101 Gift Ideas for Contractor’s Clients & Tips on How to Choose One
Contractors can make the most of the holiday season by using it to reconnect with old clients and demonstrate your customer appreciation. Developing a strong relationship with your customers can help you get good reviews, referrals, and more of their business in the future.
While holiday cards may work for many businesses, sweetening the pot with a Christmas gift can reap even more rewards. Sending a gift demonstrates that you’re willing to go above and beyond for your clients. It can also help reinforce your brand image as a high-end contractor service. Also, sending out personalized gifts to your most profitable clients or clients who refer your services the most is a good investment in the future of your business.
Choosing a gift that makes sense for your clients can be a challenge, especially if you send gifts year after year. It’s better to send personalized gifts or those that remind people of your services without being just an advertisement. They should be gifts that your clients can enjoy but which don’t cost a huge amount unless you only work with a handful of clients per year. Here are gift ideas for contractor clients based on the kind of work you do or the kind of client you work with.
Home-Themed Gifts
Most contractors work inside of their client’s home, improving some aspect of it. Your gift can, therefore help your client enjoy the space that you contributed to or remodeled. This is a great way to remind clients of how great their space is now, and how much your services benefited them. Here are gift ideas for three of the most popular spaces you might have remodeled or altered for your client:
Kitchens:
- Cutting boards
- Cheese boards
- Knife Sets
- Knife sharpeners
- Glasses
- Placemats
- Coffee bag
- Wine/other alcohol
- Cookie mixes
- BBQ sauces
- Urthbox subscription
- SnackSack subscription
- Rawspice bar subscription
Living rooms:
- Movie snack boxes
- Potted succulents
- Bonsai trees
- Candles
- Candle subscription services
- Decorative pillows
- Year of Spotify Premium
- Book of the month club
- Popular books
- Book ends
- Year of Netflix
- Year of Amazon Prime
- Trays
- Throw blankets
- Fireplace starters
- Decorative fireplace accessories
- Vases
- Ornaments
Bathrooms:
- Bath bombs
- Candles
- Moon lamps
- Himalayan salt rocks
- Hairbrushes
- Shower mats
- Perfume/cologne kits
- Incense holder and sticks
- Potpourri
- Shower curtains
- Shower speakers
- Bathtub trays
- Hand towels
Do some of these gifts seem a little expensive? Don’t forget that you can often make deals with suppliers if you’re buying in bulk. You may be able to shave a few dollars off the price if you are buying hundreds of the product.
Gifts for HVAC Clients
Heating, cooling, and air quality gifts work just the same way as a home-themed gift. They can help remind customers of how your services have impacted their life while demonstrating that you care. Thankfully, HVAC services and the holiday season both lend themselves to cozy gifts such as:
- Socks or Christmas stockings
- Weighted blankets
- Warm beverages like hot chocolate
- Winter themed alcohol mixes
- Hats
- Gloves
- Scarfs
Gifts for Landscaping Clients
It can be a lot more challenging to pick out a landscaping-themed gift in the winter. However, with a bit of creativity, you can remind clients of how lovely their landscaping looks in the summer. Try these gifts:
- State park memberships
- State park themed merchandise
- Garden center gift cards
- Indoor plants
- Watering cans
- Books on gardens and gardening
- Nature photography books
- Nature guidebooks
- Snowshoes
Christmas-Themed Gifts for Clients
Leaning into the Christmas season is a great idea for many businesses. So long as you know your client’s celebrate the holiday, you can choose these Christmas gifts for them:
- Ornaments
- Cookie tins
- Poinsettias
- Decorative snowmen
- Wreaths
- Candy canes
- Keychains
- Hair ties
- Baskets
Non-Christmas Gifts
What about the clients who don’t celebrate Christmas? You may have many clients that aren’t Christian. It isn’t always a good idea to guess at what gifts might fit in with their winter traditions, as guessing wrong is a big faux pas. In this case, you can choose gifts that don’t emphasize any religious sentiment, such as:
- Phones cases
- Hot sauce samplers
- Head scratchers
- Jerky subscription
- Japan crate
- Dripbox subscription
- Introverts retreat subscription
How to Choose Personalized Gifts
Just as with gift-giving in your family, the more personalized a gift you can give to a client the more they will appreciate it. However, you may feel a bit stuck choosing a personalized gift for a client, as you likely don’t know too much about them. However, if they were a referral or have made a referral, you have a great glimpse at what they might like. You’ll need to know who referred them and how they know each other to make this one work. The connection between the clients tells you something about the preferences of both parties.
Workplace referrals are great because it lets you know what industry both people work in. You can then base your gift on the industry, such as:
- Healthcare: Consider hand sanitizers, fancy soaps, or healthy treats.
- Education: Apple gift baskets, pens, pencils, paper, or notebooks are all good options.
- Office environments: Try a mini terrarium, desk feet hammocks, fun lamps, or picture frames.
- Other industries: Consider subscriptions to their trade publication.
Friend referrals can also be great, letting you know what those people have in common such as:
- Hobbies: There are many hobbies that lend well to themed gifts. You can search for them online. For video games, choose gift cards for Steam or Riot points. Car fanatics might like car fresheners.
- Children:If your client’s children are friends, you can aim the gifts at the children. Consider Legos, chocolates, art supplies, or stuffed animals.
- No kids: What if your typical client doesn’t have kids? Couples might appreciate a date night subscription, his and her mugs or towels,
- Pets: If your clients have pets or met through their pets you can choose treats for the animals, toys for the animals, or brushes.
School: If your clients met at school you can buy them branded merchandise from the school.