Due to a death in the family, I’ll be doing encore posts for the next couple of weeks that some of you may not have seen from earlier years.
November 20, 2007 Posted By Tom Kane
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Build On Your Relationships During The Holidays
With the holidays fast approaching, don’t miss out on the opportunity to building on your client relationships. Bob Weiss has an article entitled “Keep Your Top Clients in 2008” that appears in this month’s Law Practice Today.
Not sure that by just sending a holiday card and a gift (to your top clients) will guarantee that you won’t lose a client in 2008, since there needs to be a whole lot more involved with your client relationships. But, remembering clients on special occasions can’t hurt; and, in fact, can help cement and even enhance an existing relationship. And don’t forget your referral sources.
Bob’s suggestions are quite simple:
- First, create a list of your top clients, top potential clients and key referral sources,
- Then, send each a holiday card:
· Sign the card – and not an “auto-pen” version either, (see my post of last December entitled “Sign the Damn Holiday Card!”)
· Include a note relevant to the relationship – as least say something like “Jane – Hope you have a great holiday season – Joe”
As to gifts, it depends on your budget, of course, but you should certainly remember your top sources of your livelihood (clients and referral sources) in some manner.
You don’t have to be told that this all takes time. It could take a day, or even more to extend the appropriate holiday greetings for your various contacts. So what? As Bob mentions in his post, theJournal of Consumer Research concludes that what you do must“reflect the recipient’s perceived value of (the) relationship.”
Accordingly, if you value the relationships that produce your revenues, you shouldn’t give it a second thought as to whether you will make your remembrance of the holidays both personal and meaningful, as opposed to just going through the motions.