If your company sends corporate gifts to clients, affiliates, partners, sponsors or suppliers, you’ll recognise the time and effort that goes into this worthwhile business practice. What may seem like a small token to the sender can help promote a favourable impression of your firm to the recipient. By sending something thoughtful to the people who matter to your business, you can ensure you remain uppermost in their thoughts when they’re considering who to do business with in the future.

Quick and Easy Process Makes Corporate Gifting Simple!

We know it can be time-consuming collating names and addresses, personalising messages and making sure the right gift goes to the right person. That’s why we’ve designed a super-simple process that makes it a breeze to order multiple gifts to go to multiple addresses, each with a personal message. All you need is to follow the instructions given on Easy Order Upload page. You can add addresses manually, or upload a .csv file for the ultimate in ordering convenience.

Give a Corporate Gift They’ll Really Appreciate

Branded mousemat? Boring wall calendar? Yet another mug? The world of corporate gifting is vast and varied, yet finding a gift that’s great value, travels well and will be loved by your recipient can be trickier than it seems! Luckily for our corporate clients, everyone loves cookies, and our superb range of gourmet cookies, cakes and other bakes is bound to be appreciated by customers and business associates, whatever the occasion.

Whether you’re welcoming new clients, giving a token of your appreciation during the holidays or even celebrating an important event like an anniversary for your company, you’re guaranteed to find something suitable from our selection of irresistible baked treats. Our 7 step process for sending cookie gifts to multiple addresses means you’re just a few clicks away from ticking corporate gifts off your to-do list!

Gimmee Jimmy's Cookie Assortment

Any of the products shown on our online store can be sent using the easy order upload method, so whether it’s a large assorted tin of treats to feed an entire office or an individual batch of cookies for a valued client, rest assured that we can help. A little sweetness will do wonders for customer satisfaction, your company image and the morale of those who matter.

Have you considered changing the way you give gifts?  Whether it’s around the office, in the holiday season, or even around the house, there is no wrong way to give cookies.  Cookies tend to make everyone’s eyes brighten up—and that’s whether they’re on a diet (and now have no choice but to cheat just a little bit) or if they’re hungry and craving a daytime or evening time snack.

Cookies have the honor of being a non-committal gift, meaning they go over well at parties and never make anyone feel uncomfortable.  Yet, they elicit such a huge emotional reaction.  Chances are, your office buddies are going to remember your gift cookies months after the fact…maybe they’ll even start to expect them every year.  

Cookies are also an ideal way to reach out to your customers.  Too many companies play it safe nowadays, at a time when thinking outside the box is crucial.  Customers don’t want 15% savings.  They want to be wowed, impressed and wooed.  

That’s why little gifts, even as inexpensive as free cookies, will work miracles when it comes to creating positive associations with your customers.  They will feel loyalty to your company, remembering pretty much just the taste of the cookies.  Who cares about pricing or seasonal savings?  Those cookies were awesome.  You may well have a customer for life if you keep that trend up.

Speaking of trends, Digital Social Retail reported that in 2015 customers were sending a clear message to their favorite and not so favorite brands: we want to work harder to get better rewards and incentives.

Loyalty incentives were far more successful when customers were prompted to take specific action, not just make the usual purchases.  Omnichannel engagement was also a plus, as the most successful brands understood that the relationship never “checks out” even after the line ends.  Brands are accessible 24-7 via social networking.  So what are you doing to keep yourself fresh in mind during those crucial daytime hours?

Lastly, emotional loyalty prompted the best results.  Loyalty programs based on logic underperformed because loyalty relationships are not logical by nature.  They grow based on intense emotions, and in the case of business, rewards and incentives that make the customer feel valued and perhaps even an evangelizer to the brand.

Just some information to keep in mind regarding your gift-giving options.  You can’t go wrong with cookies because everyone loves cookies.  And in this age of simulated everything and online everywhere…the personal connection is like a giant hug from a friend.  

Gimmee Jimmy's Cookies. Perfect for every occasion

Why do so many businesses continue offering “loyal customer” discounts when they don’t really work for customer retention?

