Hi there!
My name is Paula from Beyond the Maze. We are Australian Virtual Assistants who can assist you with your reception services and administration services.
Today, I’m going to be talking about how to use a Virtual Assistant to purchase your client gifts or maybe even your team gifts. Who knows? Just gifts in general!
Using a VA to purchase client gifts can be an effective way to streamline this process and save you time.
Have you ever thought that you’re going to buy this gift for a client.
Maybe there’s a client that’s gone into hospital or they’ve just got married or have had a baby or something like that. You thought you’d really like to just send them a little gift.
I don’t know if you have anything like me, I just have to find the perfect gift, so I spend way too much time looking for different gifts for clients to just make sure I get the right one.
Having somebody out there to help me would be great for this, but it’s really important to get this process down pat before you are able to hand this over to someone. A virtual assistant can definitely help you with this.
Here are some tips to help you hand this task over to your virtual assistant.
1. Define the budget.
Make sure you establish a clear budget upfront and provide your VA with the guidelines on what sort of gifts you are looking for within that budget.
So, for example, if it’s a baby gift, what are you looking for? Are you looking for a gift specifically for the baby? And is that baby a male or female? Or are you looking for a gift for the mum? Or are you looking for a gift for the family as a whole?
Think about those sorts of things, or maybe you don’t mind, so it’d be worthwhile just sitting with your VA before you give over this job and just making a bit of a checklist on what you would like under what scenario.
If it’s a baby gift, what sort of things would you like to include in that?
If it’s a wedding gift, what would you like to include?
If it’s a bought your first house or a get well gift or an anniversary gift if they’ve been with you for a while.
What sort of things are you thinking of to be able to vibe with that? And what budget would you put on that?
2. Provide your VA with a list of potential gifts, gift ideas or vendors.
If you’ve used somebody in the past that you really like, I’ve got a particular gift purchase that I use all the time because I love what they do. They’re really easy to work with. I just jump onto their site and grab something from them because everybody loves what comes from these people.
If you have somebody like that that you regularly purchase off or you’ve heard of other people purchasing off, give that information to your VA.
Maybe your VA might be able to get do a bit of research for you and give you a list of people that you might like, and they can send that to you, and then you can shortlist that list, and that will then help you keep your values of your business and your brand of your business as well.
This can streamline the selection process. It can ensure that your VA is selecting the gifts that align with your preferences, so it looks like it’s coming from you and it’s not just a generic gift coming from anybody.
3. Consider the person that you’re buying the gift for.
When selecting gifts for clients, it’s important to consider what they would like and their cultural background and their relationship with your company.
If you’re doing like a client to client base, so a business-to-business type gift, then it might be worth the VA doing a bit of research on that client to see what their preferences are like.
They might be able to go to their Facebook page and see what they enjoy doing, which might tailor the gift a little bit more to them as well as rather than just having a generic gift.
4. Ensuring that the gifts align with your company values and policies.
For example, it is important to avoid gifts that could be seen as inappropriate or extravagant.
So really, just making that baseline of what you won’t want as a gift to be sent, and what you do want.
5. Make sure you speak to your bookkeeper or accountant to understand the tax implications of giving gifts to clients and particularly if you’re giving gifts to staff as well.
That’s very, very important because in Australia there’s some limits on what you’re allowed to give to staff, so just double check with your bookkeeper or accountant around that.
Overall, using a Virtual Assistant to purchase gifts can be a great way to save you time and streamline that process.
It is important to approach the process with care and consideration to ensure that the gifts are appropriate and in line with your company values and policies and that they reflect you as a business professionally.
If you’d like to talk to us about using a VA in your business, to move your business forward or just free up some time for you then click on the link below.
Book in a time with us so we can have a free chat around how we can help you in your business:
https://beyondthemaze.com.au/contact/book-a-free-consultation/
Talk to you soon.
Bye for now!
