Should you give gifts to your pet business clients?
 
The answer may surprise you!
 
Find out below...
 
#askthepetbizwizanything
Transcription:

Dom: Next question is a seasonal question. So it is Christmas, I should have my Christmas jumper on.

And somebody's asking, "Do you give your clients gifts?"

And this often sparks a range of answers. Some people buy their clients tonnes of stuff. Some people get their clients something little. I've heard some people say like, "I don't get my clients gifts. They get me gifts, but I don't get them gifts," kind of thing.

I personally, I think it's a great time of the year to say thank you to your clients for the business that they've given you. And you can use that as an opportunity to upsell them onto something else if you want to.

I'm all for anything that says... That communicates to the clients that they're a valued client and... Yeah. It's a nice thing to do.

If you can't afford to give your clients gifts, again, this is telling you something. This should be telling you that you're not charging enough. This should be telling you that you need to increase your prices. You should be able to afford to buy your best clients, anyway, you should be able afford to buy your best clients some gifts. Not all clients are created equally. So the person who uses you five days a week every week of the year, they pay you a shit tonne of money, this is a valuable client. That is different then a client who uses you once every other month, and always late asking for your services, and always pays late. That's not the same thing.

The great client should be rewarded. You should ask them to refer you to more people like them. And then you get something little for the other person, if you want to.

But one thing I will say about gifts, and this going to hit a lot of people in the nuts, about gifts is,I see a lot of people in the lead up to Christmas in pet professional groups, putting pictures on of all of the gifts that they've got from their clients. And fantastic if you're getting gifts from your clients, but often these people are not charging very high prices for their services. So they get tonnes and tonnes of gifts from their clients, but they're actually living off of pittance for the rest of the year. But they feel like they need to shout about, "Oh, I got all these wonderful presents from my clients."

And sometimes the clients are doing this to keep you sweet so you don't put your price up and all this kind of thing. Personally, I mean, we do get gifts. We get loads of gifts. We look after our clients, they look after us. We love them dearly. They love us dearly. And this has always been the case for the whole 10 years that we've been in business.

But these clients also, they pay us a lot of money each and throughout the year as well. Why? Because we provide a fantastic service, obviously. And they're really happy and we are always there for them. So it's a two way thing.

Don't mistake a bundle full of presents as you're running a fantastic business if you are struggling for the other 51 weeks of the year.  Only you can answer whether you have that kind of business or not.

Harriet says, "Can we have a top hat next week as well, please?" Good request, Harriet. I shall work on that for you. I think a top hat is actually one of the only hats that I don't have, Harriet. But yeah, we'll definitely mix it up a bit next week. I like the suggestion.

Author: Dominic Hodgson
Dom Hodgson is known as 'The Pet Biz Wiz', and is widely regarded as the world's leading pet business coach and marketing strategist.
 
Author of 9 books, Dom is a much in demand speaker at pet business events all over the world. His mission is to help struggling pet business owners to unleash their potential, so they can create a super profitable, impactful, and industry enhancing business.
 
If you are a doggy daycare owner, dog trainer, dog walker, dog groomer or any serviced based pet business owner who wants to make more money with less stress, and fewer headaches, then click on the button below to get immediate access to £1997 worth of FREE marketing resources.
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