The discount is really an outdated concept in business, going back to the old days where stores found it advantageous to pay less than wholesale price for certain products. With the advent of the Internet store, where front end costs on warehouses and retail stores could be minimized, lower prices and even auction prices became the new standard.

Today, while there are still discounts available—usually through bulk buys or expired or discontinued merchandise—the sad fact is that the “discount” has become a cliché in the modern business world. Every company claims to offer a discount, usually with a very high mark up, making the product seem like a great deal, when in fact it’s just overpriced to begin with.

Offering a customer or client a “discount” as a show of appreciation is not only not what they’re looking for, but in some cases it’s downright insulting.

Studies of Interest

No wonder then that a “whopping” 20 percent off is just not the thrill that it used to be. Nowadays, more people prefer superior customer service and personal attention, and that means that the “gift”, the extra incentive you get in addition or instead of the obligatory discount is more exciting and a better call to action. It’s also an effective technique in customer retention.

Customer service has been definitively been proven as the most important aspect in modern business, particularly for smaller companies. A report from RightNow stated as much as 89 percent of consumers will change companies and go to a competitor after a bad experience. According to Desk, about 60 percent of consumers admitted that they would actually pay more money for superior customer service.

Customer service, however, is more than fixing problems as they come about. All research suggests that more active campaigns, including ones that suggest action, are more effective than merely passing along a discount. According to Creative Minds, discounts are practically insignificant to the modern consumer if they are below 10 percent. However, a discount over 20 percent may well be a tip that something is too good to be true; indicating overpricing. The ideal percentage discount is 15 percent—but hardly anything newsworthy in the mind of most consumers.

On the other hand, companies that promoted gift-giving campaigns, including free thank you gifts, in addition to buy 1 and get 1 free call-to-action gifts, reported more interest from regular customers. According to a study called Expert vs. novice users: Comparative analysis of the effectiveness of online discounts and gifts by E. Crespo-Almendros and S. Del Barrio-García, experienced shoppers from online stores were more influenced by online sales promotions than new customers; furthermore they all reported they “change their attitude toward the brand” just upon seeing an online gift offered in the campaign. In contrast, no significant difference was recorded in measuring excitement for promotional incentives and discounts.

Action is Everything

Simply put, savings on a product’s price only means that you’re paying less a product you’re not quite sure if you want. But a free gift, a product that is desired and that has value, motivates people to take action—and always at a higher rate than a “regular” discount in price. Gifts represent action you take to experience a specific benefit, in addition to the need of the product you buy.

GJCookies.com knows the value of a free gift, whether it’s coming from its clients who buy their friends and family thank you gifts, sympathy gifts, corporate gifts and birthday gifts, but also its own incentive programs passed along to consumers and corporate clients. They’ve found great success in their Birthday and Rewards Program, where free gifts are provided to loyal customers, promoting the idea of staying with the brand for years on end.

Giving a gift may be the best way to ensure that customers continue to be excited about new promotions. Everyone can save these days…but only the best companies are capable of getting their audience excited and spending just for the possibility of unpredictable free gifts.

Customer retention isn’t a new concept, although it’s safe to say it probably went out of style. The art of fostering good relationships is as old as human instinct itself. However, customer retention goes beyond merely doing the right thing and giving a listening ear to your clients.

This art involves strategic planning to keep your customers happy, as opposed to simply pushing for new sales. The idea is that people who have already purchased from you are far more likely to make another purchase in the future, and the evidence is right there in front of you.

There are Enough Nuts In the Office. Send Nut-Free Brownies

  Instead of ramping up your outbound sales force, here’s an idea that can save you money – implement a customer retention plan instead. It’s also more effective and provides better return on investment than focusing all of your efforts on acquiring new customers.

According to Forest Research studies, it costs at least five times more to acquire new customers than to keep the ones you already have. Similar studies suggested that) efforts to reduce “churn” (a.k.a. customers forgetting they ever bought something from you ), just five percent led to anywhere from 25 to 125 percent in profit increase.

