Customer Appreciation gifts – Finding the right balance

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It’s that time of year when a business will feel their appreciation for their most loyal (and profitable) clients throughout the year. And as it’s the time of giving in most of the western world, it’s not uncommon for a business to reward those repeat clients with a little extra in their (service) stocking. However, the trick to customer appreciation gifts is giving significant value to make the client feel appreciated without putting you and your business out of pocket. At the same time, you want to ensure that your “gifts” will generate more income than they cost.

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Why Give Customer Appreciation Gifts?

The ultimate goal is to leave your customers feeling good about you and your company and strengthen your customer relationships, which will lead to boosted retention rates and referrals. 

The best way to make a strong connection with your clients is to give a timely, thoughtful, and helpful gift. The right gift will ensure you stay in your clients’ minds much longer than something generic and makes the relationship strong enough to last for many months and years to come. 

A gift of customer appreciation is not just a marketing ploy. It’s an acknowledgement of your appreciation of them as people, as well as clients. It’s a deepening of the connection and mutual recognition of respect on both sides of the service.

Choosing the Appropriate Customer Appreciation Gifts

How do you choose what to give in appreciation of your clients and customers? You don’t need to spend significant amounts of money to make your clients feel appreciated. Sometimes, it can be enough to send a personal and handwritten note to your clients. However, this article is about giving customers appreciation gifts to help them remember you, refer you, and love what you offer. 

Before you even think of the specific gifts that you might offer to your best clients, you should consider some of the critical aspects of your connection to the client.

Memorability

 – People might forget about when it might be some time between their need or your services, but they will remember how you treated them, how you made them feel and the extra mile you went on their behalf.

Usefulness 

– The best customer appreciation gifts are helpful. Even if the gifts you give are branded and promotional, useful items will always keep your brand in the client’s mind. In the current climate, one example has been giving face masks. I went to a conference, and one of the sponsor swag bags had a face mask, ostensibly to ensure that all attendees had no excuse not to wear one.

Quality 

– There is no point in giving poor quality items. Gifts that don’t last or don’t do the job they were intended for will not only be useless it will forever damage the client’s opinion of you and your business. Another “gift” bag had a USB port extender at the same conference. Very useful for those of us who use laptops with limited USB ports. Unfortunately, when I first tried it, I realised the casing didn’t fit together correctly, and only two of the four ports on the extender actually worked.

If it’s branded item with your name emblazoned on it, your disappointed recipient will always associate your name with a poor product. Pay for quality, or don’t bother.

Fun/Entertaining 

– Some of the best customer appreciation gifts are the fun ones. Something that makes your clients smile when they think about the present and who gave it to them is always good. Ideally, your client appreciation gifts will be useful and fun.

Your gifts to your clients should cover at least two of these aspects, if not more.

What Should You Offer?

There are so many industries and businesses within the service sector that it would be impossible to cover everything. However, we can cover the broad strokes of what to give, how much you can spend, how to offer your gifts, and who you should reward. Then all that is left is the particulars that pertain to your business and your specific clients.

Many things will influence what you choose to give in appreciation of your clients; 

• Budget
• Number of recipients
• Business type
• Reason for giving
• Location/Proximity
• Demographics
• Psychographics
• Age…

The list could go on, but the above makes a reasonable basis for helping you decide how to reward your clients for their continued business and their loyalty to you.

Let’s be fair, you don’t just want to reward clients for their loyalty. You would also like to entice back a few who have lapsed and encourage others to continue being repeat customers – or at least satisfied advocates. We know not all services are necessarily repeatable.

Let’s get started! 

Customer Appreciation Gift Ideas

I’ll start with ideas to gift your genuinely loyal clients and customers, those who truly deserve your appreciation and gratitude for their continued custom. If we are honest, these are the people who keep your business running, recommend you to others and talk about you online.

Customer Appreciation Events

If you want to combine your appreciation into a social event where you can better get to know your best customers, an event is a perfect idea.

A pamper party for your beauty clients, or perhaps a tasting session for your restaurants most valued clients. The possibilities are quite diverse.

You don’t even need to have your event themed along your business lines. Your salon could host a wine and cheese party, or your restaurant could have a party and buffet. Although, it could be fun to get all of your fitness clients together for a massive game of dodgeball or a dance party.

