Private-client events and clienteling in Dubai

What clienteling means in practice

Clienteling is the long game of luxury: one adviser getting to know one client, and using that knowledge to offer the right thing at the right moment. A private dinner or a collection viewing is one chapter of it. If nobody knows what happens the morning after, it was only a pleasant evening.

Eva looks at how an event fits the relationship a brand already has with its guest, then at the unglamorous parts: who hosts, who introduces whom, and who replies when a client asks a question. For a fuller explanation, read clienteling across luxury retail and hospitality.

What the work covers

• VIC and private-client events. Dinners, previews and appointment days for your very important clients (VICs), from the first idea to the host briefing.
• Personal-shopping partnerships. Setting up the arrangement and training the teams involved.
• CRM and client programmes. Reviewing how a brand records preferences and decides who hears what, across a quarter or a full year.
• Introductions between hotels and retailers. Agreeing how one team introduces a guest to another, with the guest’s agreement.
• Follow-up. Naming who owns each reply and how quickly it goes out. The guide to what to do after a private client event shows how this works.

Introductions only work when the guest wants them

A concierge who mentions a jeweller is doing a guest a favour if the guest is interested, and getting in the way if not. Eva’s partnership work starts with that question: why would this person welcome this introduction?

The brief then sets out who makes the introduction and who follows it up. Client data stays with the company that holds it. A partnership gives nobody the right to pass on a client list, and any sharing goes through each company’s own privacy policy and permissions.

Jewellery often sits at the centre of this kind of programme. If that is your brief, see fine jewellery marketing and partnerships.

Where the experience comes from

Private clients run through Eva’s whole career. At Chalhoub Group she delivered private VIC evenings, including a private Loewe evening for the region’s most distinguished clients. At Century Financial Brokers, from March 2019 to November 2021, she looked after relationships with high-net-worth clients.

At Al Tayer Group she ran personal-shopping partnerships and trained their teams, and she hosted the International Group of Department Stores’ VIP dinner at the Museum of the Future. At Mandarin Oriental in Dubai she launched Casa Amor with an opening for 300 VIP guests. Her first hotel jobs, in Munich, included room service and VIP arrivals, which is a good way to learn what guests notice.

These companies appear here as career history, and none of them endorses this site. Eva doesn’t publish client lists, guest lists or internal figures. Read her full career.

Common questions

What is a VIC?

VIC stands for very important client, the term luxury retail uses for its most valued customers. A VIC programme is the set of events, services and personal contact a brand keeps for them.

Can a small event make a difference?

Yes. A dinner for ten can do more for a client programme than a party for two hundred, if the ten were chosen for a reason and someone follows up.

Does Eva need our client list?

Not to start. Client names stay with you, and Eva can work from a description of the audience and the relationships involved.

How are these projects set up?

Clienteling and VIC advice usually runs as a retainer, by the quarter or the year. A single event can be a defined project, and Eva can also step in as interim lead.