Corporate Gifts

A mind-boggling thought about what recession can bring is a practice of tightening up the business belt. Good riddance to the well paid bum in the next cubicle!

Employees actually start working instead of updating themselves in Linked In or Facebook. The world becomes less extravagant and paves a path to increase prosperity down the road. But bad habits and gestures die hard like the one that I could never understand: The concept of sending gifts to customers, which I simply cannot believe still goes on.

I don’t imagine that the customer is actually pleased with these gifts. In fact it has a contradictory effect. The customer starts wondering why does business houses spend money on twaddle rather than concentrating on increasing the efficiency and lowering the prices. I don’t think the customers are fooled by these gifts. Some even may be furious by these wastes of money.

Lets say that a diary cost Rs.100/- and an organization has somewhere around 10000 clients. The organization then decides to send these diaries, an idea engendered by some B-School guy in upper management, to all these clients. Not taking into account the sheer operational and administration exercise involved and not taking the courier charges into account, the total venture would turn out to Rs 10 Lacs. Now with this 10 Lacs one can easily fire ones imagination what can possibly be done by an organization apart from putting it into R&D, Employee safety, Services, efficiency, hiring, improving packaging, upgrading S/W or web service, etc. But no – the company decides to instead squander the money on despicable kickbacks that has nothing to do with retaining clients.

Getting those diaries via the courier services serve the customer the crucial thought that possibly business is failing and that perhaps diaries may help in keeping the customers happy – not good products and decent services. Meanwhile we live in outdated times, employing an army of fools from B-Schools, who think that business life consist of dressing dandily and gabbing glibly. In the interim, the people who actually make the business run are poorly paid and under valued. Even if the Organization is using the most up-to-date technology which is extremely doubtful, the B School grad may not put the money spent on gifts into a price break for the customer. They never realize that what the customer is actually looking for is a price discount, a better service, and a good pricing policy throughout the year. These are what make people glad and communicates true loyalty, true commitment, true service and true attachment to the concept of excellence.

Business concept is not a Santa Claus Company. Business means – Get Rid Of Waste. I call it GROW. A gift to the client sends a clear message: “We love waste and we think you love it too”

While I appreciate that if an Organization is doing great and reaping in profits, there are times for loving, sharing and gifting customers. But people should do this with their own dough and not at the expense of the Organization. Why advertise incompetence, extravagance and wastefulness to your customers?

I never understood why that B-School Grad never got through this idea that business is absolutely and totally reliant on customer for its revenue, so the revenue he spends on gifts inevitably comes from the customers. Organizations are throwing away money on freebies rather than serving their customers .

And as these freebies keep pouring in from these business houses, think of it as a symbol that this recession has not nearly been deep enough – or has not really been stretched enough!