When I first started my cleaning business I set aside anywhere from $20 to $80 bucks from each account for a holiday gift.
The idea was to deliver some small token of my appreciation to my top customers during the holidays to help drive home not only how much we care, but to differentiate our business.
I seriously doubt that there are that many cleaning companies out there buying gifts for their customers, so I thought that would be great way to set ourselves apart from the competition.
Combine that with the fact that I LOVE THE HOLIDAY SEASON and it’s a “win-win” scenario in my book. Now like I said, I didn’t do this for every account, but I did buy gifts for roughly thirty or so accounts. The more profitable the account, the larger the gift was my thought process.
I decided who got a gift like this… If an account was really profitable, then they got a gift (makes sense right?). Also, if an account was kind of prestigious, they also got a gift (some of my customers were well-known establishments, and the fact that I cleaned them impressed “potential clients”).
Now as far as “what kind of gift”, I went with the universal choice, FOOD. With so many different choices available online you can’t go wrong. You can choose from candy baskets, fruit baskets, boxes of nuts to some cheese and crackers and just about anything you can think of.
These gifts can be given at anytime during the month of December all the way up to New Years, as that is also a time for holiday parties at your customers location. I normally hand delivered my holiday gift to the office manager who hired me, as I wanted FULL CREDIT for thinking of them.
Absolutely!
Having already delivered a few gifts last week, my clients were not only appreciative but extremely surprised. I too gave to high profit clients and one that is lower profit but very prestigious.
I Kept it simple but perceived as high value.
I bought bulk bags of Lindt chocolate balls (buy 3 get 2 free) wrapped in winter theme then bought glass jars at Michael’s crafts store. Each jar held about 3 dozen balls & added some ribbon to each jar (also from Michael’s).
In my opinion, anyone not giving gifts is hurting their chance to differentiate their company.
THANKS for sharing that Howie!
Did you stop doing the podcast?
Hi Cranston! I just took a break…. searching for new topics and ideas. I’ll be back!