What Your Business Gifts Say About Your Business

By: Gareth Parkin


What label would you want your business to be known by?
Cheapskate or classy?
Your business gifts say a mouthful about your business. They also speak volumes of how you treat your customers.
If you’re in the habit of giving dollar store gifts, then you might as well stop giving - period. Don’t bother. You may say this is rather harsh because the argument is, it’s the thought that counts, not the gift itself. That’s fine if you you suddenly thought of your friend one sunny day on your way home from work and there was a dollar store nearby that sold her favorite brand of aluminum foil. Then true, it’s the thought that counts. But if you’re running a business and trying to enlarge your customer base, you may want to go a few notches higher than the dollar store when your purchasing manager goes on her next shopping spree for the company. Allocate more shopping dollars if you know what “image” means and how powerful a message it can be.
If you’re going to give a T-shirt that ends up in shreds after one wash cycle, your business customers will get fragmented instead of segmented. If you’re going to give a key chain with a clasp that’s weak and comes undone when your customer starts putting his keys in, then you’ve just about undone a relationship that took years to build. If you’re going to give a mug that cracks and comes apart as soon as hot coffee is poured into it, the trousers of your customer won’t be thick enough to protect him from the scalding heat. His skin will suffer burns, and what have you done? You’ve just burned your bridges.
“You’re exaggerrating,” you argue. A gift is still a gift, no matter the price tag.
Think again.
If chivalry is dead, then class must be dead. If your company is in the habit of giving gifts that end up like a kludge, then stay out of the gift-giving exercise – that is, until you can afford a little extra class or until you’re feeling more generous.
Your business gifts say a lot about your company. If you think your customers are worth a penny, then you’re short-changing yourself and your company reputation. The basic premise is this: if generosity does not run in your veins, don’t try to squeeze blood out of stone. Don’t play the role of giver only because “the competition is doing it, heck, might as well do it.” If that’s your attitude, woe. Double woe to you even. You’re just like the long-time lover who doesn’t believe in commitment or in solid relationships.
You know, successful companies take their customers seriously. Their customers can turn nasty every once in awhile and be demanding and obnoxious, but these companies seduce them back into the fold. They treat customer relations like a passionate love affair because they can’t afford to let the flames die.
So, sir, excuse my candid manner, but if you’re going to give a dollar store item, drop dead!
There are other companies who want my business.

Article Source: http://www.articleyard.com


Information about the Author:

Gareth Parkin is the co-founder of Ideasbynet, the UK's largest online source of business gifts and promotional gifts. He has taken the UK gift market by storm by the application of modern business thinking and the latest search engine marketing techniques. For more details on business gifts visit www.ideasbynet.com