Holiday Gift Giving
By Neil Weiss Co-owner of Innovative Marketing Concepts The following article originally ran in the October 2003 issue of LCT magazine. Figuring out how to show your appreciation to those who keep you in business during the year is a complicated issue. How much should you spend on gifts? How do you select something that won’t end up in the trash? At a major corporation – where your company interacts with dozens of secretaries, travel managers and travelers – who gets a gift? Developing a Formula Operators we spoke to used a variety of criteria for determining how much to spend on particular clients. It all begins with your own personal budget, but many operators split clients into categories. Some operators split them by volume of work, spending more for clients who spend more with them – but this scenario can get murky with large corporations. “You may have 20 secretaries at a particular company, seven travel managers and 57 travelers,” notes Gary Day, president of American Limousines in Baltimore. “People talk, and if you miss anyone, they’ll know. For companies like that, we’ll generally just buy a box of pastries and have someone personally take it down to the office. If we want to go further than that, we may offer a secretary who calls us all the time 50% off a ride if she’s traveling over the holidays.” To further complicate matters, most mid-sized and large corporations have restrictions on their employees accepting gifts (see sidebar on page). For Don Libby, general manager at Feliciano Limousine Service in Rochester, N.H., loyalty plays a big role in the decision making process. “We have clients that used to do $10,000 with us and now they are only doing $2,000. But maybe they have been using us for 10 years and we know we’re the only service they call. That’s important. We know that when the business comes back, we’ll be the ones doing the work.” Two major issues weigh in with Michele Rossi, president of Denver’s Presidential Limousine: volume of work and whether there have been any service problems during the year. She takes this opportunity to thank those who deserve it and apologize to those who deserve it. “We keep incident reports,” explains Rossi. “Even if the problem wasn’t a big one, it’s taken into consideration.” Who Gets Gifts In addition to clients, Sally Thompson, convention service director for Jacksonville, Fla.-based Dana’s Classic Limousine, makes sure she remembers the funeral directors who send her work, as well as the people manning the ground transportation booth at the airport. She also sends a special package to the company that does her oil changes. “It goes a long way in making sure we get priority service,” says Thompson, whose total budget is less than $500. Phil Restivo, president of Le Grande Affaire Limousine in Santa Clara, Calif., says he spends between 10% and 12% of his company’s annual income on gifts and donations to homeless shelters, needy children and turkey drives. Think Big, Shop Small Creativity goes a long way and can help make a less-expensive gift seem far more valuable to the recipient. That’s why it helps to develop relationships with local specialty shops. Whether they sell gourmet food, alcohol or picture frames, you have a better chance of getting quality advice and one-on-one time with the owner or manager. They also are often easier to negotiate with if you are buying in bulk. Rossi has been able to save money on gifts by teaming up with a local liquor store that specializes in high-quality, low-cost specialty wines. “The wines are unique and very good, but not necessarily expensive because they come from small vineyards,” explains Rossi, who spends between $10 and $20 per bottle. “We’ve had clients who enjoyed the wine so much they called us back to ask where they could get more.” The wines she chose were generally not widely available, and the interaction after the fact has served to solidify relationships with important clients. It’s also important to know your client, Rossi adds. Don’t give wine to someone that you know is a teetotaler, for instance. When to Buy, How to Shop, When to Shop As anyone who has done last-minute shopping knows, options and pricing diminish as you draw closer to Dec. 25. Availability of bulk purchases and personalized items can also be affected. You could pay rush charges if you wait too long to order and send out a gift basket or promotional coffee mug, mouse pad or tree ornament with your company information on it.
Give yourself at least six weeks lead time, which means you should be making purchasing decisions in late October for an early December mailing. The glut of mail and packages slows the system near the end of December and the impact of your gift is less than positive if it arrives in early January. For Next Year… To avoid a gift-giving binge that spirals out of control, Rossi does a little intelligence work during the year. Everyone from reservationists and chauffeurs to Rossi herself is constantly adding information to the company’s database, which is loaded with clients’ likes, dislikes and hobbies. “Our chauffeurs will report back to us, ‘this client is a golf fanatic,’ or ‘he would have preferred red wine in the limousine,’” she says. “It’s all very helpful for giving gifts.” To help build up her database, Rossi looks at how her clients decorate their offices when she visits them. You can find out a lot about people from what is hanging on their walls or what they have on their desk, she notes. In one instance, she noticed that a client was a dog lover: “I personally baked doggie biscuits for him last year,” says Rossi. “It certainly wasn’t an expensive gift, but it sure went over well. Every time he gave that pooch one of those doggie biscuits, you know he thought about us.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Handful of Gift Options
For those who have a difficult time shopping, here is short list of holiday gift ideas that includes a wide range of prices: Gift Baskets The gift basket, which is perhaps the most widely purchased holiday gift, can cost from $10 to hundreds of dollars. At Dana’s, Thompson spends between $10 and $35, depending on how much the client spends in a particular year. She chooses a variety of baskets for her clients that feature everything from an assortment of cookies and candy to fruit to wine and cheese. Each basket is personally delivered by a uniformed chauffeur, which adds a touch of elegance to the presentation. Rossi likes to personalize her gift baskets with items that can be used after the coffee, peanuts and crackers are gone. “One year, we included champagne glasses that said Presidential Limousine on them,” notes Rossi. Promotional Items Like Rossi, a lot of operators blend marketing with gift giving, sending out promotional items branded with their company’s name, Web site address and phone number. This might include travel mugs, pens, clocks, picture frames and leather-bound day-timers. Again, the price can vary dramatically – in this case, starting at less than $1 an item and going just about as high as you want to go. For a fun, creative, relatively low-budget gift, you might consider a personalized coffee mug filled with candy or movie passes, wrapped with clear cellophane and a colored ribbon. ohn Hartley, president of Gold Coast Tours in Brea, Calif., has spent up to $100 per piece of embroidered luggage for his best clients. For clients who spend less, he has given out nail care sets and a variety of travel-related items. Pre-Paid Calling Cards Although most business travelers carry cell phones these days, there are times when they either don’t have them on hand or can’t get service. A pre-paid calling card can make a good gift for people on the run. Calling cards, which cost $10 to $20, fit easily into a holiday card and can be personalized so your company name is heard in the phone greeting every time the client dials the card’s toll-free number. Gift Certificates If you are going to give out a gift certificate for limousine service, James Moseley of James Limousine in Cherry Hill, N.J., recommends tying it into a nice dinner. Each year, he arranges for a “dinner for two” at a local restaurant. Last year it was at a Philadelphia hotspot called The Prime Rib. For his best clients, James’ gift certificates show no dollar amount and include cocktails and tip. Clients can order anything they want off the menu. He increases or decreases the value of the gift by offering or excluding limousine service. “When I buy someone dinner, I don’t want them to have to reach into their pocket for the tip or anything else,” he explains. “Only a small group gets this gift, but we like to do it the right way for them.”