We’ve come very near to Christmas, and very soon, it will be New Year season too. This is the time of the year where people give gifts. Be it as complying to festive atmosphere, or as a gratitude to loyal customers, or you’re giving as a marketing strategy, this is the time to do so.
But how should you prepare gifts to your customers or potential customers? It is a great time to express your appreciation and get connected to your customers. You do not just want to send them gifts that are inappropriate or without given good thoughts as you want to show them your sincerity. Hence, you will need to make your gifts stand out for the right reason. Here’s some tips for it.
Send useful things
First thing to consider when giving gifts is what to give? You can give a mug, pen, or anything, but you’ll need to give something that you know will be useful for your clients or that they’ll need them. It shows you give good thoughts in the gifts and that you know your customers well.
Other than items, you can give them something consumable too. Things like fruits and drinks can be a good idea too, depending on what type of business you’re in. Other example like t-shirt can be a thoughtful gift as well.
Give personalized gifts
Nothing can compare to thoughtful personalized gifts. It shows that you care for each of your customers and that each of them are special to you. You don’t have to know your customers very well, but you may have note down what you notice about your customers on your previous meeting with them or discuss with your partner.
You don’t have to make an album on your memories on each client, but a simple handwritten note can be attached with your gifts as well. A note that is specifically directed to your customers, a note on how you appreciate each of them can make your customers feel well appreciated too.
Thus, you may want to start making notes on customers you wish to give personalized gifts to.
Be sensitively creative
For some company, you may want to design your own gifts. When designing, dare to be creative, but at the same time, be sensitive to cultural differences too. People of different cultures may react differently on certain things. Gifts should be something that makes the receiver happy, you wouldn’t want to give gifts and make the other party feel awkward or embarrass.
So when you want to be creative, be culturally sensitive too. Make sure you ask yourself these questions before confirming on how and what you want to give:
- Is your gift considered inappropriate or unlucky in some cultures?
- Is there a protocol for gift giving? Is it before or after the meeting?
- Is the image on the gifts appropriate? Because not every celebrate all holiday. Malays may not celebrate Chinese New Years or Muslims may not celebrate Christmas.
Hence, be careful on how you design your gifts and how you present them.
Be generous
Since you’re giving gifts, don’t try to save up too much as people will know. It doesn’t mean to find branded stuff. Be generous means try to find gifts with quality as the longer the gifts last, the more lasting impression you’ll give your customers.
Remember this, giving a good and quality gift will not only shows that you value your customers, it reminds them on why they do business with too - they do business with you because they believe in the quality things or services you provide them. Giving them quality things reaffirm that you have similar view on how quality things should be.
But spend wisely
Although we mentioned that you should not try to save on gifts, but you should spend wisely too. You can save up on things that are unnecessary. For example, you don’t have to look for branded and highest end things to give to your clients as this can be come across as bribery. You don’t have to make your clients feel resent and obligated to continue buying from you.
Calculate your gifts spending
While we discuss about gifts, you have to calculate your costs. You wouldn’t want to spend all your profit to buy gifts to your clients.You can do so by looking at your company's profit and loss report.
A good accounting software (e.g. TreezSoft) will be able to readily generate profit and loss report for you. TreezSoft uses series of integration and automatic processes to enhance our client’s accounting experience with us. You can easily generate all types of reports in TreezSoft anytime, anywhere. You don’t have to wait until closing time to generate them as all your data will be instantly updated whenever you record them.
Join us now and get ready for the festive season!
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TreezSoft is a cloud accounting software for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). It allows you to access your financial information anytime, anywhere. It also allows you to have unlimited users for FREE for your account in TreezSoft. Our aim is to help reduce our clients' time spent on accounting mainly by using our automated processes and integration to help increase their company effeciency at a minimum costs. SMEs can use TreezSoft to keep track their expenses, accounts, daily operation e.g. Point of Sales (namely QPOS) system and etc.
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