Today's it is Valentine’s Day: This is the day where we send our spouses, partners, and loved ones a gift, often it is out of obligation and I have plenty of friends who tell me if they don’t get their spouse some flowers and a card, they will pay for it.

So we feel obligated to express our love and appreciation to those close to us. I’ve written several articles about this before, and my favorite one is called The Valentine Obligation. You don’t have to send a customer flowers, but how about an expression of appreciation?

It can be something as simple as a thank you note or as elaborate as a customer appreciation event. And you don’t have to send it on Valentine’s Day. Any day is a good day to show some customer love. With that in mind, here are five ways to say thank you to your customers.

• A thank you note: Call me old fashioned, but the traditional hand-written thank you note still has power. Of course, you can consider an email or text message. But which one do you think has the most impact? For those of you who think this is a rhetorical question, here’s the answer: the old-fashioned hand-written note.

• A thank you video: If you send a short, personalized video – even something as simple as from your mobile phone – you’ll make the point. I actually think this is almost as strong a hand-written note. The key is that it must be personalized.

• A charitable contribution: This a great gesture of appreciation, and if the charity you contribute to is one that your customer contributes to, then you’ve hit a personal note that will be remembered and appreciated.

• Send a thoughtful gift: By a thoughtful gift, I mean one that is very personalized. It should be obvious that you put thought into it. One of my favorite gifts I ever gave was a book by a friend’s favorite author. But not just any book. I found a first edition autographed copy of the book. He loved it and it has a permanent place on his bookshelf. And he’ll always remember who gave it to him.

• A customer appreciation event: These can be fun yet also expensive. And if you have a national or international customer base, it won’t be practical. So, let’s modernize this and do a customer appreciation Facebook Live event. This could be a fun way of expressing appreciation, and at the same time, the rest of the world gets to see how much you love your customers.

As I created this list, I came up with many more ways to say thank you. However, this isn’t meant to be the definitive work on appreciation—just something to get you to start thinking about it. And, as long as I have your attention, THANK YOU for reading!

Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, keynote speaker and New York Times bestselling business author. For information contact or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken. Shep is a regular contribuor to 4Hoteliers.com.

(Copyright © 2019, Shep Hyken - Reprinted with Permission)