How to Decide if You Should Send your Clients a Gift This Holiday Season
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! And a lot of new Virtual Assistants start wondering right about now if they should be buying their clients a gift for the holiday.
The short answer is, it’s really up to you.
This isn’t something that's expected or anything you would be judged on if you didn’t give your clients anything around the holidays…
If that doesn’t clear things up, let me say it this way. You will know if you should send your client a gift. And maybe some clients that will mean different things. You don’t have to get all of your clients a gift on the same level. Just use your gut…
What is your relationship like with this client?
You know when you are excited to get a gift for someone? If you think about each client and the possibility of getting each one of them a gift, who are you excited to do that for? Who does it make you excited to hear their reaction when they receive your gift? If anyone comes to mind, then you should get them a gift.
Let’s say your client doesn’t come to mind when you ask yourself this. That’s okay too! Maybe your relationship doesn’t reach this level and that’s okay. So first, let’s cover what you can do for these clients.
What to do for clients you are spending money on…
For the clients you don’t think are expecting or would appreciate a gift in a way that would bring value to your relationship, here are some things you could do:
Send a happy holiday’s card (e-card through Handwrytten, an email or physical card)
This is a great way to start building a relationship that surpasses your day-to-day work. Some clients, you will just never gel with this way and like I said before, that is a-okay! But sometimes it just takes a little effort to get to this level.
Why should you even make an effort to get to this level? Because it creates a lasting relationship with your clients that will bring more loyalty and richer relationship.
Now let’s get to the fun stuff!
Here are some easy and fun gifts to get your clients…
If you know your client well, this can get a little more curated. Do you know things like, their favorite sports team? Music? Food? If so, set a budget and do some shopping!
If not, we can keep it simple!
My favorite places to look for food gifts:
Goldbelly - Literally my FAVORITE place to buy food gifts! There are so many fun and unique food options on this site from food all over the states. Sometimes it’s fun just to explore the site, just make sure you don’t do it on an empty stomach!
Harry & David - You’re probably familiar with this name. I’m sure you’ve seen it on some charcuterie board sets around the holiday’s but it’s really a tried and true food gift go-to!
Cocktail Courier - Got a client who doesn’t treat themselves with food but does with drinks? This is a fun one to plan ahead and have delivered before your next one-on-one with them before the holidays! A little virtual happy hour never hurt anybody. They even have mocktails!
My favorite places to look for flower gifts:
UrbanStems - Super fun bouquets, shopping experience and I’ve received flowers from this service and the delivery/packaging is excellent!
Bouqs - Echoing my same thoughts on UrbanStems, I have both given and received from this company and loved the experience. The only difference is the availability and delivery timelines are sometimes more limited.
1-800 Flowers - When all else fails and you have a smaller budget and shorter timeline, this is an equally great service!
Want to find something that’s not going to get eaten or thrown away in a couple weeks?
Here are some of my favorite places to shop for fun unique gifts:
Uncommon Goods - This place is a curated site of unique gifts for every type of person!
World Market - Less curated than Uncommon Goods but still full of dreamy gifts!
Etsy - You can never go wrong buying from real life small businesses! Gotta order from these shops sooner than later though as most of them are one women/men shops and have early cutoffs for delivery by Christmas.
Of course, there are also gift cards...not a lazy way out if you know your client’s favorite coffee shop or online store! No matter where you shop for clients this year, make sure you are using Rakuten so you get cash back on any purchases you make! Actually, make sure you are using it ALL YEAR ROUND so you can get cash back on all purchases, all the time :) There is literally no catch to this, I’ve earned almost $2,000 from this site!
Hope this helps and happy shopping!