Holiday gifts from vendors

[Frequentflier]

A few years ago during the first part of the great recession I reinstated the practice of our employees giving holiday gifts to customers. Prior to that, other managers had stopped the practice and instead emailed a holiday greeting including perhaps that a donation was made to a charity. My thinking was that regardless of how tough a beating sales and profits were taking, giving gift baskets wasn't going to break us more than we already were and since so many other companies had stopped the practice we'd stand out.

 

None of our customers were under the illusion we somehow weren't hurting financially so there wasn't a risk they would ask for price breaks. Our people communicated well throughout the year and so customers knew the facts.

 

Not only were customers blown away that we were giving again but that times were tough it seemed to mean even more. Likewise, our employees were in better spirits because just about everyone likes to give a gift and delivering meant another opportunity to maybe gain a sale.

 

Now that things are booming again we of course still give gifts, of somewhat higher value. The point I'll now get to is how many companies even today do nothing (or basically nothing) for their customers. I've received email holiday greetings (so a card manually signed by the key contacts isn't even mailed) from companies we buy millions from in our business and from lawyers/investment firms I do business with personally.

 

I'm not hurting for these relatively small gifts but I can remember getting wine, jellies, etc. from lawyers and investment firms back in 2006-7 and before and while it wasn't necessary the gesture was appreciated and warmed up the relationship some with those service providers. Heck, a $10 million + investment account today doesn't justify a box of jellies, a turkey, some wine or cheese?

[+ deej]

Corporate holiday gifts are pretty rare these days.

 

At my current gig they used to collect all the corporate gifts and use them as raffle prizes during the company holiday party. Every employee left with a gift. In recent years management has ponied up to purchase enough things to make sure everyone gets one. (Granted the company was "getting by" before by not having to buy stuff. But the change has definitely been noticed.)

[+ poolboy48220]

Lots of companies have strict rules about gifts from vendors. My father worked as a purchasing agent for one of the big 3 automakers and we'd get SO much stuff over the holidays, up to the mid-70s. Then the rules changed so that most gifts had to be returned. Perishables were an exception, so we still got the occasional basket of cheese/etc.

[OneFinger]

When I worked for a defense contractor we couldn't accept any gift from a supplier, subcontractor, or customer. In fact, we weren't even allowed to car pool or share rental vehicles during common trips. Many companies are dealing with very strict conflict-of -interest issues or are restricted if they receive federal funds.

 

The current project I'm working on is federally-funded. We're not allowed to receive non-perishable "gifts" from potential subcontractors or suppliers. But, we've sure been getting lots of perishable gifts. However, even perishable gifts have to be valued at less than $25 and must be disclosed to the government.

[rvwnsd]

My employer does not allow us to accept gifts valued at more than $25. Even those are discouraged. If refusing a gift could damage the relationship or is impossible (e.g. it just shows up one day) we are allowed to divvy it up among the entire team.