Simply put, you build a business relationship with customers, and just as with a personal relationship, it becomes stronger over time. Loyalty is created and your brand recognition and trust skyrockets in the customer’s mind. You’re a part of his or her memory, their culture, and their day to day life.

Strategies for Keeping Customers Happy

The question is, how do you go from customer-friendly (which most businesses are naturally—how many managers really yell and swear at their customers?) to actually being proactive in making your customers feel loyalty to you?

Some of the best strategies include:

•  Setting Your Expectations Early: This is a great way to start letting customers know what they’re in for when they sign with you. Make promises slightly less than you’re capable of and then exceed their expectations.

• Be an Expert, Not Just a Place for Them to Spend Money: If you have a technical business then rest assured most of your customers are counting on you to steer them right. Give a little extra by teaching them something—don’t just run a register.

• Start a Constant Dialog: It’s not really much of a relationship if all you ever say to your customers is a bunch of sales fluff. Start a more personal dialog by way of monthly newsletters and blogs. You can also build social media-based relationships by staying active AND interactive on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn and InstaGram.

• Customer Feedback: This is such a simple and yet an often neglected matter of politeness. If your customers buy from you, ask them for notes on improvement.

It’s the little things that count in building personal relationships and by now we’ve learned that the same principle holds true in fostering business relationships and customer retention strategies.

Be nice—it pays!

It’s safe to say that the most reliable businesses and industries are the ones that satiate our biological needs. That means that food retailers, restaurants, and producers and farms never really bottom out, even in recession. They can certainly be mismanaged, but the product is never out of demand.

Following this line of logic, it’s best for entrepreneurs to take a baker’s point of view when it comes to marketing. What are you feeding your customers? If you analyze failed business strategies, you’ll generally find companies that did not capitalize on the needs of their audience, or the existing market.

Treating your product or services like food, (like a commodity), works best. We all have appetites and the only way to curb those appetites is to offer delicious products that excite our sense of taste. We’re not just selling items for our benefit—we’re actually providing a need.

Our recent rebranding at Gimmee Jimmy’s Cookies is a prime example. We specialize in delivering local bakery goods to our customers nationwide and beyond and offer convenient online options. The need is FRESH baked gift options. The additional need is convenient delivery, since our customers usually don’t have the time or resources to seek out physical stores, but still want everything a local, fresh bakery entails.

We’ve also found a way to improve customer satisfaction and thus invest in customer retention. Customer retention is not just a way to say thank you and be “sweet” about the whole matter. Our gifts in cookies also increase brand awareness and brand trust.

When customers receive free gifts they learn to associate the brand with positive emotions. That means more lifetime buys and customer loyalty. It’s good for the customer to be satisfied with purchases, and it’s good for us to reach out and treat each business relationship with care.

Our corporate gift strategy is just one example of how to keep customers happy by feeding them. We offer free gifts in product samples, easy ordering options, options in flexibility and for numerous kinds of events. Investing in corporate gifts and customer gifts has ensured our growth over a short period of time, and much our recent success we owe to strengthening customer relationships through customer retention strategies like free gifts.

The lesson here is, keep feeding your customers with positive emotion and with the products they need. Address their needs and keep them regularly satiated, with recurring shows of appreciation, strategically planned for the best and most productive seasons. Too many companies make the mistake of giving up or abandoning their strategies halfway into it, or even before. Give your customers a cookie and they’ll be happy for a day, but feed them continuously and you’ll have a solid base of customers that will never go away!

Employee Incentive Programs Matter, Here's Why

Motivating employees is a special skill. As millennials continue to demand greater benefits, the traditional motivators such as money and cars become obsolete. What do employees really need? Mentorship and support. Sometimes support comes in the form of an encouraging word, or patience, and other times, support can come from believing in a work life balance, and supplying lunch.

Need more convincing? Read our handy infograph below!

Corporate Gifts are Serious Business

Savvy business owners are warming up to the idea of supporting their marketing initiatives through targeted gifts. Beyond the traditional confines of financial rewards and incentives, small gifts are a non-intrusive way to establish customer loyalty, motivate employees and prospective recruits, and build brand awareness.