Introducing New Services and Products

If you consider adding new services and products to your current offerings, perhaps your best source of feedback is through your current most loyal clients.

Invite those you want to show your appreciation to try out your new offerings. Whether that’s a new pastry course in your cookery school or a new fitness trend that’s sweeping the globe, you will have the opportunity to make your loyal clients feel special and valued while also having the chance to get some feedback.

Personalised Customer Appreciation Gifts

No, I’m not suggesting you have their names monogrammed onto a gift. However, if you want to make a genuine impression on your clients, it’s a good idea to personalise their gift to their needs. If you are a fitness instructor, gym owner, beauty practitioner, you might have collected important information about your clients. Potentially, they have completed a client intake form on their registration with you, and maybe they’ve answered questions on subsequent visits.

All of that information is there for you to give a practical and welcome appreciation gift. For example, if you know some of your dental clients come in for a regular clean and always keep their regular check-ups because of sensitive gums, perhaps you might gift a special toothbrush and toothpaste combination for their specific requirements. 

You could do the same for beauty, hair, fitness and nutrition clients. 

You can see from your booking history why people come to you and what they might need for maintenance between appointments. 

Branded Goodie Bags, Gift Baskets & Sample Selections

Want to make sure your ad hoc clients keep you in mind? There’s nothing better than practical everyday items for ensuring they remember you, even at random times.  

Even simple items such as pens and flash drives, compact mirrors, combs can all leave an impression. They are helpful, daily use items. 

Sample Bags & Gift Cards

In combination with branded items, you might want to try a few samples too. Depending on who supplies your business with the products you use and sell, they may find it just as beneficial to provide you with sample sizes of their products. If your sales increase, so do theirs. If you produce your own supplies, it will benefit you to create some miniature sizes to supplement and entice the purchases of full-size items.

Gift cards or discount coupons are always a great method of enticing people into making an appointment. Gift cards can be more persuasive because they represent a specific cash amount that doesn’t come out of the customer’s pocket.

Prize Draw – Enter everyone who books in the preceding month

If your budget doesn’t stretch to rewarding ALL of your best clients, run a prize draw with larger and more enticing prizes. Set a “Top 5” gift ideas for your clients and enter everyone who books within a set period into the draw. You could even make entries correlate with the amount they spend with you. For example, if they spend €10, it is one entry, €20 is two entries, and so on. The chances are that your most loyal clients will book an appointment in that time anyway, but you can entice some of your more lax clients into booking to get their entries in.

A significant gift card amount, a prize basket of customer-specific supplies, or some other gift that gels with your customer persona will act as an incentive while also allowing you to gift your clients. 

You could always partner with a compatible business to swap gifts. Such examples could be a beauty salon and a hair salon, a fitness centre and a sports physiotherapist.

There are several ways you can approach this kind of partnership and make it beneficial for both businesses.

Handwritten Notes & Discount Coupons

Don’t discount handwritten notes. It’s perhaps not ideal when it comes to showing your customer appreciation for your long-term clients, but it’s a step in the right direction. No one expects you to write verses to each client. However, the very act of handwriting a note means you have thought about the client as a person – not just a paying customer.

Even if you’re simply trying to win back a lapsed client, the handwritten note or card is a display of humanity and connection. Add in a nice discount code, and you have a little gift for even your most delinquent of clients.

Even if you plan to reward your most wonderful clients with something more substantial, don’t forget about the handwritten note. Even with a lovely gift basket, the pleasure in receiving it can be significantly increased by adding a personal message. It makes us feel seen and appreciated. 

Printed notes always feel too “corporate” and faceless – taking the time to write by hand is seriously underrated in terms of gift-giving.

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When to Show Your Appreciation?

For much of the western world, Christmas is the time traditionally linked with the giving of gifts. However, December might be the wrong time for your business. Your cash flow might be tight around the holidays, or you don’t celebrate in your region, so choosing a different gifting period might be best. You could celebrate your company “birthday” with customer appreciation gifts, or if you have a Thanksgiving or gratitude tradition, that could also be a good time.

Appreciating your customers is not just for Christmas. It’s all year round.