‘Tis the season for spending time with family, holiday baking, office parties, you employees becoming inexplicably happy and cheerful (unless they are doomed by the office plague) and of course giving gifts! As a business owner or CEO, there are two very important groups of people that you need to be cognizant of when planning out your holiday gift giving: customers/clients and employees.
For Customers:
Your customers are keys to the success of your business. For all intents and purposes, they keep your lights on everyday so you should certainly consider how to show your appreciation to them this holiday season. Being generous and showing that you care this holiday season can be the key to creating customer loyalty and retaining your customers. The gifts don’t need to be huge expensive presents; they don’t even need to be presents in the true sense of the word. For B2B companies, holiday gifts can take the form of a thoughtful thank you or holiday card, some value add services at the end of the year, or a homemade treat to enjoy at the office or with family (depending on the client). For B2C companies, a holiday gift could take the form of free shipping, a free gift with a purchase, guaranteed holiday shipping or a holiday deal or discount. Anything, no matter how small, can show you appreciate your customers or clients. When customers feel appreciated, it fosters positive feelings towards you and your business which in turn create loyalty to the brand.
As marketing consultants, we are always looking ahead to what’s next so we want to remind you that when you’re looking to 2014 and beyond you should remember how important customer retention is to your business. It’s always easier (and less expensive) to retain a current customer than it is to get a brand new one. For this reason, going above and beyond this holiday season can be what distinguishes you from other competitors. Happy customers stay. Happy customers also pass along their positive experience to others and, with any luck, become brand advocates, making getting those new clients easier.
For Employees:
We already did a whole blog on increasing employee productivity by creating happiness in the workplace and this goes hand in hand. Generosity around the holidays not only gets you into the holiday spirit but it also shows your employees that you appreciate them and you want to make their holidays a little better. As with customer gift giving, it doesn’t necessarily need to be a gift per se, get creative! Give your employees an extra day off around the holidays, let them work remotely around the holidays to spend more time with their families, let them have a few hours off during the week to go holiday shopping, do like one of our marketing consultants does and bake a special homemade treat for everyone or host a really nice holiday party. If you’re anything like Stratus Interactive this may take the form of a holiday bar crawl around West Chester complete with matching Stratus/Chuck Norris (yes, Chuck Norris) themed t-shirts. Here’s a teaser:
Need Ideas?
If you’d like to go the traditional route and give gifts to clients and employees, here are a few of our favorites and some great sites to go for inspiration:
Cloud9Living- Don’t just give a gift, give an experience. Something your customers or employees wouldn’t get themselves. Cloud9Living has a wide array of experiential gifts perfect for anyone on your business gift-giving list. Trust the marketing consultants, they will love it. After all, we do know our audiences!
Edible Arrangements- Want to thank any entire business for being a valued customer? Nothing sparks the excitement of the holidays and the excitement of a foodie gift quite like an edible arrangement.
Graze- Are your employees or clients on the healthy side? Try these great healthy snacks by mail. It will also bode well that you paid enough attention to know what kind of lifestyle they lead.
Dancing Deer- Not only is the name super festive but the treats are delicious. If you don’t have time to bake yourself, this is a close second choice.
Gifts.com- Looking to get really special gifts for everyone? Try Gifts.com, an aggregate of some of the coolest gifts online. They even have a personality test and special lists for typical personalities so you can pick the best gift for everyone. Spending a little more time picking something specific to each person really shows you care. Warning: you could spend hours searching through these unique gifts and even more time perusing the awesome websites they source gifts from (that you probably never knew existed) like UncommonGoods.com and TheGrommet.com.
Looking for something a little more nontraditional and maybe even a little humorous…try the Sock of the Month Club. Keep those feet warm this winter. Don’t want a client or an employee losing a toe to frostbite…it’s the ultimate showing of appreciation.
No matter what you choose traditional/nontraditional, healthy/not-so-healthy, tangible/experiential any gift or act of generosity this holiday season is sure to go a long way towards keeping your customers and employees cheerful this year. Happy shopping and happy holidays from Stratus Interactive.
