Most jewelers make Thanksgiving a target day to have their Christmas greetings ready to be mailed in the first part of December. But Nancy Schuring does things a little differently. Veterans’ Day is her mark on the calendar to put the finishing touches on her Thanksgiving Day greeting letter and mailing list.
That’s right. Instead of sending out Christmas cards that will be one of hundreds of seasonal greeting cards, Schuring gets the jump on the holiday season by saying “thanks” on Thanksgiving.
“We’ve been doing this for three years and it is well received by all of our customers,” says Schuring, the owner of Devon Fine Jewelry in Wyckoff, NJ. “I remember a woman who came in the store several months after Thanksgiving and said ‘thank you’ for our thank-you letter. Very few people get such a greeting and we get our message out early.”
For Schuring it’s more than being the first card in the seasonal stack. “Sending out thank-you notes the week before Thanksgiving gives us a chance to simply say thanks and gives of top-of-mind presence with our customers at the start of the holiday shopping season.”
Schuring’s Thanksgiving Day letter is a simple letter of appreciation with a horn of plenty graphic and a fall-looking border – that’s it. No holiday coupon. No call to action. Not even a hint of “come in and see us:” Just a simple thank you.
Another benefit of a Thanksgiving Day letter is saving money. Nicer Christmas greeting cards, plus postage and the staff time to personalize them, became a daunting task that was expensive. “On the average Christmas cards were $3 each, and that’s a conservative estimate,” says Schuring.
Schuring is realizing even more savings this year as she’s using LetterMatics. The in-store POS-based software application, developed by Schuring’s fiancée, allows the store owner to send printed letters directly from her computer at roughly $1.25 per letter.
The speed, efficiency and low cost of LetterMatics-produced Thanksgiving letters also means more thank-you letters can be sent. The first two years Schuring sent out 1,000 to 2,000 Thanksgiving Day letters. This year she’s mailing over 3,000 such letters.
Schuring says few if any sales are directly linked to the Thanksgiving Day letter campaign. But she doesn’t think much of it. “For me it’s all about just saying thank you on a day of thanks,” says Schuring. “It’s so simple I don’t know why more jewelers don’t do it.”
Ever the contrarian, this will be the first holiday season that Schuring sends out New Year’s thank-you letters to express her appreciation for Christmas sales and to wish customers a healthy, happy and prosperous year ahead.
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