Holiday Business Gifts
Tis’ the season to give! And, as a business owner, it is often customary to give gifts to your customers, as a way of saying “thanks” for their business.
Where I work, we get a table full of cookies, candies, and other goodies – which quickly get eaten up by everyone in the company.
No one is complaining about the gifts, but most people don’t notice who the gifts came from, or care, for that matter. Most of the people who partake of the sugary goodness do not interact with you or your company, or have any influence on what they purchase from you. And once the gift has been eaten, the box goes in the trash, along with the card you might have taped to the top of the nice gift tin.
What I am getting to is that while gifts are nice to give to your customer, they don’t always yield the results that you are expecting.
The purpose of giving a holiday gift is not only to say “thanks for your business”, but to also keep you in the forefront of your customers thinking when the time comes to make a purchasing decision.
Those gifts – which are thoughtful – do cost you money, so you can consider it a business expense. It is not unthoughtful to desire a return on your investment (forgive me if I sound heartless – I am just looking at an honest point). There are better ways to thank your customers, and keep you and your company in front of them all year.
Here are a few ideas which are much more personal, and directed toward the people that you do business with:
1. Send birthday cards. Put their birthday on your computer calendar, and have a reminder pop up a week before their birthday. Send them a card with a hand-written note.
2. Personalized Pads of paper. I did this for my customers – they all loved it, and carried it with them all year. It is not expensive to have pads of paper made up with your logo, company information, and phone number printed on it. Contact a printer in your area.
3. Wall calendars. Without a doubt, it will be in front of your customer every day, and they will look at it every day. Make sure you have one specially printed with your company information on it.
The ideas here are not to frivolously spend money to wine and dine or impress your customers – it’s to give them a thank you gift, while at the same time keeping your company on their mind every day, so when it is time to purchase, or if they have a problem, they will call you first. Also – make sure you know the rules about giving gifts for the different companies you do business with. Not everyone is allowed to receive gifts.
Good luck, and happy holidays!
