The large national store Country Road offers home wares, fashion and furniture. It is an upmarket chain and targeted at a specific market. A clever piece of customer service that they offer is to invite regular customers to exclusive pre-sale events. This means that their 'special' customers can have the run of the shop the night before the sale goes public. They get the best pick of the bargains that are available. It is exclusive and it makes these good customers feel special.
Many financial organizations, such as fund managers, hold lunches featuring a well-known guest speaker. They will invite their regular clients to attend the lunch, either for free or at a subsidized rate. There are many industries where this is a normal and accepted business practice, but there are many others where it isn't as accepted as it should be.
Each year in Cairns we have a large horse racing carnival. It's extremely popular, with people travelling from around the world to attend. All of the main local companies have marquees set up around the race track and they invite their key customers to join them on the day, with all expenses paid. The champagne flows, as does the fine food and good cheer, and the day is always very successful. Once again, it's all about being made to feel special.
As a marketing company, we book and recommend a lot of advertising on television, radio and in newspapers. The local media sponsor the launch of new movies as they come to town and invite all of their best customers to the exclusive premieres. We get free tickets to the movies once a week and we leave the cinema with a sense of gratitude for being appreciated by the media organizations that we deal with.