business growth.

A CRM like Pipedrive will help you make every gesture authentic, personalized and timely through centralized customer data, AI and automated workflows.