Craig was the first one at work every single day. Always by 7 am. Not 7:05 am but 7:00 am sharp. Craig also wore his suit coat at his desk. I've known very few men who wear their suit coats while sitting in their own office unless they were cold. Craig wasn't cold, he was particular.

A creature of habit.

Some would say obsessive.

Here's what Craig did the first thing each and every day: he wrote Thank You notes. Craig was the sales manager so he was aware of every order that the company received. If you bought something on a Monday, Craig would write you a Thank You note on Tuesday. The notes were always handwritten on personalized stationery and stamped - never metered.

One day I asked Craig why he wrote a Thank You note to each and every person that bought something from our company. The reason was simple enough: Craig wanted folks to know that he was thankful for their business and he was trying to differentiate our company from our competition.

Here is the problem with what Craig was doing:

1) As the Sales Manager, Craig was not involved in every sale. This made his Thank You seem hollow and contrived.

2) Many customers made repeat purchases on a monthly or more frequent basis. Craig sent them a Thank You just the same as he did for a new customer. This gave his Thank You's the impact of wallpaper. "Oh, here's another card from Craig - the 15th we've received this year!"

3) His Thank You's were reflexive. Somebody sneezes and half the office says, "God Bless you." Somebody buys something and Craig fires off a Thank You.

Don't get me wrong. There is obviously nothing wrong with blessing someone when they sneeze and there is nothing wrong with thanking someone that has done business with you. Here in the South it isn't unusual for someone to bless you when you do business with them and I'm okay with that, too.

Here are my rules for a Thank You:

1) Send a Thank You the first time someone does business with you. If your Sales Manager would like to send a Thank You, make sure that she sends it a couple of days after yours has gone out.

2) Make a reference to something specific that happened during the course of the transaction so that the customer understands that your Thank You's are customized.

3) Take a hint from Craig and always handwrite the Thank You's on stationery and stamp the envelope.

4) Find a reason besides "differentiation" to send a personal communication to your customers.

I started thinking about Craig and his Thank You's because a relative of mine works at Nordstrom and she is talking about how she plans to send Thank You notes to her customers. This is a good way for her to differentiate herself from every other department store salesperson. But, rule #4 says that differentiation is not enough.

Think about it. She works in the shoe department and while there are those lunatics that buy shoes every week, most people only buy shoes a couple of times per year. The Thank You notes that made her different might be long forgotten by the time a customer decides to buy another pair of shoes. To make the Thank You work for her, she needs to have another goal, besides differentiation, in mind.

You may not know this but at Nordstrom, the salespeople, while they are assigned to a department, are allowed to sell merchandise in any department. Do you see where I'm going?

My relative is now sending out Thank You's that look like this:

Dear (Customer),

Thank you very much for purchasing (specific product) from Nordstrom. With Spring rapidly approaching I wanted to let you know that in addition to being able to help you with all of your shoe needs, I can also help you shop in every Nordstrom department! Several of my customers already take advantage of this service, which costs nothing extra. So, the next time you come to Nordstrom, find me in the shoe department and I'll be your personal shopper for as long as you need.

You aren't writing to thank Grandma for sending you $5 on your birthday. C'mon, make this very personal communication work for you!