A version of this article originally appeared on the Greetabl blog. It has been republished here for our audience.
Why Gifting Matters
Did you know that building a strong emotional connection with your clients has been scientifically proven to help you win more business? According to Psychology Today, “Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows that when evaluating brands, consumers primarily use emotions (personal feelings and experiences), rather than information (brand attributes, features, and facts).” In plain English: People want to work with people they like. One way to build relationships with clients is to send gifts as part of your client experience. And, as with most things in life, timing is everything.
Timing Is Everything
At HoneyBook, we work with thousands of small business owners day-in and day-out, perfecting the art of providing the ultimate client experience. Over the years, we’ve uncovered the three most impactful times to send a gift:
- After the retainer or first payment is received. Kick off your project on the right foot, and show your clients you’re excited about working with them.
- Upon project completion. Send a thank you gift when your project wraps to let your clients know you appreciated working with them. And if you’re asking clients to write a review, sending an accompanying gift can sweeten them up to actually do it.
- On an anniversary. Use anniversaries to surprise past clients and let them know you’re thinking of them. For example, you could pick the one-year anniversary of completing your project, a birthday or a wedding anniversary to send a gift. As long as it relates to the work you did, this strategy is a great way to check in on your clients to see what needs (or referrals) they might have and remind them of your business.
Tip: Need more gift ideas? Check out our Client Gift Guide.
Client Gift-Giving Made Easy
Creating a plan around when you want to send each client a gift is the first step. But just as important is actually remembering to do it. Luckily, digital tools can help keep you organized. HoneyBook, for example, helps small business owners manage all of their client relationships and projects in one place, including streamlining your gift-giving process. HoneyBook can help:
- Set reminders. Remember to send gifts on specific client milestones (especially the ones we outlined above) with automatic reminders. Let’s say you want to send a gift to every client after they make their first deposit. HoneyBook can automatically create a task and reminder, adding it to your to-do list as soon as each client’s deposit is received.
- Make it personal. Say goodbye to searching through all of your different client email threads. From the very beginning of your relationship, all of your client details and conversations are saved in one place! This makes it super easy to refresh your memory and customize your gift and note for each client.
Gift Gains
Timed correctly, gifts can help deepen relationships with your clients, help projects run smoothly, keep your brand top of mind and win you repeat or referral business. And using tools like HoneyBook can help streamline the gift-giving process, making it easy to deliver scalable, personalized customer experiences for each and every client.
