Recently, I got an email from an advisor based in Hamilton seeking advice on a client appreciation event. 

 He has done the boat cruises, the car rally at a BMW dealership and the VIP screening of movies  for his best clients, plus a few other things. While he takes photos of the event, he is reluctant to put them on his web site as those clients who were not invited might be miffed. 

He is thinking of an event for next year that all his clients, small, and large, could attend  - since this would be a rather large affair he needs to think of the cost. 

He has thought of a summer picnic but the weather could destroy the event, even in a roofed venue.  

He has  considered renting Copps Coliseum for an hour skate, followed by some sort of meal, but not all his clients skate.

He ended his note: "Any thoughts would be welcome."

Targeting top clients

It sounds like this advisor has done a good job of organizing events for his best clients - and  suffers a bit from the "done it all" syndrome.

That said, I would encourage him to continue to run selective, by-invitation  events targeted to top clients - the consistent feedback I get is that not only do these pay the biggest dividends in goodwill and additional business, but it's often hard to get bigger clients out to "mass" events.

The challenge is really breaking through - when it comes to events for top clients, you need to pick one of two strategies.

Either do something dramatically different that really stands out - and keep repeating it, so it becomes your signature ... or mix events up so they're always fresh and different.

Go big or go home

As an example of a repeated "signature" event, every January one team with National Bank Financial in London invites top clients to a Friday night dinner and overnight stay at a local inn (owned by a client.)

While not cheap, this generates huge feedback and goodwill  - it's become something clients look forward to. In fact, they get emails from clients planning winter vacations asking for the date so they can plan around it.

Along similar lines, one advisor and his associate (along with their spouses) host his top six client couples for an annual outing to the Shaw Festival at Niagara on the Lake - it starts with a reception and early dinner on Saturday followed by a play, then ends with brunch Sunday morning.

Again, not cheap (he estimates the dinner, theatre tickets, rooms and brunch next morning cost him $5000) - but clients love it and look forward to it each year ... and he estimates that he almost always recovers the cost through referrals alone in the first 30 days.

As an aside, this doesn't have to be an annual event.  When it comes to communication of any kind, there's a "go big or go home" syndrome - you're better off doing a more unique and compelling event every two or even three years than a less memorable event annually.

The power of novelty

The other route is to keep coming up with fresh and different activities for top clients - understand that in the normal course even if you get a good response the first time you do something, when you repeat it you've lost the novelty factor and the second time around the response tends to be less enthusiastic.

The solution is to keep coming up with new ideas. One possibility for events targeted to top clients is to put together a list of things you've haven't done such as a cooking class, wine tasting or  golf clinic in the spring - and perhaps tap into wholesalers to put together as comprehensive a list as possible.

Then take this list to your best clients - and ask them to indicate their interest in these different events.

There are three benefits to this:

First, you're sending the right signal to top clients even before the event takes place.

Second, you'll tailor the events to the things that people are most interested in.

Finally, when you invite clients to an event they expressed interest in, you can tell them that the event was selected based in part on their input - and greatly increase the chances they'll attend.

Running a broad based event

For a broader event for all clients, again uniqueness is key. The challenge is doing something affordable that still stands out.

The skating idea at a high profile venue has worked well for other advisors - and as for clients who don't skate, that's offset by the goodwill among those who bring kids and grandkids as well as friends who they invite.

The key is to brainstorm with your staff as to what you can do to make this really special. One Vancouver advisor invited clients to a Sunday afternoon skating party at GM Place, the Canuck's arena and had a recently retired Canuck come out and sign autographs in exchange for a contribution to the Vancouver Canuck charity foundation.

The only additional costs were for hot dogs, potato chips and hot chocolate - despite the modest refreshments, they got a huge response from clients.

Another Toronto advisor got great feedback when she invited all clients to coffee and Danish on Saturday morning to hear two speakers, on the topic of giving back to the community. 

One was Toronto Argonauts coach Pinball Clemons (who did a great job - upbeat, funny and entertaining), the second a speaker from Save the Children (the charity started by Craig Kielburger) who spoke in exchange for a modest donation.

Still another advisor in Toronto does an annual family day at the zoo - so advisors have to think about unique venues in their city.

With regard to weather concerns, while a risk at any outdoor event, all you can do is hold an event at a time of year when the odds are in your favour and  have a number people can call the day of the event to find out if it's on.

But as long as the risk is fairly low, I'd rather take my chances on a super event that might get rained out but would be gangbusters if it worked then a safer event that never really strikes a chord.