[ Step 3 ]
Food & beverages
This is the perfect opportunity to develop a relationship with a local caterer. Ask your client if she or he would like to attend a tasting or would like to review the menu. Be sure to have vegetarian options and to ask your clients if they know of any guests with food allergies.
For a two-hour event you can do simple fare — wine, beer, champagne, cheese, crackers, fruit, chocolate or cookies, and coffee — and set it out yourselves. To show off all the bells and whistles in a new kitchen, you might hire a chef to cook on-site. Contact a local restaurant and arrange to barter.
Key to Success: Bring plastic containers for leftover food, box it all up, and offer it to clients.
[ Step 4 ]
Decorations
Avoid signage — this is not the time for a sales pitch. Ask the homeowners if there are delicate pieces that should be cleared from the room. Decorate the space simply with vases of flowers and set out bowls of nuts or dried fruit.
Though you don’t want to go overboard “you [do] want people to feel as if they’re going to something special,” Sailer says. “You want the house to look clean and sharp.”
Key to Success: Send the host family out to dinner the night before, leaving you plenty of time to decorate and clean the event space.
[ Step 5 ]
Atmosphere
Keep it fun. “You want people to walk away and say, ‘It would be great to have as great an experience as these people had,’” Rodriguez says.
Don’t make guests feel pressured. Attendees who have questions will ask them. Anthony Wilder Design/Build owner Anthony Wilder brings his iPad loaded with before, during, and after images of the project, which help tell the story of the transformation.
Ask clients if it would be alright to photograph the party. With client permission, “We’ve put photos up on our Facebook page and gotten good feedback from that,” Rodriguez says.
Key to Success: Make sure you’re in and out of the home when you say you will be. Clients will remember if you said you’d be gone by 9:30 p.m. and you were still there at 10:15.
[ Step 6 ]
Follow-up
Thank people as they leave the event. Ask the homeowners for permission to send a thank-you note to attendees. Don’t use the party for an all-out marketing blitz. “We don’t want people to feel like we are there to hound them and collect information,” Sailer says.
HartmanBaldwin created the “HB Ambassador Program” about two years ago as a thank you to clients and as an incentive. Clients who agree to allow events in their home receive ambassador credits that can be used for HB handyman or cleaning services.
Key to Success: If budget allows, send guests home with a gift such as a T-shirt or cap with your company’s logo on it. Give the hosts any leftover alcohol and a gift card to a local restaurant.