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You choose a gift to make your customers happy, still the best idea?  Yes.

My alternative choice of heading was going to be “Choose a gift and make your customers happy or let them choose, and let them down.”  This is how I feel right now…

When you give a gift you normally try and think about your audience, and how they will feel about receiving your gift, whether it links, or doesn’t, too big, too small, too over-powering, too happy-clappy, what will it say about your company, all these thoughts are going on in your head, planning a campaign, particularly the end-of year “Thanks for your business” campaign.

However, when Mailchimp gave me the chance to choose my end of year gift, I noted this was really clever.  Mailchimp – by the way – provide an online portal to make email campaigns, and have an incredibly supportive team.  Very clever, but I didn’t give it much more thought, other than thinking of it in relation to our own business here, ‘when we’re big enough to let customer’s choose’ a wishful, fluffy kind of thought, and being me, the chocoholic, I choose a Chocolate Freddie.  The choice, from memory was a range of about 6 Freddie options in small circles (Freddie is their monkey-mascot) – a red Freddie head, a gold Freddie head, a few coloured options and the Chocolate one…

My thought process went something like this – Chocolate, gone in no time, (unlike the socks from last year) no one would be embarrased of me just eating a Freddie-head (rather than wearing the socks round the office for the afternoon, and on occasion later) and it wouldn’t be a useless toy, or synthetic fruit-flavoured like the others appeared to be.

So Chocolate-Freddie it was.

As with previous Mailchimp giveaways, you tend to forget you’ve made any decision over a gift, so when it finally arrives it is a surprise and a laugh.  I said previous didn’t I?

Today, I received my Freddie.  When I saw Mailchimp on the barcode, I knew straight away what it would be.  When I saw how big it was, I called over my colleague to come and share the chocolate… There must be loads of it!  Then we discovered the Non-Chocolate Freddie.  Only after we’d had a good try at snapping off his arms and thinking he looked like an easter egg on steriods, did we decide to start an online chat with Mailchimp and complain about the Freddie-chocolate rip-off.  It wasn’t even a phone-holder (no second use…arghhh!)

Me: Hello – I just received my Chocolate Freddie… looks like chocolate, smells like chocolate… Can I eat it???
JJ: Hi Jeannette! Thanks for reaching out. I would recommend that you DON’T eat it 🙂
Me: Sorely disappointed.  I choose it thinking it would be half the size, and chocolate.
JJ: Jeannette, I want you to know you’re not the first one to think that! I will definitely pass along that feedback, as I am a chocolate lover myself. Would you like some free MailChimp swag as a peace offering?
Me: Yes please.  Anything.  Totally understand if you can’t send it to arrive right this second.
JJ: https://link to swag-order options – hats and t’shirts but no sign of any chocolate Choose any one item on that page, and we’ll send it to you on the house!  Was there anything else I can help you with today, Jeannette?
Me: I’m struggling now… no chocolate still! Nah – thanks
JJ: Sorry, Jeannette! I know how crucial chocolate is–you can submit your feedback here, too, if you want!

So I emailed my feedback… I can’t believe the diddle!  All I wanted was a little nib of chocolate to nobble on, and instead I get this useless non-chocolate piece of plastic.  Asside, we decided that the outer packaging is very good, and very well produced.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To finish off, and keep our relationship sweet this is how the online chat ended.

JJ: If you need anything else, let me know. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!
Me: Thanks and you

Maybe I am thankless, but I take from this that, fluffy thoughts aside, better to choose a gift to keep your customers sweet than let them choose something useless without meaning to!

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