Surprise & Delight: Rethink your gifting in the “other” holiday season
“Surprise and Delight.”
Anyone working in sales or any customer facing career has likely heard this phrase. Maybe you’re even tired of hearing about it!
The basic concept: to attract new customers or nurture current ones, surprise and delight them. It’s a marketing tactic — a way to ‘touch’ customers occasionally and offer unexpected rewards.
In other words, give your customers or clients a delightful surprise now and then! That promotes customer loyalty and engagement, keeps your business top-of-mind and reduces churn, ultimately increasing profitability for you or your business.
I recently had the pleasure of reading John Ruhlin’s Giftology (thanks for the recommendation, @Chris Smith!). Ruhlin wrote that there are right, and wrong ways, to give. One of the most striking “right” ways was what Ruhlin called Planned Randomness. He argues that the best results come from gifts given at unexpected times.
The same gift given over the holidays — a bottle of wine, for example — is far more meaningful in February. You don’t want your gift becoming just another trinket that gets lost in the noise or added to the holiday pile in December. Instead, send your customers something when they least expect it. (And by sending gifts outside the Christmas season, you avoid fretting over the “Merry Christmas” vs. “Happy Holidays” debate.)
What gifts have you received so far this year in 2021? Almost no one sends or gets anything in January or February (at least corporate gifts), so imagine how excited someone will be to even just receive a handwritten note!
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Skip the fruit baskets or box of chocolates at Christmas. Send something for Valentine’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day! Here are a few ideas Ruhlin provided in his book:
Valentine’s Day: We LOVE working with you!
St. Patrick’s Day: We’re LUCKY to have you as a partner
I’d go a step further and argue that you don’t even need a holiday — just an occasion. For example, what about the anniversary of the date when the client signed up with you?
Think of surprising and delightful ways to “gift” your customers this year. And start thinking about it now — when no one else is!
