Agents: How to Make Your Gift-Giving More Meaningful This Holiday SeasonBy Liz Dominguez
In real estate, agents typically give their clients things like branded products, baked goods and other items that help build their brand more than say "Thank you for choosing us." But there are methods of gift-giving that are more meaningful. These can include:
Q: What types of holiday gifts does your firm send? Sarah Gilbert: We worked directly with Leeatt Rothschild, the founder of Packed with Purpose—a corporate gifting company with a social mission—to custom create a box for [our brokerage] that fits into our unique client appreciation program we deliver on behalf of our agents. Q: Why did you choose this company? SG: As a brokerage, we are always looking for great solutions for our agents to show appreciation to their clients and stay in touch in a differentiated manner. As a local business owner (based out of Mt. Prospect, Ill., for over 41 years), we also have a responsibility to ensure that the solutions we provide are sourced sustainably and locally and support many of the communities that we serve. Working with Packed with Purpose, we've found ways to gift beautifully, while having a positive impact on organizations across local communities. We wanted our box to represent a diverse set of purveyors and have as much connectivity to our community as possible. For example, one particular purveyor, Lambs Farm, is located right in a community that we serve, just two miles from our office in Libertyville. Items in our gift box from Lambs Farm directly support adults with disabilities, and Lambs Farm is a familiar name to many of our clients. Q: What has been the client reaction? SG: They think it is absolutely amazing! Social media posts, pictures, thank-you texts…our agents have received all of it! They open this beautiful box with our logo printed on the front, excited to see what's inside. You can watch how they explore the treats and begin to make the connection, while reading the personalized note and purveyor book, that the gift is about so much more than what they initially thought. Q: Why are community-inspired gifts so much more effective? SG: Spending money on client appreciation and touchpoints is part of our industry, but it is a much more effective use of our collective dollar if that money can simultaneously do good. It increases the impact of the gift tenfold and is another way that we, as a local business, can continue to reinvest in our community. The box our clients receive is about so much more than just the treats inside. Every few months, Leeatt adds in a coupon allowing a client to go online and pay it forward to someone else for free, and the magic of purposeful gifting continues to pay forward. This was originally published on RISMedia's Housecall. Liz Dominguez is RISMedia's associate content editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at ldominguez@rismedia.com. |
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