Christmas is a great time to connect with your clients and show your customers some love. Like most businesses these days you probably have regular contact via email and social media, but it’s nice to go a little further every now and then to show them how much you appreciate their business.
Here are 5 things you can do to show your customers some love at Christmas:
Send a Christmas email
The email should feature Christmas greeting but it’s also a good idea to include your holiday hours, and if appropriate, give your clients something that will help them cope if they have an emergency while you’re away. That could be either contact details for a locum (or your Virtual Assistant) or a link to a FAQ page that’s specially been designed for the holiday season. Remember that some people don’t display images in emails so it should have text as well as an image.
Send them a card
Custom designed and printed cards are always nice, however if budget matters just make sure the cards you choose fit your corporate image or at least don’t give a bad image. Risqué and humorous cards are great for friends and possibly family, but they don’t belong in a corporate setting. I send everyone I’ve worked with throughout the year an Amnesty International Christmas card.
Give them a deal
Whether it’s a special offer, free gift with orders, free postage, a certain percentage (or dollar value) off everybody loves a good deal. You can have different deals for different clients; in fact it’s probably more helpful to tailor gifts to clients where possible. However you handle it, there’s a few things to keep in mind:
- Make it exclusive to your customers, don’t offer it to the public/new clients
- Give them time to take up the offer; don’t send it late on Christmas week, closing on 2nd Jan
- Make it commensurate with their size as a client. Somebody who spends thousands of dollars with you each year will find a $10 discount pretty meaningless.
Send them a gift
Gifts are a great way to show your appreciation to clients at Christmas. Try to be sure that your gifts are appropriate – giving alcohol to a non-drinker or chocolate to a diabetic is fairly pointless. To avoid those situations ask your client facing staff to note personal information and preferences on your CRM. If you’re sending gifts make sure you record them on the CRM as well so that you’re consistent from year to year. You might not remember whether you send a client an expensive bottle of wine or a corporate baseball cap last year – but you can bet the client will.
Host an event
One company I worked for in the past held an annual movie night for certain clients. The clients loved it and looked forward to it and it created a lot of goodwill and buzz. You might want to have a catered Christmas party at your premises, or invite clients to a restaurant, or even have a fun day at a park or theme park. Anything that gets your clients together socially and gives your staff the opportunity to mix with various members of a client’s team will go a long way to making you a preferred supplier.
Lastly, don’t forget the people who provide the customer service, particularly over the holiday period when your customers are under more stress and have definite time pressure. Combine that with an increase in staff on leave and it can make for a very unhappy Christmas for the customer service staff who are on deck. Even something as small as bringing in a treat (donuts, coffee, cake, pizza, something healthy) or giving them a bottle of wine or box of chocolates or at the very least, a sincere thank you can make all the difference. Make no mistake, happy customer service staff will have a huge impact on the happiness of your customers.
Click here to book a complimentary 30 minute catch up to discuss how I could help you show your customers some love over the holiday season.
