The holidays are a time for connecting with family and appreciating what you have: the season of giving. From a business perspective, they’re also often busy and stressful. Next year is right around the corner, and everyone’s trying to wrap everything up before they take some time off. End-of-year tasks must be taken care of. Most people are also planning for the holidays: cooking, baking, buying gifts, so everyone’s got a lot on their plate.
There’s no better time to show your clients, with whom a good relationship is everything, that you appreciate them.
Take Issues Off Their Plate
The transition from one year to the next marks both an ending and a beginning. While it’s a relief to wrap up another year, there’s always the shadow of next year hanging over the festivities.
Who wouldn’t appreciate having that taken off their minds, letting them just focus on relaxing and unwinding? That’s what makes it a great way to show your clients you appreciate them. Pull together everything you know about their business and bring a no-pressure proposal to line things up for next year.
Make sure that it’s not something they need to confirm before they take off: the point is that they have something that takes an issue off their minds while they’re trying to relax over the holidays, not to add more work during crunch time. In an ideal world, you won’t hear back until after the holidays, and when you do it’ll just be the email equivalent of a thumbs up.
One of the best predictors of future behavior is past behavior, so even just a message saying “It’s been a pleasure working with you, and we’re ready for business as usual next year if you are” can be a welcome tick of a box for your clients: one more thing off their to-do list.
Give Them a Year-End Review Opportunity
After another year of working together, there’s doubtlessly countless little ideas running around in your clients’ heads. Some of those can probably help you; others can probably help make your relationship stronger. Plus, everyone appreciates feeling like their opinions matter.
The year-end is a great time to give your clients the opportunity to offer feedback, both positive and constructive. Again, the crucial thing here is to make sure it’s clear that it’s not something you need before the holidays; in fact, ensure it’s not something that’s needed at all. In the season of giving, you’re giving them an opportunity, not an obligation, to offer feedback.
Not only does this set up the expectation that you’ll be continuing to work together, but it gives them an opportunity to be heard and for you to set off on the right foot next year.
Mark the Occasion With a Gift
We’d be remiss not to mention the most obvious sign of appreciation you can give over the holidays: a gift!
The key with your clients is you want to send a gift that’s meaningful and/or useful to them specifically. That doesn’t necessarily mean precisely tailored to their exact desires, since you probably aren’t getting a copy of their wish list. But it should show that you’re very familiar with what they do and how they do it.
Taking the time to tailor your gifting will also help you make your gift practical and relevant. These kinds of gifts are ones that keep on giving: whenever people use them, they’re reminded of why you’re a great partner. And the holidays are a perfect time to mark the end of one year working together and kicking off another.
Our gifting experts can help you create corporate gifting strategies that can speak to your clients and highlight how valuable your relationship is. Come chat with us and learn more about our gifting solutions, from our Enterprise Gifting Portals to the highly customizable Options at Scale.
