On some of the Virtual Assistant forums there have been discussions about whether or not to give clients gifts or cards during this special holiday season. Some give discounts, some give gift vouchers for books, movies or other things, some offer other things.
On one of the LinkedIn forums I belong to there was a link given for a site that has some excellent “No Cost” gifts for colleagues and service providers and I’ve listed some of them here. To see the rest please click on the link below.
- Endorsements – many social networks, like Linked In, have an endorsement feature. This is like a testimonial…basically it is like telling the world that you’ve worked with them and you would recommend them. Anytime you can do this for a service provider, it is something that is really appreciated.
- Write a nice testimonial that speaks to your service provider’s potential clients. What would you want to know about them, what they excel at, etc…if you were considering hiring them all over again? Give your service provider explicit permission to use this testimonial in whatever manner they see fit: print, website, newsletter, etc…
- Create a link on your website called “Preferred Service Providers” or something similar and write a nice summary of their services and link to their website.
Some of Christine’s suggestions I already do – year round but I agree that an extra effort with these would make great gifts for clients. Why don’t you check them out to see what you might like to do?
Perhaps you have other suggestions as well and I invite you to share them here.
by Kathie M. Thomas
Christmas gifts, no cost, free gifts, virtual assistant, clients
Kathie is the former owner of VA Directory and is former past President of the Australian VA Association. She founded the Virtual Assistant industry in Australia in the mid 90s, having already been operating a home-based secretarial service. Today the VA industry covers a multitude of office-based services for clients worldwide.
Pat Montgomery says
We always make a donation to charity in our customers’ names. They seem to appreciate that.
rosie says
Thanks for sharing the reminder. It is important that we remember each and every one of our clients regardless of how much business they are doing with us. There is so much power behind the thought of saying Thank You.