Thinking of sending gifts to your clients and customers this holiday season?
Before you start your business gift hunt, check out our guidelines to help make sure you avoid some of the most common business gifting pitfalls.

Be Mindful of Corporate Gifting Guidelines

It’s not just the large corporations that have restrictions on what gifts employees can receive from clients or vendors, many small organizations also implement strict guidelines on what kinds of gifts may be accepted. It’s always a safe bet to check with the HR organization of your clients and customers to ensure you are following proper guidelines. 

In the absence of finding specific policies for each of your clients, here are a couple of general rules of thumb that may ensure your holiday business gift has a better chance of being well-received. 

Is there a Spending Limit?

Bigger is not always better when it comes to corporate and business gifting. Many employees are not permitted by their companies to accept gifts over a certain dollar amount and gifts which are too extravagant may send the wrong message. 

Often food gifts are acceptable where other types of gifts are prohibited. Food gifts are an easy option because they can be shared with larger groups. 

Who Gets the Gift?

Consider sending to groups and departments rather than individuals. While you may want to spoil a decision-maker, there are often many people behind the scenes who work with and have an opinion about your company. Including multiple people in your gift-giving plans can spend holiday cheer and raise morale throughout an entire department. Since group gifting is so popular, we carry large gift tins and gifting trays to spoil a crowd. 

To Personalize or Not to Personalize?

While the person who opens your gift may have the benefit of reading the card, when a tray of popcorn or a pail of treats gets left in the breakroom, the impact of the gift can diminish if others do not know who sent the gift. Funky Chunky offers personalized stickers, ribbons, and cars to help personalize your holiday gifts so their impact stretches beyond the unboxing. 

When to Gift?

In addition to being sensitive to the religious considerations of your clients, consider the impact you’d like your gift to have.  Some of our clients love to send gifts when autumn starts to hit and Halloween and Thanksgiving festivities begin to occur. Thanksgiving can be a prime opportunity to express thanks for the business of your clients and customers before the deluge of end-of-year gifts begin to hit.  Others prefer the opposite approach, opting to send New Year’s gifts after the rush of the holidays. Often these gifts can be timed if you know when your client is mostly like to be considering your services or reviewing their next year’s budgets to help keep your work top of mind. 

Why Food?

The impact of a trinket or memorabilia focused gift can be large right when a gift is opened, but quickly diminishes once the busy day sets in. Food gifts are the option that continues to evoke happiness in the recipient.  A handful of gourmet popcorn or pretzels during a break or passed around a meeting provokes conversation, signals stress relief and satisfaction time and time again. Combining the feelings of sharing food, satisfying a sweet tooth and having an indulgent escape for a gourmet snack in the middle of the day with the benefits of your business helps create positive emotional links between their experience and your company.  We are so often driven by our core emotions of hunger and pleasure - offering a gift that satisfies those desires creates happy memories and lasting value for you. That said, we can include leave-behind trinkets that you have - just ask!

What’s Your Time Like?

Do you have the time and resources to send specific gifts to each of your business gift recipients, or do you require efficiency and speed? Funky Chunky will bulk shift your gifts to multiple addresses, and we have gifting specialists at the ready to help craft gift packages that meet your budget, personalization needs, and timeline. 

Interested in learning more? Contact a Funky Chunky Business Gift Specialist to get started.