"Tis the Season

This time of year always starts me thinking about gifts -- gifts for customers and gifts for employees. Should I give gifts? How much should I spend? Do gifts really make a difference in my customer relationships or help keep staff motivated?

As far as customers, Christmas in particular is an ideal opportunity to say "thank you for your business." I don't want to spend a lot of money, yet I want my gift to stand out from the innocuous tins of popcorn and boxes of chocolate most companies receive each year. My solution was salsa. For years, my sister and I have made homemade raspberry salsa to give to friends and family. I decided since my friends raved about the salsa, my customers would probably like it too. I decorate each jar with bows or raffia and attach a personal thank you note. I have former clients who still call asking if they can buy a jar of salsa. The reason the gift works is that it's unusual, it's homemade so people know I put time and effort into the gift, and, well, the salsa is really good.

Gift giving doesn't have to be expensive. In fact some companies have strict policies against accepting expensive gifts. About.com had an excellent article on corporate gift giving.

For my employees, I stayed away from the plaques and company logoed knickknacks, mostly because I felt they had limited appeal. (The only exception? Travel mugs. People love their travel mugs. However, if you're going to give travel mugs, fill them with something -- candy, coffee beans, anything to make the gift a bit more special.) I found the gift of time was most appreciated. The first few years of starting my business, when money was tight, I wrote each employee a personal note and told them what I appreciated most about their efforts for the company. The note included a "gift certificate" for one paid day off. It was still money out of my pocket, but the paid days off usually got spread out over the course of the year, so I didn't have to come up with a large sum of money all at once. There were a few minimal requirements attached to the gift certificate. They had to give me a week's notice, and they couldn't use the certificates during certain busy times of year. It got so much feedback from my employees, I've maintained the tradition. Of course, I only had two employees. This idea would likely become unwieldy with more than a handful of employees.

If you have ideas for employee or client gifts, leave me a post. I'm always looking for good suggestions.