Every year, small businesses struggle with the customer appreciation gift. Should we give one to every client? Only to new clients? What about long-term clients? Should we order pre-printed (and clever) cards? And the big question: how much is this going to cost?

Saying thanks to our clients in a better fashion is something we set out to do last winter during the re-creation of our branding model. We rebuilt our logo, changed colors, formalized templates, printed letterhead, stickers and designed mail-ready new-client packets and generally upgraded our schwag. It was time for us to have something to hand out besides business cards.

That's why we don't send out holiday gifts anymore; heck, we don't send out "winter holiday" cards anymore. Instead, we thank our clients all year long. With a simple Access database, we keep track of each client who's referred business to us and we send a handwritten note (on those new branded and printed cards we designed) and a small gift card to an omnipresent store. First referral? A five-dollar Starbucks card. Second referral? A somewhere-else gift card. If a referral turns into business? A larger Target or Paneras card is coming your way inside a handwritten custom-branded notecard. If you're local, it might be a lunch gift certificate at a restaurant (also a client).

The trick in thanking your customers all year long is keeping track of (a) referrals (b) referrals that turn into business and (c) what you already sent as a thank you. Be sure to create a referral plan because you should expect referrals if your company does a great job. Incentives, especially unexpected ones (with your logo) are a great way to build loyalty. Always keep records of referrals and how you recognized them.

There are apps galore to help with these functions and a little customization goes a long way.

You may already own Microsoft Access and like its Office counterparts, there are free templates available online, like this contact management database for Access 2003 at Office Online. For Access 2007, you can get a customer service database, and another for contacts. A little help from an Access guru can turn this into a tool to manage what your customers do for you and what you do to say thanks. (Note to Google Apps: small business owners could really use some business-helpful templates up there!)

Of course, you can always keep a bunch of sticky notes across the bottom of your monitor if a software app or online tool isn't to your liking.

Schwag is fun, albeit expensive if you buy decent stuff. The hardest part is thinking up something new; after all, do your customers really want hats with your logo? My Gen Yers constantly remind me that they don't wear denim shirts and white t-shirts are boring. We spend a lot of time browsing the schwag sites looking for the unusual and out-there products we can brand with our logo.

Send schwag unexpectedly and always include a note thanking the customer for referring your business to a friend. Be sure to get stickers that you can easily slap across a product for instant branding.

The only challenge we find (after remembering to buy stamps; we don't use postal mail a lot, but they're available online) is coming up with new ideas for gift cards. Perhaps you can share yours with us - we just need to make sure they have branches all over the place (like Panera, Target, Coldstone Creamery, and others). Put your ideas in comments, please.

Best-schwag-that-almost-was of 2007
Starbucks - design your own card. Not only did the Flash site fail the day they mass emailed the world about it, but it won't let us put our logo on the card. (They promise it's "coming.") Can you imagine the success for the company that gets that right first?