Everyone loves getting things for free. If you won the lottery, chances are that you wouldn’t say no to it. However, there’s a fine line between giving things away and giving gifts to clients. Many travel advisors feel that they need to give something to their clients as thanks for booking with them – that’s not at all true!
Your clients choose to work with you for your service, not just to get something for free. Don’t believe me? Check out our conversation about Charging Professional Fees. Many travel advisors are charging fees for planning trips, cancelling trips, making modifications, and so much more. Yes, there may be tire-kickers and price shoppers out there, and maybe they’re contacting you to get some discounted rate or on-board credit for their trip, but that shouldn’t be coming out of your own pocket! Thankfully, you can utilize your business relationships with your suppliers, host agencies/franchises, consortia, etc. to provide these added benefits to your clients.
That being said, gifting is a great way to show clients that you care about them and helps build a relationship with them, keeping you top of mind. Here are some opportunities other sales professionals use to provide a gift to their client:
- For their 1st time booking with you
- For being a long-time client of yours
- To get back in front of an existing client that you haven’t heard from in a while
- As thanks for a referral
- To a new client for being a referral
- For being part of groups
- As a prize for attending an event or show
- For the holidays
- On special occasions (birthday, anniversary, honeymoon, etc.)
- Just because…
My favorite gift is the “just because…” gift. I’ve noticed that when you gift clients for each booking, or multiple times throughout the year, including special occasions and holidays, they start to expect it. This not only causes you to potentially lose out on hard-earned money, but it also creates a precedence – and you know you can’t just give to one client and not to the other, plus you’ll also have to come up with new gift ideas every year as well!
The best gift is always a thoughtful one and doing it randomly for clients is always a nice surprise. Everyone receives/expects gifts on holidays and special occasions, so it takes away from the special excitement, but could you imagine receiving a gift on a random Tuesday in August just because your travel advisor was thinking about you?! Yeah, that would definitely stand out. Here are some great gift ideas to pass out to your clients periodically throughout the year:
- Branded merchandise from your agency (free marketing goes a long way)
- Something reminiscent of their last trip or destination they traveled to
- A framed picture from their last trip they booked with you
- Consortia amenities (they’re free!)
- A handwritten note
- A travel journal
- A branded destination guide to get them dreaming of their next trip.
