Gift Giving as a Business Strategy
Some people seem to have the natural talent to find the perfect gift for everyone on their list. Others get it wrong every time; with friends and family scurrying back to shops eager to exchange their gift for anything else!
Are you good at Gift Giving? (Would others agree?) Far worse than answering yes or no, is believing that it doesn’t matter. I’m not talking about the cliché corporate gifts; fruit baskets, wine sets, and cheese assortments, etc. I am talking about personal gifts. Pleasing your loved ones with thoughtful gifts requires the same type of attention and precision that wins over customers again and again.
Even if your Holiday Gifts bombed again this year, here are a few tips to help you incorporate the gift giving approach in your business strategy.
- Set your goal. When searching for the perfect gift, the ultimate goal is delight. Customer Delight is a worthy business goal!
- Make your list and check it twice. You can’t please everyone, so define your target market and then define it further.
- Know your target market’s needs and truly understanding their pain. It will lead you to create and offer the most appropriate solution.
- Make it personal. It is the thought that counts- with customers too!
- Does the value appreciate? The gift should appreciate when the recipient takes possesion, so assess the value from the perspective of the customer, not yourself. This will help you focus on benefits instead of features.
- The most expensive gift isn’t necessarily the best. Be cost efficient and remember that it doesn’t cost extra to be nice and treat customers well.
- Wow factor! Just as a perfect gift can be life changing, is your product or service remarkable?
Procrastinator’s Purgatory – Last Minute Online Shopping
Somewhere between heaven and hell, I love Amazon, I hate Amazon. It’s nearly midnight on Dec. 22rd and I’m toggling between several screens with several online shopping carts in various stages of being fully loaded. Out of stock items, unexpected hidden charges and late estimated delivery times keep me hopping around and drive me crazy!
I have been known to do last minute shopping and love the buzz of shopping on Christmas Eve, so I need hard and fast consequences to save me from myself and my procrastinating ways. In past years, the Atlantic Ocean standing between me and the intended recipients of my holiday gifts was enough to force me to plan ahead. This year has been different. While the daily news has been filled with perpetual economic gloom, my inbox has been filled with extraordinary offers from desperate retailers. Sensing that the deadlines for fast free shipping would be pushed to the absolute limit, I waited to see how far they would go.
Barnes and Noble was the absolute winner with free overnight shipping available through midnight on the 22rd (a procrastinator’s dream!). Unfortunately, they were no exception to the frustrating fine print of their offer with minimum purchase requirements and random exclusions.
Now that the major online retailers offer one stop shopping with items from books to electronics, toys and jewelry, online shopping has an irresistible appeal. Most of the annoyances I encounter have much to do with ordering items from one country for delivery in another, paid with a credit card based in a third. As I write this, I can see why my transactions set off global fraud alerts!
Next year, it could be fun to do my remote Christmas shopping the old-fashioned way. I’m thinking of hiring a virtual assistant to rush around from store to store searching for items with a webcam. Making real time desicions via video link, would be the ultimate Personal Shopper experience! I better rethink this plan, it could require advance planning and therefore never happen. Maybe Amazon and the others will offer this service to generate more revenue in final 24 hours of the holiday shopping season?
Filed under Customer Delight, Just for fun | Comments (2)
Giving With Gusto- No Strings Attached!
How much would you pay for a hug? How much would you pay a stranger to fly around the world hugging other strangers? How much would I pay? Nothing! But even more importantly, how much would I charge? Again, nothing!
I couldn’t believe it when I came across the Inspire Me Today HUG TOUR via an e-mail from an otherwise interesting and reliable source. Gail Goodwin is making big proclamations about changing the world by delivering 100,000 hugs on a trip around the world. In fact, with a quick calculation the mission appears to be a scheme plan to make a million dollars (for herself) by charging $10 per hug. Her husband happens to be a pilot for a private jet company and he will fly her around the world to deliver the hugs and collect the cash. I am not impressed!
Find more videos like this on 29-Day Giving Challenge
The following day my colleague Lisa showed me 29gifts.org, I was understandably skeptical. But I watched this video of Cami Walker over Lisa’s shoulder and wanted to pass it along, because Cami gives with no strings attached. The 29 Day Gift Giving Challenge was inspired by Mbali Breazzo, a South African Medicine Woman. The challenge is to give away something, big or small, every day for 29 days. My favorite part of the challenge is to give away one thing you think you could never part with.
The holidays are the season of giving, but too often the purpose of giving gets lost. Maybe now is the right time for you to try it, or together with your kids? If you start today, you might be a different person by New Years Day, which is only 29 days from now. (Why wait to make a New Year’s resolution?) Even if you are a very generous person, beginning each day with the purpose and intention of giving will certainly change your outlook. Giving is a powerful force and I am all for creating a generosity movement, no strings attached!
Filed under Inspiring, Social Issues | Comment (0)
