Well, it’s that time of the year again. Gobble gobble. Eveyone has eaten more food and more leftovers than the year before. Families have gathered and (some thankfully) departed.

Many people are now practicing the “Send a Thanksgiving card to beat those who send Christmas cards.” Yeah, that’s a good idea. Instead of sending an insincere Christmas card, you send an insincere Thanksgiving card. Now of course, not everyone sends an insincere holiday card. But many have a list, and they send a card to everyone on it, no matter what.

What Thanksgiving is really all about is giving thanks, or better said, saying thanks.

How do you say thanks?

Go into any retail store, and most of the time (not all the time), some clerk will say, “Thanks and have a nice day.” Do they only mean that day? If I didn’t buy anything, would they still want me to have a nice day? After they say the same thing 1,000 times, do they really mean it, or are they just repeating it out of habit?

Back to Thanksgiving. For many, there is a genuineness about Thanksgiving. It’s my favorite holiday. Friends and family gather around and give thanks for the meal, but I’ve always used it as a time for reflection. Whom can I call to say hello to? Who do I wish was at the dinner that has passed away? What do I really need to be thankful for? And what actions will I take to show my thankfulness? That’s thanksgiving to me.

Oh sure, I love turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie. More than all of those things, I love the feeling. This year, my daughter and two granddaughters joined us. That is a blessing.

And so now, there is the window, the frantic rush, the panic between Thanksgiving and Christmas: the list, the shopping, the 6 a.m. sales, the traffic, the hustle bustle. In all of that, you may be forgetting that “saying thanks” thing you resolved to do at Thanksgiving.

Most businesses spend a bunch of time and money going after new customers. Most businesses also have a loss of old customers, some as much as 50 percent. Upper management will say it’s normal because they wouldn’t want anyone to think it was abnormal. That 50 percent loss is preventable.

Most businesses fail to realize their present customers constitute all their sales and all their profits. They spend fewer marketing dollars on efforts to keep customers than they do to win new ones.

Here’s what I recommend you do this holiday season, so that you can keep your customers through the next holiday season.

1. Call as many customers as you can personally. Tell them how much you appreciate their business this year, and how you look forward to earning their business next year.

2. If you are going to send a card, sign it personally with a note thanking them in addition to whatever your printed message says.

3. Resolve to help them over the course of the next year, so they will consider you a partner, not just a vendor or a product provider.

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking. If you sold them a house, show them how to build equity. If you sold them a copier, show them how to be more efficient in the office. If you are their accountant or lawyer, show them how to protect their assets or their family.

Everyone has a value they can share, but most don’t take advantage of it. I’m not saying that giving a gift is wrong. I am saying you can add to any of your gifts in a personalized way that will make your customers appreciate you, and think twice before they stop doing business with you.

There’s a big difference between giving thanks and saying thanks. My recommendation is that this holiday season you overdose on both.

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President of Charlotte, N.C.-based Buy Gitomer, Jeffrey Gitomer gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer service. He can be reached at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com.