When it comes to customer service, you need every advantage you can get to stay competitive in the market. You want to be able to use all the tools that are at your disposal to get your customers to come back to you again and again. One of those tools is the invoice.

Unfortunately, most businesses look at an invoice as just something you need to send in order to get paid. However, your invoice also gives you an opportunity to show your customers or clients that you appreciate their business, and as a result, convince them to stick with you long term.

In this article, we’ll go over why and how to thank customers on invoices.

Why You Should Thank Your Customers on Your Invoice

So, why should you be thanking your customer for their business in the invoice? There are several reasons.

First of all, you should always be thanking your customer at every opportunity. The more they know that they're appreciated, the more loyal they will feel and the more often they will buy from you.

An invoice without a clear and prominent expression of gratitude can seem cold and impersonal. It can seem like a computer is doing all of your bookkeeping. In some companies, that may even be the case. However, you can always include thanks on your invoices to make it feel a little more personal.

Another benefit of providing this expression of gratitude on your invoice is that it may help you get paid faster. If an invoice arrives, and there’s a prominent (or even personal) message letting the customer know how much they're appreciated, it may prompt them to pay the invoice right away instead of putting it off for a few days or weeks.

In addition, Putting a prominent thank you on your invoice lets the customer know that you value their business and that you will be willing to answer their questions or take care of any concerns that they might have. Again this goes back to making sure that the customer comes back to you.

You can also use your invoices to sell your company and even upsell products in some cases. We will look at that more closely down below, but the bottom line here is that there are enormous benefits for companies that put thank you on their invoice, and there is no real reason not to do it.

Best of all, with invoicing tools like invoicely, it’s extremely easy to add custom thank you messages (and other expressions of gratitude) on all your invoices with little to no extra effort required!

Five Ways You Can Thank Your Customers on Your Invoice

Now, let’s look at some ways that you can say thank you to your customers on your invoice. Some of these are fairly obvious while others you may not have thought of before. You can use one or more of these to add a little extra to your invoice and get customers to appreciate your company more when they receive the bill.

Make Your Thanks Prominent

The first thing you can do is to make sure that your thanks appears prominently on the invoice. For example, you may want to print in another color or bold it so that it stands out from the rest of the invoice.

There is no reason to put a thank you on your invoice if the customer is not going to see it, and the odds are pretty good that they're simply going to glance at the invoice when it comes in rather than read it carefully from top to bottom. Make sure that the thank you is one of the first things that they see when they open up the envelope and take out your invoice. This is the same if you are sending your invoice electronically as well.

With invoicely, adding a thank you note is as simple as writing a message in the note box, which is displayed right beneath their balance, so they’re guaranteed to see it!

Give Them a Discount

Another thing that you can do to let customers know how valuable they are to your company is to give them a future discount. This can be done whether a customer has been with you a long time or is a brand-new customer.

Adding a discount offer on the invoice lets them know that you appreciate their business and makes it much more likely that they will order from you again. Of course, you probably want to make it clear that it’s a single-use discount rather than a permanent one, but most companies will understand and appreciate getting a temporary discount.

Give Them Something for Free

You might also want to offer them something for free. A great way to do this, especially with new customers, is to give them more than they ordered.

For example, if they ordered 100 units of product X from you, and you send them 110 units instead, then it is pretty obvious that you appreciate their business and are thanking them for their order.

Just like with the discount, you want to make sure that they do not expect something free every time, but if you can do it inexpensively enough, it might be something to consider each time you send out an order. As an example, a popular e-cigarette and vape company out of Arizona includes a small bottle of a flavor that that customer hasn’t tried yet with every order.

Invite them to Provide Feedback and Open Lines of Communication

You may also want to use your invoice to invite them to provide feedback. For example, if you have electronic invoices, then you can include a link to a feedback page where they can let you know any problems that they had already concerns.

Customers like being able to directly communicate with companies that they do business with and let them know where they think they can improve. Some may even just want to say thanks, and providing them with a way to do that is a pretty valuable resource as well.

By inviting customers to provide feedback on a consistent basis, you have an opportunity to continuously improve your business.

The sad truth is most companies are reactive about getting feedback from customers. They don’t get insights from them until there’s a complaint. By being proactive and asking for feedback on your invoice, you can prevent problems before they happen and reduce your number of unhappy customers.

Display the Value They’re Getting From Your Company

You may also want to use your invoices an opportunity to show them the value that they're getting from your company.

For example, if you know where your prices beat out your competitors, then listing what the customer would’ve paid if they had gone with that competitor on the products that they just purchased from you can ensure that they don’t branch out and try to save money by going somewhere else.

They’ll have already realized that you have the lowest prices around, and that means that they don’t have to do any shopping around on their own to try to save money. Customers will appreciate being shown the savings that they're receiving. It’s similar to the way the grocery stores show savings on every receipt.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that there are lots of ways out there that you can make your customers feel special and appreciated when you send out an invoice. You don’t have to get too fancy if you don’t want to.

A simple thank you that is positioned right by the amount that they need to pay can do a great deal for making customers feel better about doing business with you. However, there are also some other great ideas listed above that you may want to use to go the extra mile such as listing discounts or offering free product whenever someone orders. Every little thing you do to make your customers understand that you appreciate them will pay off in a huge way.