What's Your Box of Crackers?

I've written before about the power of gifts, especially in how they relate to the principle of reciprocity. To refresh: reciprocity tells us that people feel obligated to give back to those who have given to them. In other words, once you've given something significant (and it need not be expensive by the way; in fact some of the most significant "gifts" you can offer to your customers, employees and colleagues actually cost no money at all!), you're able to create and foster more meaningful business relationships built upon the notion of mutual exchange.

Here's a clear example, courtesy of Read/WriteWeb and it illustrates the simple things that service and product providers can give in order to earn just a little bit more customer loyalty and ensure your current customers want to do business with you, and even more importantly, stay with you.

Once you've read the post, ask yourself this question: what did it cost FreshBooks to earn a "customer for a life and yet one more person to sing its praises to the masses"?

And one more thing to ask yourself: are the chances higher or lower that the Freshbooks user who received the crackers, Jonathan, will leave FreshBooks for another provider now that he's gone on the record publicly stating that he is a "customer for life"?