DETROIT – When Christmas time rolls around, it usually makes everyone happy. Even if you don’t celebrate the holiday, you can probably take some time off from work and spend it with your loved ones. If you celebrate Christmas, you likely know you have good food coming your way and perhaps presents from your family members.
In the corporate world, Christmas is a time when you can show your clients and loyal customers that you value and cherish them. You can pay tribute to a customer base when you buy holiday gifts for them.
If you have a bunch of nameless, faceless customers that buy products in your store or online, you have no personal connection to them. If you have client relationships, though, especially with individuals who purchase thousands of dollars of products from your business every year, you need to get them something nice around the holidays.
What can you get your clients when Christmas approaches? We’ll talk about some options in the following article. We’ll cover both expensive gifts and cheaper ones.
You Can Buy Them A Collectable
Another cool idea is to get your client a collectible or a toy that will appreciate in value over time. Older items are constantly changing in price, with many of the rarest items going up in price every year.
Sites like funkypriceguide.com track virtually every collectible price you can imagine. You can use these to work out whether you are making a good investment on behalf of your client and also provide them with information about the gift when you give it to them. This way, you can explain why you got them a collectible and how they can use it.
You Can Throw a Party for Your Clients
Affordable and thoughtful corporate gifts tell your clients that you care about them. However, if you didn’t have a very good year, you’ll have to scale back how much you can spend on them.
Maybe you’ll choose to throw a holiday party for all your most valued clients instead of getting personalized gifts for them. You might extend an invitation for them to come to your building on a certain date and at a particular time. You can set up catering for the affair and have an open bar.
If you do this, you can introduce your clients to each other. You can toast all their health and express how grateful you are that they continue to trust your company, purchase your products, and utilize your services.
You Can Get Them Gift Cards
Getting clients gift cards isn’t the most original idea, but it’s a fairly foolproof option if you can’t come up with something more creative. You’ll have to look at each client before you decide on the gift card amount and destination.
You might go with something like Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse or Morton’s if you know the client likes a good steak. Maybe you’ll get them an Amazon gift card or one for Bed, Bath, and Beyond.
You Can Get Your Clients Health Club Memberships or Exercise Equipment
You might decide to get your clients health club memberships. Maybe some of them have expressed that they’re trying to drop a few pounds or get stronger. You can look into gyms in your area and get a year-long membership for that client.
You may send them to Esporta, Planet Fitness, or perhaps you’ll find a more exclusive fitness center they might enjoy. You can set up a personal trainer for them if you have enough money to include that as part of the gift.
Maybe you will get the client some exercise equipment they can use at home if you feel like they would prefer that. You’ll have to talk to them to see if they might like a yoga mat, some free weights, exercise bands, or something else. Perhaps you’ll get them a Mirror or a Peloton bike.
If you get them something like a Peloton, you’ll need to make sure they have a membership as well, so they can take the guided fitness classes. You will have to feel out that client to see if this kind of thing interests them. Be careful when you’re speaking to them about it, though, since you likely don’t want to spoil the surprise when you present the gift to them.
You Can Take Your Client to a Sporting Event
If you’re having a great year financially and you want to show a high-value client that you’ll do what it takes to keep them, you might get them something like season tickets to a baseball team that they support. Maybe you find out that they’re a big Yankee or Red Sox fan, and you can get them box seats.
If you’re not having the best year financially, though, you might get them tickets to a single game instead. You might get tickets for them to go with their family, or you may suggest that you go with them if you and this client get along well and have some personal history together.
When you go to the game with them, you can speak about business if they seem to want that, or you can avoid any work-related talk and just watch the game. If the client doesn’t like baseball, maybe they’ll go for football, basketball, a golf event, boxing, or something else.
You Can Hone in on Their Hobbies
You probably know your clients pretty well, so much so that you know that Gary, who travels in from Yorkshire, loves his music and playing the guitar. If you know your clients on a level like this, hone in on their hobbies. Let’s take Gary as an example, you’d be looking at where to buy looper pedal and other guitar accessories as a charming yet wonderful Christmas gift.
You Can Arrange an Exotic Experience for Them
You probably have all kinds of clients. You might find out that some of them like quiet pursuits, such as reading or gardening. Others may enjoy more extreme adventures. It’s your job to find out about each high-value customer, so you can better address their needs.
Around the holidays, you might think about experiences you can buy for a client that they might enjoy. Maybe your client likes to boost their adrenaline and do something wild and crazy. You might arrange for them to try skydiving, base jumping, or rock climbing.
You might take them out on a yacht so they can relax in the sun, or you can set up a surfing or fishing experience. Some clients might like trying to catch trophy fish like marlin. If they catch one, you can stuff it for them and give it to them as a present they can keep in their office or on their wall at home.
If these experiences aren’t in your price range, you might get something more modestly-priced for your clients, like museum or ballet tickets. That’s not likely to thrill them in quite the same way, but a quiet afternoon or evening might suit them just as well.
This article was written by Susan Melony
