Answering Your Holiday Corporate Gift Giving Questions


by Printable - Date: 2008-12-07 - Word Count: 417 Share This!

The holiday season gives you many opportunities for making an impact on your customers or clients through creative, yet suitable gifts. The time for planning your gift-giving strategy is now.

Our Holiday Gift Giving FAQ features the advice of business etiquette experts that help you decide on what gifts to send that will convey the appropriate message, ensuring that they make a great impression.

Q. Should we anticipate giving gifts to all of our clients/customers?

A. All of your best clients or customers, certainly. However, make sure that recipient organizations allow their employees to accept presents first. According to Hilka Klinkenberg, author of At Ease...Professionally and director of Etiquette International in New York City, About 10 percent of American companies have a "no-gift" policy, disallowing even a lunch treat or a gift basket,. Other organizations may have a dollar limit for acceptable gifts or allow gifts that can be shared and enjoyed at the office but not gifts for individuals.

"Just call and ask your client's assistant or call the human resources department about a company's gift policy," Klinkenberg suggests. Keep in mind that a new policy might have been put into place since the previous year. By checking, you avoid embarrassment for all concerned.

It's not possible to generalize from the policy of one company that another of similar size and type would have the same rules. Mary Lou Andre, president of Organization by Design in Needham, Massachusetts, found that Nordstrom's prohibits gifts while Filene's allows them. It is always best to ask!

Q. Should the gifts be directed to individuals or a group?

A. Consider your sense of how intimately the office in question functions as a team. Marjorie Brody, author of The Complete Business Etiquette Handbook, recalls the time her printer sent restaurant gift certificates to her and to the staffer who handles Brody's publicity and promotion. "This excluded everyone else in our 12-person office, so Miriam was uncomfortable receiving that," says Brody. Being singled out might have a different impact at a larger company.

Consider sending something small to each of your contacts, then a larger gift for the whole department.

Q. How much should we spend?

A. Hilka Klinkenberg suggests these general spending guidelines:
• For assistants or supervisory staff, up to $25
• For mid-management, $25 to $50
• For senior management, $50 to $100
• For executives, $100 and up
"The industry of your clients makes a difference, too," Klinkenberg adds. "For instance, retailing and advertising are more lavish and entertainment oriented, and gifts should reflect that atmosphere."

Related Tags: corporate gifts, business gifts

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